Forest Gardening: Shade Tolerant Vegetables & Herbs

Copyright © 2010 Cherie Kuranko ~ "InkSpot"

All Rights Reserved.

Public interest is increasing in "forest gardening," which is a form of gardening done in a natural forest or shady, woodsy type environment. For those who haven't heard of this style of gardening you can visit the Edible Forest Gardens website for a great introduction. You might also enjoy visiting The Natural Farmer, which supplies its own list of great forest garden plants.

From these and other various sources, a compiled list of vegetables and herbs that are shade tolerant and reported to do well in a forest garden setting are provided in this article.

As a general rule of thumb leafy vegetables are the most shade tolerant, requiring 3-6 hours of daily sun. Vegetables that fruit from a flower are least tolerant and require 8-10 hours sun; such as your tomatoes, peppers, squash, eggplants, etc.  It is best to choose short season varieties and vegetables that can be eaten at immature stage.

Shade Tolerant Vegetables:
Egyptian onion, horseradish, rhubarb, turnips, arugula, endive, radiccio, lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, cabbage, pak choi, beets, bush beans, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, collards, cress, sorrel, bush peas, Jeruselum artichokes and Chinese cabbage. In hot climates, leafy vegetables and cool loving radishes tend not to bolt if grown in the shade.

Shade Tolerant Herbs:
Alliums--chives, garlic, green onions (not bulbs) and cardamon, parsley, lemon balm, garlic chives, rosemary, sweet woodruff and your mint family--peppermint, spearmint, chocolate, orange and apple mints. Many of these herbs require 4 hours or less of sunlight.

For Woodland Shade Dominated by Deciduous Shrubs & Trees:
Fiddlehead ferns, chervil, mushrooms, Giant Solomon's Seal, Sweet Cicely, ramps/wild leeks and claytonia. Other good early spring crops are pea shoots and fast growing brassicas. These come up early in the spring before the tree leaf canopy can shade them too much.

An excellent video of a forest garden can be found at: A Food Forest Garden Part I. You can watch Part II from the same website after viewing the first video. The videos showcase Robert Hart and his forest gardens. Part II is the best one, but both are interesting.

Hart explains an edible forest garden as 7 layers:

1. Tall trees (Fruit trees, nut trees)
2. Short shade tolerant trees; dwarfs
3. Shrubs (Many berry shrubs/bushes)
4. Herbs
5. Horizontal spreading plants
6. Risers or root plants
7. Vertical layer (climbers and creepers)

According to Hart a forest garden can be achieved in under four years. His advice to new forest gardeners is to:

1. Plant an orchard with trees 20 feet apart in all directions
2. Between those, plant dwarf trees
3. Between those, plant fruit bushes; such as currants and gooseberries
4. Between those plant herbs on ground level

His secret to a healthy forest garden is to keep the plants cut back so they don't encroach on the other plants and keep all well mulched. He uses no chemicals/fertilizers; only organic compost and liquid fertilizers made of seaweed or nettles, which help the plants maintain their health to fight off disease and insects; neither of which is a problem in his garden. He also states there is very little maintenance of forest gardens--other resources state the same.

Other Gardening Articles of Interest

How to Grow, Harvest & Save Onion Seed

How to Grow Sweet Potato Slips or Starts

How to Make a Manure Hot Bed

Seed Saving: How Long will your Seed Last? A Seed Life Guide

Copyright © 2010 Cherie Kuranko ~ "InkSpot"

All Rights Reserved.