Options for shady garden

Hi all.

Some of you may have seen my other thread about my back garden work in progress, well now I'd like to pick your brains about a particular issue with it.

I want to grow some veg in it. Not a big veg patch (I have a young son so need to save plenty of play area), I was thinking just faster growing stuff like some of the Chinese veg, beans etc.

The trouble is, the back garden doesn't get that much sun. It is north facing, and has a 6ft high wood panel fence running the full length of the eastern side (bye bye morning sun), and building on the western side casts a shadow from about 5PM in midsummer. Also the old lady next door has a massive tree which intrudes onto my side, casting a lot of shade from the mid day sun over the middle of the garden.

Near the house we get the evening sun in summer, and at the opposite end we get the morning sun.

All parts of the garden get some direct sun, but only for a few hours at most.

Do you think I'll get away with growing any veg?

The front garden is a much better candidate in theory, but is wide open so local kids will trash it, so the shady back garden is my best option really.

 

Hi Dave,

A lot of my plot doesn't get the sun till afternoon & is then shaded by the big trees opposite from the evening sun but it still produces loads of stuff. Its not so much the direct sun but the levels of light that are important.

Most of the veg we grow are C3 plants, that is,they cant use the sun to produce food between about 11am & 2pm;they just shut down the photosynthesis.

I'm sure there are others but the only C4 plant I can remember is sweet corn, that can use the sunlight throughout the day.

My french beans last season only got about 4 hours of direct sunlight but still cropped really well.

There was a small difference in size with some other stuff, but nothing that really reduced yields so yeah go for it.

 

Hi Clueless, no expert here, but things which will do well in shade are
Rhubarb - will grow in any dark corner
Lettuce, salad leaves, Pak Choi and other oriental leaves - all prefer to be out of too much sun and kept cool and damp.
I'm sure there are other things that will do well and you will get other suggestions.

 

I find some herbs also do well in just afternoon sun areas - I keep various mints & flat leaf parsley in tubs in this limited light spot, also rainbow chard in amongst lettuce crops is ok too. Have even grown broad beans successfully for a few years now in an area which gets sun in just late afternoon and evening, though the crop is not as heavy as it would be in full sun. Plenty of good compost/organic material in spring helps to keep the soil area moist enough specially if there are big trees around which will leech the nutrients and water quickly...... i.e. IF we get a hot spring/summer!!?

 

I had to check about C3 plants on Google Ziggy , I couldn't Adam and Eve it ! So I have a spot behind my shed which only gets the sun for 3 hours in the afternoon , so it would be OK to grow veg there ? I always thought they needed pretty much full sun.

 

That is so nice that I may have been some use there Harry, its why we are on the forums in the first place.

Glad you googled it. I didn't finish the organic horticulture course I was doing ( 2 Babies came along at once) & was begining to think i'd imagined it.

The West Bay plot only gets the sun up till lunch time & then again after 3pm in the summer due to a FOGB ash tree. Not had any problems with yield there either. So go for it, only experimenting will give you the full answer to the question you pose young grasshopper.

Anyone else think of any other C4 plants ? I'm sure there must be some.

 

Thanks folks. Some good words of encouragement and reassurance there.

I have a plan brewing, not finalised yet, but here goes:

1. The wood panel fence: I'm going to talk to the very nice old lady next door to see how she'd feel about me lowering it by about a foot, and also knocking all the panels out and repositioning them so there is about a half inch gap between each plank. That will allow a bit more morning sunshine in. Not a lot, but I think it will help. I believe the fence is under my control legally (I've been told that it is erected just to say on my property), so I could just do it, but its always nice to consult the neighbours first I think.

2. The fence and the back wall of the house will be painted in a pale colour to reflect the available evening light back a bit. Again, probably not a big impact but every little helps, and at the very least it will look better.

3. Beans and peas will be grown up trellis against the back wall, they will reach up to climb out of the shadow cast by the fence, and in any case the back wall gets the evening sun in mid summer.

4. Some rhubarb will be planted near the back of the garden. It gets a few hours of morning sun then sits in the shade for the rest of the day. A few of my favourite, faster growing veg will be grown. If they fail, then so be it, but as an insurance policy some will be grown in containers so I can move them about to chase the sunshine

5. Lots of perrenial herbs will be going in. I couldn't live without my herbs.

On the rhubarb front, I'm going to pinch my dad's trick. I've never come across this advice from any other source but it always worked for my dad until he gave up growing it, considering it an invasive weed Apart from the obvious lashings of rotted manure, he used to mix loads of rubble into the rhubarb bed. The stuff would go crazy. His logic was that as the roots tried to spread they would hit a stone, prompted them to spread and throw up more new shoots. I don't know if his science is exactly right but I know he always got a massive crop for minimal effort.

 

Sounds a good theory Dave, can't be knocked unless its tried.
Got a new Rhubarb plant from Chopper, could try planting it in the stoniest part of the garden, which don't get the light till the afternoon.

Always good to consult the neighbours, even if you know you are right.

Been taking up your advice about my website, just spent the past hour trying to geta new e mail account, only to be locked out of it as soon as it went live:s