room for a shade garden

A week ago, I buried Petey the dog in the corner of my property, resting on his pet bed.

It's a funny thing about stuff like this. You never get everything you wanted. For instance, I will always be nagged by the fact that Petey needed me and I wasn't there. The last night of his life, he was with a stranger. But the gift in that situation was that he was wearing a collar. The tag on the collar was used to track him to me. When I got the call, my mom grabbed a towel and came with me. That was a gift. And when I walked into the room where he was resting, the look on his face said he was relieved for our reunion. That was a gift. As mom sat in the backseat holding Petey still, and I took the drive to the vet, whenever I spoke, he struggled to get into the front seat with me. Mom asked if I could reach behind me and calm him. I could. And touching him DID calm him. That was a gift. He loved me and he was reassured that I was there. When the vet told me his back was broken and dogs don't recover from that, I had no long tortured struggle about how to proceed. There was no decision to make, and that was a gift. While she prepared the shot to put him down, I had time to peacefully talk to him, stroke his fur and calm him. I put my head next to his and kissed his ear as she listened to his heartbeat. He had my full attention right to his last breath, and that was a gift too. It was my fault that he was hurt, but at least I could spare him some suffering.

And the final gift was having friends who'd drop what they were doing to meet me at the vet's office, to load my dead dog into my car, follow me home, and help me dig the hole to put him in. Do you have a friend who'd do that? I do.

Anyway, after the hole was dug, after I opened the box to let Mollie see him, after I'd tucked him into his bed and taped the top shut again, after the dirt had covered him back up, after a few women stood in the yard and cried like teenage girls, my mom suggested that on her return visit, we should plant a shade garden around him. It's a good idea. So, what goes in a shade garden in zone 7? I decided to research it, like I always do. Here are some I like.

Shade plants I like for zone 7:

Arc En Ciel Cinquefoil
Potentilla 'Arc En Ciel'

Brilliance Autumn Fern
Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance'

Winterglow Bergenia
Bergenia cordifolia 'Winterglut'

Cameo Series Blue & White Columbine
Aquilegia flabellata 'Cameo Series Blue & White'

A week before Petey died, I found two shade plants in Alabama. They are helleborus called Silver Prince. I think that's fitting, given that Petey was getting old, like a silver haired old man. Petey won’t follow me when I move. He won’t ever have another yard to run in. This is it. This is the one. And I won't get to watch over him once I leave. So, I have decided that I’d like to leave it better than I found it. See, he never asked for much. In return, he was a great companion. He loved me alot, which made me feel like the most amazing person ever. I didn't want him to leave like this, or this soon.

So we're going to make room for a shade garden around my little buddy. And that's where I hope to find the gift in it.

--Laura