Love the tips for shady gardens, my mom and I love watching these epic gardening videos together! She just said she wished there was a video series about growing in specific climates. Places like dry, desert regions that get extreme heat waves and how to prepare and manage a garden throughout the year. Or places in colder climates that have short growing seasons and how to best prep the gardens going into the winter months and coming out of the cold months and prepping for growing seasons.
As a balconer gardner whose balcony faces south, I only get like 3 and a half hours of direct sunlight into my garden a day before the top of the building cuts it off. I had a habanero plant that gave me 36 between two flushes in one season. I put good quality veggie fertilizer in the soil and maintained a weekly (roundabout) feeding schedule where I would mix liquid plant food from miracle-gro into the watering can, so my guy had PLENTY of high quality nutrition. I'm handing some out at work because I can't eat them all, setting all my coworkers on fire. I also clipped an Orange Sun bell pepper (from Botanical Interests, of course) off the plant this afternoon and put it on a homemade pizza. So yes, you can absolutely grow summer veggies in a shade garden. The secret is LOVE.❤
We need to talk about when to shade cloth. Up here in Sacramento it's 14 hours of extremely intense sun. All plants get obliterated. So we need shade cloth from end June to beginning of October
Hopefully he saw this and they cover shade cloth next summer. I’m in Sacramento too and it was rough. My garden did great during the summer heat, but I have a well (so i’m not worried about drought or water bill); and I watered deeply once a week and surface/shallow watered every morning. BUT I got some sun scald on a handful of my peppers and my brandywine tomatoes didn’t fruit until it got cooler in September. I’m going to shade a couple of spots next year.
Great advice, I live in Australia in the Riverina district. Growing vegetables can be quite tricky in our part of the Riverina as the winters are freezing and the summers very hot. Still you can’t beat growing your own veggies. Thank you🤗
A couple of thoughts to consider with growing in shade..... there is also need to consider if it is wet or dry shade. If you are planting under a tree that is going to rob any moisture from rain or unless you supplement water, it's probably best to make sure the veg you plant is drought tolerant. The second is something like strawberries grow great for me in shady areas. I have berries in all of the light conditions, and have found that less sun produces bigger juicier berries, especially during drier seasons when the full sun areas are staying super small and not producing great berries, they will still be cranking them out in the shade, it just takes a little longer to ripen.
Thanks for the video, I ended up growing some beets behind my citrus trees, morning sun and dappled light lunchtime onwards. Definitely a bit slower but leaves didnt get leggy and its growing well. Have planted a massive row of them and some small patches of radishes behind my climbing beans and behind my tomatoes
A great video Kevin and Jacque. I have used wood shavings to keep the soil cooler especially for plants like cellantro which we call Corriander in NZ. I also use a white frost cloth ver metal hoops ATM to grow a few remaining bak choi in between my maturing buttercrunch lettuce. I am also trialling some broccoli growing behind 50% Shade cloth ATM. They are looking very happy and not stressed! We have very high UV rays in NZ plus in Canterbury we have to deal with hot dry North-westerly Winds that are plant killers!
Thanks for all the wonderful information. My garden is very shady and this was so helpful, Im going to move my potted mint straight away it's sitting in full sun on the verandah.
Wow! I've been growing for years but never considered planting peas and beans in part shade. As I'm on a suburban block where probably 70% of my growing area doesn't get full sun, I'll be planting my legumes in more shady areas next time. Nice video guys.
Love this Kevin and Jacques. I’m in the 4-6 hour group. Appreciate that you shared the names of varieties that handle part sun conditions. And those for shade 👌
Could you do a video of herbs to grow indoors during the winter months and what items they will need, like grow lights?, heat mats? Soil? What kind? Thanks guys!
My experience with growing stuff in the shade (around 4 hours of direct sunlight and another 4 to 6 of sunlight reflected off a white wall): *Pumpkins:* Forget about it. They start out OK but the fruit doesn't really grow and the whole plant eventually dies. *Lettuce (iceberg):* Same thing. Grows fine at first, even produces some edible leaves, but never quite forms a full head, eventually goes pale and dies. *Tomato:* The plants seem to grow a lot vertically but produce very few leaves (they're probably trying to reach a higher spot with more sunlinght). *Peppers (both bell peppers and chili peppers):* They'll grow, but produce smaller fruit compared to identical plants in the sun. *Cabbages (ex., napa):* They'll grow slowly but seem to do fine. *Chives and basil:* Will grow very nicely and produce plenty of flowers as long as they have enough water. *Thyme and parsley:* Will grow slowly compared to sunlit areas.
Yup just taking my garden down got my black Beauty Tomato plant cut down only had 2 but this heat I'm going too see how long my cucumbers can got strawberry everbearing are going strong!!! 🎃😎
Dude! I'm subscribed to your channel and I was wondering why I haven't seen you post in a while. I went straight to the channel and noticed that TH-cam isn't showing me your videos on my subscriptions in a while! I going to be catching up now.
Huh... I have both a problem with my pak choi bolting frequently and a shady bed behind my shed I've been trying to figure out what to do with. Thanks.
When i first started gardening.. i made two beds over a couple years. Pretty much the exact same way. One got completely full sun. No shade whatsoever. The other got 6-8 in July. 3-6 hours most other months. I put tomatoes in both. The one with shade vastly out produced full sun. Im stupefied over why. Other than maybe the shady one doesn't get as hot or something. More water. Something like that. The interesting thing is a neighbors tree turned part of that garden Pretty much full shade. Ive been struggling getting potatoes to grow. Ive tried several different locations. As a last ditch effort i threw them in that shady spot. Even near tomatoes. The absolutely best harvest of potatoes ive ever gotten an no effects on tomatoes. I did it again this year. Same thing. Amazing potatoes. It litterly gets maybe an hour of sun in July. No sun in any other month.
A lot of plants, including tomatoes, can only handle so much heat and full sun. Here in Florida, a lot of people use shade cloth to extend the tomato growing season further into the summer.
Hi Epic Gardening, I've been watching your videos for a while now and have finally moved into a house where I have room for a garden. Bad news is I'm so lost on what i can do with my measly 6 hours of CA Central Valley sun. The best place in my backyard to plant is a 8'x12' area that gets sun from about 11:30am-5:30pm. I would love to grow some vegetables I just would like some guidance.
Have you two ever thought about including a veggie cooking segments to your videos? I’ve spent all this energy growing them, but how do I prepare dishes I actually want to eat?
Can you give me any suggestions of what to grow in a "full sun" garden that gets 12+ hours of intense sun and and often quite high drying winds my chillies struggle every year the ine thing i thought would do alright in the extreme heat
Would you call a space that gets virtually no direct sunbeams “full shade”? it seems to hold plenty of ambient light, as it’s very open and light coloured. I tend to think of “full shade” as being darker spaces under trees, for example (like under Kevin’s loquat).
I sowed beets so many times this year and each time they all were eaten as seedlings. Oh well theres always next year. Will have to just cover then with plastic I think since the grasshoppers can apparently just crawl through my shadecloth :(
When planting in shade, you will have to evaluate whether it is rain or dry shade. Planting under a tree can cause water shortage because the tree absorbs all the moisture from the rain. So, if not adding water, choose vegetables that have good limits to ensure they grow sustainably in this environment.
I used to love hot sun directly on my skin. Now I cannot tolerate it. Many of my plants seem to feel the same. The ozone thinning has made the sun more intense.
No. Never do this. Plants will grow through it. The only thing that fabric does is slow down weed growth. Then.. weed roots become embedded in the fabric. There is no fabric made weeds cannot get through. So when you pull them, most of the root remains. And you'll never get rid of the weeds. You have to think opposite of a gardener to prevent weeds. Weeds need air, water, light, nutrients. Remove those elements, and you'll almost never have weeds. Im in a dryer area so it's easier. I haven't pulled weeds except the occasional one for several years. No weed barriers. You don't need all of these, but mix in a few and it works better. This is for illustration. Its not a complete list. You want deep mulch. A minimum of 4 inches. Sloped away from the area to quickly dry out the area. You can amend the soil to increase drainage. Make sure if you spray you over spray as little as possible. Drip irrigation is better. Plant a ground cover. Especially a thirsty ground cover. Never dig in those areas. Etc. Some weeds require a lot of work to get rid of. We have one out here that the root system grows over 50 ft underground. You cannot spray it enough or dig out the root system. No weed barriers can stop it. The only way to get rid of it is to continuously pull it until you completely starve the root system over many years.
When I was younger the gardens we had were full sun each day, all day long. In order for some of the plants to grow we actually used half gallon milk cartons cut specifically to protect the plants till they were old enough to have full sun and temps. Ofc we didn't live in a town then. When we did there was little partial shade.
Lots of these don't work in true full shade. What can be grown with less than 1-2 hrs of dappled sun in 7a/7b? Maybe there's a cousin of all the weeds that do grow well in that spot?
I grow ALL my basil, cilantro, and dill in a raised bed under a big shady tree. They thrive. They get a little morning and afternoon sun but all dappled. They grow well but very slow to bolt. I will never give them full sun again.
Love the tips for shady gardens, my mom and I love watching these epic gardening videos together! She just said she wished there was a video series about growing in specific climates. Places like dry, desert regions that get extreme heat waves and how to prepare and manage a garden throughout the year. Or places in colder climates that have short growing seasons and how to best prep the gardens going into the winter months and coming out of the cold months and prepping for growing seasons.
As a balconer gardner whose balcony faces south, I only get like 3 and a half hours of direct sunlight into my garden a day before the top of the building cuts it off. I had a habanero plant that gave me 36 between two flushes in one season. I put good quality veggie fertilizer in the soil and maintained a weekly (roundabout) feeding schedule where I would mix liquid plant food from miracle-gro into the watering can, so my guy had PLENTY of high quality nutrition. I'm handing some out at work because I can't eat them all, setting all my coworkers on fire. I also clipped an Orange Sun bell pepper (from Botanical Interests, of course) off the plant this afternoon and put it on a homemade pizza. So yes, you can absolutely grow summer veggies in a shade garden. The secret is LOVE.❤
Nice to see there’s something to plant anywhere in the garden!
We need to talk about when to shade cloth. Up here in Sacramento it's 14 hours of extremely intense sun. All plants get obliterated. So we need shade cloth from end June to beginning of October
Same here in Murrieta. Sun is brutal down here and if we don't shade cloth everything, then they fry!
Yep inland California the sun and heat is so intense I actually have to plant in the shade
I never thought of this!
Hopefully he saw this and they cover shade cloth next summer. I’m in Sacramento too and it was rough. My garden did great during the summer heat, but I have a well (so i’m not worried about drought or water bill); and I watered deeply once a week and surface/shallow watered every morning.
BUT I got some sun scald on a handful of my peppers and my brandywine tomatoes didn’t fruit until it got cooler in September. I’m going to shade a couple of spots next year.
Great advice, I live in Australia in the Riverina district. Growing vegetables can be quite tricky in our part of the Riverina as the winters are freezing and the summers very hot. Still you can’t beat growing your own veggies. Thank you🤗
A couple of thoughts to consider with growing in shade..... there is also need to consider if it is wet or dry shade. If you are planting under a tree that is going to rob any moisture from rain or unless you supplement water, it's probably best to make sure the veg you plant is drought tolerant.
The second is something like strawberries grow great for me in shady areas. I have berries in all of the light conditions, and have found that less sun produces bigger juicier berries, especially during drier seasons when the full sun areas are staying super small and not producing great berries, they will still be cranking them out in the shade, it just takes a little longer to ripen.
Thanks for the video, I ended up growing some beets behind my citrus trees, morning sun and dappled light lunchtime onwards. Definitely a bit slower but leaves didnt get leggy and its growing well. Have planted a massive row of them and some small patches of radishes behind my climbing beans and behind my tomatoes
Great tips, I also plant these vegetables almost in the shade and they grow great ❤
A great video Kevin and Jacque. I have used wood shavings to keep the soil cooler especially for plants like cellantro which we call Corriander in NZ. I also use a white frost cloth ver metal hoops ATM to grow a few remaining bak choi in between my maturing buttercrunch lettuce. I am also trialling some broccoli growing behind 50% Shade cloth ATM. They are looking very happy and not stressed! We have very high UV rays in NZ plus in Canterbury we have to deal with hot dry North-westerly Winds that are plant killers!
This is my all time favorite gardening video 💚 !
Thanks for all the wonderful information. My garden is very shady and this was so helpful, Im going to move my potted mint straight away it's sitting in full sun on the verandah.
Landreth bush beans are my favorite, vigorous production and truly stringless.
Wow! I've been growing for years but never considered planting peas and beans in part shade.
As I'm on a suburban block where probably 70% of my growing area doesn't get full sun, I'll be planting my legumes in more shady areas next time.
Nice video guys.
Love this Kevin and Jacques. I’m in the 4-6 hour group. Appreciate that you shared the names of varieties that handle part sun conditions. And those for shade 👌
Jacque finished the episode off with "Good luck in the garden, keep on growing" Is that a first?! congrats
Jacque is my fave. He has such a beautiful calmness to him it makes the channel really enjoyable to listen to.
Could you do a video of herbs to grow indoors during the winter months and what items they will need, like grow lights?, heat mats? Soil? What kind? Thanks guys!
My experience with growing stuff in the shade (around 4 hours of direct sunlight and another 4 to 6 of sunlight reflected off a white wall):
*Pumpkins:* Forget about it. They start out OK but the fruit doesn't really grow and the whole plant eventually dies.
*Lettuce (iceberg):* Same thing. Grows fine at first, even produces some edible leaves, but never quite forms a full head, eventually goes pale and dies.
*Tomato:* The plants seem to grow a lot vertically but produce very few leaves (they're probably trying to reach a higher spot with more sunlinght).
*Peppers (both bell peppers and chili peppers):* They'll grow, but produce smaller fruit compared to identical plants in the sun.
*Cabbages (ex., napa):* They'll grow slowly but seem to do fine.
*Chives and basil:* Will grow very nicely and produce plenty of flowers as long as they have enough water.
*Thyme and parsley:* Will grow slowly compared to sunlit areas.
that was perfect man! i was looking for such complete video♥
Will be trying this soon . Thank you
your orchard is looking great Kevin!
Great video. That Agave is beautiful.
So good to learn about artichokes! I’m on the Alabama gulf coast….moving my seedling into the shade!
Great video Kevin. I've been searching for several items that would grow best in shade.
I have such a time getting parsnips to germinate and grow. We like to have them during the holidays.
Thanks EG for another great guide!
The main problem with shady gardens, is the shady people. Always watch your back if entering a shady area.
In the winter time, those are the areas where you usually find black ice. Be careful, it will rob you of your balance.
😂
😂😂😂
Like Eric and Jake
Throwing shade while shaded
Thank you! I think this is a super important topic that doesn't get talked about enough. 😊 💕 😘
Beautiful plant varieties and vegetables plant nice Garden View Good information thanks
Love it! I plant most of these in my shady container garden but never considered artichoke. Def will look into it bc yum!!😋
Zone 4B Minnesota 75 in October!!! 😊
No way!??
Yup just taking my garden down got my black Beauty Tomato plant cut down only had 2 but this heat I'm going too see how long my cucumbers can got strawberry everbearing are going strong!!! 🎃😎
can confirm hitting 80 today for me, im still picking watermelons
😮 awesome I didn't do so good this year with watermelon but my tomatoes beans and basil did awesome and of course Zucchini 😅😂
Forgot corn was almost over 12ft high😳 maybe taller....
The extent to which i know the details of Kevin's garden at this point is mind boggling! lol
Please do another sick costumed Halloween episode. So funny 🎃🦇😄
Jacques with some perfectly timed butterflies….🦋
This is a great video. Thanks!
Great video, most helpful.
I have a different experience with the 'choy plants'. I harvest huge leaves of pak choy grown in full sun in tropical Jamaica all year round
Dude! I'm subscribed to your channel and I was wondering why I haven't seen you post in a while. I went straight to the channel and noticed that TH-cam isn't showing me your videos on my subscriptions in a while! I going to be catching up now.
4:17 - Three o'clock in the *_evening?_* Where do you live, the arctic circle?
If you get much more than 6-8 hours of sun, consider shade cloth.
I wondered about this for my garden most of it is I would say probably 8 to 12 hours of sun
Also food forests
I grow currants, berries, and herbs in the shade of my perennial fruit trees
Our heat levels have changed. It used to be the hottest time of day was 10-2. It is now 10-4. The temperature continues to rise.
Huh...
I have both a problem with my pak choi bolting frequently and a shady bed behind my shed I've been trying to figure out what to do with. Thanks.
From AZ here. How are yall keeping plants alive?
Shade cloth
When i first started gardening.. i made two beds over a couple years. Pretty much the exact same way. One got completely full sun. No shade whatsoever. The other got 6-8 in July. 3-6 hours most other months. I put tomatoes in both. The one with shade vastly out produced full sun. Im stupefied over why. Other than maybe the shady one doesn't get as hot or something. More water. Something like that.
The interesting thing is a neighbors tree turned part of that garden Pretty much full shade. Ive been struggling getting potatoes to grow. Ive tried several different locations. As a last ditch effort i threw them in that shady spot. Even near tomatoes. The absolutely best harvest of potatoes ive ever gotten an no effects on tomatoes. I did it again this year. Same thing. Amazing potatoes. It litterly gets maybe an hour of sun in July. No sun in any other month.
Tomatoes are a nightshade, so they do better in shade.
A lot of plants, including tomatoes, can only handle so much heat and full sun. Here in Florida, a lot of people use shade cloth to extend the tomato growing season further into the summer.
Hi Epic Gardening, I've been watching your videos for a while now and have finally moved into a house where I have room for a garden. Bad news is I'm so lost on what i can do with my measly 6 hours of CA Central Valley sun. The best place in my backyard to plant is a 8'x12' area that gets sun from about 11:30am-5:30pm. I would love to grow some vegetables I just would like some guidance.
Have you two ever thought about including a veggie cooking segments to your videos? I’ve spent all this energy growing them, but how do I prepare dishes I actually want to eat?
Hey curious if you will be growing stevia any time soon?
Can you give me any suggestions of what to grow in a "full sun" garden that gets 12+ hours of intense sun and and often quite high drying winds my chillies struggle every year the ine thing i thought would do alright in the extreme heat
Yes!!! I needed this
Right now where I lice I get zero shade so I put the garden to bed. I wish something would grow through the winter. I'm in the pnw zone 9b
Thanks for talking about rhubarb!!!
Hmm. 🤔
Artichokes like partial sun?
Maybe that’s why my artichokes in full sun didn’t do so well. 😂
I'm not sick of hearing about the artichokes, but when is Potato Daddy going to come back and make an appearance?
Good thing p Diddy never claimed the name p daddy.
Hell on earth is a household with no vegetable patch... thanks for the heavenly advice.
Would you call a space that gets virtually no direct sunbeams “full shade”? it seems to hold plenty of ambient light, as it’s very open and light coloured.
I tend to think of “full shade” as being darker spaces under trees, for example (like under Kevin’s loquat).
I sowed beets so many times this year and each time they all were eaten as seedlings. Oh well theres always next year. Will have to just cover then with plastic I think since the grasshoppers can apparently just crawl through my shadecloth :(
When planting in shade, you will have to evaluate whether it is rain or dry shade. Planting under a tree can cause water shortage because the tree absorbs all the moisture from the rain. So, if not adding water, choose vegetables that have good limits to ensure they grow sustainably in this environment.
I have a question,dose tomato’s grow in shade ?
Yeah broccoli in my shady garden did not produce much at all. Not doing that one there anymore but it doesn't get much light
When I plant kale and collards in partial shade they get powdery mildew in early fall.
I used to love hot sun directly on my skin. Now I cannot tolerate it. Many of my plants seem to feel the same. The ozone thinning has made the sun more intense.
nice
What about ginger 🤔 can I plant it in partial sun
I have three patches, the two in partial shade seem to do better than the one in full sun.
In my experience, ginger thrives in partial shade.
I’m in south Florida zone 9-10. Do you put screen down to keep out the weeds. Weeds grow really fast here.?
No. Never do this. Plants will grow through it. The only thing that fabric does is slow down weed growth. Then.. weed roots become embedded in the fabric. There is no fabric made weeds cannot get through. So when you pull them, most of the root remains. And you'll never get rid of the weeds.
You have to think opposite of a gardener to prevent weeds. Weeds need air, water, light, nutrients. Remove those elements, and you'll almost never have weeds. Im in a dryer area so it's easier. I haven't pulled weeds except the occasional one for several years. No weed barriers.
You don't need all of these, but mix in a few and it works better. This is for illustration. Its not a complete list. You want deep mulch. A minimum of 4 inches. Sloped away from the area to quickly dry out the area. You can amend the soil to increase drainage. Make sure if you spray you over spray as little as possible. Drip irrigation is better. Plant a ground cover. Especially a thirsty ground cover. Never dig in those areas. Etc.
Some weeds require a lot of work to get rid of. We have one out here that the root system grows over 50 ft underground. You cannot spray it enough or dig out the root system. No weed barriers can stop it. The only way to get rid of it is to continuously pull it until you completely starve the root system over many years.
When I was younger the gardens we had were full sun each day, all day long. In order for some of the plants to grow we actually used half gallon milk cartons cut specifically to protect the plants till they were old enough to have full sun and temps. Ofc we didn't live in a town then. When we did there was little partial shade.
Lots of these don't work in true full shade. What can be grown with less than 1-2 hrs of dappled sun in 7a/7b? Maybe there's a cousin of all the weeds that do grow well in that spot?
Rhubarb?!?! I've been wanting to grow it, but everything I've read said no. I'm in zone 10a in Norco, California. Does anyone have advice for me?
Try a couple varieties, there's bound to be one that will succeed
My contender bush beans did terrible and I’m not entirely sure why. The plant seemed fragile and only produced a few beans.
do you think that it is the right time to grow lettuce in zone 4b
Only if you got transplants ready to put in the ground.
Have a cover or frost cloth ready, but I think you can do it.
I grow ALL my basil, cilantro, and dill in a raised bed under a big shady tree. They thrive. They get a little morning and afternoon sun but all dappled. They grow well but very slow to bolt. I will never give them full sun again.
If 'shady' had 'it' in the middle, that's my garden.
3664 Stewart Court
5401 Harvey Mall
Don’t bougainvillea like sun?
I have one in a shaded area and of what I’ve seen is:
full sun = many flowers
Shaded sun = many branches
1
I wish my shade garden would have thrived. But it was my poor choice of puting cucumbers in there 🫠