The Fragrant Shade Garden
Remember the little shade garden outside of our screened-in porch? Last summer I planted some sweet woodruff, valerian, and lily of the valley in the shadiest part, and it all came up nicely this spring: This week I filled in the gaps between hosta plants in the partial shade sections with some sweet-smelling annuals: The littlest ones in the front are white sweet alyssum . I have these stretching all along the front of this border. The taller plants behind them are stock , which look sort of like ruffled snapdragons and smell really nice: sweet, but also spicy like cloves. Here’s a close-up of one that’s starting to bloom: There are also some heliotrope in the mix (they’re the ones with the purple buds): The heliotrope is in the sunniest end of this border, and hopefully it will still be bright enough here once the maple tree leafs out. I also started some seeds in the gaps: evening-scented stock and sweet mignonette, both of which are old V