Advice needed!
May. 13th, 2011 04:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melannen posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
common_natureComm, 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?
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?
some ideas...
Date: 2011-05-18 09:27 pm (UTC)Shady Garden Collection
Most vegetable crops like sunshine, but we don’t all have perfect conditions to work with. We’ve gathered a selection of vegetables, plus one herb, one edible flower, and one berry, that will survive some shade and still give a worthwhile result. Also useful for coastal and cool-climate gardeners. Info sheet included. Contains one packet each Asian greens, chard, runner beans, kale, spinach, lettuce, chives, radish, sorrel, peas, nasturtiums, chervil and currant. 13 pkts.
from http://www.bountifulgardens.org/prodinfo.asp?number=LSH-6755