Hi,

We are volunteers who answer questions on this forum. If you want someone to visit, you’ll have to contact a landscape company or maybe find an expert through a local garden center.

Do you have any photos of these gardens that you can attach to this email? That would help me try to answer your questions.

A few thoughts about your shade garden: while some plants are naturally short-lived, a difficult environment can shorten the life of even tough plants. In a shade garden, perennials are usually competing with tree roots for water. This is especially true with shallow-rooted trees like maples. In a situation like that, the tree will always win.

That  means you have to water regularly, especially in dry summers like we’ve had recently. If you don’t, even very hardy plants like hosta will fade away and eventually die.

Adding wood mulch to a shade garden will help hold moisture in the ground. Three inches is usually sufficient to protect the plants and discourage weeds. Don’t let the mulch crowd the plant stems; that can encourage disease.

Send those photos if you can. Good luck.

Your gardens are beautiful, Joyce. It's always sad to lose a big tree, but your plants may do better when they're not competing with those roots.

If you now have shade plants growing in sun, don't forget to water when it is dry. And be patient this spring -- many of those plants may still be sleeping. I am in Minneapolis (urban heat island) and a few bulbs and rhubarb are just showing growth.

Good luck!