Edible Shade Loving plants

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Permalink Reply by Nichol on May 15, 2008 at 12:15am

Strawberries and Taro do well in shade or indirect light. So does forms of Ginger and Plantain (not sure if they're the edible forms or not though).
I've tomato (I quit abusing it and it got all happy on me) and leaf lettuce under 75% shade against a 6' South wall. Most of my herbs are going nuts for happiness there. Not so much the marigold or the thyme though. My girlfriend says she's got potato's under her tree but I'll believe her when I eat one.
How's the process of the greywater for that site going?

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Permalink Reply by Ben Ruesga on May 15, 2008 at 8:48pm

going slow with the greywater. thanks for asking. My yard is so central phx with tons of grass (I have fescue...luckily easily eradicated) and shade that I find it hard to start a project. I would like to start with something simple like the siphon in the bathtub setup I saw at the greywater class. i know it is high mainentence, but I am use to high maintenance having 2 kids. I would just add it to our nightly bath routine. I will probably dig the beds into a more basin-like form next week and i will let you know how the rest goes via blog when I actually get around to it. My short term goal is to not spend so much on my existing irrigation system!

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer on May 15, 2008 at 12:30pm

Ben - most veggies would probably like your setup in the summer months! One thing to watch is that you really only want to put greywater to things like fruit trees, grapes, artichokes....in other words - things were the chance of the "edible" parts coming into contact with the greywater is slim to none. Rainwater, is of course, another issue!

You might try some vining things to get a "food forest" effect going such as regular cukes or pickling cukes (armenians like more sun). Peppers and tomatoes also like some shade in the warmer months. Chard would probably do well and last thru the summer, basil would probably be happy as well. I say try stuff and see how it goes!

Jen

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Permalink Reply by Nichol on May 16, 2008 at 9:35pm

Nothing silver though. They need full sun.

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Permalink Reply by Andi on May 16, 2008 at 11:47pm

Hello...this is my first post here...yay me!

I have cantaloupes (I can never remember how to spell that word...I always have to look it up) that do really well through the summer under almost any conditions. I don't have the same luck with related stuff like cucumbers or pumpkins though...it might be the specific variety of cantaloupe. These things are so successful here they're almost invasive. Tomatoes also appreciate some summer shade.

Sounds like you could throw down almost any fall/winter veggie there. There is a really cool low-desert planting guide here:

http://www.gardenguy.com/Planting_Calendar.pdf

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Permalink Reply by Ben Ruesga on May 17, 2008 at 7:40am

Thanks for the responses everyone. I guess I will try a couple different things and see what works best. Cantaloupes are so viney maybe they can find their own sun eventually. Love chard too!

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