Plan My ShadePlan

About Velvet Dell

One Drawing Table. Zone 7b. Zero Full Sun.

A one-room studio on the Palisades, where shade is the brief and never the problem.

A drawing table with a half-finished planting plan, pressed ferns and a scale ruler in soft window light

The story

Begun Under A Maple

Most yards in Fort Lee are not sunny.
They are cliffs, and canopies,
and the north side of a building.

Velvet Dell began with that fact.
Not as a limit. As a palette.

We draw gardens for the light that is actually there. Ferns where the afternoon fails. Foamflower where April comes first. Moss where the stone holds the cold.

Every plant on every plan grows wild in New Jersey. Nothing is flown in to look brave.

The work is small on purpose. One table, one pencil box, one list of nurseries we trust. Plans are drawn here on Palisade Avenue, then carried to your yard and checked against the real light.

Bring us the yard nobody wanted.

It is usually the best one.

Send Us The Dark Corner

A day at the table

From First Light To Last Line

The hours of a working day, in the order the light keeps them.

  1. 8am

    Coffee, Then Soil

    Jars from yesterday’s visits are lined up on the sill. We read texture, then drainage, then smell.

  2. 10am

    On Site, Watching

    We stand in the yard and note where the sun lands, how long it stays, and which roots run closest to the surface.

  3. 1pm

    The Long List

    Back at the table, a hundred native candidates narrow to a dozen. Each one has to earn its square foot.

  4. 3pm

    Pencil To Paper

    Canopy, understory, ground layer. Drawn to scale, labeled in plain English, sourced to named nurseries.

  5. 4:30pm

    Evenings, If Asked

    Some yards need to be seen at dusk. We come then, by appointment, and let the light speak last.

What the table teaches

Shade is not the absence of sun. It is a garden of its own.

— Velvet Dell

How we draw

Four Habits Of The Pencil

Not promises. Habits. The things that happen whether or not anyone is watching.

I

Natives only

If It Grows Wild Here, It May Stay

Plants are chosen from what already lives on the Palisades and in the wider New Jersey woodland. They belong, so they last.

II

Light first

We Measure Before We Dream

No plant is named until the hours of sun are logged. A good plan starts with a stopwatch and a notebook.

III

Honest drawing

You Can Plant From The Page

Scaled drawings, spacing marked, every plant tagged with where to buy it. Your crew, or your own two hands, can follow it.

IV

One invoice

Billed Once, Per Package

Each design package is invoiced once. Nothing is taken at the door, and nothing is added after the drawing is done.

A plan is quiet work. So is a good yard.

Read The Four Plans
Native fern, wild ginger and foamflower laid out with a trowel and plant tags

What we will not draw

A Short List Of Refusals

A good plan is partly what it leaves out. We say no, plainly, to these.

  • Invasive “shade lovers” sold in big-box aisles, such as English ivy and pachysandra
  • Sun plants forced into a corner they will sulk in
  • Planting plans that ignore the roots of a mature oak or maple
  • Lists with no source, so you are left to hunt the nursery yourself
Tell Us What You Refuse To Lose

The ground is open in November. Shade keeps.

Call weekdays, 8am to 4:30pm.

Call (201) 429-2703