I’m so frustrated. So frustrated because this year I had the glorious idea to begin growing a cutting garden as a wedding present for my best friend in late June as well as the usual small kitchen garden I already grow. However, the space I have to work with is a) very small and b) pretty shady.

In an urban setting, it’s difficult to design a garden that’ll feed a family of four. Plus cats. But I continue to try to do so. Last year, to be honest, I can’t remember what I grew with any positive results, and part of that may have been because I was pregnant and largely under the weather the whole summer, or that I stopped weeding after week two, or that we have two GIANT trees in our backyard that shaded out the vegetable patch. Whatever the case I diligently decided to dig into the dirt despite last year’s despairingly dismal d…harvest.

Our growing space is small, shady, filled with clay, and oft over-run by squirrels (no thanks to our freeloading cats.) We have a 9 x 10′ patch out front, plus some space for planters, that receive 5 hours of morning-midday sun, as well as my beds out back which are largely shaded, receiving sun from about 10am-3pm at the most. Of course, when I was planning everything in the spring this was much different and it’s casting some real doubt on my growing abilities.

Part of garden design should always be taking light into account. First what you have, and second, what you need for what you want. “Full Sun” is considered 6+ hours of sun/day. When growing fruits and vegetables you can generally expect that they all need full sun. Yes, you can look up “vegetables for partial shade,” and “shade tolerant vegetables” and what can grow in “Part Sun,” as I have done every year since living here, but you won’t find what we typically consider fruit & veg in those lists. Rather you’ll be looking at a lot of leafy greens and herbs, which are great! Don’t get me wrong, but if you’re talking about plants that flower & bear fruit, when it comes right down to it-your edibles want sunshine.

That said, your plant’s sun and heat tolerances can be drastically different. I’ve found cucumbers thrive in my shady backyard, while tomatoes love the morning sun out front. And although peas are supposed to be better off in cool soil, they still want some sunshine to produce pods. Last year I did attempt beets, carrots, peas and radishes in my backyard in dappled sun, and they did not like it. I think I got a handful of each, and each within the handful was super tiny. But last night I just pulled some pretty chubby radishes out of my front garden! In general, if you’re trying to grow edibles for “fruits or roots” you want to give them at least 6 hours of direct sun/day, and the annuals (think tomatoes, peppers, etc) will do well if that sun is morning sunshine- not the scorching afternoon type.

If you haven’t got any sunshine, you should be thinking about where to buy your produce, not where to grow it. But if you’ve got somewhere that has some sun, you can probably make something work. We should note that when looking into your plant’s likes/dislikes, partial sun and partial shade each mean something slightly different. Part sun means “hey I need at least the minimum amount of sun in this 3-6hrs requirement.” whereas part shade means “hey I need sun but not the hot stuff.” Also, full shade generally means less than 3 hours of sun, but not pitch black.

With this in mind, I asked a friend of ours to come lop off the better part of a tree that was shading our back garden in the spring. He did. I rejoiced. The yard was tidied up (more on that later), and I set to work planting my sun-loving annuals and perennials in a fresh new bed that I thought would get full sun. But nooooooooo, twas not to be!

By the time mid-April (when I had watched my backyard and tracked the sun’s progress over it) passed and June rolled around the sun had changed it’s course, and the trees had flushed out so much that AGAIN my yard is practically ALL PART SUN.

Sigh. Growing things for yourself is difficult! Of all my garden aspirations I especially hope these flowers work out. I tried to choose easy flowers to grow, and those that in theory require only part-sun but really, like the fruits and veggies I’ve planted, if you grow flowers for their blooms they’ll do MUCH better in full sun. But! I did already harvest a small bunch – including some of these gorgeous purple sage flowers!

A wedding present of backyard grown flowers.

I suppose only time will tell if the backyard will yield any fruits (or flowers) of my shaded labour.