What to plant in shade?

[orloff]

I have several shaded areas in my garden and all around my house. What are some vegitables that grow well in the shade? Last year I planted a ton of herbs here but I do not need that many because we only used a little.

So I need something thats somewhat common and popular to grow in the shade.

I also planted the last of my bearded iris bulbs in a container and put some hay over them to keep them warm for the next week because we may get some snow.

I also found 16 dutch iris bulbs for$4.00 at lowes and so I got a bag of those. The iris bulbs that I planted earlier this year from lowes are starting to sprout but the ones from MZ Bulb are growing from where they were but off and there also growing more sprouts.

I cant wait till they will bloom!

 

[digitS']

Orloff, there is a shady corner to my garden. I like to grow lettuce and spinach there. Generally, it is the leafy vegetables rather than fruiting types that grow best in the shade. Plants may not have enuf solar energy and time to develop fruit like tomatoes and summer squash.

The green onions that have grown there are real nice - they seem especially tender and mild. However, they have grown so tall that they've "flopped" over, some years.

This area begins to get shade from tall trees in the late morning. All of it is in the shade from early afternoon thru the remainder of the day.

Steve

 

[orloff]

Half of one of my gardens is shade now. We call it the english garden.

Would carrots and raddish grow well there?

 

[digitS']

Well, as I was writing that about fruiting vegetables, I was thinking, "what if Orloff asks about root crops?"

I've grown some nice radishes there early in the season. The ones planted later grew tall with NO bulbing to the roots! The trees that provide the shade are evergreens so I don't think the ground had more light early and less later on but, maybe so. You and I are both far enuf north that the sun swings around quite a ways into the north sky during the spring and early summer mornings and afternoons. But, it may just have to do with the fact that radish grow so well in cool weather and not so well after it warms up . . . thought I was overcoming that issue by planting them in the shade.

I've never planted carrots there that I can remember. Below is a photograph of the parsnips I grew there this year. I got really GREAT germination of the seed and had to thin. Usually, I don't get so many plants. However, I usually have really BIG parsnips . . .

These were okay but not what I expected. Heck's fire, they had the entire growing season to get big but didn't bother!

Steve

 

[patandchickens]

The young growth of Hostas is edible! No really. I haven't tried it myself but supposedly you can cook it as greens.

More mundanely, lettuce and spinach and whatever other greens ya like are your best bet. If it's only part shade, you could try beans or cherry tomatoes, you will not get as good a yeild but I've had some do "sort of ok" in half-shade.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[ducks4you]

I started coleus inside this winter, didn't know where to put it and I ended up transplanting it in the bed just north of our garage. This spot is shady almost all day, even in the summer. I had SUPER HUGE leaves, and it just finished going to seed to next year. This was the first time I've able to fill that spot in with something that LIKED it.

 

[orloff]

I ordered some garlic and onions actually today. Those would do good there right?

 

[digitS']

(What kind of onions are you ordering at this time of the year?)

I'm going to guess that they will do okay. The neighbor has elephant garlic behind a spruce tree . . . It's a fairly small tree about 15' tall but he has had them planted directly north of that tree and probably no more than 10' from the nearest branches. And, there's some cedar and grape vines to the west so that garlic only gets morning sun.

The plants seem to do okay. I notice that he'd pulled them and scattered them about to dry the other day.

Steve