Gardening in Shade – Plants and plans for the darker side of gardening

Burlington Horticultural Society presents guest speaker, Helen Battersby: “Gardening in Shade – Plants and plans for the darker side of gardening”. Please come and join a friendly group of amateur gardeners interested in learning more about all aspects of gardening.

Whether you have shady patches or garden all in shade, Helen Battersby helps you cope with the shade garden’s particular problems as well as understand its opportunities. We’ll cover garden design principles for your shade garden (they work in sunny gardens, too!). Armed with ideas for both shade-friendly plants and design strategies, you’ll learn how to persevere and discover creative ways to make a beautiful shade garden.

For 30+ years in her small city garden, Helen battled one of a gardener’s toughest challenges – dry shade, on sandy, sandy soil under giant Norway maples. She hopes to help you learn from her long experience. A grad of the Landscape Design program at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson), she has volunteered for 20 years as a Toronto Master Gardener, and is a past board member of GardenComm, the International Association for Garden Communicators. Her words and images have appeared in print and online media such as Garden Making and GardenDesign.com and, with her sister Sarah, on their award-winning website TorontoGardens.com. For eight years, the sisters carried on Margaret Bennet-Alder’s creation by co-publishing the Toronto & Golden Horseshoe Gardener’s Journal, winner of Silver and Gold Medals for its 30th edition. The Journal now brings the same well-loved tools to a Canada-wide version in collaboration with Food. Garden. Life. writer and podcaster Steven Biggs.