A Less than Perfect Plot - Growing Veg in Shade
A year ago I joined Instagram and was instantly lost in a world of beautiful garden images and inspiration. But seeing constant examples of horticultural perfection in such a highly curated environment can be disheartening. I have to remind myself that size doesn’t matter and that a flattering and filtered close up of a carrot can make it look substantially larger than it really is. More importantly, whilst many gardeners are growing hundreds of tomatoes on an open allotment site or in a large veg patch, the vast majority of us, particularly younger/urban gardeners, are fitting veg into corners in containers, or making the best of imperfect spaces. Just because your cucumbers arrive in late August doesn’t mean they’re not worth growing and I thought it was worth discussing growing in less than perfect conditions and ways to make the most of them. We love to grow veg and manage pretty well, but we’re constrained by 3 big factors: space, no greenhouse and hardest of all, lack of sunlight.
There are a few things to be done about limited sunlight, and we’ve found it’s always worth having a go at growing things even if you supposedly don’t have the right conditions. Often we are given ‘optimal’ conditions for crops on a seed packet when they actually grow perfectly well, if a little slowly, in part shade. Just because you might not get the maximum bumper crop, doesn’t mean things aren’t worth growing.
Find what thrives
Having said that, one of the best ways to use your growing space well is definitely to choose vegetables that will actively enjoy the shade. This year I’m focussing on growing leafy greens like chard, kale, cabbage and salads, partly because they have a short shelf life and so make the most sense to grow at home, but mainly because they enjoy the shadier parts of our garden. I find my spinach, pak choi and lettuce do much better in the shady beds where they don’t bolt so easily in the early summer. Similarly, fiery salads like rocket, mizuna and radishes will keep a milder flavour in gentle shade relative to baking sun.
Leafy greens loving the shade
There are also veg that can cope with shade in the afternoon so long as they have good morning sun, so we have carrots, beetroot and leeks planted on the west facing beds. Supposedly peas also do perfectly well in these conditions although I personally choose not to grow them (due to space limitations – see part 2).
Restricting ourselves to shade loving plants is a good start, but it’s still always worth having a go at growing whatever you want and seeing what works, and our sunnier beds (still only receiving sun for half the day) have tomatoes, courgettes and cucumbers growing perfectly happily. So if you want to have a bash at growing these in part shade, here are some ideas that might help!
Choosing the right (often baby) varieties
There are two aspects of our garden which are officially the domain of my husband and my son – potatoes and tomatoes. Mummy has very little to do with growing them (and in the case of tomatoes, also very little to do with eating them, alas). To be fair to the boys, they manage to get a pretty great harvest from a garden which is low on light. In both cases it is, of course, largely due to their impressive horticultural prowess, but it also has a lot to do with choosing the right varieties.
It takes a lot of sun to ripen a full size tomato, especially before autumn really sets in. We grow cherry tomatoes like ‘Sungold’, ‘Sweet Aperitif’, and Gardener’s Delight’, and we also had a massive success last year with ‘Ildi’ which I believe would be classed either as a grape variety or a pear. Either way, aiming for small fruited varieties (grape, cherry or pear) means you have a much better chance of the plants managing to ripen plenty of fruit. It also means a much smaller chance of eating any of them if you have young children (Arthur strips all trusses under a metre), but for little ones the joy of picking fresh baby tomatoes is pretty unrivalled and what is parenting if not an exercise in love and sacrifice?
Our first Sungold 2020, 5 minutes before it was gobbled up…
Picking ‘baby’ varieties works well with other fruiting veg too (eg patio aubergines), and with carrots, picking a variety that can be grown small (largely early varieties) gives you a better chance of success.
Creative positioning
With limited sunlight at ground level I have never tried to grow full winter squash before, but this year we have decided to put them in huge pots on the roof and so far they are loving it. I currently can’t fit out of the bathroom window to water them (being 37 weeks pregnant) so my husband and little Arthur (2 years old) bravely venture out there. It terrifies me a bit but Arthur has proudly informed me that we have 3 ‘Turk’s Turban’ squash up there already so it must be worth it. Chillies, tomatoes, aubergines and cucumbers can all be grown in pots and perched in a sunny spot or moved as needed.
The boys on a rooftop watering mission - terrifying
Also, I have found that plants that can grow upwards are amazingly adaptable at finding the light, so runner beans may have their roots in shade, but they will grow a little taller and then suddenly burst into flower when they have found the sun. Our tomatoes are similar, growing incredibly tall early on with the first truss of fruits quite high off the ground, and then relaxing when they have found the sunshine.
Arthur harvesting first earlies in late June
Light is seasonal (unless against a North facing wall or under an evergreen!)
When the leaves fall from the deciduous trees, light levels in our garden can rise dramatically. Of course this happens at the same time that light levels drop in general, but the point is that our garden from October till about April/early May is getting much better access to what light there is. As a result, winter crops do well (brassicas etc) but also early crops get a good head start. We grow first early potatoes and because of our sheltered London climate we can pop them in the ground pretty early in March and be harvesting baby spuds from June – this way the plants get a good dose of light before the shade really sets in. Similarly early sowings of carrots get off to a better start in the spring sun.
Kickstarting seedlings
A lot of seeds need light to germinate, or for seedlings to thrive. This means that seed sown in sunny early spring may do well but by mid-summer you find your babies struggling. Where possible, giving plants a good kick start on a windowsill or in whatever sunny corner you have will set them up much better, and you can keep them in modules and pots for as long as possible to give them a healthy head start. Apart from carrots, everything starts life on our patio before being gradually transported down the garden as they grow up. Things like tomatoes and courgettes only make the switch when they are growing healthily and halfway to reaching the sun already.
Don’t give up!!
Experimenting with what to plant where and when over a few seasons gives you a good sense of what’s possible. Veg grown in some shade will always grow a little slower and mature a bit later, but they’re still definitely worth growing. Bumper crops may look good in a photo, but the smallest tomatoes are often the sweetest.
