Vegetable Gardening in the Shade

[Peaceful Meadows]

Does anyone have experience with vegetable gardening in an area that is almost full shade? I've gardened pretty much all of my life but all of my gardens were in a place that received full sun. We moved in August 2021 and our backyard is almost full shade during the growing season. I found a list of vegetables that do well grown in full shade so I know that we will have plenty of veggies that will thrive. BUT my family loves tomatoes and we love to can salsa, pizza/spaghetti sauce, veggie juice, tomato juice, etc. May question is:

Has anyone grown tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, melons, and eggplant in full shade and had success? The bolded ones are the ones that we really want to grow! The others would be nice but we could live without if needed.

[RealLifeMama]

I want to know, too.

[ECingMama]

We started cherry tomatoes in a sunny window in January. Plant produced lots of tomatoes inside for 18 months. No bees.

Front porch hanging pots?
Inside?

Raised bed in front? Pots on driveway? Side yard?

[Soliloquy]

No, I certainly haven't and don't know anyone that has been able to grow tomatoes and peppers in full shade.

One year I bought 5 gallon buckets, drilled holes in the bottom, and grew my tomatoes in those because I knew we'd be moving in July. Would that be a way to find sun for your tomatoes? Also, front yard vegetable gardens are quite the thing, now-- food, not lawns-- if your front yard has sun.

[Peaceful Meadows]

I found this about tomatoes that will grow and produce fruit in the shade.

---------- Post added at 09:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:09 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Soliloquy

No, I certainly haven't and don't know anyone that has been able to grow tomatoes and peppers in full shade.

One year I bought 5-gallon buckets, drilled holes in the bottom, and grew my tomatoes in those because I knew we'd be moving in July. Would that be a way to find sun for your tomatoes? Also, front yard vegetable gardens are quite the thing, now-- food, not lawns-- if your front yard has sun.

Dh doesn't want a garden in our front yard. I mentioned that to him because the Amish have front yard gardens in our area if they can't have them anywhere else. I tried tomatoes in 5-gallon buckets with holes drilled in them last year when we were house hunting. We didn't plant a garden because we had no idea when we'd be moving. The tomatoes didn't do well in buckets at all.

[twoplustwo]

FULL DISCLOSURE _ I am very much of the novice gardener variety. My mom grew flowers not food outside. And I didnt start trying to veggie garden until we moved here.

Originally Posted by Peaceful Meadows

Does anyone have experience with vegetable gardening in an area that is almost full shade?

Has anyone grown tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, melons, and eggplant in full shade and had success? The bolded ones are the ones that we really want to grow! The others would be nice but we could live without if needed.

both myself and my neighbor have not been super successful.

My neighbor said to me one year recently after several unsuccesful years with gardening and she does have experience - you can either be a tree person or a garden person but I don't think you can be both.

Tomatoes - I would get HUGE tomato plants with some tomatoes. Enough 1 year I tried to make BBQ sauce (so more than we could get). I did pretty much everything in the link article:

Originally Posted by Peaceful Meadows

I found this about tomatoes that will grow and produce fruit in the shade.

I would say it wasnt fully shade but mostly shade the corner I picked.

peppers - no to bells at all and I did get a few jalepeno but not enough to make it worth the effort.

I also tried pumpkin with the extra seeds from the ones we carved but never got a one.

Neighbor tried a variety - I forget what but no real luck. I think I mostly decided it wasnt worth the effort. The best luck Ive found is to make friends with gardeners with sunny yards and then be all super thankful when they give you their extras so you keep getting them.

Good luck and if you have any success with anything let me know. Im happy to keep trying. I do have a sunny side to my garage but its small and I use it for my raspberry plants. And then I sunny spot by the mailbox but I put a few flowers there. My mostly my front yard is full shade too.

eta: My next project is to turn the back half into a natural plants and flowers - like wild ones. I bought $100 worth of shady mix and Ill plant that next week. Its so shaded back there grass struggles to grow after the trees go full shade. And its a pain to mow bc of all the hickory nuts that end up falling. So hoping for a no mow zone with wild flowers.

[Soliloquy]

Originally Posted by Peaceful Meadows

I found this about tomatoes that will grow and produce fruit in the shade.

Very interesting! Please let us know how it goes!

[ECingMama]

Can you get a community garden plot at a church)

[Peaceful Meadows]

Originally Posted by ECingMama

Can you get a community garden plot at a church)

I could, but with my schedule, I'm afraid that I wouldn't keep up with it as well as I would a garden at home. The whole out of sight out of mind thing.

I think that we will just experiment this year. It would make a great science project. Making it a science experiment would help it be a success even if it is a flop because something is learned from it!

[Soliloquy]

Two of the varieties of tomato I'm growing this year were on that list. I bought them fromThresh Seeds.

[blondie]

I have a lettuce blend from a local nursery that goes crazy in the shade. Ive heard that anything you eat directly can thrive in the shade- lettuce, spinach, herbs.

[Peaceful Meadows]

I think what I'm going to do is have a tiny experimental shade vegetable garden this year and focus on cleaning up the very neglected flower garden the previous owners didn't keep up. Depending on how my small vegetable garden goes this year, I'll expand it in 2023. Doing it this way I won't bite off more than I can chew.

I live where there are a lot of roadside stands. I can easily buy things reasonably priced in season. I also can buy 2nd's there to clean up and freeze and can.

[kiloyd]

They won't do well without enough sun. You might get a few. My backyard is mostly shaded too. I planted tomatoes in a big pot in my driveway last year, they did pretty well.