Advice on plants for a part shade garden

(Question)

We want to change the look of our garden and was wondering if you provide that type of advise. We are located in Toronto and our front garden gets partial sun until 1-2 pm and wanted a low maintenance garden with pops of colour. We already have a large Japanese maple, dogwood tree and burning bush but need smaller plants to fill in the gaps especially from the centre to the left of the garden per the picture.

Also, we are creating small gardens on either side of our backyard stairs. Each area is 2ft by 7ft And the height of the deck is approximately 2 feet high. Looking for ideas what to plant their as looking for a modern minimalist style. Our backyard faces west.

(Answer)

The Toronto Master Gardeners has a guide to planting in a shaded or part shade area which you might find helpful, see the link below.  I think you should be able to find plants listed here that would work wonderfully well to fill in underneath your small trees in the front, but also use the suggested planting material in your west facing backyard which would give both your garden spaces a connected flow.

Perennials for Shade in Dry or Moist Areas: A Toronto Master Gardeners Guide

If you need the services of a landscape designer and don’t know of one, I would suggest you reach out to Landscape Ontario as they will be able to suggest several reliable people or companies that work in your neighbourhood, again see the link below.

https://landscapeontario.com/

Hope this helps.