Ways to Embrace Shade in Your Garden

Many people imagine that shade in a garden is a problem that must be overcome. But I believe that with the right attitude, inspiration, and ideas, even the darkest garden can be turned into a beautiful, abundant space.

In my professional opinion, the key is to adopt the shade in your garden, to work with what you have instead of trying to combat the lack of light. Fortunately, there are many ways to create impressive and productive planting schemes, even in shady or north-facing spaces. These are my tips:

Growing food in the shade

In light shade, you can still grow a variety of common vegetables. Members of the Brassica family - lettuce, spinach, and other green leafy vegetables, for example - can withstand moderate shady conditions in many places, as can certain roots and a variety of herbs.

However, if your garden has more shade, you may find it difficult to cultivate a traditional garden. But that doesn't mean you can't grow food.

In fact, there are more edible plants that do well in shade than meets the eye. You may have to rethink the types of plants you grow and the things you eat.

Of course, its precise location and the conditions found there will determine which plants are the best to grow. However, here are some useful plants for partial shade and full shade that I recommend:

Edible plants for partial shade

There are many edible partial shade plants that can be wonderful in a forest garden, under the canopy. Or that it might work well on a bed or a shady border. Some options I would recommend include:

gooseberries
gooseberries
blackberries
Rubus (raspberry or blackberry ssp.)
Elderberry
Blueberry
Goumi
Honeyberry
Mahonia (Oregon grape)
Wild / forest strawberries
Alliums (wild garlic, wild onion, etc.)
Hostas
good king harry
Sorrells
Chicory
Dandelion
Bullets
Alexanders
Claytonia (miner's lettuce)
American celery (peanuts)

Edibles for full shade

Extremely deep shadows don't usually offer that many options. But there are still many edible crops that you can grow. Some edibles can withstand deeper shady conditions. I suggest these:

creeping raspberry
Ferns (for example, ostrich fern, licorice fern, etc.)
Ramps / Ramsons
wild ginger
mushrooms

Enjoy This Video Tutorial About Ways to Embrace Shade in Your Garden

Source:  Epic Gardening

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