Couple find shade's bright side.

Byline: Virginia A. Smith

ELKINS PARK, Pa. _ Tom Steigerwald's the kind of guy who gets upset if the sky isn't blue enough. No wonder he's a gardener.

"It creates a little oasis for me," he says, "a counterpoint to everything else in modern life."

But Steigerwald's oasis, which wraps around a converted 19th-century firehouse in Elkins Park, would intimidate less-adventurous souls. It's almost all shade, a condition many gardeners fear makes it hard to grow anything colorful or fun.

Not so. So not so!

Since moving from Philadelphia 13 years ago, Steigerwald, an artist who specializes in huge floral paintings, and his wife, Patrice, an engineer at Lockheed Martin, have transformed their long-neglected yard into a charming, slightly wild cottage garden.

They ripped out decades' worth of out-of-control ivy, remade the gravelly soil with homegrown compost and wood chips, and set about planting things that not only tolerate the dense and dappled shade overlaying their property, but thrive in it.

Things such as deep purple salvia and pale orange angel's trumpet, tall pink hollyhocks and sprays of creamy plume poppy and oakleaf hydrangea. They have plenty of the more traditional shade plants, too _ ferns and…