Shade Gardening Vegetables

Cool-season gardening plants, such as cabbage or kale, grow in a shade garden.

Vegetables typically need at least six hours of sunlight to grow well. If your only option is a garden in the shade, then cool-season vegetables are your best choice. The vegetables will not thrive as well as in sunlight, but they will produce a crop that can be harvested and eaten.

Challenges

Shade gardens have several challenges reducing plants' ability to thrive. Shade gardens are typically surrounded by plants competing with the vegetables for nutrients and water. These plants also reduce the airflow around vegetable gardens, as well as keeping the foliage of plants from drying. This increases the chances that a plant can develop mold or mildew.

Timing

Cool-season plants often survive in light shade during the hottest, longest months of summer. During this time, they absorb enough ambient sunlight to fulfill their light requirements. Additionally, the cooler temperatures in the shade keep the vegetables from scorching or bolting. Plants will do well in partial shade if they receive sunlight during morning or evening hours.

Restrictions

Plants that need at least six hours partial sun will not do well in shade if they receive less than this amount of sunlight. Plants that do not receive enough sun often do not set fruit or produce vegetables. Most warm-season crops fall into this category. Examples of plants that do not do well in shade include tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers and squash. Characteristics of these types of plants include a habit of growing bush-like, stalk-like or shrubby.

Characteristics

Herbs, such as those in the mint family and green, leafy, low-growing vegetables, do better in shady gardens. These plants are grown for greens rather than fruits, vegetables or roots. The vegetables grown in shade will be thinner leaved and less robust than vegetables grown in sunlight. Plants that grow in the shade include beets, beans, broccoli, peas, cabbage, kohlrabi, potatoes, turnips and rhubarb. Bramble fruits, such as blackberries, will grow in light shade but will not produce a robust crop.

References

• University of Minnesota Extension: Gardening in the Shade; Deborah L. Brown; 2009
• University of Missouri Extension: Gardening in Shade; Christoper J. Starbuck;April 2002
• AgriLife ExtensionTexas A&M System: Vegetable Gardening in Containers; Joseph G. Masabni;

Resources

• Iowa State Univeristy Extension: Where to put your vegetable garden; Henry G. Taber