12 Perfect Vegetables To Grow in a Shady Garden Space - YouTube

In this video, we are going to solve your shady garden woes.

Whether you have a big building blocking you, a big tree, a big house,

whatever the case may be, and you say, oh, I can't garden,

I can't grow anything worthwhile. Think again because,

after watching this video, you will still be harvesting Epic amounts of produce.

What's going on gardeners? Kevin Espiritu here from Epic Gardening,

where it's my goal to help you grow a greener thumb. Now you might say,

I have two to four hours of sun. What am I supposed to do? Grow, eh,

I don't know what to grow. Well,

it would be a big mistake to ignore those sections of the garden.

You can still squeeze out, like I said, an impressive amount of yield.

So we're going to go over 12 different vegetables and herbs that do well.

Some that do really well and some that can tolerate shade.

And then at the end of this video is a little bonus.

I'm going to go over six different tips to really help maximize your results in

your shady garden.

So let's cultivate that Like button and let's go ahead and kick into the video.

Let's use my front yard garden as an example of the three categories of sunlight

that can be falling on a particular space. So first of all,

you have all these beds right here, these south facing beds, this one, this one,

this one, this one. These are direct sun. They're getting six plus,

sometimes eight plus hours of direct sun throughout the day during the peak

hours of the day too - 10:00 AM to about sunset or so.

So these are really the classics.

You can grow more or less whatever you want in these beds. Now over here,

and these were really the ones for the purposes of this video that we're talking

about, this style of bed or this style of location in the garden.

These ones are blocked by a loquat tree.

They have a little bit of blockage by an awning and some of the property behind

there. So they're getting anywhere from three to five hours of direct sun a day.

And then the rest of the day they're getting a nice dappled sunlight.

It's not completely shaded out,

but it's certainly not as bright as these beds over here. Our final example,

and the one that we're going to ignore,

again for the purposes of this video - would be a full shade.

And so that would be something like in my backyard in the shady zen oasis,

that's why it's called that.

There's almost no direct sun and so I'm growing a lot of ornamentals and stuff

back there. Not a whole lot of edibles. So again,

for the purposes of this video,

these part shade style beds are the ones that we're doing our 12 crop

recommendations on. So let's go ahead and get into those. Crop number one.

It's hanging out in our veggie pod. Here it is, the spinach plant. Spinach. Wow.

It is an incredible, incredible cold tolerant green.

It's a great shady garden crop and Popeye eats it.

So we should obviously all follow his suit if we want to get ripped and have

massive biceps like Popeye. But things to know about spinach. Number one,

like I said, cold tolerant, which means is heat intolerant.

So you don't want to grow it in too many spots that are getting blasted both by

direct sun and by excessive amounts of heat.

That makes it a really good early spring crop.

It makes it a good fall into winter crop.

In the summer you can make it happen by putting it where - in your shady garden,

right. Now the thing I'll say about spinach is I recommend starting from seed,

but indoors it's a slow germinator sometimes can take up to two weeks to

germinate even though it's a nice big seed.

And you know that can sometimes test your patience when you're direct sowing it.

So I recommend starting indoors and then you can keep starting it on succession

and just producing crop after crop after crop of delicious, nutritious spinach.

Crop number two is chard.

We have this yellow chard here that looks absolutely amazing.

It is looking slightly more pale than I would like it to,

but it's been growing for a while in a pretty shady spot. In fact,

I actually forgot about this grow bag for a little bit and only recently did I

pick it back up. And lo and behold, everything's growing pretty well.

So chard is effectively something that you can perennialize,

you can just grow it in a shady spot and just come pick it as you need it.

I can come with my shears here, clip, clip, clip, leave the rest,

and it'll still keep growing and growing and growing.

And it can get pretty massive. So as you can see,

I haven't chopped this one in a while. When you're starting a chard,

remember that the seeds are compound.

There's more than one seed in the thing that you think is the seed. It's very,

very large. And so within there there's multiple seeds.

Oftentimes you'll get more than one chard plant germinating from that one "seed"

that you put into the ground. So feel free to direct sow it,

feel free to start indoors. Very cold tolerant plant.

And you can just really let it be.

And the nice thing about it is it pops in color. There's oriole orange chard,

there's ruby red chard, there's rainbow chard. There's white chard, pink chard,

any color under the sun literally you can do with chard.

And it puts a nice pop of color and a nice pop of flavor into your shady garden.

Shady crop number three is going to be most varieties of leaf lettuce,

really almost any variety of leaf lettuce. You can have your pick here.

Lettuce is a very quick growing crop.

Of course it will grow a little bit slower in the shade so you can pick an even

quicker cultivar,

something that matures in let's say 35 to 45 days as opposed to in that 55 plus.

That'll help you out a little bit. Of course,

starting from transplant is going to help you out a little bit because if you're

starting the seed by direct sowing in your shady bed,

then that early growth is really going to be stunted. So if you go ahead,

start it in your seed starting system and then transplant some really nice and

healthy seedlings, then you're going to get it off to a much better start.

But almost all of them do really well.

Lettuce can sometimes struggle in high temperatures and direct sun.

These very sensitive leaves can have a hard time.

It's a shallow rooted plant and so that really speaks right to the benefits of a

shady garden. The soil doesn't dry out as much,

the temperature is a little bit more stable and a little bit on the colder side.

Crop number four,

which I coincidentally just harvested out so I don't have an example.

You're going to have to enjoy this beautiful Beni Houshi mizuna in the

background. But crop number four is a twin crop,

so it's endive and escarole or endive and escarole.

Comment down below the correct pronunciation cause I actually don't know,

but these are really underrated greens. I'm not sure why they're not grown more.

I think some people might have a hard time with the flavor,

but I personally think if you throw it into a mixed green salad it tastes really

nice. They look really nice and they grow really well in a shady garden.

Now again, I know I'm kind of beating the drum here,

but this is when you definitely do want to start indoors because I've noticed

that both endive and escarole seeds are much slower to germinate as compared to

most leafy greens. The lettuce we just talked about,

lettuce is a quick germinator, anything like an arugula, kale, et cetera,

that's all a quick germinator. And then the escarole the seeds look like little,

um, kind of like little satchels and they just don't seem to take as quickly,

ten plus days. And so start them indoors,

get them off to a good start and then just mix a little variety into your leafy

shaded garden. Shade loving crop numero cinco, are peas.

Peas are the quintessential spring crop. And what does that tell you?

That means that they really will struggle as you move into those more direct

days of sun, that higher level of heat.

So that tells us that it also could do pretty well as a shady crop. Now,

this is an area where, of course it's spring right now,

so they're getting a good amount of full sun,

but it's a little bit more mild sun, but these are doing really well.

They'll do completely fine in a shady section of the garden.

You can even pull that off as you move into summer a little bit.

Maybe the peak of summer might still be a little hard,

but you can still make it happen. Now,

another fun little hack that I've done with peas is if you sometimes have a hard

time getting them to adhere and climb up,

sometimes they like to like flop out this way and do all sorts of weird stuff.

Remember, nature is amazing.

They're climbing via their natural organic tendrils that are just adhering to

this trellis, but sometimes they need a little help.

So I'll take these little hooks here and I'll just do that and that helps pull

it back towards the trellis and it'll climb up. But yeah,

peas a fantastic one. You can direct sow them, that's a nice seed.

Soak it then direct sow it. You'll do completely fine,

although I will say transplanting has worked.

It's just a shallow rooted plant and you want to make sure that more or less you

don't move it. Whether you're transplanting it or direct sowing it,

just let it be where it is. Let it climb up and make sure it's nice and moist.

Maybe even throw a little mulch on top just to make sure it doesn't dry out

because again, it's, it is a shallow rooted plant. But it will thrive,

absolutely thrive in a shady garden.

Shady crop number six as I munch on my freshly harvested pea,

it's another one that I actually don't have here. Oh, that's really sweet. Man,

another props for peas. So sweet, so delicious. I don't have it here.

I just harvested out a bunch of them. It's radishes. The humble radish.

I think a lot of people have a problem with growing radish,

not because it's hard to grow,

but because they don't really know what to do with it.

I will say pickling radish has been one of my best ways to use it as well as

picking young and roasting the radish or working the young radish into a nice

little salad mix. Nice and fresh.

Now the thing about radishes - will they do well in full sun?

They can definitely handle it,

although they will bolt if they get blasted by the sun.

They just grow slower but they'll still bulb up. You just have to be patient.

So I would say if you're growing it in a two to four hours of sun section of

your garden, like back behind the camera over here,

throw another 15 days or so on the maturity.

But that's fine because you weren't going to use that space anyways. Right?

So you might as well squeeze something nice out of it.

And the beauty of the radish is I probably have more different varieties of

radish seeds than I do any other type of plant. It's just so versatile.

You have green Lobo, you have black Spanish, you have watermelon, you have,

you have Beni Hida, you have the di, uh, the humble daikon. I mean the daikon,

it's not even humble. It's a massive plant. So radish is amazing,

incredible variety in that plant. There's just so much you can do with it.

So highly, highly recommend radish. It's a kind of a sleeper hit.

A lot of people think it's a boring plant.

There's way more than you think about radish.

As we move into shady crop number seven we're starting to get into crops that

are not necessarily shade lovers, but I would say they're shade tolerant.

You can still get a decent yield, although that yield might drop a little bit.

Now that would be potatoes for number seven surprisingly,

they still can do pretty well. Now,

the reason I'm sitting in front of something that's not potatoes here is because

the potatoes that I've grown so far this spring came from my compost pile.

They were some old small potatoes that I tossed in there that I actually got a

decent yield out of, and this is definitely a shady compost pile.

Not your classic way to grow potatoes,

but effectively you could consider that like a lasagna bed if you're familiar

with that technique of gardening or almost like a straw bale gardening style

because of the way that the ingredients are layered in there. But again,

grow them in soil. You don't have to grow them in a compost bin.

They're still going to do well in the shade. I would say for my personal tastes,

I first of all, I love new potatoes.

I don't know about you guys but that's going to be a good way to do it.

As soon as you start to see those flowers develop,

you may want to just pull those potatoes that have been planted in a shady

section because it's going to be hard to get them to size up like crazy.

It's going to take a long time. So I like to pull, pull those new potatoes,

enjoy them and plant something else in the shady garden.

But potatoes can still work in your shady beds. Crop number eight.

Another one which I have yet to plant in this garden would be a very fast

maturing, cold, tolerant bush style tomato.

So a determinant style tomato that is suited for an early spring planting.

That can actually work. You can get a decent yield out of it.

I would say Glacier tomatoes are a decent one to look at.

Really any tomato that has the name of a cold area,

any tomato that has a name that relates to Russia or New York or Canada.

A lot of those cultivars of course,

are going to do well in a colder area because that's what they're named after,

right? And so surprisingly,

you can still squeeze out a yield of tomatoes in a shady garden bed.

Now the thing I will say is put it in the best sun access spot of your shady

bed. So if you have a bed that's getting two hours and a bed that's getting four

hours,

obviously opt to put your bush tomatoes in the four hour bed and maybe put your

spinach in the two hour bed. But you can still do it.

And so don't count out your shady gardens. Our next crop,

surprisingly would be a bush bean.

Bush beans will produce in a shady garden,

obviously opt towards that higher end of the sunlight.

But this surprisingly is kind of a shady garden.

This is a GreenStalk vertical tower garden that I planted out with 100% bush

beans and they're actually starting to produce.

You can see you're getting a little bit of bush bean production here,

but remember this is a vertical tower,

so only half of it is getting sun throughout the day.

So to compensate for that every morning I just rotate it one half.

And so then I make sure that at least every other day one of the sides is

getting blasted with full sun.

But if you think about that on like a month over month basis,

these are only getting 15 days of full sun per day and I just rotate it.

So these are still producing really well. You can see,

and you will see later on when I release a full grow guide on growing beans

vertically in this particular system,

you'll see that we're going to get a really good yield out of these. Next,

we're in the world of herbs guys. And also if you're from the UK,

I will pronounce it the way you choose, herbs.

These are the herbs that you can grow in a shady garden.

So if you're from the UK,

please hit the like button because I used the pronunciation you prefer.

I got a lot of comments about that and having spent some time in London,

I do appreciate the accent. So, basil, it's a quintessential full sun crop,

but again, it's one that will tolerate and sometimes even thrive in shade,

especially if you grow it for pollination or more ornamental style gardens.

So here I have an African blue basil bush.

This is my favorite perennial style basil that does really,

really well in the shade.

I've cut this back twice in a pretty severe manner and as you can see it's still

exploding in growth. We have a bee that just landed right now.

So it's a fantastic pollinator plant. I have Greek columnar basil right here.

As you can tell by the name, it grows straight up.

Many of these basil varieties you see are actually in another video I did called

eight rare basils that you've probably never heard of.

So feel free to check that video out.

I have another Thai basil that's hanging out down here with these really unique

flower clusters that I think are quite beautiful.

Behind here we have pesto Propecho,

which you can see is that lighter colored basil. And I also have Tulsi,

also known as holy basil.

So basil is more or less 50% of this shady garden bed and it's absolutely

thriving. Our next herbs

that do well in the shade would be cilantro and parsley.

These ones can do really well.

Cilantro especially does really well in the shade and I'm kinda going to trim

this one up a little bit. It's looking a little worse for the wear,

but this has been in a shady section of the garden for quite some time and it's

doing perfectly fine.

Cilantro actually struggles because in the heat it will start to bolt.

Now I recommend getting a slow bolt variety,

slow bolt cultivar of cilantro to help prevent that.

But still the number one problem I hear from everyone who comments here on

Instagram, on the podcast and email is what do I do when my cilantro is bolting?

And one of the best things I recommend is put it in a shadier section.

Yes it's going to grow slower, but yes, it also won't bolt.

And that's really what you're trying to avoid when growing cilantro.

So you can mix it into all those classic recipes that you love. Our final crop,

before we get to our six shady garden tips, is a green onion.

Now I say green onion because I think it's a good idea to leave the bulb onions,

your shallots, your, your just red, white onions,

all those to a direct sun area of the garden cause you really want all that

energy to get sent down into the bulb.

You really want to give it the best chance to bulb up.

But if you're going to eat the leaves,

like we are with the green onion then come through, chop it up,

then that's totally fine. Throw it in a shady garden. It's going to grow slower.

It's going to be nice and tasty and you're just going to get a consistent supply

of that delicious allium flavor that you want without as much of the effort.

Okay, we've made it through our suggestions,

so go ahead and cultivate that Like button if you want 20 years of good luck in

the garden. But we're going to get into these shady garden tips,

so some things that you can do to really maximize your shady garden.

Now I've talked about a couple of them, peppered them in throughout the video,

but the first one would be just remember that it is going to grow slower.

Remember, most of these things are shade tolerant, not necessarily shade loving,

so they're going to grow slower,

maybe throw another 15 to 25% on their days to maturity.

But you are still going to get a yield, so that's completely, completely fine.

Tip number two,

you're going to have to remember to water a little bit less often.

Remember the thing that we are not getting in a shade garden, is sun,

what's the second effect of that?

There's going to be less water evaporating so the plants aren't going to need to

be watered as often, so really try to avoid over-watering your shady garden.

Number three because they are growing slower,

it makes sense to transplant in instead of direct sowing and this is for two

reasons. Number one,

you're going to get them off to a quicker start because you're putting a nice

healthy perfectly started seedling into the ground. Number two,

oftentimes the shady garden soil temperatures are a little bit lower and what

our plants generally want is somewhere around that 65 to 75 degrees soil temp,

which you may not be able to achieve by direct sowing.

So start it indoors with some seedling heat mats.

I have a whole video on how to do that and then transplant it in.

Tip number four for a shady garden is make sure to give it as much sun as you

can give it. Now that means if you have to prune a tree,

like you guys have seen my epic loquat tree out there.

Once that's done fruiting and I've harvested it and it's time to give it its

prune for the season.

I need to make sure and go ahead and do that as quick as I can because that's

going to open up that area. It's going to let a little more sun in.

Maybe I squeak out 30 minutes more of direct sun a day in that shady bed.

That's good. That's going to actually boost the growth of those plants.

Tip number five is kind of a more intensive one, but if you do have a fence,

a wall, some sort of thing that you could paint a different color,

lighter colors are going to reflect more light.

And you'd be surprised at how much that can actually boost the overall light

levels of a shady garden.

So if there's something that maybe needs a little bit of touch up,

an old garage, an old wall and you want to paint it a lighter color,

that can actually help boost the light levels. Our final tip, number six,

thanks for sticking with me guys, is consider growing in containers.

In your shady garden sometimes you can think of it kind of as a staging area so

you have all your containers in the shady garden and then as something needs to

be moved into an area with more sun, pick the container up,

move it over and put it out there. Grow bags are a really good idea for this.

One of my favorite favorite methods for container gardening.

I do a lot more of that on the channel. But those are my tips for shady gardens.

Now there's a lot of other plants that can work.

I'm curious if you have one that's really worked for you in a shady garden.

Go ahead and drop that in the comments and let me know the next style of list

type of video you'd like to see here on the channel.

I'm putting out three videos a week and I'm really trying to make everything as

good as I can get it for you guys.

The best information I can possibly get out there because I know a lot of us

might be stuck at home. We're trying to garden more.

We're trying to really like lean into our hobbies. You know, for me,

this is a business and is a hobby.

So I'm definitely trying to put some good stuff out there for you guys.

So until next time, good luck in the garden.

Cultivate that Like button and I will see you on the next video.