Gardening in the shade? No worries! You can still grow a productive vegetable garden even with less than ideal sun exposure.
In this post, I’ll be sharing a list of the best plants to grow in an edible shade garden as well as 6 tips for gardening in shady conditions. Be sure to read those 6 tips at the end, as I think you’ll find them very helpful for your shade garden!
Most vegetables, fruits, and herbs require 8 hours of direct sunlight to grow well. But there are some plants that will still grow well and produce a harvest with less than 6 hours of direct sunlight.
Before we get to the list of plants you can grow in a shady vegetable garden, we need to determine what exactly “shade” is in the gardening world.
What Is Considered “Shade” in Gardening?
If you’re like me, the word “shade” makes you think of deep shade—cool shadows that offer escape from the blazing hot summer sun.
In gardening, shade is a spectrum.
There’s dappled shade, where the garden gets direct sunlight filtered through the canopy of a mature tree, or some kind structure that prevents sunlight from shining fully on the garden. Some sunlight comes through, but there are patches of shadow also.
There’s also full shade, where no sunlight gets through to the plants below.
Then there’s part-shade and part-sun. As you can probably guess, part-shade leans more on the shady side and part-sun leans toward more sun exposure.
A plant that prefers “part-shade” would rather have less direct sunlight and will be more prone to leaf burn than a plant that prefers “part-sun” conditions.
To sum it all up:
- Full Shade = less than 2 hours of direct sun
- Part-Shade = 2-4 hours of direct sun per day
- Part-Sun = 4-6 hours of direct sun
- Dappled Shade = filtered sunlight
- Deep Shade = no sunlight
Knowing how much sun or shade your garden has is key to determining what plants to grow.
Some plants can handle more or less shade, and some can’t grow in shade at all.
Tomatoes Don’t Like Shade
We once planted tomatoes right up against the west side of our house, and while it did get some sunlight, it was in the shade for most of the day. I think it probably only got sun from 2PM to sundown. I doubt it got more than 5 hours of light per day, but I never bothered to check!
Those poor tomatoes didn’t begin fruiting until September and the fruit quality was so bad, I thought they were rotten or something and would make us sick.
Little did I know, if I had just moved the tomatoes a few feet around the corner to the south side of the house, we could’ve doubled their sun exposure and ended up with delicious, abundant harvests of heirloom tomatoes.
It was a disappointing start to gardening, but I learned a valuable lesson. Plants need the right amount of sunlight!
I share this story to stress the importance of knowing how much sun your garden actually gets. Plants will still try to grow in less than ideal conditions, but they may not thrive.
The good news is that there’s a plant for just about every type of sun or shade garden you can have!
Best Plants to Grow in Shady Edible Gardens
Now, what edible plants can you grow in a part-shade or part-sun garden?
In general, most vegetables and herbs need some direct sun every day, so full shade won’t work for your food garden unless you plan to grow mushrooms. Mushrooms can grow very well in full shade.
Most leafy greens and herbs grow fine in part-shade/sun gardens. Fruiting plants (think tomatoes, peppers, as well as berries and fruit trees) won’t produce as well in less than full sun. Additionally, I’ve found that fruits don’t taste as good when they are grown with less sunlight. They just aren’t as sweet and flavorful.
The plants on this list can produce relatively well with less sunlight. Try some of these out in your shady vegetable garden!
Herbs
Many herbs can thrive in part-shade conditions. Mediterranean herbs like thyme and rosemary will be less potent than ones grown in full sun, but you’ll still get a decent harvest from them.
- mint
- chives
- rosemary
- basil
- lemon balm
- parsley
- cilantro
- dill
- sage
- thyme
- oregano
- shiso
Leafy Greens
Salad greens naturally prefer growing in cooler conditions, so a part-shade garden may be just perfect for these plants in the summer if you are growing in a warm climate.
- arugula
- spinach
- lettuce
- kale
- swiss chard
- perpetual spinach
- mustard
- leeks
- bok choy
- mizuna
- endive
- raddichio
- corn salad (mache)
- rhubarb
Vegetables & Fruits
These vegetables will grow decently in part-shade/sun conditions, but may not be as large or productive as they would be in full sun.
- green onions (non-bulbing type onions grow better than bulbing onions in part-shade)
- bush beans
- beets (tops are edible, too)
- carrots
- potatoes
- radishes
- cabbage
- napa cabbage
- peas
- alpine strawberries
- kohlrabi
- rutabaga
Flowers for Shade Gardens
Let’s not forget about adding flowers to our shady vegetable gardens! I think growing companion flowers in edible gardens is so important and I wrote this post explaining why.
Here are just a few annual flowers that will tolerate shade. They aren’t all edible, but they are beautiful!
- nasturtium (edible)
- sweet alyssum (edible)
- violas or Johnny-jump-ups (edible)
- borage (edible)
- impatiens
- begonia
- lobelia
Botanical Interests has this Made in the Shade Flower mix with a variety of shade-loving flowers and foliage plants that you might like as well.
6 Tips for Shade Gardening Success
1. Assess and Evaluate the Light in Your Garden Space
Before deciding what to grow in your part-sun or part-shade garden, I think it would be helpful to actually assess how much light you have in your space.
Go out and look at your garden at different times of day. When I did this, I went out at 8 AM, 12 PM, 4 PM, and 7 PM in the spring.
Now, notice when your garden is actually in the sun. How many hours of direct sunlight does it get? It may be more or less than you originally thought!
Also think about the time of year. Does your garden get more sun in the summer or winter?
Sunlight is an important consideration for any garden. I wrote more about sunlight and other key considerations for finding the best location for a vegetable garden in this post if you want to read more about that.
2. Grow Vertically
If your plants grow tall enough, will they be able to get more sunlight? (Like if your garden is next to a fence, tall plants that peek over the fence could be in the sun for a longer part of the day.) Try growing vertically on a trellis.
There are quite a few vegetables and fruits with long vines that can be grown vertically. Here are a few to consider:
- cucumbers
- pole beans
- winter squash
- pumpkins
- indeterminate tomatoes (especially if trained to a single leader)
- melons
3. Use Containers
Containers can be moved to sunnier parts of the garden if you are desperate to grow something that requires more sun than your in-ground or immovable raised bed garden currently has.
Try using a vertical garden like this Greenstalk or a composting vertical garden like the one from Garden Tower Project if you want to grow a lot of plants in a small space.
Be sure to get a base with wheels or a lazy Susan so you can rotate the vertical garden and maximize sun exposure on all sides.
4. Nail Plant Care
Growing in a shadier location puts plants at a slight disadvantage. Make sure your plant care is on point to balance out getting less than ideal sunlight.
This means watering consistently, fertilizing when needed, protecting plants from pests with insect netting, spacing plants properly to maximize light and airflow, and also using quality compost or soil mixes to give plants the best medium to grow in.
Putting irrigation on a timer can help so much in giving plants the right amount of water when they need it. Plants thrive with consistency.
Garden in Minutes is an easy drip irrigation system to set up. You could also use a sprinkler connected to a hose and timer set to go off very early in the morning.
Give your plants the very best care and your garden will thrive!
5. Don’t Compete with Trees
Oftentimes a garden is shady because of its proximity to a tree. This is a tricky spot to grow vegetables in because big trees can have far-reaching roots that will suck all the nutrients and moisture from your garden if it is too close to the trees.
If you’re looking up vegetables for a shade garden and that shade is caused by a big tree growing directly next to your garden, I would advise you to move your garden now!
It’s not worth competing with large trees and having reduced sunlight.
6. Stick to Fast-Maturing Crops
Because plants have less sunlight, they will be growing more slowly and thus, reaching maturity at a slower rate. Choose fast-maturing crops to grow in your part-sun or shade garden to ensure that you get your harvest as quickly as possible.
So if you have the choice between a cabbage that matures in 80 days or one that matures in 50, choose the 50 day cabbage!
Grow Your Best Edible Shade Garden Ever
It’s not impossible to grow an edible garden in the shade. There are plenty of vegetables, herbs, and flowers that can grow and thrive in part-sun or part-shade gardens.
I hope you’ll try growing some of the plants mentioned in this post and that the tips for gardening in the shade help you grow your best edible garden yet.
If you need help planning your garden, check out this post on garden planning next.
Thank you for reading. Happy gardening!