Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

Replying to an older post, since so I don't start an already addressed topic as a newby here. I'm Aerogardening lettuce, tomatoes and eggplant indoors, but want to start planning for next spring!

Good news: that the back of the home I'm leasing has (a) a s/se exposure and (b) a beautiful raised bed, about 10'x 14' x 3' high, edged in stone. Bad news: garage on one end of the bed and a 30' basically non-producing pear tree about 10' from the other end.

Last spring, due to health issues, I could only have a friend work some compost in, plant a few veggies I'd started indoors... didn't do much else. Amazingly, two tomato plants (nearer the tree end) yielded many pounds of fruit - still have a few marzanos I picked green before first frost, and the broccoli bush, kale and Swiss chard are still producing. Thyme is OK. I'm in 8a.

Severely runing the pear tree to reduce shade and possibly help it produce would be my responsibility and fairly expensive. My instincts are telling me to open up this tree as much as I can manage, plan for nightshades and squashes near the middle, herbs spring veggies and brassicas on the ends. The 2012 garden will definitely be more deliberate, taking advantage of what I'm learning here!

Any sugestions would be most welcome.

Suzanne

--- In MittleiderMethodGardening@yahoogroups.com, Jim Kennard & <bjampala@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Jim,
>
> Even though it's ideal to have full sun all day long... what if parts of your garden don't get full sun, and you want to expand after a great first season?
>
> I have two types of shading issues...
>
> 1. Neighbouring Buildings Shade
>
> 2. Mango Tree Shade
>
> Are there any vegetable plants which do reasonably well in building shade? (i.e. beds are open to the sky but get shade from neighbouring building part of the day)
>
> Secondly, are there any vegetable plants which do reasonably well in tree shade? (Have a 25 year old mango tree which is shading some beds and I don't have the heart to remove that tree.)
>
> Basically I'm looking to utilize more of my garden space... and looking for the best types of vegetables to grow in the shade.
>
> Thanks for all of your help Jim,
> Bhavani Prasad
>
>
> Bhavani & Group:
>
> Usually shade is shade, but an overhanging tree can actually cause deeper and longer shade than is typical with a building, which is a straight vertical barrier.
>
> Under an overhanging tree you might have to grow plants that actually do well in shade, and there aren't any vegetable plants in that category. In other words NO vegetable plants LOVE shade, even though some shade can be helpful, especially if the weather is very hot - to cool things down a bit.
>
> If your plants can get even a few hours of sun the leafy vegetables can do alright. Lettuce, cabbage, spinach, other greens and parsley are tolerant of shade, as are broccoli and cabbage, because they are cool-weather crops, and because they do not have to ripen fruit. Root crops like radishes, beets, turnips, onions and potatoes can also handle some shade. Just remember that these vegetables must get some sun each day or they won't grow at all.
>
> And if your vegetables are planted near a tree or another large plant take into consideration that they will have to compete for water and nutrients as well, and make necessary allowances.
>
> Jim Kennard
>

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