Fruits and veggies for a shade garden

[897tgigvib]

Welcome to the forum Anew!

All the above asvice is good. Monty's takeover plan could be a bit more than...he's half kidding... but maybe you could put a few things in your mother's garden. Moms are like that.

Greens are the best bet. The quick growing kind.

About your soil. Definitely add to it. NOT SAND THOUGH.

Compost is the best thing to add. Leaf mold is good. Bone meal is a good organic fertilizer that also helps fluff up clay soil. That's the idea. Fluff that clay soil up. A lot. Your final mix should have more added stuff than your original clay soil. Wood ash will help to some extent.

You see, clay soil along with not enough light adds up to two difficult conditions.

Fix that soil. In fact, make that your primary goal.

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After fixing that soil as fluffy as you can you're almost ready.
My garden is in a forest clearing. I try to utilize every speck, lumen, of light that comes to it.

If that wall and fence were to be bright white, you'd be surprised how much more light you'd get.

Now about reflected light from the ground; real important too. Once you have fluffy soil, because a lot has been added, you have MORE SOIL. That means heaped up rows.

Heaped up rows can be covered with WHITE PLASTIC tucked into the ground along the sides.

That means you have WALKING PATHS between the beds. Those paths can be made nice and bright. Layer a bright colored material to walk on for the paths. My garden I put bright red clay down along the walk paths. Bright gravel would work, or what have you. Careful about wood chips though. Too near the grow area, wood chips decomposing actually take nutrients from the plants. Strange but true.

Remember your login stuff and visit daily! Lots of good folks here!

 

[897tgigvib]

Oh, almost forgot another great way to help your soil!

Some garden centers have soil microbes in bags. Just about the more the better with them! Along with the amendments, they will make your soil hardly ever needing to be turned or worked in a few years. That, and not steppng on it because you have paths for that

 

[ninnymary]

Welcome Anew! I understand about wanting your own personal garden space. It will be special and all your own. I agree with the others, go with greens for part shade and amend your soil. Perhaps you could plant tomatoes in those black 15 gal. nursery containers? They would lift your plants up to more light.

Mary

 

[Anew2013]

Welcome to the forum Anew!

All the above advice is good. Monty's takeover plan could be a bit more than...he's half kidding... but maybe you could put a few things in your mother's garden. Moms are like that.


Remember your login stuff and visit daily! Lots of good folks here!

Haha, I actually did manage to work my way into the sunny part of the garden. I went plant shopping with her and convinced her with my awesome convincing skills that berries where just what we needed in the garden. She then granted me what ever space she isn't using to grow them. Full sun here I come I went and picked out a bunch of different berry plants (A fig, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, and some rhubarb...I know I know, not a berry but I just happened to mention pie in my whole convincing speech and my dad loves rhubarb pie ) So yep, I'm on my way. I will keep in mind all that you said about amending the soil though, the ground definitely needs some working with. I know horse manure is just the thing for blackberries and where I can get some of that but I'm a little confused on how much and how to mix it up...and stuff...

On a side note I will still be keeping an eye on the side of the house. That area really needs some beautifying... I'm just not going to make any food bearing plants suffer for the cause

 

[MontyJ]

There you go!

 

[digitS']

Dad retired in 1980 and began expanding his little garden.

In 1993, he started to share it with me. He probably made a mistake by giving me the ground right in the middle. I was kind of like the camel with his nose in the tent. There were 2 directions to go from there!

By 2007, Dad gave up the last corner and I took over the whole thing. Then he moved. Yeah, probably the only way he figured he'd get me out of his backyard. . .

Steve

 

[Mickey328]

I found this list on Grow Food Not Lawns...a great site! These will do well on just 4 hours of sunlight per day: kale, parsley, lettuce, garlic, mustard greens, arugula, cilantro, parsley, scallions, turnips, beets, carrots, spinach, chard, potatoes and bok choy.

I've always lived where we have clay soil and have learned that if you're growing root crops you'll want to really amend the soil or they're all but impossible to get out of the ground without wrecking them. There are a few threads about growing potatoes in towers...it's a great way to get lots of potatoes and they're easy to harvest. For things like beets, turnips and carrots, I'd recommend a raised bed of some sort...just something to contain your amended soil. Add lots of organic matter to it to help break up the big lumps of clay and generally lighten the soil; compost is great if you have some readily available. If not...use a bit of your space to make yourself a compost pile and use some of those bunny berries and whatever grass clippings, veggie trimmings, leaves; any and all organic matter except meat products. Keep that "cooking" and you'll have wonderful stuff for both lightening the soil and giving it nutrients as well.

You can also add things like vermiculite and perlite...they don't add any nutritive elements but they will help break up the soil and help with drainage.

And...kudos to you! It's wonderful to see a young person interested in learning about growing things!

 

[897tgigvib]

Anew, a reminder about Blueberries:

Blueberry plants like a kind of soil called mildly acidic, different than most garden plants.

For planting your blueberry, I do suggest you purchase a small bale or bag of PEAT MOSS.
Peat moss comes VERY DRY and compacted. Put some into a wheelbarrow or box first and pour some water in it, almost to muddy, roll your sleeves up and mix it around very thoroughly with your hands, then, dig your hole for the blueberry plant twice as deep and twice as wide as needed, then mix your clay soil with your peat moss to the bottom and sides, leaving the hole the size you need to plant it. I think it should be over 50% peat moss and under 50% clay soil, 45-55 or so. That's a good chance to add a little half dose of rhododendron dry fertilizer mix. rhododendrons and blueberries kind of like the same nutrients, and it's easier to find boxes of organic rhododendron fertilizer.

Your other berries and rhubarb like normal nutrients other garden plants like, in general.

Blackberries and raspberries can have this very wonderful tendency to spread from their roots starting the following spring. That is good, but you need to be in charge of their spreading. It is a way to have more plants of them, free. We can talk about that next year if yours are varieties that spread a lot. My Indian Summer Raspberry is already sprouting up 3 feet from where I planted it last year! My low growing staked up thornless blackberry is not spreading, but is growing huge. My boysenberry stems staked up have what looks like roots trying to sprout over 4 feet off the ground. (Means I should take some cuttings!)