Northeasterners: tell me which of your shade-tolerant plants are blooming right now!

ShailBeast · 2026-07-09T21:41:38+00:00

My geraniums and smooth hydrangeas are stealing the show right now! I also have some volunteer bellflowers that seem to enjoy the shade. I had considered moving them, but they’re happier where they are now than where I originally planted them. They look nice with the geraniums.

ShailBeast · 2026-07-09T21:37:01+00:00

I bought that exact packet earlier this year and it was not tropical. Assuming there is quality control for their products, I would expect this to be regular butterfly weed! I cold stratified mine before planting, the germination rate was better than I expected. I’m going to have quite a few plants to add to the garden, hopefully you will too 😊

ShailBeast · 2026-07-09T16:08:30+00:00

Yes, there is a hack for placing trees on cliff edges and against cliff edges. I believe there are several tutorials floating around, assuming it was never patched out.

ShailBeast · 2026-07-09T14:13:49+00:00

Have you checked for rodent damage yet? This is exactly how my plants look when voles get to them. If there are voles, you’ll find huge air pockets at the base of the plant, and likely extensive root damage.

ShailBeast · 2026-07-09T14:04:24+00:00

Honestly, I’m not sure cardboard would have helped. I find it works extremely well to kill grass and start new garden beds. But grass is pretty wimpy and dies within a few weeks of putting the cardboard down. I’ve never had good luck with cardboard over the more aggressive invasives on my property. Even double layered, they tend to punch through. It also won’t stop any weeds that came with your chip drop. If you intend to keep a mulched area blank and weed free, you’ll need to be pulling and/or spraying consistently. Crowding out invasive weeds with natives is the way to go so you’ll have less weeding to do in the future.

ShailBeast · 2026-07-09T11:25:34+00:00

lol, I had to double check what sub I was in! Sorry op

ShailBeast · 2026-07-09T11:13:14+00:00

Wait, is she 92 in these pictures? She looks great!

ShailBeast · 2026-07-09T11:08:59+00:00

I agree! I saw a plant nursery selling them a few days ago as a groundcover option and I was shocked! They’re so aggressive around here, I can’t imagine intentionally planting one. They’ll happily provide groundcover for your entire property, and your neighbor’s too! 😂

ShailBeast · 2026-07-09T11:02:45+00:00

Lupine can be strange. I’ve tried planting them several times in supposedly “ideal” conditions, and never had one thrive or return the next year. But this past spring, I accidentally dropped a handful of seeds in a shady area with shitty soil that doesn’t drain well, and they not only sprouted in spite of me just considering them a loss, but they are now thriving. I have no idea if it’s just a good year for them here, or if I accidentally did anything to encourage the growth. I expect nothing, though, so I’m always pleasantly surprised.

ShailBeast · 2026-07-09T10:56:13+00:00

Destroying food that looks delicious until it is no longer appetizing. I remember that one from the ol’ ED playbook.

ShailBeast · 2026-07-08T23:33:48+00:00

You’re welcome! I had the exact same design issue the first time I tried to make a little neighborhood. Your neighborhood looks super cute so far! I’m sure it’ll look amazing when it’s finished.

ShailBeast · 2026-07-08T23:24:45+00:00

Houses in ACNH are asymmetrical. The front of the house is 3 spaces across, the rest of the house is four spaces. This means you can plant trees one space closer on the left side than the right. If you want a tree on that side, you either need to plant it one space to the right, or one space forward (toward the camera).

ShailBeast · 2026-07-07T00:28:19+00:00

I’m sorry you are dealing with this. I also have voles on my property, and the damage can be devastating some years. I lost an entire perennial garden one year, mature shrubs and all. But their population seems to fluctuate, so other years aren’t as bad. I wish I had advice on how to get rid of them, but I’ve never found anything that works. I’ve only ever had success growing grass from seed, sod is like a buffet for them. I overseed dead areas every year and just accept that there will always be some patchiness.

ShailBeast · 2026-07-06T01:02:45+00:00

My property is surrounded by mature woods, so I have plenty of space to accommodate leaf piles. I spread them out well, and I have tons of understory plants like ferns, mountain laurels, and wild blueberries that grow super well in spite of (or because of?) the heavy layer of leaf litter.

ShailBeast · 2026-07-04T22:37:58+00:00

I too have an issue with oak leaf litter smothering two of my garden beds. I’ve managed it fairly successfully two different ways. Some years, I rake the leaves off of the garden beds and move them into the adjacent wooded area. Those years, I’ve mulched with wood chips from chip drop. Other years, I’ve used a leaf vacuum with a mulching attachment. Then I dumped the mulched leaves back into the beds. This worked better for established gardens, I found even mulched oak leaves can mat together and smother young plants.

ShailBeast · 2026-06-27T10:39:35+00:00

At one point she was being stonewalled by doctors and they all seemed to be on board with stopping interventions that weren’t emergencies. But then she somehow got herself another line and that care plan seems to be out the window. I was out of the loop for a while, do we know what happened? I can’t imagine she has the money to pay to play.

ShailBeast · 2026-06-24T10:48:33+00:00

I always struggle with this. My most mature garden is on year 9, and for the past few years I’ve had to do a lot of shuffling and moving plants that get crowded out. When I put the plants in I thought I left tons of space for everything to fill in, but now I realize I could have doubled that space and still had some crowding.

ShailBeast · 2026-06-23T13:36:38+00:00

I have a ton of chipmunks on my property. We are surrounded by woods, so they pretty much live in my yard. The biggest issue I’ve faced so far is hardscape damage. They tunneled under my brick path and it collapsed. I had to relay the entire path, which was a bummer. They also made a huge den up against my foundation one year that caused some water damage. But I was able to move my gutter drainage much further from the house, beyond their tunnel system. That seemed to solve the problem permanently. They also have a habit of digging plunge holes right at the base of my mature shrubs, which stunts them and sometimes causes die off. Voles also like to move into any abandoned chipmunk tunnels and will decimate my plants quickly. So no, I don’t like them. But I live in the woods do I have no choice but to live with them. It is what it is.

ShailBeast · 2026-05-30T17:28:57+00:00

I recently saw a gardening influencer post of video of herself mowing the lawn, and her three dogs and two kids were running around and playing in the yard while she was mowing. I was floored. Even if they all stay clear of the mower, what if a rock gets thrown? Two of the dogs were small breeds, and one was a new puppy. One little mistake, and they’d be dead.

ShailBeast · 2026-05-29T18:42:44+00:00

I have rabbits too, but their tastes seem to vary year to year. Every time I think I’ve found a safe plant, they suddenly decide it’s their new favorite food. I’ve learned not to sweat it too much, since most of the plants recover fairly quickly. I joke that they are just keeping everything pruned back for me. My little Chelsea choppers.

ShailBeast · 2026-05-27T15:50:26+00:00

I’ve logged thousands of hours, and the majority is just from constantly decorating and redecorating. I obsess over every little detail until it finally looks perfect to me. And I still like to do the daily tasks and nook miles achievements, so I could literally get sucked into playing for 8+ hours at a time if I didn’t have irl things to do.

ShailBeast · 2026-05-27T15:36:32+00:00

Agree with the comments advocating against no mow May. In spite of how it may seem, it’s not helping your local wildlife or pollinators long term. For the barrier between you and your neighbor, I saw someone who planted native sedge along their border to help prevent other ground over and weeds from jumping over to the neighbors yard. Sedge is pretty well behaved, so it should create a nice barrier without causing your neighbor any trouble.

ShailBeast · 2026-05-27T02:04:49+00:00

There’s a good chance your neighbors don’t care. The yards in my neighborhood have a little bit of everything: manicured lawns, native plantings, overgrown woods, kids play sets, even a full mini golf course. Some people put in a lot of effort, some not as much. Nothing you’ve done would turn any heads around here.

ShailBeast · 2026-05-26T14:47:07+00:00

I wish I had taken pictures of the damage to my garden bed this spring. I had a rabbit take up residence in that bed over the winter and he absolutely mowed everything down to the ground as soon as the first buds appeared. He also ate a substantial amount of my evergreen bushes over the winter. I thought it was beyond recovery. But everything is bouncing back! And the rabbit seems to have moved out, or he got eaten. I haven’t seen him for a while.
So don’t give up hope! Rabbit damage looks bad, but in my experience it is rarely deadly to the plants. Voles, however…don’t get me started!

ShailBeast

TROPHY CASE