How to create shade in your garden this summer by planting in winter

Establishing areas of useful shade takes forethought. This is true no matter the size of your garden and, contrary to what you might expect, smaller gardens can require more planning than big ones. When it comes to managing light on balconies and in courtyards and other compact spaces, the same plants will be called upon to provide different conditions over the course of a year and even over the hours of a day.

You can’t just move yourself about until you find the right degree of shade to suit, as you might in a larger garden. What plants you choose and how you manage them over time can all affect the gradations of light and shade in your patch.

In summer, a deciduous vine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia, or Virginia creeper, say) spreading across the top of a pergola above an outdoor dining table can provide solid protection from midday sun, but let that vine cascade down the sides and it might provide some respite from the late afternoon sun too. As its leaves start to drop in autumn, its shade can become more dappled, and then when the woody vine is bare in winter, the table will be bathed in sun.

Pots also offer flexibility – and not just because they can be moved about. Summer flowers (tall kangaroo paws, for example) might not immediately come to mind when thinking about creating shade, but grow them in containers on outdoor windowsills and they can behave like gauzy curtains, moderating the light indoors when the sun hits them at certain angles.

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For impatient gardeners, it’s hard to look past climbers that grow hard and fast over the course of a single summer (Scarlet runner beans, for example, and, in cool and temperate climates, choko) before going dormant for winter. It’s still too early to plant these, but another way you can create shade quickly is to remove the lower branches of a mature tree you already have, allowing you to sit below it.

The great thing about shade, though, is that sometimes you don’t need to physically experience it to enjoy it. Just the mere look of filtered light can change the mood. Variations in light and shade animate gardens. The balance between the two is always shifting, which plays up the passage of time. That is something the shade of a building will never do.

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