20 Plants You Can Grow in the Shade

If your garden doesn’t get full sun, this video is for you. Here are 20 herbs and leafy greens that will thrive no matter how shady your garden is.

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If you’re waiting to start your garden because 
you are sure that there is not enough sun to  
make anything grow, then you’re going to want 
to watch this video. I’m going to show you 20  
vegetables you can grow in the shade or just 
a little bit of sun no matter where you live,  
no matter how much gardening experience that 
you have. My name is Nicole Burke and I’m the  
founder of Gardenary. We’re on a mission to make 
gardening ordinary again, and part of that means  
showing you that all those limitations all the 
things that everyone says you have to have in  
order to have a garden, you can forget about those 
rules. So let’s talk about 20 plants that you can  
grow even if you have very little to no sunlight 
in your vegetable garden. We’re going to kick it  
off by talking about herbs. Now I outline growing 
herbs here in my book in step number two. I like  
to say that herbs are one of the simplest things 
to grow in the garden and that’s because they are  
leaves. But also for most of these you’re going 
to be starting with plants. You’re not going to  
be starting with seed. You can start a few of 
them from seed, but you’re going to get all  
kinds of harvest from these plants because almost 
all of them are cut and come again varieties. You  
can grow them in containers, you can grow them in 
raised beds, you can grow a lot of these even just  
in your landscape. So the first one to talk about 
is rosemary. Rosemary is an herb that originates  
from the Mediterranean. It does thrive if you have 
a ton of sunlight but it will also survive and  
continue to grow even if you have just a little 
bit. So rosemary is the first vegetable herb that  
you can grow in a shady garden. The next one is 
oregano. It’s from the Mediterranean. That’s its  
origin. So it does do well if you have a lot of 
sunlight but it also continues to grow in a garden  
in an area with less sun, so I’ve got all this 
oregano growing on every corner of my garden and  
it thrives in really sunny spots and in shady 
spots too. The next one would be sage. Sage is  
also a Mediterranean herb; it’s in the same plant 
family; it’s called the Lamiaceae plant family and  
it also does really well in shady areas. In fact 
of those three herbs I would say sage is one of  
the ones that can really hang on and continue to 
thrive when there’s not a lot of sunlight. The  
next herb herb number four after sage is thyme. 
Thyme once again is in the Lamiaceae plant family;  
it did originate around the Mediterranean and 
it also thrives when you don’t have a ton of  
sunlight. Thyme and sage are going to be the herbs 
that do really really well when you don’t have a  
lot of sunlight even more so than rosemary and 
oregano. The next one some people call this not  
necessarily an herb but I use it as an herb 
and that is chives. Chives are literally the-  
they’re the easiest plant to grow in the garden; 
they are the most flexible. They’re like your BFF  
in the garden because they are so not demanding, 
like you forget about them, you don’t touch them,  
you don’t do anything with them for months on end, 
and they’re fine. They’re just doing their thing  
growing, ready for you to harvest them, so chives 
are absolutely something all of us no matter the  
sunlight that we have can replace from the grocery 
store to grow your own. The next herb is one you  
don’t want to plant with the rest of your herbs or 
the rest of your plants in your vegetable garden  
but that is mint. So mint is a great one to grow 
in a container all by itself in a shady area. You  
are going to completely replace your grocery 
store mint; you’re going to be making like  
mint ice cream and mint chutney and mint infused 
water. You could just have mint every single day  
even if you have a very shady yard. All right the 
next herb is lemon balm. Lemon balm is a prolific  
prolific plant; you want to be sure you do not 
put put it in a raised bed. It will take over.  
Lemon balm also in the Lamiaceae plant family; it 
will do great in bright sun but it actually really  
loves shade. All right next up are some more herbs 
but they’re in a totally different plant family;  
they’re in the carrot plant family. These herbs I 
would plant from seed and they are dill, parsley,  
and cilantro. Now let’s talk about the other 
favorite leafy greens or the other favorite  
leaves that I love to grow besides herbs. Herbs 
are my top, the next one right under herbs would  
be lettuces and leafy greens. The first one is 
kale so kale is known as a biennial which means  
it wants to stay in your garden for 2 years before 
it goes to seed. So any kind of kale will work in  
your kitchen garden even if it’s shady. They’re a 
super hearty plant and will give you lots and lots  
of leaves for a long long time. The next plant 
that will stay in your garden for a long time  
and give you lots of greens even in the shade is 
Swiss chard. Swiss Chard is in the spinach family,  
the amaranth family, and swiss chard you could 
start from plant. It’s also a biennial so same  
rules apply, and you can cut from it again and 
again and it does not mind the shade one bit.  
Another green that works well, that gets really 
big, lasts a long time, are mustards and collards.  
Both of those grow in shady areas; they’ll give 
you lots and lots of harvest. They’re not as long  
lasting as the kale and the chard, but they 
do last for months on end and the plants grow  
big. The leaves get even bigger; you’re going to 
have tons of harvest from plants like this even in  
shady areas. Next up are some of those Asian 
greens that we love like bok choy, pak choi,  
toy choy. All those greens grow in shady areas and 
let me tell you if you’ve never tasted homegrown  
bok choy you are going to love it and you’re 
especially going to be proud that you’re pulling  
it out of a very shady area. Now let’s talk about 
some smaller leafy greens that do well in shaded  
areas. So first would be the classic the easiest 
if you don’t grow anything else that I talk about  
today you have to grow this in the shade and it 
is arugula. Arugula grows great from seed. It’s  
actually in the Brassica family so similar to kale 
and the mustards but arugula is so much easier to  
grow. Very very tiny, starts with seed. You’ll get 
so many prolific leaves. If you’re eating Trader  
Joe’s arugula shipped to you from California you 
are missing out. The next green that I love to  
grow in the shade from seed that’s very easy to 
grow is called black seeded Simpson. Black seeded  
Simpson is a very easy green, has a very small 
seed, and it’s just this nice frilly lettuce,  
so delicious, so crunchy, and fresh, so easy to 
grow in the shade. My favorite lettuce mix is  
called Rocky Top; it’s a variety of like spring 
mix. So you know those plastic boxes you buy  
from the grocery that you put at the back of your 
fridge and throw out two weeks later? Yeah, those.  
So you can replace that with this spring mix. This 
spring mix grows and thrives in the shade and you  
can buy it from other suppliers. Baker Creek has 
one that I really love. So a spring mix is another  
plant you can grow in the shade. Next up is 
spinach. Spinach is in the amaranth family. I love  
Bloomsdale longstanding spinach. Another plant 
you can grow in the shade, put it in by seed,  
water it heavily, you have to wait you’re going to 
think it’s not coming up, it’s going take almost  
two weeks, then when that plant comes up it’s 
going to take off, and you’re going to be loving  
spinach for the first time in your life because 
you grew it yourself in the shade. Another lettuce  
that is so easy to grow in the garden you’re going 
to think, "Why haven’t I done this before?" is  
romaine lettuce. You know that stuff that keeps 
getting recalled because there’s like an E coli  
scare in California? Well you can grow it yourself 
by seed. Romaine can be grown to be little cuts,  
so you can have just small little pieces of 
romaine lettuce, or you can grow it to be  
the full head like we get at the grocery store. 
Romaine does not mind low light in the garden. Tt  
will still thrive even in a shady place. The next 
one is a fancy one. Radicchio, have you heard of  
this one? It’s so good for you and you can grow 
it even in a shady garden. It’s one of those fancy  
greens you only get at a fancy restaurant but 
you can be fancy and grow it yourself in your  
own shady vegetable garden. And finally the 
last one is sorrel. I’m not sure how you say  
it. Sorrel is this really cool citrusy greenl 
it can actually be a perennial in the garden,  
so it will grow in a shady place and it’s very 
even frost tolerant, so it can grow before your  
last frost and after your first frost and it gives 
you this delicious citruses taste. You’ve now got  
20 plants that you can grow right away no matter 
how much light you have. Now here’s the good news:  
these plants not only can tolerate shade they also 
can tolerate lower temperatures, so especially the  
leafy greens that we talked about and the cool 
season herbs like cilantro, parsley, and dill.  
All of those plants don’t mind frost so you can 
plant them well before your last frost and you can  
enjoy them well past your first frost. So these 
plants make it possible for us to push further  
into more seasons in our garden and to make the 
most of most of the year no matter where we live.  
All right so you can learn more about what to 
grow in a shady place or a semi-shady place or  
a sunny place in my book Leaves, Roots, and Fruit. 
This teaches you the whole continuum that I talked  
about today in a step-by-step method, and if you 
want help to set up your garden, you can check  
out my first book called Kitchen Garden Revival. 
This one shows you how to build your raised beds,  
how to put in the trellises, how to pull it all 
together in a beautiful kitchen garden just like  
mine. We have a free resource we want to give to 
you right below this video. This is going to help  
you make your garden happen in the coming year, 
and we also have a live workshop that is happening  
very soon so you can find out how to save your 
seat for that one below this video as well. Thank  
you so much for being part of Gardenary. Thank you 
for watching this video and thank you for growing  
all 20 of these plants in your shady garden right 
alongside me. If you go for it if you plant even  
one of these plants I’d love for you to send me 
a message or a DM online. You can find Gardenary  
anywhere you like to watch videos. Learn more 
at gardenary.com and all across the internet  
at Gardenary Co. thanks for watching. Be sure to 
subscribe, like this video, tell me which one of  
these 20 plants you’re going to put in your garden 
first, and I can’t wait to see you next time!