Not every gardener is fortunate enough to have a great piece of property without a few limiting factors. Some of us have good ground and exposure, but no water is insight while others have an excellent supply of water as well as herds of deer to deal with. At St. Joseph Street Community Garden, Columbia, MO, we have excellent soil, plenty of water, while 1/3 of our garden receives about 4 hours of good sunlight and dappled light for the remainder of the day. To be more specific, morning light doesn’t reach this part of the garden until about 10:30 am. At this point, we have good sunshine for the next 4 hours. After this burst of sunlight, we then receive dappled light for the remainder of the day. Regardless, we still have an opportunity to grow a number of veggies and herbs that are able to produce a decent crop.
Potatoes
Last season, we grew early red potatoes as well as russets. The reds performed well however the russets appeared not to reach their anticipated production level. We decided that the russets languished due to insufficient solar radiation. The yield and quality of the red potatoes was more than acceptable, and their taste was great.
Note: During the vegetative stage of development both varieties appeared extremely healthy, however, their production of spuds was notably different.
Basil, Genovese
We actually grew basil under full sun (7 to 9 hrs) as well as in our shady part of the garden. In the Spring and early summer months basil plants seemed to do well, however, as the hot summer continued, the basil in the hotter part of the garden began to produce fewer leaves whereas the shade crop continued to produce a decent crop. Next year, we’ll plant two crops of basil in our shady area. The first, in the spring and the second, in late summer. This will ensure a plentiful supply of leaves throughout the season.
Bunching Onions / Chives / Scallions
This category of plants does extremely well in our conditions. We presently have white garlic and garlic chives, which were planted in the Fall of last year, and just recently transplanted white bunching onions accompanied by early spring plantings of red and yellow bulb onion starts. By the way, the bunching onions are looking splendid!
Digging a little deeper, we plan to periodically harvest about half of each mound (hill) of bunching onions. The part not harvested will be replanted back in its original spot. It’ll be interesting to learn how much productivity we can reap from this process. We’ll certainly let you know how it went.
Edible Pod Sugar Peas
It’s amazing how many names this particular veggie has. Years ago, I would refer to it as Chinese Edible Pod Peas. Today, names such as Sugar Pop Snow Pea and Sugar Snap Pea seem to be commonly used. Anyway, this is one of my favorite veggies to nibble while visiting the garden. Although the pods are usually picked while pods remain flat, I enjoy opening the fat pods to munch on their developing seed for a sugar rush. In our home, we use fresh pods in our salads and add them to our vegetable medleys, stir fry and soup dishes.
As far as growing veggies in our shady area, sugar peas are planted in a spot which receives the most-light. We tried a shadier spot however the plants did not do as well.
Cilantro and Parsley
Two herbs which we enjoy growing are cilantro and parsley. These plants do well in our shady area and the cilantro doesn’t seem to bolt as fast when compared to growing it in hotter, sunnier places on the property. There’s always room in the garden for cilantro and parsley since both are excellent additions (fresh or dried) to many dishes.
Carrots
I must have missed this one! I always thought that carrots would grow best in sunny locations however a random planting of carrots in our shadier area of the garden proved otherwise. Okay, now you know, I don’t know everything. This week, we will sow carrots in a dedicated row to see how they continue to perform during 2022.
We will be adding a few more favorites upon the end of the 2022 season. In the meantime, we’d like to hear from you about your experience growing veggies and herbs in shady areas.
The Garden Dreamer 