Vegetables – Shade Tolerance

Q: Are there any shade-tolerant vegetables?

A: The “leafy” vegetables like spinach, collards, turnip greens, etc. are more shade tolerant than tomatoes, corn or beans. Most leafy vegetables are also grown in the cool season, when leaves are more likely off the trees surrounding them.

It’s simply a fact of science that sunshine is the energy source that powers fruit formation. If you have little sun, your plants will produce few fruits. If you have more shade than sun, try gardening in large containers. These can be placed in the sunniest spots of your yard and moved around to gather as much light as possible.