Thank you Jules! I can't wait until everything gets more established and fuller.

What a beautiful and peaceful garden! You did a great job of planning and then implementing your design. I hope you have a place to sit and gaze on your work.

Thank you PKponder! I wanted to have a woodland garden and for years I had English ivy growing in that spot. It took about a couple of days to remove a majority of it but I'm glad I did. The Gulf Coast penstemons around the bird bath are about to bloom and eventually I'll find a metal rod to put the gazing ball (actually it's a Christmas bulb) instead of a bamboo stick lol. I have a couple of teal colored chairs that sit on the edge near the bird bath but I mainly sit on a patio chair facing the shade garden. :-) Eventually I'll add a fresh layer of mulch to parts of it.

I also found this guy. I've never seen one in my yard in 15 years but I saw lots of them at my old house in Garland.

Ah yes, the anoles are out here too. You have a cutie! I could not tell that was not a fragile glass gazing ball! I was thinking it was too delicate for my squirrels and oak tree branches that shed stuff in the wind

I'm so happy to see an anole because hopefully he's eating some of the pests around my garden? A family friend had given me that Christmas bulb and a smaller one and since it was too big for my Christmas tree, I decided to use it as a gazing ball. Thankfully it's plastic but I've noticed the birds tend to mess all over it because they eat the berries out of the Eastern Red Cedars lol.

What a lovely shade garden. Another forum member used Peaceful to describe it and that fits it perfectly. Thank you for sharing.

May I ask, would you please post photos of your Gulf Coast penstemons when they bloom?

Mary

Thank you Mary! It's become my favorite part of the yard. I'll definitely post photos of the Gulf Coast penstemons in full bloom. The blooms always look delicate and last year I saw a couple of bees visiting them.