Edibles that tolerate some shade
Today’s post is on edibles that can tolerate some shade. It’s a question that comes up in nearly every garden class I teach: What can I grow to eat if I have shade? There’s a surprising number of traditional veggies and herbs that can tolerate some shade. Notice I said “some.” If you are talking about dense, dark shade, these aren’t going to work either and I refer you to those serious ‘shade gardening’ books… But if you are talking some good morning sun, or dappled shade, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, so read on….
Meanwhile, I teach my last garden class of the year at the botanical garden tomorrow (Thursday) evening. I’m excited as always to meet new veggie gardeners but also excited to have the rest of the summer to dig in my own garden! The class is “Organic Veggies for Beginners” and has been great fun to teach.
Here at Larrapin, the new veggie spot is slowing happening, one row-bed at a time. We’re planting each bed as we go, so that is fun to see a young garden slowly creep up the slope…Pictures of this slow progess to come. The pictures above: a tribute to the early spring bloomers, now beginning to fade into the green-green stage of spring. Pictured are forsythia, redbud and flowering pear blooms here at Larrapin.
OK, here’s a list I share in class of veggies, herbs and fruit that can tolerate some shade. Some of these I’ve never tried to grow (or might not recognize at the farmers market) but you may love them. Try them out and see what happens! Remember, nearly all will still require a few good hours of at-least morning sun, or most of the day in dappled-shade to produce. But it’s worth a try. I’ve been surprised at how many plants that traditionally need full-sun, that seem happy, even relieved, to get afternoon shade in the brutal mid-summer Arkansas sun!
Vegetables, Herbs and Fruit that tolerate some shade (Information from the lovely book: Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook by Jennifer Bartley at www.timberpress.com)
Vegetables:
Arugula, Beets
Burdock, Cabbage, Carrots, Leaf celery, Chicory,
Chinese cabbage, Collards, Mache,
Cresses, Endive, Escarole, Fennel,
Jerusalem artichoke, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leeks,
Lettuce, Malabar spinach, Mallow, Mizuna, Mustard greens,
Nettles, New zealand spinach, Pak choi,
Perpetual beets, Radishes, Sorrel, Spinach, Swiss Chard,Turnips
Herbs:
Angelica, Anise hyssop, Borage, Chervil, Chives, Ginger,
Goldenseal, Hyssop, Lovage, Lemon balm, Marjoram,
Mints, Parsley, Perilla, Rosemary, Salad burnet,
Savory, Tarragon, thyme
Fruits:
Blueberry, Currant, Elderberry,
Paw paw, Rhubarb, Serviceberry,
Strawberry, Mulberry Trees
Edible Flowers:
Calendula, Johnny jump ups, Nasturtium,
Pansies, Sunflower, violets
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Read MoreCalvin Bey on Starting a Spring Garden (podcast)
Welcome to the first podcast at A Larrapin Garden. Wow, this stuff is fun. If you scroll down to the bottom of this post you’ll see an audio player. Click the arrow and you can listen now, or click the download link to download the file and listen whenever you want. (If you are reading this via an email subscription, I think you’ll have to go to the Larrapin Blog Site to listen.)
My first Fayetteville gardening teacher, Dr. Calvin Bey of Harmony Gardens, agreed to a chat on getting ready to start gardening this spring. Calvin is an amazing organic and ecological gardener who approaches the process in a systematic, experimental process that befits his background as a scientist. Calvin’s garden is about 2000 square feet, he tells me, and he regularly gets 2000 pounds of produce a year from our NWA growing season that runs from mid-April to late October.
But that 2000 pounds is not “ordinary” organic produce. Calvin’s focus is “nutrient-dense” produce, grown in re-mineralized soil so that the produce will contain the maximum nutrition.
Turns out you can measure the nutritional quality of a vegetable with a special gadget, and of course Calvin has one! But the results can be startling. Even the loveliest-looking, organically grown vegetable can be lacking in the nutrition we all believe is in there. It all depends on the soil. And don’t get me started on the nutrient content of typical store-bought conventional produce. (Ok, can’t help it: One study I read suggested we’d have to eat about 3-5 times the portions of modern vegetables to really get the vitamins and minerals supposedly contained in one portion. The quality of most commercial-farm soils—which is where the veggies get the nutrition to pass on to us— has diminished to that point.)
Besides human health, other side effects of nutrient-dense produce include increased productivity from the plants as well as increased shelf-life and disease/bug resistance. When you ask Calvin how he handles many common diseases and insect attacks in his garden, he will often shrug and smile. He doesn’t have them!
It all goes back to the soil. Well, doesn’t everything. Literally.
If you are into veggie gardening and willing to expand your mind (and understanding of soil) exponentially, I would heartily encourage you to take one of Calvin’s Saturday classes. He’s offering several of the one-day courses this Spring. (See http://harmonygardens.blogspot.com/ for info and signup.) You’ll learn enough in one class to keep you exploring for the next several years, or lifetimes. Plus, best of all, you get to see Calvin’s lovely garden and smart home. But you’ll see the real treasure when you push back a little mulch and take a look at that soil. (Guests are asked to refrain from the temptation of bringing shovels and buckets!) 🙂
Click the player below to listen to a 23 minute interview with Calvin, or download to listen at your convenience. (10mb mp3 file)
Thanks for stopping by Larrapin! Let me know what you think of the new audio feature!
Read MoreBook Review: Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway
My favorite garden book of the moment—and favorite Xmas gift received this year!— is Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway (2nd edition). I love this book and am SO glad Hemenway did a 2nd edition. I owned the first edition and really like the plant lists, but just didn’t enjoy the text the way I do in this new one. When I would recommend the first book to friends, I must admit I’d say, “The information is great if you can overlook the Western tilt to the plants and the author’s prickly tone..” I’m not sure if I just got used to it or if the text changed that much in tone. But there is lots of new info, the welcome addition of color pictures, and somehow the book seems SO much better overall.
I admit, I’ve a very picky reader of gardening books. OK, I’m prickly too. I like advanced topics, but I still love pictures and illustrations. At the same time, I don’t need to see pretty close-ups of flowers so common in the gardening section of most bookstores. I can see flower close-ups on many wonderful blogs! What I love is systems design.
Systems design sounds so geeky, but for me, it’s just about seeing the garden, the whole landscape really, holistically. Once I fell in love with the ideas of permaculture I became less focused on each individual plant and much more interested in the relationships between the plants and groups of plants and trees, and the relationsihips between those groups and the microclimates of my particular site. Not to mention the relationship between the gardeners and the garden landscape. Now that is fascinating!!
I guess it might be the same for interior designers: while you might showcase one piece of furniture, you are more driven to make the whole room, or house, work together. I moved from apples to orchards in a sense. (But wow, designing landscapes on a systems level—at the one-human & one-shovel level of horsepower— occurs at a glacial pace compared to most gardening I’ve done in the past. I’m learning patience…)
Anyway, this edition of Gaia’s Garden is everything I could wish for in a gardening and/or permaculture book. Bravo Toby Hemenway and Chelsea Green. I was particularly delighted to see photos of permaculture designs that looked beautiful instead of just smart. Beauty is a valuable function too!
The author starts with the principles of permaculture, then applies those principles to a home-scaled environment via examples, explanation, illustrations and photos too. The plant lists are better than ever. Quick—name five plants that produce excellent chicken fodder! Name five plants that will help your fruit trees stay healthier and more pest-freee! Name five plants you could plant instead of the dreaded suburban “foundation shrubs” that would also provide you with fruit! Name five plants that produce something to eat that will also grow in shade! Refer to this book and you can, no problem.
And luckily, these plants are for temperate climates of the States. Since permaculture originated in Australia, a lot of the previous books on the topic were filled with plants I’ll never encounter unless I move to the tropics. This edition (is this my imagination?) also seems to have made the plant lists less focused on the west/southwest and included more midwestern/eastern plants.
This book is the best introduction to in-the-dirt backyard (and front yard) permaculture for U.S. readers available. Thanks Toby! Even if you already own the fist edition like I did, it’s well worth the money to go buy the second edition. You won’t regret it. I’ve been pouring through the pages ever since I got a copy for Christmas. Ok, sure. I had begged for it. But Santa must have thought I’d been good enough to get me a copy!
(Book info: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, Paperback, 9781603580298, 313pp. Be SURE to get the Second Edition–Publication date May 2009)
What are your favorite gardening books? Or do you know links to lovely permaculture designs online? Share them via the “Comment” link below! Thanks as always for dropping by A Larrapin Garden.
Read MoreSusanna: May I borrow your headlamp?
When I had the delight of touring my friend Susanna’s garden a while back, she told me one of those stories only another passionate digger can appreciate. Seems that in winter, by the time she got off work and got home to cover the things in the winter beds, it was already pitch dark. So a friend got her a headlamp and they would laugh at the sight of the little headlamp out flickering in the yard as Susanna tended her leafy flock in the darkness….
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