Who here has had success with partial shade/shade edibles? It could be a tree, shrub or veggie?
Success with shade edibles
I've had limited success with part shade vegetables - I usually grow swiss chard and beets. Runner beans do ok. I think basil in part shade keeps its flavor and doesn't bolt as readily as basil in full sun. Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers really suffer in the shade. I'm not sure that my experience in Minnesota is going to translate to Texas! Peg
I am trying some shade loving mahonias. They are doing great but the berries are very tart. I bought an edible ground cover called aguja. I failed to read the part about it being a low level narcotic until after I was eating it. I did get a sleepy feel from it. It wouldnt be too effective as an edible if I kept falling asleep when I ate it. I plan on putting two blue bean (dead mans fingers) bushes in this spring to see how they do. They look gross but the flim like substance inside should be tastey. I also am growing chocolate vine. It is very vigorous but hasnt produced fruit yet. I have three varieties for cross pollination.
More suggestions would be great. I will eat about anything so it doesnt have to be traditional food.
Dang, Ju, after all this time I've had trouble sleeping and I have the answer in my shady beds!!!
Doug
Jujubetexas, do you mean ajuga, not aguja? I had ajuga at my old place, but never considered eating it because I read that it was poisonous. Maybe the narcotic effect is why it's often listed that way.
Yeah. Just a typo. The plant is pretty bitter too.
Last year I tried a bunch of edibles in shade. Savoy cabbage lived but was smallish, very good-tasting though. Tomatoes lived but made hardly any tomatoes. Spinach did fine. Potatoes did okay. Broccoli did okay but it was a weird kind of broccoli that makes a lot of leaves (purple peacock).
I'm going to try some other things in the shade this year, like lettuce, beets, turnips, and Asian greens.
I just got a Park catalog yesterday that has a shrub (2-either 4 foot or 8 foot) called "Honeyberry". A relative of honeysuckle, likes shade and has edible berries that resemble oblong blueberries. I am thinking of trying it myself-if I don't like the berries, I'm sure the birds will!!!
Jan
Could have included this the first time, sorry. Latin name: Lonicera kamchatika.
Jan
I always ignored this plant because I thought it would need a massive chill requirement since it is so cold hardy. I just read that it doesnt have chill requirement from two sites which shocked me. Good call buddy. Now, can it take the heat down here?
I grow wild leeks all around my shaded backyard and around trees, then add chamomle around rocks then different kinds of alpine strawberry plants.
I ended up putting a bunch of strawberry plants in a shady area this spring. I'll see how they do. I had a lot of plants and thought the increased number of plants would counteract the decreased amount of berries on account of shade. I guess I will find out.
The plant we in the UK call sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata) does well in shade. You can do all sorts of eating things with the leaves and the roots if you don't mind that aniseed flavour
I didn't even know you could eat it.
Nanking cherry and red currant get 1/2 day sun in my garden and produce just fine.
Yes and what about rhubarb!. I guess you'd get better yield in the sun, but with leaves like that its gotta do ok in shade. I transplnted some in a shady spot this year and its fine; suppose the test is can it put up with being picked year after year. I'm optimistic but it'll need plenty of moisture of course.
I'm a shady lady so I too believe in pushing the shade envelop Johnnieboy.
Found this discussion on gardenweb about Honeyberrry:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/edible/msg0816221128604.html
More of a sunnyboy meself and a light loamy lad at that, but some of my garden is shady and clay and that's fun too. One of my faves is Galium odoratum; a wonderful European woodland plant, and you can soak it in wine I think to make a kind of traditional tonic drink but I've never tried that.
Thanks for that katie59. really interesting. Just checked the RHS Plant Finder, a brilliant thing, but no nurseries in UK are listed as supplying this; its certainly a new one on me. I guess being a Lonicera, it won't need acid soil like a blueberry.
Lonicera generally grows here like weeds, but then we have pretty acid soil due to the decomposing evergreen needles.
I am In Houston (zone 9A). I want to grow sweet and cinnamon basil and mint. Trouble is most of my yard is very shady. I have turned my patio, though, into a container garden and I do have some sun there. Will these grow?
Lady Lou
My mints do well in part shade. Not the basils though. Summer savory does well for me with a half day morning sun so it might do well in your containers.
Louparis, I moved my whole herb garden onto the deck which gets sun from 2PM on. Everything does fine there and I imagine that your sun is much stronger.
Jonnieboy, what exactly is it that you do with your galium odoratum?
I've grown chives in high shade (they even bloom) as well as basil in a pot. Parsley in the ground in full shade. Have also grown cilantro but it bolts so fast that I gave up on it. Good yield on Better Boy tomatoes grown in a large pot with afternoon sun. The foliage stayed good looking until the end and no diseases. I'm trying tomatillo also in a pot this year as well as lemon grass. Both will get afternoon sun. Mint will grow in the shade but it does like it's moisture. Unsure how intense the flavor is though. Have grown both in the ground in full shade and in a pot with high shade. Also have wild raspberries that set fruit in part shade but haven't tried eating as I don't like raspberries. Have done alpine strawberries from seed and fruit production is not that great - just enough for nibbling while walking through the garden. Daughter in TN is growing spring greens on her front porch with very little morning sun in one of those long plastic window box liners and even had enough to harvest at Easter for salad. Keep an eye on the Galium (sweet woodruff). Planted some years ago and it's a pretty vigorous spreader and when it gets entangled with other plants, it's hard to erradicate. Isn't there something called May wine that uses Galium?
I have a friend that has:
Blueberry
Currants
Wild Muscadine
I have also heard about these growing great in shade:
Lingon berry
Cranberry
Huchkleberry
Asparagus
Mushroons
Weerobin, according to the RHS Enyclopaedia of herbs, Galium odoratum is soaked in white wine to make 'Maitrank' a tonic drink from Alsace. Me, I just drink the wine on its own and admire the sweet woodruff ( as we call ) scrambling around in the wooded places.
I think I'll take your approach, Jonnieboy.
I enjoy sweet woodruff and it does really well here.
It scrambles around a bit, but I don't find it invasive at all.
Yeah! The wines nice too. Also on the subject of shade edibles. Pleased with myself re use of space. Sowed a long row of perpetual spinach where the runner beans were going. Got a good crop off them and now planted the beans, I'm sure I'll get another crop or two before the beans grow up so much that there's hardly any light at all. Then when the beans are gone in autumn, I'll cut the weedy spinach back an reckon I'll get another crop in winter, not to mention next spring. Gotta beat that economic downturn somehow.