As I’ve mulled over what to say about this month’s post on shade, I’ve been at a bit of a loss. If there’s one topic I think gets covered really, really often in gardening how-to, it’s shade. So… Shade: I have it. Beyond that, what could I add?

Waaaaaaay back in April, right around the time I turned into a whirling dervish of work on the book and every other project under the sun, I put everything down for two days to travel to Little Rock for an event at P. Allen Smith’s garden home retreat.