Perennially dappled sun...

That's all the garden space I *currently* have, with decent soil. Yup - soil! I have a shot with actual soil... (thanks to our goat buck Kola wiping out the previous owner's flower garden, last week, that is). The thing is, it's pretty dappled. A redbud, a pair of rose of sharons, an old oak, some hostas, and a squirrel-owned peach tree all make their homes there, and we don't want to remove them. The oak provides a bit of shade, for our living room. The south side of it gets more sun - several hours, per day.

There is little we won't eat (we don't eat legumes, because they cause us inflammation issues), but I don't know what edible perennials to put there. We're in 6b, in the Ozarks, and this space is a well-drained, but not terribly dry, very roughly 80sf. Would asparagus grow there? What else might?

Hi Carla, What did you end up growing in the squirrel's peach garden? I used to grow Yi Yi Ren under oak trees in deep shade. I didn't know what it was at the time but I loved growing it. It's such a graceful plant. I also grew a lot of weeds in the parsley family. Carrots and dill and chervil are said to like sun, but their cousins also like oak trees, so maybe it would work. I did grow parsley, green onions, mints and lettuces in barrels. The soil was 100% sand under the oak leaf litter, and full of gophers. The only things that grew there besides the yi yi ren and the little parsley with the stickerburr seeds were poison oak, Saponaria lilies, yerba buena, and Scotch broom.

Dappled or full shade?? This is a big question. Most perennials need to full sun to get a start. There are plenty of berries that can be grown in those conditions. How many hours of full sun do they get and what time of day? If you can answer me that I can certainly help you.
I specialize in zone 3-5 perennials but I'm in the mid-west. Also, what is your soil like? Sandy, loamy, clays, silts, salty (near the coast)?
All these things matter if you want to have success.
Let us know!

Good Growing