UK gardener with in shade garden :(

DreamsCatcher101 3/7/2011, 7:44 am

Hi everyone, I have been thinking about starting a veg garden in the uk and have decided to go with SFG Smile

I have a small north east facing garden which is in shade most of the time, by my house and the others around me. The back garden is fenced in with little sun and the front garden gets a lot of sun but is easily accessible to others on a busy school run road. Cant do it in the front because it wont last around here Sad

I think i will stick to the back garden and will be building a 2x10 corner bed against the fence, which is in shade all day, and 2 4x10 bed through the middle which gets some light. Which veg plants grow well in mostly shaded areas?

Does anyone know of any place i can get a planting plan for a 4x10 garden?

One more thing!!! Since in the uk we get a lot of cloud cover most of the year, does it really matter where you put the plants since it is diffused light anyway?

ander217 3/7/2011, 9:37 am

Welcome to the forum, Dreamscatcher.

Lack of sunlight is very limiting for a garden. Most plants need a minimum of six hours per day, and some over ten or more. Your best bets will be plants grown for their leaves rather than fruits or seeds. So, lettuce, spinach, greens, etc. will grow better than tomatoes, peppers, or corn.

Miner's lettuce is supposed to do pretty well in shade, although I've never grown it myself. I think it is known by a different name in Europe but I can't recall it at the moment.

Try to place your bed so that it catches the maximum amount of light per day. Some people use white boards behind their boxes to reflect even more light to their plants.

Would you be able to use your front yard if you enclosed your box in some type of wire cage? Perhaps you could fit it with a lock so the cover could not be removed by others.

Good luck, and keep us posted on how your garden grows.

DreamsCatcher101 3/9/2011, 8:52 am

Thanks for the welcome ander217

I think i might have to go with the
back yard anyway. The front is too small to do anything with
because of the driveway. I would probably be able to get 1 4x4 garden in
there, but in the back i could probably get about 10 4x4 boxes with space left over. But i'm only doing 1 4x10 box since that's all i can fit in the sunny spot. My garden has a lot of shade but 1 corner gets direct sun for about 5 maybe 6 hours a day. Well that's if you can call it direct sun in the uk, mostly cloudy most of the year. And when the sun gets higher in the sky the sunny spot will be in direct sun most of the day. I could improve this by making the box higher so the fence isn't in the way. I built my garden in sketchup last night to judge the sun angles and plan the garden. Embarassed

I like the idea of the white boards behind the boxes. UK gardener with in shade garden :( 109486

I'm building the box next week when i got some spare time and the white boards, maybe mylar (any reason i shouldn't?) will be part of the design now.

Anybody else plan gardens with sketchup??

LaFee 3/9/2011, 12:39 pm

Hi, DreamsCatcher, and welcome to the Forum! I'm LaFee, the host for Europe -- I'm in the Paris basin, so my weather's not too different from yours (we've had loads of sunshine this week, though!)

Here's the site I use to plan my boxes: http://www.vegetable-gardening-online.com/planning-a-garden-layout.html

It doesn't have everything, so I just use something that has the right density per square foot, then go back and label it. You can download it, but thus far I've only used the online version (which will let you save)

quiltbea 3/9/2011, 2:36 pm

Welcome from Maine in the USA.
I'm an Anglophile so love to read up on what you are doing in the UK.

I've heard that covering boards with aluminum foil reflects the suns rays effectively. I've never tried it myeslf but I might try it in my perennial garden this year where I plan to put a few tomato plants which will need more sun than available there.

good luck with your garden.

LaFee,
I like that garden plan. It has some crops on it that aren't in the one I'm using right now, like nasturtiums, asperagus. I might change over today with my plan.

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UK gardener with in shade garden :(

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