Plant These Shade Friendly Crops for Low Light Gardening Success

oh it feels good in here so you want to start a garden but you aren't sure if you have enough sunlight well I got you covered let's go [Music] so when it comes to having a successful garden a lot of people will say you need a certain amount of sunlight in order to grow a certain crop and a lot of people think that because they might have a shady backyard or maybe they live in an apartment that you know is blocked by the building for most of the day that they can't have a garden and they rule out a lot of crops that you otherwise could grow and actually make a huge impact not only on the amount of food you're growing but just the amount of money you can save with having a garden and so in today's episode we're going to cover quite a few crops that you can be growing and this is by no means it's barely scratching the surface this is by no means a comprehensive list and so we're going to cover some of these but the first thing I want to kind of cover is the idea of the old saying of roots shoots and leaves or flowers and fruits and so if you are growing something for roots shoots and leaves those are crops that typically only need between about three to five hours of Sun some obviously will do better with more sun but they can survive and be just fine with 3-5 hours of Sun then if you're growing fruits and basically fruits and flowers those ones need about five to seven hours and again if you can give them more they'll be happy they're not going to be complaining but kind of five hours is that minimum threshold and so with that being said I know a lot of people also they always ask the question of well when it comes to three to five hours of sunlight what what quality is the sunlight right can it be filtered can it be intermittent like if there's Sun for 30 minutes shade for an hour and a half Sun for another 30 minutes does that matter and the answer is no it really doesn't matter if you get three to five hours of sunlight doesn't matter how they get it as long as it is direct and that means that there is nothing blocking the path of the sun to your crop that you'll be fine and so right now I I could not that you should stare into the Sun but I can see the sun right now now that is what's considered direct sun that means the sun's rays are going to be coming in direct contact with your plan leaves and then you get into what's called filtered light and filtered light is where there's sunlight but there's something kind of blocking some of it right it might be a tree that has some leaves you know that have filled out and you can see the Sun but the sun is kind of semi-blocking it that's filtered light right you need three to five hours of direct sun in order to grow these crops and so that being said let's get started all right so the first kind of category of crops that you can be growing is kind of a a generic category and that's herbs but not all herbs are going to fall into this category and so I was kind of specific with the ones that I chose now these will need again between three to five hours of sunlight if you can give them more they're going to appreciate it but they're going to do just fine and so regardless if you're growing in a window or a patio Garden or if you have kind of a shaded backyard a lot of these should be just fine for you so the first one is chives chives do really great you don't need that much sunlight we've grown them in a little container on our patio and I'd say our patio maybe gets about four hours of Sun and so again that one kind of is the shoots category right remember Roots shoots and leaves and so parsley you're harvesting for its leaves but it's an herb they do really well in low light I've planted many of these underneath other crops you know in a kind of an inner cropping poly culture type gardening method and they do really really well next one is Sage again leaves these ones do surprisingly well in low light I'm about eight nine years ago we actually had a back I don't know four or five Gardens ago at my parents house we planted out Sage underneath a bunch of mature cedar trees and it was the only place where we could grow them and we basically had what we call the forest herb garden and it did really well but it was one of the only things that really excelled and so you know the basil did not do that well basil needs a little bit more light you know it needs more like five to seven hours of Sun despite your despite the fact you're harvesting for its leaves it's really pushing it to have less than five whereas you know the the sage did really really well and so Sage is one that does awesome next one is kind of that same same kind of theme the Mediterranean theme is time time does exceedingly well in low light and we've grown many uh many windowsill herb gardens when we were when Cindy and I were living in an apartment I just was I was I had a thirst to grow something I just really wanted to grow something and we didn't have much more than maybe four hours of sunlight and so we threw some thyme seeds in a pot and we grew time and we you know we grew the crap out of that so time is an awesome one it does very very well in low light conditions now one that actually exceeds in low light or it excels it will exceed your expectations and it will excel in the garden in low light and that's stinging nettles steam Nettles does so well in low light conditions and that's because stinging nettles uh can grow in in the open you know kind of open air does perfectly fine and perfect you know in uh direct sunlight but it also does well in kind of Fringe Forest environments as well now the next one you can grow which does really well and I've actually kind of found this to be somewhat it grows too well in Shady environments and that's spearmint so any type of mint does really really well we grew these in uh in an herb garden by our house and it was completely blocked by the side of our house but this thing just I mean they took off and they absolutely did really well so three to five hours of sunlight do not underestimate mint whatsoever really fun to grow definitely does really well and it's kind of a low maintenance crop and then the last one that's kind of considered an herb for all you cat lovers is catnip and catnip does very very well it's actually in the mint family so it does well for those reasons but it will do well again in just Open Sky environments direct sun but it also does really well in kind of just Fringe Forest environments as well where it grows natively and so catnip is one that you can definitely grow with low light and have no problem at all three to five hours of Sun growing catnip all right so the next category is your Leaf crops now some of the herbs were also leaves I understand that but these are kind of true leafy vegetables and so these are ones again that you're harvesting for the leaves the roots or the shoots and these are the leaf category which are things like mustard mustard does very well now I wouldn't say three hours is enough I would probably give it between four and five hours but if you have any Open Sky whatsoever you're probably going to have around four hours of sunlight and so mustard is one that will do really really well the next one is kale now you might not think that kale is one that that does really well in low light because obviously we grow it in Sun in sunlight direct sunlight for seven to nine hours sometimes even more and it does great again just because it will do great in seven to nine hours doesn't mean it won't survive and somewhat even thrive in like four to five hours so there's a really important distinction to make there and that and that's that just because you can grow it there doesn't mean you can't grow it with less right and I want you guys to kind of focus in on that will it do as well maybe not but is it worth not growing you definitely want to have a garden having some Garden is better than not having a garden at all and so uh yeah kale is another one does really really well next one is uh kind of your more unique stuff like your your shiso right your your perilla um you know that is kind of like an Asian green it's an Asian herb but uh people really like to grow it it's super delicious and it does very very well it's kind of in the basil family but it requires slightly less light I find than basil then you have another one like hansai Thai here another kind of like a mustard green it's also in kind of just the leaf category it's almost like a cross between Pak Choy cabbage and mustard greens it's really delicious I absolutely love sauteing it down it's a phenomenal one but it's just a unique one that I decided to throw in here because we find you could grow it in like three to five hours of sunlight no problem at all now the next one that actually really needs low light you cannot put this one in bright light you cannot put this one in like seven to nine hours it'll actually burn and that is what's called claytonia or miner's lettuce now miners uh that were coming you know they were uh coming into California they were coming into Washington trying to find gold they would suffer from what's called scurvy and a lot of the gold mining was done in mountains and during you know during that time uh scurvy was fatal and a lot of people were suffering from a vitamin C deficiency and so miners would uh kind of forage for things that they could eat and they stumbled across this absolutely delicious green That Grew on the side of mountains and it was basically in heavily forested areas lots of rainfall lots of cloud cover it kind of just Pacific Northwest style environments and they found that this green was incredibly high in vitamin C and would prevent scurvy and that's where it got its name miners let us and it's very very delicious it will regularly self-seed in your garden if you just let it kind of go to seed and it's beautiful it's really really delicious really incredible in the garden but you cannot put that in like seven plus hours of sunlight it'll burn it'll Scourge so that is one that will thrive in like three to five hours of sunlight and then the other two here are just again standard Leaf crops here you got some little gem butter head lettuce and some orange Swiss chard can they take more than five hours absolutely just like kale they totally can but if you've got three to five hours and that's all you have definitely try growing them because these fall into the leaf category and they should in theory do pretty well for you alright so now we have these shoots category now this is one of two crops that you could really grow with low light the other one which I am so bummed I didn't grab the seeds for but is that actually asparagus so asparagus you harvest for these shoots and then there is celery which believe it or not you harvest for these shoots now the celery stalks is kind of what you consider a shoot right and so the shoots um are just new growth and they don't need a whole lot of sunlight to start growing will they tolerate more light absolutely I've grown celery in seven to nine hours of Sun no problem at all but will they grow with three to five hours of Sun absolutely so celery is a great one and you don't have to get them that tall you can start cutting them from the moment they grow a lot of people grow what's called cutting celery and that's where you just take celery you densely sow it and you just Harvest it for the leaves you just basically clip it off as soon as it starts growing and you just keep cutting it back and it'll keep regrowing and you just trim it off almost like cut and come again style lettuce and um so celery is a great one but also like I said super big Mist opportunity but asparagus we sell asparagus seed but we also sell in the springtime we sell asparagus dormant crowns get some asparagus in your garden it will thrive in low light we regularly will hunt it along ditches and a kind of a long kind of uh the The Fringe zones between a forest and a field does exceedingly well in kind of that Fringe to low light type environment so asparagus is another one does really well and then the final category is the roots category so the roots now the roots are what you'd expect things like beets you don't have to get the largest beets in the world in order to grow them you could Harvest them for the leaves as the leaves or you can Harvest them for the roots as the Beet we've grown them numerous times in low light situations do they get the largest beets ever no but they still get you something that you can Harvest and consume and they're really fun to grow so give beets a try the other one is carrots now carrots are again a root and you're not necessarily going to have the largest carrots ever with you know three to five hours of Sun but I'd say with like five hours or so they're gonna do fairly well I wouldn't give them much less than about four hours three hours you're really not going to end up with a whole ton but four hours you probably should end up with something that's at least a salvageable carrot and five hours I think you could probably get a full-sized carrot to harvest so carrots are another one that you can do really well and kind of that low light situation and then the last one is radishes and I grown radishes believe it or not in three to four hours of sunlight no problem at all I grew them in a windowsill just as a test when I was going to college I was super bored I threw some some radish seeds and a solo cup and um and then I just threw them in my windowsill and believe it or not with very minimal college dorm room light I was able to grow radishes and it was just a fun project but it proved that radishes don't need that much sunlight and I've always been able to give them five to seven hours but it proves that with less than five they'll do just fine and so radishes are another great one that you can grow and so those are all of the crops that I chose for you but just remember if it's the roots if it's the shoots or the leaves there is a very very good chance that five hours or less of sunlight will be totally fine to grow these crops and so if you have a low light environment do not discount the ability to grow a garden do not necessarily rule out a certain crop try it give it a shot the worst it's going to happen is you're going to end up spending time and you're going to learn something that you might not already know which is well it didn't grow and I might need a little more sunlight to grow it right those things can be Discovery moments don't necessarily feel discouraged if you can't grow something just learn from it and find out what you can grow so with that being said I hope you guys enjoyed I hope you learned something new if you did make sure to throw a thumbs up subscribe if you haven't already and we'll catch you all on the next episode alright take care guys grow bigger bye

Channel: MIgardener

Views: 65,226

Keywords: MIgardener, vegetable gardening, organic gardening

Id: kDJlmn17rnY

Length: 14min 15sec (855 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 01 2023