Shade-Tolerant Vegetables and Herbs — Seattle's Favorite Garden Store Since 1924 - Swansons Nursery (2024)

FAQs

What vegetables only need 4 hours of sun? ›

With just 4 hours of sunlight a day, you can still have a garden filled with leafy greens like lettuce, arugula, and spinach. These plants will produce leaves with just 4 hours, but they'll grow to their full potential with something closer to 5 or 6.

The easiest vegetables to grow in the Pacific Northwest are cool season crops. Cool weather vegetables that can be grown from seed include greens of any type, radishes, beans, garlic, onions, peas, and root veggies like carrots, turnips, and beets.

A shaded yard is great for keeping cool in the summer, and it's a misconception that vegetables don't do well when they're cool too. In fact, a shady yard can be ideal for a rich, productive vegetable garden, if gardeners know how to make the most of their shade with the appropriate produce and attentive care.

Mint is one of the best choices for a shady spot. The culinary favorite grows so fast and so easily that if not carefully tended to, it can take over other plants. For best results, make mint a container plant or pot it before adding it to garden beds.

Vegetables that produce fruits, like tomatoes, cucumbers, and eggplant, need all the sun they can get. If you are going to try growing vegetables in shade, remember that they still need plenty of water––and water and shade are perfect conditions for snails and slugs.

Any tomato plant will prefer full sun, but the good news for gardeners with shady plots is that there are some tomato varieties that will tolerate a bit of shade. Can you grow a tomato plant in full shade? The answer is… not really. Yes, you can grow a tomato plant, but it will be scraggly and leggy.

Among vegetables, leafy greens are the most tolerant of shade, including kale, lettuce, spinach, arugula and chard. Related to both beets and spinach, Swiss chard tastes a little like both and is fairly easy to grow.

There are many more vegetables that grow in partial sunlight and have been neglected by most gardeners. Some of these include Arugula, Chard, Hearts of palm, Radishes (beet), turnips and watercress, among others.

Our climate is cool and wet in the spring and fall, and usually above freezing in the winter. That allows gardeners to plant fall and over- wintering crops like kale, collards, sprouting broccoli, leeks and carrots in late July, August and early September, and garlic or cover crops in October.

Radishes. One of the fastest-growing vegetable plants you can grow is radish. Some types are ready to eat in as little as 3 weeks from seeding. They are a cool-season vegetable, meaning they do best in spring or fall, before or after the heat of summer.

What do you put in a shaded area of a garden? ›

Planting shade-tolerant plants: There are many types of plants that can thrive in shaded areas, such as ferns, hostas, and impatiens. Researching and selecting plants that are adapted to growing in low light conditions can be an effective way to create a successful garden in a shady area.

In all but the hottest climates, use the sunniest parts of the garden to start seeds in a seedbed or in pots or modules, then transplant them to another bed once they are larger and more able to cope with shade. Using grow lights indoors can give early-sown seedlings a boost.

Zucchini needs full sun (at least 6 to 8 hours) and consistently moist soil that is high in organic matter. Some zucchini varieties are vining types that require a trellis or a lot of room to sprawl. There are also bush types suitable for container gardening and small space gardening.

If your gardening space is limited or covered, you may wonder if peppers can be grown in the shade. While peppers prefer plenty of direct sunshine, the plants may still be grown in partial shade. Growing in full-shade is not recommended for peppers. Attempting this will lead to smaller plants and poor yields.