Advice needed!

[melannen]

Comm, I have a problem.

You see, I want to grow vegetables. But my yard is basically a forest understory - there's no place that gets more than 3-4 hours of sun on a good day. I went to an ag fair a few weeks ago and asked everybody there what to do for vegetable gardening in the shade, and I got great advice like "cut down some trees" or "plant lettuce in a wheelbarrow and wheel it around to follow the sun" or "go ask those people over there."

Now, as tempted I am to make little robotic light-seeking raised beds, I'd rather just find some advice on vegetable gardening in the shade, but all the resources I can find for shade gardening in zone 7 (where I am) assumes you're growing nothing but ornamentals. Isn't there somebody who has already figured out how to grow nice edible vegetables under trees in a temperate climate?

It's not like my yard has any shortage of edible plants already growing in it. We have


raspberry (Rubus strigosis)



pokeweed (Phytotacca americana)



oak (Quercus phellos in the picture, but we have white, red, and pin oak, too)



mulberry (Moris rubra, probably hybridized with invasives)



wild grape (Vitis sp.)



dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)



chokecherry (prunus sp.)



black walnut (Juglans nigra)



common violets (Viola sororia) (with yellow woodsorrel, Oxalis stricta)



maple (Acer saccharum in the picture, but we have red and silver maple too)



Indian strawberry (Potentilla indica), growing with English ivy Hedera helix, which is not edible



and plantain (Plantago major) (with Carolina cranesbill Geranium carolinianum, not edible)


already growing in abundance, plus a pecan tree and wild mint and wild onions and some sort of volunteer rosebushes and usually some edible mushrooms at some point, and that's just the ones I can ID offhand in a quick turn around the yard in May--

But I'd kind of like to grow something that has a slightly higher calories-to-prep-time ratio than most of the wild edibles do. Anyone have any recommendations for growing vegetables under a forest?

Comments

[thistleburr]

A lot of veggies need tons of sun, but not all do. I suggest trying peas, beans, and salad-type greens (even some domestic sorrel since you already have sorrel growing). You might be able to grow radishes or beets or something else similar too. Zone 7 is a pretty hot place, so a lot of vegetables would probably actually like a little shade. I would just avoid tomatoes, melons, peppers, and sunflowers.

Good luck :)

[melannen]

Ooh, beans! I would love to grow beans/peas, and I seem to remember the ones we brought home from third grade science doing okay, but the books are very contradictory about how much sun various beans need. (Also the yard was sunnier when I was in third grade...)

I'm also seriously considering trying to steal some groundnut, which is pea family and native, and coaxing it to replace some of the English ivy.

..It is weird to think of zone 7 as being pretty hot, since we have a fairly long frost period! Though we're really at the most northerly tip of zone 7 by courtesy of being near water. And a lot of the references I've looked in say "part/full shade only in zone 6 and below" for all the fun plants, sigh...

[brownbetty]

One thing you might find useful with beans is if you grow climbing beans, they can find sun other plants can't access. Scarlet runners are quite hardy, vigorous, delicious, and if you don't pick them to eat tender, you can let them dry and boil 'em up like a tastier, more tender, kidney bean.