21 Edible Plants to GROW IN THE SHADE 🌿 Let's grow more food at Home 🌿 Growing Food in Shade

[Music] do you have areas of shade in your garden and you want to grow edible plants then keep watching because i have 21 edible plants you can grow in the shade and still get abundant harvests every garden will have areas of shade throughout the growing season and these 21 edible plants will allow you to still utilize that space to grow nutritious food and especially coming into autumn and winter the sun tracks lower in the sky so there is a lot more shady areas in our gardens due to the long shadows cast by neighbouring trees sheds fences houses and all those sort of things so it is a good idea to get to know some of these edible plants that can handle a bit more shade and that way you'll always have things to grow everywhere in your garden and if you are growing lots of fruit trees as they grow they are obviously going to cast more and more shade so one that's exciting is that our fruit trees are going to get bigger and produce more food but they are going to create more pockets and areas of shade in your garden and make sure you stick around to the end because i'm going to give you some extra tips to make sure that your edible plants are thriving in the shade if you do get any tips or you find this video useful please give it a like it really does help me reach more people and inspire more people to start growing their own food you can also save this video if you want to refer back to it at any time there's a little save option just along from the like button and that way you can keep it in a playlist and refer back to these edible plants you can grow in the shade part shade semi shade or full shade is probably not going to be optimum growing conditions for most of these plants but they are ones that can handle a bit more shade than others and they're just going to grow at a slower rate so i'll give heaps of tips on how to make sure you still get enough harvests if those plants are going to grow a little bit slower all right so number one is rainbow chard this is one of my favorite things to grow in the garden especially during autumn and winter it brightens up a winter garden it's so colorful it is really easy to use it's so versatile you can pretty much use it in any dish and it looks really nice in the garden it a lot of things that we grow in winter are greens and so this adds a pop of color not only to your garden but also to your plate rainbow chard produces in abundance so sometimes it's actually a good thing that it's going to grow a little bit slower in the shade because you'll able you'll be able to keep on top of your harvests you'll be able to use as much of that plant as you can and it won't go to waste number two is sweet potato and that is something that i have here as a ground cover it's an edible ground cover and it grows really well in the shade even in full shade the sweet potato will grow pretty well it does die down over the colder months especially if you get frosts and a lot of cold weather it will die down but as long as there's any roots still in the soil it'll pop back up and spring and just regrow and it creates a really lush edible ground cover and you can eat the leaves so you can use that as spinach it's such a good one to just throw in any dish to add extra nutrition and if you are growing it in the shade it may produce slower smaller sweet potato roots but you can use it as a greens crop so you can utilize those greens they may even grow bigger leaves in the shade as they try to capture more sunlight so you're going to get a bigger greens harvest if you're growing sweet potato in the shade so rocket is a another edible plant that you can grow in the shade and it produces lots of leafy greens you can add on top of pizzas you can put fresh in a salad it's got a nice peppery bite to it and it'll grow pretty well in the shade it will obviously grow a little bit slower um oh my gosh you can really smell rocket has a very distinct smell as long as it's got plenty of water because it will go super bitter if it's left to go dry so make sure that you keep it well watered and rocket is another one that i don't eat a whole lot of so it's it can be a really good idea for me to plant this in the shade because then i can keep on top of the harvests and i don't get overwhelmed with too much rocket because i won't use it otherwise even though you can make pestos and all that sort of stuff with rocket i do like it just fresh as well this one needs to be harvested so i'm going to give that a big haircut too number four is lettuce now lettuce can grow really well in dappled sunlight and part shade especially in summer in summer lettuce goes to seed really quickly it doesn't like the heat so if you do have some really shady areas that are a lot cooler than others you can plant lettuce and you'll get an extended harvest an extended season and you'll be able to have lettuce nearly all year round here in perth i grow most of my lettuce in autumn winter and if i am growing it in the shade or part shade it's just going to grow a lot slower um so i will plant extra but i do like to just pop lettuce all in between my gardens and then i just harvest one or two leaves off each plant that way the plant still has enough leaves to produce and grow but i can get a salad number five is tamarillo or cherry tomato this is quite a unique plant it is so delicious it's something that i loved eating growing up in new zealand it is quite a common plant over there so let me know if you've tried it before it is hard to describe it's definitely has a tomatoey flavor um but it's delicious it's quite sour it's quite tart and it's so good with yogurt and other fruit especially something like kiwi fruit that's a lot sweeter that's something probably my favorite way to eat it is fresh with yogurt kiwi fruit and some nuts and seeds but it also makes a really good dessert so tree tomatoes or tamarillos are grown in underneath canopies especially in food forests so these can be a really good one that can handle quite a bit of shade they also need protection from wind and frosts oh a feature i just dropped um yeah so they like to have protection and so that can be another good reason to have them in more of a canopy food for a style system because they're going to have protection from winds and they're going to also have protection from the really harsh sunlight they have quite large leaves they are quite delicate and they don't like frosts either i don't have one growing i would love to have one growing but it just gets so windy here at my house i just don't think it would cope with that level of wind maybe now that my trees are getting bigger and i'm creating more of a sheltered environment i could possibly get one but there's a lot of fruit trees on my list of things that i want kale is another one that you can grow in the shade especially in the warmer months in summer growing kale in the shade can be a really good idea and if you are growing kale in the shade in winter or in autumn it will just grow a lot slower but just like the lettuce you can just pick one or two leaves off each plant and allow that plant to still have plenty of leaves to grow and it will grow just fine nasturtium grows wild i mean you don't really have to do anything and it grows wild even in full shade so growing it in full shade can be a good idea because it'll slow down the rate of the growth and you can use nasturtium and in salads using the the leaves they're really peppery i also make so much stuff out of this check out my website if you want any recipes there's pesto there's um nasturtium salt there's nasturtium quiches all the things and if you are growing nutritions in the shade they will also probably produce larger leaves and this makes them really really good to use as little mini tacos or little wraps even if you want a healthy alternative to a wrap so growing nasturtium in the shade can also be a really good thing alpine strawberries now this is another one from you would have heard in my edible ground covers and that's because a lot of edible ground covers are going to be grown in shade underneath canopies so they have to be able to tolerate the shade um but alpine strawberries have a smaller strawberry they're sort of known as a wild strawberry they can tolerate a lot more shade they're used to growing in like rocky outcrops and under the shade of trees so they will grow a little bit slower produce smaller fruit but they're really delicious and you can also get a white one the white alpine strawberry that tastes a little bit like pineapple so they're really fun one to grow in the garden as well all right so let's talk radish so radish is one that i grow in between all my plants and it grows so fast so it usually grows before all the other ones have even had time to grow so that way it's not quite shaded out but if you are growing it in part shade dappled shade it will still grow really well it'll just take a little bit longer than usual and radish grows really quickly it's like four weeks a month which is one of i think it's the fastest growing plant you can grow from seed so if it takes a little bit longer then that's totally fine as well a another fruiting shrub that you can grow in the shade is the blueberry in their natural habitat in north america blueberries grow as an understory so they are used to be growing under canopies and so they can handle quite a bit of shade and now in our modern day living there are so many different varieties that have been cultivated to suit pretty much every environment especially here in australia so that can be a really good idea is to look into the varieties and pick one that's going to grow well in your area and that can be determined on how much cold you get how much sunlight how much heat and if you pick the best variety for your situation it's going to be a lot easier to grow that blueberry blueberry's main thing is that they like acidic soil so as long as you are providing that and you're giving it lots of moisture and food then it should be able to handle a little bit more shade as well you can grow blueberries in pots and that way you can move them around a bit so if you are getting a lot more shade in that area you could move it to a sunnier location to maximize the amount of fruit you're going to get off that plant celery i love growing celery and it can grow wild it's a plant that takes quite a long time to get established so you might feel like it's you know growing super slow what's wrong but most of the growing period of a celery plant is towards the end so they will grow quite slowly and then they will shoot off and you'll get lots of delicious stems and i just harvest one or two of the outside of each plant and that way the plant can keep growing i have let a celery go to seed once and if you've watched my older videos you would have seen that i had celery popping up and every single crack it was wild and i didn't plant have to plant celery the next year at all because i had so many volunteer celery plants so it is one that is pretty party it grows really well as long as you keep it watered because if you let it go dry it will be super bitter and stringy and gross so keep it nice and moist and you should be able to grow celery in part shade dapple shade as well parsley is a herb that can grow really well in the shade and part shade i have had parsley go really well here and the understories of my fruit trees i love growing parsley i use it in all of my salads chopped up on top of pasta pretty much anywhere it's basically just some added nutrition and flavor and it's parsley is really really good for you health-wise as well so it's a good herb to start growing in the garden because it's really easy to grow it's pretty forgiving so you can it's harder to kill and it can grow in a whole wide range of different areas and levels of shade in your garden another herb that i highly recommend growing in a pot don't let this one go in your garden is mint so mint can be super invasive it sends runners under the ground and once mint has grabbed hold and is established it's really hard to get rid of this is the bird's hour in the garden so there's heaps of bird life which is really nice um but can be interesting for filming i highly recommend growing mint in a pot regardless of whether you have a big garden or not if you do want to have a lot of mint then maybe put it in a container garden somewhere that you can even a raised garden bed it can possibly still get its little runners out it's basically the kaikoura of the herbs so just be aware of that but mint can be grown in shady conditions as well because it is such a vigorous growing plant it's also a herb that you will use sparingly i just like to use a little bit of mint here and there so i don't need to have a huge abundance of it i'm quite happy for it to just be a small amount in a pot that is perfectly good for the way that i like to use mint so rhubarb is another edible plant that you can grow in a shady area of your garden rhubarb is a really heavy feeding edible plant so you need to have lots of compost and but it has huge leaves and they can capture a lot more light so they can grow quite well in part shade shady conditions so that's a really good one to grow it will definitely again grow very slowly if it's not getting adequate sunlight so it may pay to have multiple different ones bush beans are another edible that you can grow in a more shady condition and they produce heaps of beans and are really delicious they don't necessarily grow up like a vine they're more of a shrubby bean hence the name bush beans they're more of a bushy plant monstera which is a super popular house plant the monstera deliciosa is that how you say it it's often called the fruit salad plant because it produces a edible fruit thing it's very strange but it's quite delicious it's something that i've tried a few times but i have got some growing in my garden so i'll definitely have to do a video on that if i get some fruit i have heaps of them as houseplants as well i find them really low maintenance and i like my houseplants to be low maintenance i have the monstera growing in the shadiest corner of my garden and it definitely is growing slowly but once it gets established those big beautiful leaves will be able to capture a little bit more light and it's just going to look really lush and it's a nice environment for my beneficial insects and um yeah i can get those weird tropical fruits ginger is an edible plant you can grow in limited light it's got really big lush beautiful leaves and i love using ginger in the kitchen so it's something that i have really wanted to start growing i have got one on the go and i've got a turmeric i do have them in pots so i can move them around a little bit to try and get more sunlight but you could grow ginger quite fine in an understory sort of situation with less light and the same with the cardamom ginger which has got smaller leaves and i have that growing in my understory here it grows quite slowly but i don't use it very often it's super it's just here actually um and you would have seen this one in my edible leaves video it's super fragrant it smells so good you can use this for flavoring dishes or making like a chai tea or something like that so that can be another one that you can grow in limited light chives are another herb that can do pretty well with limited sunlight um i grow chives all in between my garden as well as i've had chives growing in here they grow slower like i said before with a lot of these plants but that works perfectly for me because i'm not a huge chiva user so if i did have massive amounts of chives i wouldn't probably utilize them to their best potential anyway so having smaller slower plants with chives is completely fine for me so that it's up to you whether you want to have huge production of chives then maybe put them somewhere a little bit sunnier so they can grow quicker but yeah chives seem to do pretty well in a shady environment herbs in general can be a good thing to try out if you do have a space that you're not really sure what to grow because herbs are quite forgiving they're pretty easy to grow they're quite hardy so if i have an area that i'm not sure that or other things haven't grown very well in then i'll often choose to plant herbs there because they do grow a bit slower but i don't use them as much and they tend to do well in nearly every environment all right so i have no idea what number i'm up to hopefully i'll be able to figure this out when i'm editing it i'm terrible at doing these number things but i have another one which is very interesting to grow i haven't grown it because it is something i absolutely hate it is why the thing that i hate the most i think um there's not many food types that i dislike but this is one that is a hard no for me but hailin my partner loves it so i'd still like to grow it something that i would like to learn how to grow anyway and that is mushrooms so mushrooms like damp cool shady spots you can see a lot of mushrooms growing in forests on fallen logs so if you have an area that just doesn't grow anything you can't get anything to grow you could try growing mushrooms and you can get some mushroom spores on little dowels that can be a really good one to try out if you're wanting to grow mushrooms in the shade so this fruit tree here this is actually growing in quite a shady part of my garden it's really on the border of where the light kind of stops because we have got this massive norfolk pine is our neighbor's tree that is shading quite a lot of this garden and this strawberry guava seems to be quite fine i think guavas especially the strawberry guavas do grow as an understory in their natural environment so they can handle a little bit more shade they might not just produce as much but guavas are really prolific producers so it wouldn't be too bad if they were a little bit slower but yeah this pretty much gets this garden gets all pretty much full shade during winter because we've got that big tree because we've got the shed and fences and other neighboring trees so these plants get mostly full sun in summer and then a lot of shade and winter and they all seem to do just fine especially down here we've got the sweet potato and the nasturtiums as the ground cover and they pretty much get full shade all the time over there we have the cardamom ginger which is in a little bit more of an open pocket so it gets a little bit more light so i do want to share a few tips for growing plants in the shade because it is important that we sort of give them a little bit of a helping hand because they are going to grow slower they aren't going to produce as well if they're not growing in their optimum condition with the right amount of sunlight so there are a few things that we need to take into consideration when we're growing edible plants in the shade and one of those is the amount of watering so plants that are growing in a lot more shade won't need as much watering because the soil is going to retain a lot more of that moisture it's not going to be exposed to warmth or sunlight to dry out so just keep an eye on your watering you can just dig down in the soil a little bit and just feel how moist it is that can be a really good test to do and adjust your watering systems during summer and winter because in winter if you are getting a lot more shade like this area it gets a lot more shade in winter i barely have to water it at all because the soil is not drying out during the day so it's retaining a lot more of its moisture another thing that you're going to want to watch out for is pests in the garden so a lot of our garden pests like our slugs and our snails they really like damp cool moist spots so if you are growing things in the shade you're going to be a little bit more susceptible to a lot of those pests so it can be a good idea to check along the edge of your garden beds for snails living there check on your plants regularly to make sure there's no bugs on them you'll be able to see if there's holes in the leaves or there's poop or they're getting munched and i will link my video for natural pest management so if you do want to learn how to manage those pests naturally in your garden that video is there for you another thing you can do and it's a really good idea to do i do it even though i do have a bit more space i grow things in pots and containers if it's something that i really want to get harvest from and i don't have the space for it in its optimum growing space with enough sunlight then i'll grow it in a pot or a container and that way i can move it around to chase the sunlight a little bit which i don't mean like every day i'm just dragging my pots around which if you had a small place like an apartment that is something that you might be able to do but i sort of generally do it seasonally because the sun is going to be hitting different spots of your garden throughout different seasons so it's a really good idea to keep an eye on that make sure you are noting it down or just make a note of it in your memory if that's something you're good at doing i don't so i like to keep photos or records of that but now that i've been in my garden for so long i do know what areas i give and get the shade in the summer and the winter so i do have some gardens on wheels so that i can wheel them around and in the summer i can move them into the shades so they're not getting cooked and in winter i can move them out into sunny areas [Music]

Channel: Sustainable Holly

Views: 704,560

Keywords: Edible Plants to GROW IN THE SHADE, grow more food at Home, Growing Food in Shade, shady garden, shade friendly plants, growing in shade, garden shade, growing vegetables in shade, plants to grow in shade, partial shade, shade garden, shady garden vegetables, shady corner garden ideas, plants growing in shade, plants to grow in shaded areas, shade garden perennials, growing vegetables in shaded areas, growing vegetables in shade australia, what to grow in the shade

Id: pPJ-3-3y3g8

Length: 23min 8sec (1388 seconds)

Published: Sun May 01 2022