There is a primal and even spiritual attraction found when walking through a shady woodland. An abundance of our best native plants are found there, and many gardeners desire to fashion a small re-creation of that cool woodland serenity in their own gardens.

New Baldwin County Master Gardener intern Yvonne Hoover of Fairhope is on a quest to explore and experiment with shade-loving plants to create a beautiful and serene space in her home's woodland environment.

Yvonne retired recently after 22 years with Blue Cross and now has the time to indulge her love of gardening.

Yvonne's lovely Creole cottage home is shaded by a longleaf pine tree canopy and backs up to a peaceful hardwood forest.

"I moved into this house a little over two years ago, and I am still in the clearing out phase and trying to get the weeds under control,” Yvonne says. “I have removed some azaleas from out front, added a retaining wall, and am always in the process of adding native plants that can do well in this shady environment and aren't too fussy."

Yvonne has just graduated from the 2013 Baldwin County Master Gardener class and has nothing but praise for the popular program.

"I just learned so much in the classes, like how to choose suitable plants that will do well in this environment, how to propagate plants, about plant physiology and bugs and pests that plague us here in south Alabama,” she says. “The professional speakers were so knowledgeable and really taught us so much. I have learned ways to work smarter, not harder.”

Although Yvonne's parents were not really into gardening, "I have always been a tree-hugger and lover of both indoor and outdoor plants,” she says. “I spent time in Europe when I was in my 20s and was very impressed with the beautiful flower gardens there and the conservation they practiced before it caught on here. That left quite an impression on me."

There was a time when gardeners thought having a shady yard meant having no garden at all. But shade gardening, as in Yvonne's case, offers to her the opportunity to get to know and use a whole new category of wonderful plants.

"My garden life has become an adventure in shade gardening," says Yvonne. "I won't change the soil for plants to survive — I have learned to choose acidic plants that will do well under this pine canopy like native azaleas, oak-leaf hydrangeas and shade-loving ferns."

In the parching heat of our southern summers, shade is as welcome to many plants as it is to gardeners. Many native shade plants developed in the woodlands where the soil tends to be rich and slightly acidic from decaying leaf mold that forms a nice layer of mulch, keeping the soil temperature constantly cool and fed steadily with nutrients. Yvonne tries to re-create these conditions in her garden, paying attention to rich soil and organic oak-leaf mulch.

Shade gardens lend themselves to understatement with a focus on foliage and texture rather than flower color. Permanent shrubs and trees that love the shade include azaleas and hydrangeas, both of which Yvonne has plenty of.

Shade gardens are perfect in our area of the south, providing cool solace to survive the summers.

"I love gardening," Yvonne says. "It gives me time outdoors, enhances my appreciation for nature, and through the Master Gardening class, I am learning to expand conservation and general plant knowledge by working and sharing with my neighbors and in my community."

Yvonne has many other passions she enjoys besides gardening. This active widow sails her own boat in races on Mobile Bay and is chairman of the Harbor Committee at the Fairhope Yacht Club, has stomped grapes she picked to processes her own wine. She also teaches yoga and shares life with Catherine, her 6-year-old mutt-doodle, two cats, and four aquatic African frogs who thrive in an aquarium in her kitchen.

Yvonne's 11th grade English teacher taught her something that she has never forgotten: "The more you know and learn about something, the greater your understanding and appreciation will be.”

In her quest to grow, both through gardening in the shade with its quiet harmonies of color and in her interesting life with its constantly changing variables, Yvonne Hoover is quietly succeeding at learning, knowing, understanding, and most of all, appreciating.