Fruit and veg in the shade

[MsBug]

hi,

i posted in here a few months ago about my tiny north facing garden and got some great tips which have inspired me to finally start sorting it out

The shadiest part of the garden is now being used for a play house and sandpit for my dd. I have added some paving slabs to make a seating area in the sunnier part. I have also added a raised, metre-wide L shaped border in the sunniest end of our garden. It is still quite shady and gets few hours of morning and evening sun in the summer. It's also under an elder tree which I think may have been sucking all of the moisture out of the soil as it was dry and grey looking. I have now filled the raised bit with compost from B and Q and am ready for the fun bit - adding plants.

So far I have some strawberries and a raspberry plant which survived in the old soil although they hardly produced any fruit, so I have replanted these in the hope that they will do better in the new compost. I have added a tomato plant which I impulse bought from B and Q because it was £1 in the clearance sale. And some mint from tesco as iirc mint will grow anywhere.

Is there anything I can do to help these plants survive and produce fruit apart from move house water them regularly? Should I be feeding them and if so with what?

What else can I grow in these conditions? I would like to grow fruit and veg and herbs as I am more inspired by food than by pretty flowers .

It probably goes without saying that I am a complete novice at this.

Thanks

Bump

Ello MsB.

Good work on starting a veg patch! Nowt wrong with buying plants on the cheap, if you look after them well they often come through for you.

I think one of the very best things you can do for your plants is to enrich the soil. Add as much organic matter as you can. Soil is a finite resource for nutrients, so adding to it boosts the fertility and will give you lovely healthy crops.

The compost in the beds is a good start. However, it will only last a while. To progress, you could try incorporating something like well-rotted horse muck (black gold, possibly the best thing you can give most veg, and available from most riding stables for a small donation); home-made compost from veg leftovers; dried grass clippings, hay or straw.

You can add all of these simply by spreading them on the surface as a mulch, or you can dig them in a bit. I highly recommend mulching, as it protects the soil surface against drying or leaching during heavy rain. Worms will arrive and pull it under, to add it to the soil.

If you do this regularly over the year (doesn't need to be weekly or anything, a few times will do ), you'll end up with lovely soil structure full of worms and nutrients. And soil that's full of organic matter and is mulched will hold water much, much better, so there's less watering

Hope that helps!

PS Mint will grow anywhere . . . maybe too much so! If you want to control it, you can put it in a nice roomy pot and sink the pot into the bed. Stops it getting rampant!

Thanks for the tips. I live in the city so no riding stables nearby

Maybe I will start making compost, is it easy to do?

Tempted to let the mint go rampant, it will give me an excuse to make lots of mojitos

Yeah, let the mint go crazy if you like! I like freeform gardens.

There might be 'city farms' near you? You can even get muck in central London, from police stables But admittedly, it's a bit of an effort.

Making compost that's good enough to go into beds isn't difficult. Making actual black, crumbly, soil-type compost requires dedication.

I've never achieved it myself. I'm a fan of 'letting stuff rot down a bit and then digging it in' Or rough composting. Over winter, when there's nothing growing in your bed, dig a trench and fill the bottom with your kitchen scraps etc (no meat or cooked food) and cover with a bit of soil each time. Come spring you'll have a lovely compost down there.

One of the best pieces of gardening advice I ever read was 'Just get organic matter into the soil, any way you can'. There are 'ideal' ways and times of doing it, but any way or time is infinitely better than not at all. So just go for it!

I'd get that mint into a pot pronto unless you only want to grow mint. It will take over. Echo what everyone else said about adding as much organic matter as you can, especially given the tree.

Most fruit and veg really prefer full sun. However I grow runner beans, courgettes, perpetual spinach, rocket, chard, mixed salad leaves very successfully in part sun/part shade. Also herbs including rosemary, thyme, marjoram, chives, parsley, coriander. And rhubarb.

You can also grow edible flowers including nasturtiums and marigolds, which look pretty in among the veg.

shoe - 'everyone else' = me banging on

I like your plant recommendations. Spinach and lettuce are definitely goers for partial shade. Spinach beet, perpetual spinach or chard are the most underrated, useful and easy-to-grow veg IMO.

Thanks for the plant tips, I'm thinking of going for spinach, runner beans and lettuce and some herbs cause those are my favourites to eat . Would you get seeds and grow them from scratch?

Shoe I have taken your advice and moved the mint into a big plant pot.

I'm toying with the idea of a wormery to make compost...

Apart from the herbs, I will get them from Tesco

Leafy veg that is prone to bolting is good for growing in the shade- chard, lettuce, rocket and spinach are all worth a go. I grow my lettuce and some chard in a trough that gets very little direct sun. Chard is very easy to grow and you can eat the baby leaves in salad.

Yup, I would grow from seed MsB.

Chard, lettuce and runner beans should be easy to germinate.

For some reason I can't grow true spinach without it bolting almost straight away, but I've never had any problems with the 'perpetual' or 'leef beet' types, or with chard.

If you like parsley and coriander, I would also grow these from seed as you use lots at a time, seed doesn't cost much and a supermarket pot won't last very long. Coriander in particular is a cinch.

Have fun!

Ok, have planted some perpetual spinach and runner beans. Apparently poundland have some packets of seeds four for £1 so going to pop there tomorrow and see what they have.

thanks for all of your tips. I will post again and let you know what grows.

next challenge will be keeping the slugs away!