Hello friends! Today we are beginning the process of designing my dream woodland garden here at the Chicken Coop Garden — and I brought in my favorite design expert to help… Mimi!
This area of the garden has been a challenge for years. It sits in the woods with hardwood trees, terrible red clay soil, and no irrigation, which makes it a true dry shade garden. But I am determined to turn this space into a lush southern woodland garden filled with texture, color, and year-round interest.
In this video, Mimi and I spend the day walking the space, brainstorming ideas, and creating the design plan for this woodland shade garden. We incorporate natural elements like stumps, logs, and “stumpery” features, and we plan where my favorite cobalt blue pots, hostas, ferns, pulmonaria, and aspedistra will go.
This is Part 1 of the project where we design the garden and place the structural elements. In Part 2, we will begin planting and bringing the woodland garden to life!
If you garden in the South or deal with dry shade, clay soil, or wooded areas, this series will show you how we tackle those challenges step by step.
As always, remember…
There is grace in gardening. 🌿
00:00 Welcome to the Chicken Coop Woodland Garden
00:55 Why This Garden Is a Dry Shade Challenge
02:05 The Goal: Creating a Southern Woodland Garden
03:25 Planning With Mimi: Garden Design Day
05:10 The Soil Problem (Red Clay!)
06:40 Cleaning Up the Woodland Garden
08:20 Adding Natural Stumps & Woodland Structure
10:10 Designing a Stumpery Garden Feature
11:40 Using Cast Iron Plants to Soften the Stumps
13:00 Placing the Cobalt Blue Containers
15:00 Woodland Container Ideas for Shade
16:20 The Final Woodland Garden Design Plan
17:20 Part 2: Planting the Woodland Garden
39 Comments
Good morning.
I love the direction that this woodland garden design is taking. You have a great expert in your corner. 😊 I can picture Mimi's wooded space as you plan this. I did like how much of her natural (I think) pinestraw is her primary ground cover 🤔 That's probably not feasible for your space if you'd have to bring it in plus refresh it now and then…but it is a lovely look. One of my garden rooms has much this same vibe. So easy to tweak it over the years. The fun of gardening. Thanks, Jenny and Mimi!
Good morning, Jenny ☕️What a fun day with Mimi in the garden. You are so Blessed. I love all the stumpery🤩 Looking forward to Part 2. Have a Blessed Day 😊🐶
Jenny and Mimi together this morning!! Can’t wait to see what you both come up with.
Good morning CreekSide. My Hydrangeas have been delivered for our woodland shade garden over from our Horse stable. It's a very large long area. I got Oakleaf Hydrangeas 7 Smooth leaf Hydrangeas & 7 Mountian Hydrangeas. It has many evergreens Dogwoods Maple & Hickory trees. It also has Forsyhia bush's. I'm truly surprised the Forsyhia is thriving in the shaded area but they are. As I said it's a larg area. We have a walkway from the stable to the swans pond im putting in a picnic table area between the swan pond and our Woodland shade area. It's for clients to use & enjoy who borde horses at my stable. They are here usually for hrs & will have a place to eat and enjoy nature. CreekSide is a inspiration for me. Thank you.
CreekSide Jenny what kind of shrub is the it looks yellow or maybe light green in your Woodland garden. I saw them behind the blue pot.?
Cobalt blue is my very favorite color and it shows up in my life in various ways. I have a cobalt blue glass collection. I have several cobalt flower pots and last year I found a cobalt blue, squirrel resistant bird feeder. Can't wait to see the magic that you and Mimi create.
I love when you have Mimi on. I hope you show her garden this Spring.
Good Morning Jenny and Mimi!
This is my kind of garden! Love it!
This is exactly what I’m trying to do in my woodland shaded spot. Can’t wait to see it completed!❤️zone 8A Mississippi
I love Jackson’s identification of the “cookie”. It’s going to be beautiful!
Stumpery is my favorite new word!! Love it
Hello Jenny! I love this! I have the same blue pots in my dry shade garden (not as many) and I have my hostas in them too. But I am so excited to see what you plant because I want to expand mine and always looking for ideas. ❤❤❤❤
I love this so much. I live in Ga and have woods and same soil as you, Good inspiration for me!! Looks great!!
I love it! I'll bet you and Mimi were so sore after that heavy lifting.
Those blue pots are like jewelry. They shine among the chartreuse plants.
Love the use of stumps and logs. Makes it look like nature designed your space.
Love all that you are doing! Looking forward to updates.
Please tell me how you keep deer off your hosta.
Thank you both for sharing your adventure!
This woodland garden is looking so good! I can't wait for part 2.
Mimi is so gifted. You're blessed to learn from her as are we! You've given me some ideas for my stumps!
It’s going to be gorgeous. Can’t wait to see part 2. The blue pots are perfect for a pop of color. You, Mimi and Jackson are a great team. Thanks for sharing this process so we can be inspired for our garden areas as well. I’ve got an area that is growing with a lot of the same sort of style, but I haven’t thought of adding colored pots…hmmm, what a great idea👍👏🌟😁❤️🌸🌷🪻🙏
Love all of this but I think the tall pot surrounded by the three bright green plants and the “cookie “ are my favorite parts so far. Can’t wait for part two!
Would you be able to list out the plants in this space? The lime/yellow plants and others would be nice. I have a woodland back yard and I love these posts!
🙋♀️
Love the wood 🪵🪵🪵🪵 and beautiful planters amazing choices🎉
Gosh ladies, I so loved all the placements of the stumps and pots. Can't wait to see all the plantings grow to maturity, also the aspidistra plants look AWESOME near the stumps.
Good Morning Jenny and Mimi, the dynamic duo 😂. Love watching your moms energy, give me some 😊❤
What about “cheap” plastic pots with potting soil put into the ground. Maybe add more drainage holes to the pot and put garden soil around and under the outside of the pot
It's going to be beautiful !! It looks great already love your wood accents. !! Maybe a few large rocks might even look cool ??❤❤
Sha ❤ Jackson ❤
Meme & mom so blessed by you.
My grandson is your age and he blesses me too.
I love cobalt blue planters too. I’m slowly adding them in my garden.❤️
You ladies worked hard! That garden is going to be beautiful
I love it!! It’s so fun to used stumps and whatnot in the garden!!! And to have your sweet mom and son there to help and support you is wonderful!!
Love it 🙂
I have a question. Why can't you bring in a few truckloads of compost and good garden soil and spread it around and mix it into the clay soil? At least in a few areas that you want to thickly plant?
With you on the cobalt! Also have a cobalt blue depression glass collection.
I have conch shells and coconuts in my garden.
Maybe you might want to try a couple of those autumn ferns up in the roots of the huge gnarly tree roots. It would look more like it had been there a while & more natural. Love the design & plants you’re working on.
Can’t wait for the next one
Will you be adding a meandering path that leads you through all the beautiful plants you're putting in? I think it would be a wonderful addition that would encourage you to stroll through the shade on hot summer day. A bench for seating would be fun as well. So pretty!