• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • John F Dean
  • r ranson
  • Jay Angler
  • paul wheaton
stewards:
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Liv Smith
  • Anne Miller
master gardeners:
  • Timothy Norton
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • AndrĂ©s Bernal
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Matt McSpadden

Need more shade edibles

 
Posts: 25
1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have 23 acres,mostly wooded. I do have one sunny spot where I started my garden and an area around the pond where I will put sunchokes,goumi,yacon and maybe a few others.
I need something for my many large areas with full or near full shade,particularly my zone 1/2 areas.
Any suggestions? I will be attempting some vining edibles,annual and perennials up the trees. Also have some hardy kiwi on order.
I have started a king stropharis mushroom patch and have many more dowels for other varieties that I need to plug.
I would like to become as self sufficient as possible. I live in south-central NC,on the SC border,at the line between Sandhills and Coastal Plains. Zone 8, used to be zone 7.
 
gardener
Posts: 3073
Location: Central Texas zone 8a
817
2
cattle chicken bee sheep
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hosta likes shade and is edible. Ive never tried it But heard it has a bad taste.

 
gardener
Posts: 2371
Location: Just northwest of Austin, TX
550
2
cat rabbit urban cooking
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Can you tell us where you're growing? I grow some plants in a shady/semi-shady bed that are considered full sun in most other parts of the country. Full sun in Maine is very different from full sun in Texas. Even at the same latitude, full sun in Arizona is more intense than full sun in East Texas.
 
Posts: 249
Location: Ellisforde, WA
6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Try greens. They can handle less light. I'm thinking looseleaf would be better.
Vining crops would be good if the vines were long enough to get sun. Sounds like you're going to be experimenting.

If nothing else, plant legumes under the trees. Even if they don't produce a crop, they're beneficial to the soil. By saving your seed, you may eventually get a crop.
 
Tracy West
Posts: 25
1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'm in North Carolina,zone 8. Can go from extremely wet to extremely dry.
Right now looking for edible perennials for the front yard but will take other ideas to other areas of the property.
Considering converting an old koi pond into a bog or water garden with edibles,maybe even crayfish and aquaculture.
Really interested in fruit trees, semi-hardy tropical stuff and unusual.
Have some tree kale getting started,hardy kiwis on order. Blueberries,apples,stone fruits for my sunnier spots.
My soil is acid, lots of blueberry farms locally.
 
Casie Becker
gardener
Posts: 2371
Location: Just northwest of Austin, TX
550
2
cat rabbit urban cooking
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Okay, in my shady garden bed I have only had success with greens and green onions. But, in the mostly shady spots where I get just a little sun I have been able to grow runner beans and Seminole pumpkins.  One of the runner beans might actually have been in full shade.  There is a healthy root in the ground where I had the beans, but I am still waiting to see if they will sprout new vines in spring.
Something else to keep in mind is if it's seasonal shade, there are plants that can grow during the winter.  When it's time to divide my saffron bulbs, I plan to move some to my shady spots. They grow and multiply in fall and winter and are dormant when trees have leaves.
 
pollinator
Posts: 1469
Location: Zone 10a, Australia
23
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Many really tropical trees are understory trees. You can ask at the DAleys forum, a nursery in Australia, there are lots of people in similar climate.
 
Posts: 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I live in the sub tropics and have found sweet potato a gem in low light conditions. I have a patch under our front stairs that gets NO sunlight in winter and about 2 hours a day in summer. Leaf growth has been average but has set solid tubers after a year. This patch is not as productive as other patches but still provides great weed cover and does produce a crop.
 
Dan Walters
Posts: 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Any other suggestions would be great! Looking to make over a heavily shaded area with well established trees, thick cover and usibility is key in the area im looking at. Thanks
 
gardener & author
Posts: 640
Location: South Alabama
132
2
forest garden books
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Wild violets and strawberries used to grow in the shade in my Tennessee garden. You might also try ginger with a good mulch over it.
 
steward
Posts: 21449
Location: Pacific Northwest
11909
11
hugelkultur kids cat duck forest garden foraging fiber arts sheep wood heat homestead
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I asked a similar question here: https://permies.com/t/47182/Rick-Food-Plants-Shady-Forest a few years back. I'm zone 7/8, but my climate is different from yours (we don't get very hot in the summer and we're at a higher latitude), but maybe some of the suggestions might work.

People suggested red huckleberries, lowbush blueberries, salal, oregon grape, ramps, ginseng, goldenseal.

I believe serviceberry also handles shade. The native salmonberry, thimbleberry, and blackberry also handle shade as long as they get some indirect light (they don't like living right under big ol' conifers, but don't mind hanging out under deciduous trees). Wild strawberries also like shade. Bunchberry (related to dogwood) is a shade groundcover with edible berries. Violets and pansies like the shade and are edible. Miners Lettuce and Siberian miner's lettuce are also shade edibles--the whole little plant is edible. Some currants also do alright with shade. So does some elderberries. If your woods are wet, you might also be able to grow wasabi. Mint will also grow in the shade (you'll probably want it in a pot just to make sure it doesn't take over). Nettles are also edible and very nutritious and should grow in the shade.

I hope that helps!
 
Tracy West
Posts: 25
1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
These are all wonderful ideas and I will give a bunch of them trials. I love the ginger and turmeric idea since I have a pound of each to plant out in the garden.
Will the hardy kiwi also do well i
Shade or part shade? I'm looking for a good spot to plant 3 tiny females and a male. I don't really even know if they can do well in zone 8, I may need to switch to fuzzy kiwi instead.
 
Tracy West
Posts: 25
1
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Meant to add,we have tons of wild muscadine and scuppernong grapes. The ones in shade don't produce but the ones in part shade do. I keep meaning to prune and fertilize a few of the better ones but just haven't done it,yet.
I love the Seminole pumpkin idea although I'll need to buy some seeds. I could also try some runner beans since I have a ton of seeds for those.
A lot of my shade is lighter in the winter. My woods are a mixture of long leaf pine and hardwoods. It's an amazing property. I think the original owners in 1980 leaned a bit towards permaculture since many of the original design is very permaculture friendly. I seven have solar panels for my hot water heater!
This is a fairly new climate for me,I've always lived in the west-CO,OK,AZ and a year in western WA.
 
I will suppress my every urge. But not this shameless plug:
two giant solar food dehydrators - one with rocket assist
https://solar-food-dehydrator.com
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic