If a shady site comes up I might be interested in doing an edible shade garden, mainly because a lot of people in the valley have shady sections, it might be good to demonstrate that there are (some) tasty nutritious plants that will grow in the shade so they will be happier with their lot and not hate people in sunny spots as much.
It's a bit of a "weird" unusual idea, the plants that would grow in such a garden would mostly be little known food-plants , it would be partly experimental, perhaps more suited to an individual garden than a community-"common" garden.
Just mentioning the idea, next year maybe, that would give me more time to research shade loving edibles.
Cheers
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This is good news, given the 30 minutes or so of sunlight I get on a good day on my patio. Does anybody know how well Piko Piko or Horopito grow in shade? given the former are ferns and the latter are understory shrubs.
steve william > Charles BarrieMay 13, 2010 at 6:51pm
also fig trees, pear trees, currants, silverbeet, all mints, potatoes, puha, watercress, dandelion,
cabbage, kale, mustard greens, quince, tea, nz cranberry, plantain, rhubarb, pea's, beans.
thats some off the top of my head, thinking they won't all be massively productive but these will all grow. obviously soil will make the biggest difference to how well they grow.
don't forget mushrooms! get spores here http://www.14u.co.nz/
thats my 20 cents
raspberry (source of info: Discovering Fruit & Nuts.by S. Lyle)
Orangeberry (Rubus pentalobus) Taiwanese groundcover relative of black/raspberry
Natives:
Freycentinetia banksii. Kiekie, (flowers most delicious sweet native food but only flowers much every 8 years aprox, but very pleasing luxuriant looking climber) Also fruit is edible.
Beilschmiedia tawa. Tawa (kernel cooked, was major food source of inland tribes) will probably take a long time to fruit
Beilschmiedia tarairi Tarairi. as for tawa , kernel larger, good looking tree
There are quite a few other edible natives that take full shade but many were not valued highly by Maori, yucky, tasteless, low productivity (source: A Field Guide to Native Edible Plants of NZ by Crow)
Valerianella locusta- corn salad. leaves common vegetable
Viola Laboradorica- leaves flowers, some other Violas probably too
Fruit:
Monstera deliciosa- Fuit salad Plant
Lapageria rosea - Chilean Bellflower ( a vine)
Carica pentagona -Babaco (likely to be less sweet in full shade)
Carica pubescens -Mountain Pawpaw (less sweet)
There are a few others
I'm trialing most of these, so in a way if it takes a while for a shady spot to come up it will be better, more cetainty of sucess, there's always shade created by other plants in a sunny site failing that
I'm right into this too.. Ping is in the process about of inquiring about another (very shady ) site... so things might happen soon if it goes through... will let you know
David N said:
Great to hear of your interest,
Gooseberry is one of the few fruit that will apparently take full shade ( I've just been reading)
Replies
cabbage, kale, mustard greens, quince, tea, nz cranberry, plantain, rhubarb, pea's, beans.
thats some off the top of my head, thinking they won't all be massively productive but these will all grow. obviously soil will make the biggest difference to how well they grow.
don't forget mushrooms! get spores here http://www.14u.co.nz/
thats my 20 cents
blackberry
raspberry (source of info: Discovering Fruit & Nuts.by S. Lyle)
Orangeberry (Rubus pentalobus) Taiwanese groundcover relative of black/raspberry
Natives:
Freycentinetia banksii. Kiekie, (flowers most delicious sweet native food but only flowers much every 8 years aprox, but very pleasing luxuriant looking climber) Also fruit is edible.
Beilschmiedia tawa. Tawa (kernel cooked, was major food source of inland tribes) will probably take a long time to fruit
Beilschmiedia tarairi Tarairi. as for tawa , kernel larger, good looking tree
There are quite a few other edible natives that take full shade but many were not valued highly by Maori, yucky, tasteless, low productivity (source: A Field Guide to Native Edible Plants of NZ by Crow)
Edible Herbs and Vegetables:
Barbarea verna- Upland cress. Hot peppery leaves
Cryptotaenia japonica- Mitsuba. Leaves , root popular in Japan.
Filipendula ulmaria - Meadowsweet . Root cooked, leaves flavouring
Galium odoratum - Sweet Woodruff. Leaves, flowers, salads, flavouring
Linaria annua - Honesty. Root, seed -mustardy flavouring
Valerianella locusta- corn salad. leaves common vegetable
Viola Laboradorica- leaves flowers, some other Violas probably too
Fruit:
Monstera deliciosa- Fuit salad Plant
Lapageria rosea - Chilean Bellflower ( a vine)
Carica pentagona -Babaco (likely to be less sweet in full shade)
Carica pubescens -Mountain Pawpaw (less sweet)
There are a few others
I'm trialing most of these, so in a way if it takes a while for a shady spot to come up it will be better, more cetainty of sucess, there's always shade created by other plants in a sunny site failing that
David N said:
Gooseberry is one of the few fruit that will apparently take full shade ( I've just been reading)
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