Not all of us are blessed with sun-kissed gardens, but a slightly shady patch doesn’t mean you still can’t grow a beautiful, bountiful crop of fruit. Although nothing will crop in full shade, there are still plenty of fruit and veg that thrive in the less shiny parts of your garden. Here’s our list:
Vegetables:
Carrots
Chard
Jerusalem artichokes
Kale
Leeks
Lettuce and salad leaves
Spinach
Peas
Radish
Rocket
Fruit:
Alpine strawberries
Pears
Plums
Quince
Raspberries
Redcurrants
Rhubarb
Sour cherries
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Esther Montgomery
What would you suggest for a triangular piece of front garden with walls on two sides and pavement on the other, which is always in the shade and has solid, dry and cracked soil (except where rain tips from the gutter) and is north-facing? So far, there’s moss, bamboo, elaeagnus and fatsia growing there but that’s all so it looks and feels very dour.
What would lighten the atmosphere, texture and tone? Has to be tough and not too interesting or passing children will pick it/ dig it up / chuck rubbish on it. Lots of cats in neighbourhood too.
Esther
Alex Mitchell
Useful list. I’ve had some fantastic blackberries on a shady north facing wall too – Oregon Thornless. And don’t they say cooking apples and gooseberries can also handle shade?
isabel
Hi Esther, Very few vegetables like really shady areas, so I’d suggest growing beautiful shade-loving non-edibles. I’m going to bring out big lists of plants for every location soon, but in the meantime, here are some ideas:
Foxgloves – plant native ones, but also the beautiful pure white variety ‘Alba’, and ‘Pam’s Choice/Elsie Kelsey’, which is white with raspberry jam-coloured spots in its throat.
Ferns – big luscious ferns, and little shy ones.
Comfrey
Epimediums have lovely dainty flowers and pretty foliage and make a nice ground cover as wel.
Erythroniums for spring glamour
Liriope muscari looks like a funny sort of grape hyacinth
Sarcococca confusa smells amazing in mid-winter
Pulmonarias have lovely blue and pink flowers which will perk up the shady bit
Tiarella cordifolia is totally magical
Trilliums look like something from outer space
Lily of the Valley is beautiful and smells gorgeous too
Linnaea borealis is very beautiful and childlike and good ground cover
wild garlic makes a lovely carpet in shade
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head – will put together a shady non-edibles list very soon.
Anyone else got any thoughts?
Esther Montgomery
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll look into them. Some of them I know but have already ruled out (Lily of the Valley because of the seeds/berries and there are lots of children in the street and there’s a lot of wild garlic nearby so it would be like planting a common weed) but there are others on the list that I don’t think ‘m even aware of (though that may be my limited Latin-names-knowledge!) so I’m grateful for these ideas.
Esther