VEGETABLES FOR SHADE
In the last two or three years there has been a heightened interest in kitchen gardens and producing fresh and delicious vegetables. Articles have featured adding vegetables to flower beds, creating very small vegetable gardens, growing plants up on poles or trellises to increase productivity in a small space, and experimenting with dwarf varieties. Six hours of full sun is a requirement.
Recently I talked with a kitchen gardener who does not have the magical six hours. He was apologetic and down played his results because, “I have mostly shade.” In fact, some wonderful vegetables prefer partial shade or dappled sunlight. Think of greens. I grow a modest variety of lettuces, spinach, mache, tatsoi, arugula, and rapa. By mid-summer all of my greens need to be in partial shade to protect them from the heat which causes early bolting. When I plant cabbage, Brussel sprouts, and broccoli in mid-July for a fall harvest I keep the plants semi-shaded and cooler either by planting in dappled shade or creating shade with screening.
I do love the vegetables that need more sun, but I think that growing vegetables in partial shade needs no apology. Any garden, in sun or shade, is something to celebrate. REMEMBER CORN GLUTEN? Last year I used corn gluten to control weeds that I have not been able to eradicate from my perennial and kitchen garden beds. I have pulled, mulched, and applied my husband's blowtorch. The weeds have always returned. I read that corn gluten keeps seeds from developing roots. Well developed plants are not bothered because they already have roots. I weeded again, roughed up the soil, and sprinkled the corn gluten on the bare soil, much as one sprinkles pepper on mashed potatoes. The weeds did not grow; the gluten-sprinkled ground stayed bare. Corn gluten works. I do have two caveats: use the amount recommended on the bag (I probably used more than the recommended amount.). If you want to transplant into the bed use plants that are well developed and vigorous. Seedlings that I transplanted into gluten-sprinkled soil did not do well.
submitted by Karen Curtis ~ GCFM Zonal Horticulture Chairman 2009-2011