Can You Grow Edible Shade Gardens?

Of course! While the plants in shade gardens might be different from those normally grown in full sun, there are many edible plants that love shade (and a few that require it!).

Happy strawberry plants in a shade garden

When grown in desert gardens or locations with extreme heat and sun, many plants will do better in the shade than in full sun (lettuce and tomatoes, for example).

Looking at the plant's native habitat can give clues to how best to treat it. For example, a plant that's native to a forest or jungle habitat will prefer shade.

This can also give clues as to whether the plant needs a lot of water (jungle plant) or whether it would do better in a dry area (forest plant).

Shade garden plants

Full shade:

Alpine strawberries -- nice ground cover
Blackberries -- good for along walls or fences in deep shade, can be invasive
Bishop's Weed (Aeopodium podagraia) -- can be invasive
Chameleon (Houttuynia cordata)
Fuchsia -- deep shade to dappled shade tall shrub or small understory tree, edible fruit, wide differences in fruit flavor depending on species so taste before buying if you can
Giant bellflower (Campanula latifolia)
Hostas -- wide differences in flavor, taste before buying
Mint -- great for shady areas where nothing else will grow, can be invasive
Mushrooms -- get spores from a known edible mushroom supplier to be safe
Red shiso (Perilla frutescens)
Serviceberries
Solomon's seal (Polygonatum biflorum) -- young leaves only
Wasabi (Wasabia japonica or Eutrema japonica)
Wild ginger (Asarum species) -- Only the roots are edible, use as you would regular ginger.

Partial shade (dappled or bright indirect light):

Asparagus
Beans
Beta vulgaris varieties (beets, chard)
Bishop's Weed (Aegopodium podagraia) -- can be invasive
Black currants
Blueberries
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cannas
Carrots
Cauliflower
Chameleon (Houttuynia cordata)
Chives
Cooking greens (collards, mustard greens, kale, pak choi)
Cucumbers
Elderberry
Fiddlehead ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris)
Garlic
Giant bellflower (Campanula latifolia)
Gooseberry
Grapes
Horseradish (particularly good when planted under fruit trees because it repels fruit tree pests)
Linden (Tilia cordata)
Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum)
Musk mallow (Malva moschata)
Onions
Parsnips
Peas
Peppers (take longer to ripen)
Potatoes
Radishes
Ramps/Wild leeks (Allium tricoccum)
Raspberry
Red shiso (Perilla frutescens)
Rhubarb
Salad greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula, endive, cress, raddicchio)
Solomon's seal (Polygonatum biflorum)
Spicebush/Appalachian allspice (Lindera benzoin)
Strawberry (fruit may be smaller and not as brightly colored)
Sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata)
Sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum)
Swiss chard
Taro
Tiger Lily (Lilium lancifolium) -- bulb good cooked, petals eaten raw or cooked. Do not eat pollen: may cause nausea/vomiting
Tomatoes (take longer to ripen, cherry tomatoes do best)
Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)

Also, most herbs can be grown in partial shade.

Planning your shade garden design

Decide what sort of shade garden you want to make.

Do you want a:

perennial shade garden,
an edible garden with only flowering shade plants,
or perhaps you need some vines to cover a wall?

Once you have determined what you need, then you can start choosing the right shade plants to fit your needs.

There are several categories of shade depending on who you talk to, but basically you can divide it into:

full shade (the sun never hits the plant directly) and
partial shade (you get sun actually hitting the plant for some of the day).

The higher your latitude, the more hours of sun you will likely need for partial shade plants to do well.

To test whether a plant will do okay in your level of shade, put the potted plant in the spot where you want it, but don't set it into the ground yet.

Wait a couple of weeks -- if the plant becomes spindly, starts bending towards the light, or in any other way seems unhappy, move it somewhere else.

Can you spot the plants that need more light?

Here are some tips to making the most of your shade garden:

For best results, plant on the south side of trees/houses (or north side in the southern hemisphere).
Make sure that shorter plants are closer to any light source than taller plants are. This will let your plants catch every bit of light they can.
Shiny, light-colored, and reflective garden ornaments will increase the level of light that gets to your garden.
If you can, put shade plants in front of a light-colored wall or urn to reflect light back on to your garden.

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