DECEMBER is when the shady garden comes into its own.
Shade is more important than flowers, foliage or even a fountain's cool trickle and a garden without it is somehow glaring and uninviting.
Trees provide the coolest shade -temperatures under a deciduous tree can be as much as five to 10 Celsius cooler than elsewhere in the garden.
But, a tree takes up to seven years to provide a canopy big enough to sit under.
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A climbing plant draped over a pergola gives the same effect in far less time, three years if you choose a fast grower and keep it well watered and fed while it establishes itself.
Kit pergolas are readily available but home-made always looks right in a rural setting.
The chief thing to remember is to make sure the uprights are bigger than the overhead beams, otherwise your structure will look top heavy.
We have several timber pergolas and arches, with uprights made from two poles joined by a lattice panel - wood, weldmesh, chicken wire in one case - which gives the climbers ready-made support.
Another advantage of a pergola over a tree - not that I want to discourage you from planting trees, far from it - is that you can cover it with a sail or a piece of shade cloth for instant protection, while you wait for your climbing plants to romp up and over the branches.
Now for what to plant. There are lots of hardy evergreens for hot dry climates.
Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) has shiny, oval shaped leaves and tiny white, heavily fragrant flowers from mid-November until Christmas. T. asiaticum is similar with dark cream, almost yellow flowers.
The fast and easy potato vine (Solanum jasminoides) has pure white flowers for most of the year.
Gardeners on the coast and hinterland could try the lovely purple flowered species, S. wendlandii which needs shelter from frost.
Native Hardenbergia violaceae has wisteria-like racemes of purple, pink or white pea flowers and is frost- and drought-hardy.
These are all lovely if you live in a region with warm winters but up here on the frosty highlands we need winter sun and deciduous vines are a better option.
Chilean jasmine (Mandevilla laxa) is a hefty, vigorous vine with large, sweetly scented white trumpet flowers for many weeks in summer.
Virginia creepers (Parthenocissus) are all beautiful, vigorous vines, bone hardy and turning brilliant shades of crimson, scarlet and orange in autumn.
Boston ivy (P. tricuspidata) has big, shiny leaves up to 20 centimetres across.
It uses little pads to attach itself, unlike Virgin ivy (P. quinquefolia) which climbs using tendrils and has darker green leaves made up of five leaflets.
P. henryana from China is similar to P quinquefolia but drought hardier, with an identical growth habit and blue-green leaves finely veined in silvery white.
For something completely different, chocolate vine (Akebia quinata) has tiny, chocolate smelling flowers in spring and large, decorative autumn seed pods.
Pergolas are best in full sun, on the south side of a house they're never quite the same, their chief beauty comes from the sun shining through the leaves.
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