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Think a shady garden means you can’t grow vegetables? Think again! 🌱
In this video, we reveal **12 perfect vegetables that can grow and produce in shady garden spaces**. Whether your backyard gets only a few hours of sunlight, your beds are blocked by trees, or you’re working with a shaded patio, these vegetables could be perfect for you.
You’ll discover which crops tolerate less sunlight, where to plant them, and simple tips to help you get a healthy harvest even without full sun.
🌿 Make the most of every corner of your garden and turn that unused shady space into a productive vegetable patch!
#Gardening #VegetableGarden #ShadeGarden #GrowYourOwnFood #GardeningTips #VegetableGardening
Think a shady garden means you can’t grow vegetables? Think again! 🌱
In this video, we reveal **12 perfect vegetables that can grow and produce in shady garden spaces**. Whether your backyard gets only a few hours of sunlight, your beds are blocked by trees, or you’re working with a shaded patio, these vegetables could be perfect for you.
You’ll discover which crops tolerate less sunlight, where to plant them, and simple tips to help you get a healthy harvest even without full sun.
🌿 Make the most of every corner of your garden and turn that unused shady space into a productive vegetable patch!
#Gardening #VegetableGarden #ShadeGarden #GrowYourOwnFood #GardeningTips #VegetableGardening
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00There is many a gardener who looks at the shady corner of his yard, the patch behind the big tree
00:05or in the shadow of the house or the barn, and sighs and says,
00:10Well, nothing will grow there. That ground is no use to me. And so he leaves it bare and empty,
00:16year after year, growing nothing but a few weeds, believing it worthless for food.
00:22And I am here to tell you he is wrong, and throwing away good growing ground for no reason.
00:28For while it is true that the sun-loving crops, your tomatoes and your peppers and your squash, must have
00:34their full blazing sun,
00:36there is a whole host of fine vegetables that grow perfectly well in shade, and some that actually prefer it,
00:43that grow better in a shady spot than they ever would in the hot, full sun.
00:47So today I am going to give you 12 good vegetables you can grow in that shady corner you thought
00:54was useless, and turn a wasted patch into a producing part of your garden.
00:59My name is Elias Yoder, and I farm here in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania.
01:04And I have a great dislike of waste, of any kind. And there are few wastes sadder than good ground
01:10left bare, because a body did not know what would grow on it.
01:14Near every garden has its shady spots, and to leave them empty is to throw away a real share of
01:20the food you could be growing.
01:22There was a widow in our district when I was young, whose whole little garden plot fell into the deep
01:27shadow of a neighbor's great barn by the afternoon,
01:30and everyone told her it was hopeless, that she may as well pave it over.
01:34But she was a wise old soul, and she planted it all to greens, lettuce, and spinach, and chard.
01:42And while the rest of us were watching our lettuce bolt and turn bitter in the July sun,
01:47hers grew on sweet and tender and lush in that cool shade clear through the summer, the finest salad greens
01:54for miles.
01:55She used to smile and say,
01:57The good Lord gave her shade instead of sun, so she grew the things that liked it, and was no
02:02worse off than anybody.
02:04I never forgot the sense in that.
02:06So let me show you how to put that shade to work.
02:09Before I go on, I will say this once, and then leave it be.
02:13I gathered the whole of it, all these old ways of growing your own food, into a book.
02:19You can find it at EliasYoder.com.
02:21The book is the long version.
02:23If you want it, it is there.
02:25I will not mention it again.
02:27Now first, let me help you understand your own shade, for not all shade is the same,
02:32and knowing which kind you have tells you what you can do with it.
02:35Think of it in three sorts.
02:37There is your full open ground, that gets the good direct sun most of the day, six hours and more,
02:44and there you grow whatever you please, your sun lovers and all.
02:48Then there is your part shade, the spot that gets a few hours of direct sun, morning or evening,
02:54and dappled broken light the rest of the day.
02:57The shade of a high tree, or the shadow that comes and goes, and that, that is the ground
03:02we are talking about today, for a great many crops will grow there, and grow well.
03:07And then there is your deep, full shade, the dark corner that gets near no direct sun at
03:13all, in the deep shadow of a building or a thick evergreen.
03:16And I will be honest with you, that deepest shade will grow you very little in the way of
03:21food, and there you are best to grow your shade-loving flowers and leave the vegetables be.
03:27So it is that middle ground, the part shade with its few hours of sun and its dappled light,
03:33that we mean to fill.
03:35Know what you have, and match your hopes to it.
03:37And here is the one honest truth to hold in your mind through all twelve of these, for
03:43it governs them all.
03:44Most of these crops are not so much shade-loving as shade-tolerant, meaning they will grow in
03:50the shade and give you a good crop, but they will grow slower there than in full sun, taking
03:55a bit longer to come to harvest, for it is the sun that drives a plant's growth.
04:00So expect your shady crops to take their time, a couple weeks longer perhaps, and do not fret
04:06over it, for a slower harvest off ground you thought was useless is pure gain.
04:12Patience is the price of a shade garden, and it is a small one.
04:16Now to the twelve.
04:18The finest shade crops of all, and where I will start, are the leafy greens, for these
04:24are the true champions of the shady bed, and many of them genuinely prefer the shade in
04:30warm weather, for the shade keeps them cool and stops them bolting.
04:35The first is spinach, a wonderful, hardy, cold-loving green that hates the heat above all things.
04:42In the hot sun of summer, spinach bolts and turns bitter, but tucked in a cool, shady spot,
04:49it grows on happy and tender, so shade is a real friend to it.
04:54The second is chard, and this one I love for the shade, for it is near indestructible, taking
05:01cold and shade and neglect and still giving you leaf after leaf for months on end.
05:07You cut the outer leaves, and leave the plant to grow more, cut and come again, and it just
05:14keeps on.
05:15And it is a handsome thing besides, with stems of red and gold and white, pretty enough for
05:22a flower bed.
05:23The third is leaf lettuce, near any of the loose leaf kinds, and lettuce, like spinach,
05:29hates heat and bolts in the sun, so a shady spot suits it beautifully, keeping it cool and
05:36sweet and slow to bolt.
05:38Choose the quicker, early kinds to make up for the slower shade growth.
05:43And the fourth are two fine old greens too few folks grow, endive and escarole, those slightly
05:51bitter salad greens that grow well in shade and add a fine, sharp note to a mixed salad.
05:58All four of these leafy greens, and the greens are your best bet by far in shade.
06:04The fifth crop is peas, and this is a happy one for the shade, for the pea is a cool
06:10weather
06:10crop through and through, loving the cool of spring and struggling in summer heat.
06:16So a shady spot, being cooler, lets you grow peas longer into the warm weather than you otherwise
06:23could.
06:24Give them a bit of brush or string to climb, keep them moist with a little mulch, for they
06:30are shallow rooted and dry out easy, and they will do fine in the shade.
06:35The sixth is the humble radish, one of the fastest, easiest crops there is, and it grows
06:41well in part shade, just a little slower, so add a couple weeks to your waiting.
06:46In full, blazing sun, a radish is apt to bolt, so the cool of the shade actually suits it.
06:54A fine, quick crop for a shady corner.
06:57Now we come to the crops that are more shade tolerant than shade loving, the ones that will
07:03still give you a decent crop in part shade, though the yield drops a bit.
07:07So put these in the sunniest part of your shady ground, the spot that catches the most of
07:13what sun there is.
07:14The seventh, and this will surprise you, is potatoes.
07:19They will grow in part shade and give you a fair crop, smaller than in full sun, but
07:25real.
07:26And here is a fine way to enjoy them from a shady bed.
07:29Do not wait and fret for them to grow to great size in the poor light, but harvest them young,
07:35as sweet little new potatoes, which are a delicacy, and then plant something else in the spot.
07:41New potatoes from a shady corner are a lovely thing.
07:45The eighth is the tomato, and I know I told you tomatoes want full sun, and the big ones
07:52do, but here is the honest exception.
07:54For a small, quick, cold hardy bush tomato, an early kind bred for the short, cool seasons
08:01of the far north, can squeeze out a decent crop even in part shade.
08:06Look for the small, early bush kinds, named after cold, northern places, and put them in
08:12the very sunniest spot of your shady ground, and you may get tomatoes where you thought
08:17you could get none.
08:19The ninth is bush beans, which will produce in part shade, favoring again the sunnier end
08:25of it.
08:26Not so heavy a crop as in full sun, but a real one, and beans feed your soil as they
08:32grow
08:32besides, so they are always worth a spot.
08:35And the last three, the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, are herbs, for a good many herbs
08:42do fine in shade.
08:44The tenth is basil, which folks think of as a sun lover, and the common kind does want sun,
08:49but it will tolerate part shade, and grow you leaves, and some of the shrubby, perennial
08:55type basils positively thrive in shade, and bloom for the bees.
09:00The eleventh is cilantro and parsley together, and cilantro especially loves a shady spot,
09:06for cilantro's great trouble is that it bolts the moment the heat comes, so the cool of the
09:12shade keeps it growing and green far longer before it runs to seed, which is exactly what
09:18you want.
09:19And the twelfth is the green onion, the scallion, and here is a fine distinction to know.
09:25Your bulb onions, the ones you grow for the big bulb, those want full sun to size the bulb
09:32up, but the green onion, that you grow just to snip the green tops, does not need to make
09:38a bulb, so it grows perfectly well in shade, giving you a steady supply of that fine onion
09:44flavor to snip as you cook.
09:46So, there are your twelve, the greens and peas and radish that love the shade, and the potatoes,
09:53tomatoes, beans, and herbs that will tolerate it well.
09:57Now let me give you a handful of plain tips to get the most from your shady garden, for
10:03there are a few tricks that make a real difference.
10:06The first I have told you already, but it bears repeating.
10:10Expect it all to grow slower, and give it the time.
10:14Add a couple weeks to when you look for your harvest, and be patient, and all is well.
10:20The second is about water, and this one catches folks out, for it runs opposite to what you
10:26would think.
10:27A shady bed needs less watering, not more.
10:31For it is the hot sun that dries the soil and evaporates the water away, and in the shade,
10:37out of that drying sun, the ground stays damp far longer.
10:42So do not overwater your shady beds out of habit, or you will drown the plants and rot the roots.
10:48Check the soil and water only when it is drying, which will be less often than in the sun.
10:55The third is to start your shady crops as young plants, set out, rather than sowing the seed
11:02straight in the shady ground.
11:04For that cool shady soil is slow to warm, and a seed sown in cold shady ground is slow and
11:11sulky to come up, where a sturdy young plant, started in the warmth and set out, gets a running
11:18head start on the season.
11:19So start them in a warm spot, and transplant them in.
11:24The fourth is to give that shady ground every scrap of sun you can win for it.
11:29If it is a tree casting the shade, prune it back, thin its branches, open it up, and you
11:36may gain your beds another half hour or hour of precious sun a day, which makes a real difference.
11:43Do not let a tree steal more light than it must.
11:47The fifth is a clever old trick, and it is this.
11:51Light bounces.
11:53So if your shady spot has a fence or a wall or the side of a shed near it, and
11:58you paint
11:59or whitewash that surface a light, pale color, white or near it, that pale surface will catch
12:05what light there is and bounce it back onto your plants, brightening the whole spot.
12:11A whitewashed wall behind a shady bed is like a second, softer sun.
12:16It is worth doing.
12:19And the sixth and last, grow in pots and tubs in your shady ground, for then the garden can
12:25move.
12:27Keep your shade crops in containers, and you can shift them, chasing what sun there is, moving
12:33a pot out into a patch of afternoon sun and back, or moving a plant that is struggling to
12:38a brighter spot, and a shade lover to a darker one.
12:42A garden on wheels, so to speak, that follows the light, and that is a fine way to wring the
12:48most food from a shady, patchy-lit yard.
12:52Let me say a plain word about who profits from you thinking your shade is useless, and it is
12:58no dark scheme.
12:59If you believe a good part of your yard cannot grow food, then you grow that much less of
13:05your own, and buy that much more of your greens and your herbs and your radishes at the store, all
13:11your life.
13:12There is no money in a man learning that the shady corner he rode off would grow him spinach
13:17and lettuce and chard and herbs the year round.
13:21Nobody profits by teaching you to use every scrap of your ground, sunny and shady alike.
13:27So folks leave half their growing space bare, believing it worthless, buying at the store
13:32what that very ground would have given them free.
13:36It is not hidden, it is only never taught, for your filled, shady bed is the store's quiet
13:43loss.
13:43The money runs toward the shelf, and away from the shady corner you were told would
13:49grow nothing, and it always has.
13:53So there is the whole of it.
13:55Do not write off your shady ground.
13:58Know your shade and fill your part-shade beds, for that middle light grows a great deal.
14:05Grow the leafy greens above all, your spinach and chard and lettuce and endive that love the
14:12cool shade and bolt in the sun.
14:15Grow your peas and your radishes there in the cool.
14:19Squeeze potatoes and a hearty bush tomato and bush beans from the sunnier end of it.
14:25And tuck in your herbs, your basil and cilantro and parsley and green onions.
14:31Expect it all to grow slower, water it less, start it as young plants, win it what sun you
14:39can, bounce light off a pale wall, and grow in pots you can move.
14:45Do that, and that shady corner you thought was worthless will feed you right alongside the
14:52rest of your garden.
14:53Tell me down in the comments what county you garden in, and what you grow, or mean to grow,
14:59in the shady parts of your ground, for I would dearly love to know what does well in the shade
15:05for folks in different countries.
15:08And if you have a shady garden trick I have not named here, put it down there, for another
15:13gardener with a dark corner surely needs it.
15:16Next time out here I want to show you how to build a proper compost pile the old way, layer
15:23upon layer, for a shady bed, with its cooler, slower soil, wants all the rich compost you
15:30can give it to keep it warm and fed and alive.
15:34And good compost is how you make even a poor shady corner grow well.
15:41It is the foundation under all of it, and it is pastime I showed you.
15:45But for now, remember this.
15:49There is almost no ground truly useless to a gardener who knows his plants.
15:55Only ground he has not yet learned to use.
15:59The shady corner, the poor patch, the odd forgotten spot, near every one of them will grow something
16:07good if you only match the right plant to it.
16:10Waste no ground, and it will not waste you.
16:15The people who built this country with their hands knew that, and we are only just starting
16:21to remember it.
16:21Let's go ahead and get started.
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