Knowing where to place your vegetables is as important as knowing what types to grow in the first place. Your temperature zone defines what can be easily grown. Yet, the ultimate placement of your chosen vegetables will decide how well they’ll grow for you.
Some plants crave for bright sunny conditions and other plants for the shade.
Here’s a list of full sun, partial sun and light shade vegetables that grow well in most of North America.
Click through on the link for each vegetable to learn more about it.
Can You Grow a Garden in the Shade?
Are you afraid your crops, flowers, and foliage might suffer if your garden doesn’t get enough sun? Don’t be.
Choose wisely and your veggies will be fine with as little as two hours of direct sun a day. You can have a successful vegetable garden with dappled sunlight throughout the day.
Depending on how much sunlight it receives, your garden can be:
- Fully shaded. In a fully shaded yard, your veggies won’t receive any direct sunlight. A plant can’t survive without the sun, so a full shade garden is not the best idea for growing crops. Though some flowers will do fine.
- Lightly shaded. In a lightly shaded yard, veggies will receive an hour or two of sun each day. Here a high canopy tree or other types of lower growing foliage can obstruct the sun. Yet, there’s just enough indirect light that your veggies stand a chance of success. Leafy and root crops will make it just fine.
- Partially shaded. In a partially shaded yard, your crops will receive plenty of direct sunlight, between two to six hours a day. These are good conditions for growing root, leafy, and fruiting crops. And a couple of pretty flowers or shrubs.
All plant species need sunlight to thrive but not all are equal. Some vegetables or flowers may ask for sunlight and another plant for shade. So, look for a plant label when buying seeds. The label will tell you if your vegetables or flowers prefer full sun, part sun, part shade, or full shade.
Novice gardeners might prefer not to leave anything to chance and it’s better not to. It’s in your best interest to pick a good spot for each veggie.
So, let’s look at the types of veggies that prefer different sun exposure.
Full Sun Vegetables
Full sun vegetables need a minimum of six hours (usually at least eight) of sunlight per day. For at least six hours, the sun should be directly shining onto the plants nearly every day of the season.
Obviously inclement weather and overcast days are not counted. No trees or buildings should be blocking sunlight from full-sun veggies.
Tomato, melon, and pepper plants that soak up plenty of sun with their leafy foliage and flowers will develop sooner than plants in the shade. They’re sun-loving annuals. As such, they need enough sunlight to thrive, so choose a sunny spot for them.
Vegetables such as peppers, squash, and cucumbers, also love growing in sun-kissed areas. Choose a plot with plenty of sunlight and you’ll increase your crop yields.
Cucumbers
One of the easiest to grow, cukes have very broad leafy foliage, a common trait in many full-sun plants. Care for them properly and plant them in well-drained, fertilized soil (they prefer a pH between 6 and 7). If you do so, you can expect your own yields in 50 to 70 days.
Eggplant
These do better in some climates than in others but are popular for early spring and late fall harvest. Not only are they tasty and nutritious, but they also display soft purple flowers and are self-pollinating.
Peppers
Most types of peppers prefer as much sun as they can get. Yet, extreme variation in temperature can cause the flowers to drop off and the plant to forgo producing for the year.
If you opt for growing bell peppers, water them daily as they’re highly sensitive to heat. Too much sun can cause sunscald damage which appears in the form of large, pale areas on the fruit.
Squash
Like cucumbers, squash plants have very broad leaves and beg for sunlight. Growing them on a trellis or stand can maximize sun exposure. Try frying squash flowers and stuffing them with ricotta for a tasty treat!
Tomatoes
Assuming plenty of water is available, tomatoes will always take as much sun as they can get. If you provide rich soil and good positioning, your tomatoes can reach a height of up to seven feet tall.
Make sure your soil is free of nitrogen, as it can cause vigorous foliage and poor fruit production.
Partial Sun Vegetables
It sometimes pays to have a shade garden. All the more so if you have a slew of shade-loving herbs and vegetables planted every year.
Partial sun vegetables need at least four hours of sunlight a day. Still, they often thrive with less than six hours of direct sunlight. These are usually listed as “partial sun” or “partial shade” veggies in garden stores.
Partial sun usually means that the plant could still do well with more sun. Whereas partial shade often means that the plant would do better with four to six hours as a maximum.
Here are some of the vegetable crops that do well in partial shade:
- Root vegetables. Potatoes, beets, and carrots will bloom in partially shaded areas.
- Vegetables from the bean and squash family. Bush beans and summer squash are in season during the summer but will thrive in areas with less sun.
- Adapted varieties of bush tomatoes. Some bush tomato varieties are adopted to cool regions and can thrive in shaded plots. They usually come with regional names on labels such as Oregon, San Francisco, and Siberia.
As for pro gardening advice, plant the shade-loving ground cover veggies under taller foliage. For example, you can plant lettuces and radishes under taller tomato shrubs. These can get between three and five feet tall and serve as protective foliage.
Beans
When in bush variety, these do well with more sun (closer to six hours). In vine varieties, though, they can do well with less sun if they’re on a trellis.
Vine beans, also known as pole beans, are easy to grow legumes. Much of the beans sold on markets as dried beans fall under pole varieties. Some of those are kidney, pinto, and navy beans.
Beets
Keep beets partially shaded and they’ll thrive, even in relatively dry conditions. Beet plants need plenty of space for growing, so keep that in mind when planting.
If the fruit gets too small the soil may be lacking phosphorus. To help your beets propagate, add rock phosphate to your garden bed.
Broccoli
Full sun on broccoli will lead to the rapid growth of flowers (which ruins the taste). Whereas partial sun encourages tighter heads and slower development of flowers.
Seasoned gardeners choose to plant their broccoli before or after summer’s heat. Alternatively, they pick a shaded plot for these cool weather lovers. Yet, if you plant them in full shade, paint your walls and fences white so the crop can get some reflected sunlight.
Cabbage
Although cabbage is broad-leafed, too much sun will dry it out and encourage smaller heads. Although it thrives in partial shade, colder spring temperatures can damage your crop. They can cause the plant to form loose heads or cause them to not form at all.
Carrots
If it gets too much sun, the carrot plant grows more foliage than root. Although they don’t appreciate full sun exposure, they require between six to eight hours of direct sunlight a day.
So, place your carrots in a partially shaded area to get a larger crop.
Cauliflower
Like broccoli, limiting sunlight to under six hours daily means tighter heads of cauliflower. To protect them from too much sun exposure, plant them in early spring or autumn.
There are other ways to shelter your cauliflower crops from the sun. Tie the leaves together once the heads have reached two to three inches across.
Coriander
When you limit sunlight to coriander, it will keep smaller and larger-leafed. This means a bigger harvest and better taste.
If you plant the herb in pots, place them in a shielded patio area to protect your coriander from direct, burning heat.
Leek
Leeks thrive in cooler, moist environments compared to regular root onions. Leafy crops like leeks prefer a soil rich in nitrogen. To help them develop fully, spread poultry manure widely around the roots.
If your soil is not well-drained, plant your leeks in raised bed kits that are high enough above the native soil (6 -12 inches).
Onions
Root onions, like most root-based edibles, need less sun to encourage below-ground growth.
Onions prefer temperate climates without extreme hot or cold temperatures. The size of your onion bulbs will depend on the length of the days in your area. So, pick your cultivars depending on your growing zone.
Pea
Pea, this early summer vegetable, will develop more foliage than edible seeds if exposed to too much sun.
Broadcast your pea seeds close together. If planted this way, the leaf foliage will cover the weed and keep the soil cool for better yields. This also allows for smart use of garden space.
Radish
Again, with root plants like radishes, it’s all about encouraging root growth. Plant your radishes two inches apart to get full, fleshy bulbs.
Spring varieties of radishes tend to mature rapidly, so harvest them before they pass their prime.
Rutabaga
Similar to beets and onions in growth pattern, the rutabaga needs restricted sunlight in order to encourage deeper (larger) roots.
They prefer cooler soil, so if your climate includes intense periods of heat, make sure to give them some shade. Bear in mind that your rutabaga will develop a smaller root crop if planted in full shade.
Turnips
Similar to carrots, turnips prefer growing downwards when less sun is available to them. Light promotes the growth of turnip plants. They do well in dappled shaded areas, but it takes them longer to mature.
Light Shade Vegetables
Vegetables that do well in less sunlight (two to four hours) are often called “light shade” or “shaded” plants. Some “partial shade” plants are also light shade, such as cauliflower and many spices.
While they won’t appreciate full shade, some vegetables have a high tolerance for a shady environment. A spot with dappled sunlight is the perfect choice for plants that grow in shade.
Here are some of the light shade vegetables:
- Cool-season vegetables. Asparagus, brussels sprouts, swiss chard, radishes, and parsnips bloom in shady spots. Shaded conditions will extend the growing season of your cool-season crops.
- Leafy vegetables. Leafy greens such as lettuce, cabbage, and watercress are good in the shade. And so are dark green vegetables such as spinach, collard greens, and kale. These green edibles will even lose a bitter taste if grown in a shaded garden.
If you’re already planting your own seasonal food, you might as well make the most of your garden. Cool-season veggies are a great choice as ground cover.
Even if some tall veggies block the sun, those shade-lovers won’t mind it.
If you’re lacking shady spots, there are alternatives to growing these plants. You can shield them using floating row covers.
Arugula
Being leafy, you’d think of arugula as a sun-lover. Yet, sunlight often droops the leaves, so this is a good “under” plant to put underneath other, larger ones.
Brussels Sprouts
Just like with other cold-tolerant plants, shade suits Brussels sprouts, as does the limited sunlight. If they’re left to mature in hot, dry weather, the crops will develop bitter flavor and flimsy texture.
These leafy greens prefer temperatures between 45 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Endive
Endive is likely the most shade-loving of all the leafy lettuce-type plants. This doesn’t mean they tolerate low temperatures. Make sure to harvest your endives before the first frost, because waiting until after will ruin your plants.
Kale
Like its cousins the cabbages, kale loves cold weather and less light. However, look for a spot that receives some sun. This will ensure your kale matures into a leafy crop. Feeding your soil with plenty of organic matter will help the plant produce tender leaves.
Leaf Lettuce
Most lettuce plants prefer less sun. Too much sun can cause lettuce to start diverting nutrients to seed production which results in a bitter taste.
You can stop this from happening by getting bolt-resistant lettuce cultivars that thrive in warmer temperatures. You can also choose to position your lettuce in shady areas or use overhead irrigation to cool plants.
Mustard Greens
A popular plant in the U.S., this one is often grown in flower gardens and near porches where sunlight is limited.
Spinach
Like lettuce, spinach needs cooler temperatures and less sun. Weather that is too warm will cause the plant to flower and go to seed. The perfect growing conditions for spinach are temperatures between 50°F to 70°F.
Swiss Chard
Another delicate leafy plant, swiss chard doesn’t enjoy a lot of sunlight. Swiss chard is a hardy plant that can thrive in almost fully shaded garden areas.
Want to Learn More About Sun and Shade Loving Vegetables?
Gardening in the Shade from University of Minnesota Extension Where to Put Your Vegetable Garden, a PDF from Iowa State University Extension and Outreach
Photo from pikrepo.com
Awesome posts.Thankyou
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Love getting advise from your site. I am still a novice vegetable gardener and your tips are really appriciated. Thank you. And I am looking forward to a great heirloom harvest.
The only trouble with heirloom type gardening its harder to do even for a old timer as the newer vegetables have better restance to disease
Look into which flowering plants to use to repel bugs…I believe marigolds are good vegetable companions…
Zinnias draw Lady Bugs, which will in turn eat most of the pests that attack cauliflower!
Also, I read that some flowers can also deter certain plant diseases, but I’m sorry, I don’t remember the specifics.
Some companion plants actually help edible plants grow bigger/better and improve the flavors!
Let these plants do some of the work for you!!!
Hope this gives you some helpful ideas!
Good Luck!
I agree 100%. Marigolds is an excellent choice for your veggie garden. They attract honeybees which do your pollinating and keep other insects away because of the scent of the flower.
Not necessarily. Heirloom tomatoes for example have a very large library of varieties that not only compete with a lot of the hybrids but out perform them in disease tolerance, fruit production, and insect resistance. Not to mention they just flat out taste better. The hardest part is picking which ones!
“Not to mention they just flat out taste better. The hardest part is picking which ones!”
I’m with you. The flavor of an heirloom tomato ? doesn’t eve compare to the tasteless F1/hybrid varieties. Heirloom tomatoes are not I only car better in taste, but they contain far more Polyphenols, phytochemicals, lycopene and antioxidants than hybrid varieties.
I don’t have a lot of land, but use every inch of it for gardening in my very short zone 5 summer. I grow 16 different heirloom tomato plants every year, with no duplicate from year to year. I save seeds each year and as of now have over 350 varieties of heirloom tomato seeds. I plan to pass them to my children and if seeds are saved and stored right, they can last nearly forever.
While 350 varieties may seem like a lot, I have a looooong way to go to collect them all, lol.
According to Amy Goldman, author of The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table, there are close to 6,000 varieties of
Heirloom tomatoes available.
One thing I look forward to every summer is taking the first bite of the first ripe heirloom tomato picked fresh off the vine and eaten while still warm from the sun ?. Yum!
So many people have no understanding of what “heirloom” means, and it has nothing to do with flavor. Heirloom just means it’s a hybrid which has been stabilized over at least none generations, and is open pollinated. Hybrids come from “heirlooms.” Taste has nothing to do with pollination. It has everything to do with variety. If you choose a hybrid that was bred for shipping, it will always lack flavor. Taste is never a consideration in commercially grown hybrids, so choose one that was bred for flavor.
I believe the flavor has a lot to do with the condition of your soil like the ph levels. the more you get into gardening the more you learn, so enhance your gardening and experiment with your soil, like how much nitrogen to ad to it and when verses how much phosphates and calcium
I agree. I live in Florida the tomatoes here look great but little taste.
I have garden for years and still am learning new stuff from your web site. Then I tell my daughter and daughter in law Thanks for all the helpful hints
I have never heard of leaks being referred to as”green onions”. in my experience, that normally refers to scallions – right? Anyone else ever call leeks green onions?
No never heard them called that. It would be like calling a tomatoe and cucumber because both can be trained on a trells
Leeks are Leeks…period! No other name is attributed to them.
I have never heard of green onions being called leeks and my mother never called leeks onions. You got into her onions and trouble was waiting for you. the leeks grew beside the creek
No. Leeks are not green onions.
Never heard of it until just before I read this I was reading about what plants to grow in shade and they said leaks I’m referred to them as green onions
Leeks and green onions sare in the same family (allium) but they are NOT the same.
How much coffee grounds is ok for compost. Is there a limit on how much orange peels can go into compost.
No
I do not think this article is very accurate. For example, it is not true that tomatoes will also take all the sun they can get – in hot climates, tomatoes will become sunburnt and ruined.
Likewise, in hot areas, cucumbers can do well in 2 hours of full sun.
From Western Australia.
Did you not read the beginning of the article- it is talking about North America and says that it will depend on your temperature zone 🙂
True, where I live in the US southwest, tomatoes are grown under 50% shade cloth. I grow basil in almost complete shade with indirect light and it never bolts.
How can I get rid of moss growing in my grass?
I live on the wet west coast of Vancouver Island
I could not get rid of it so decided to enjoy it. Put nice stepping stones and got some irish moss and some other fancy ones and put them one at a time in a watering can and wet the ground and now sure looks nice a rich dark green and dont have to cut it. One of my friends is going to do his front lawn with moss and spreading thime at the edges
Change the pH of the soil.
Any recommendations / tips on how to determine what areas of yard are full/partial/light sun/shade?
Check out “Sun And Shade Analyzer” in Google Play Store. It does exactly what you ask.
If I grow the partial shade vegetable in April will they come out successfully/
For years I planted lettuce. Different kinds of lettuce and everytime it tasted extremely bitter. Is there something that I have to do in order to change the taste. Please can anyone advice me on what to do as I love lettuce but can’t eat the one I grow because of the horrible bitter taste. Thankyou.
To keep lettuce from being bitter, grow it in cool weather – usually daytime temps 45-70 degrees F, and never let the soil get dry around the roots. It’s ok to plant the seed in early spring as soon as the soil has thawed and isn’t muddy any more.
I tend to sow way more seeds and thus the plants provide shade to the soil to keep it moist
later as summer gets hot you can shade the lettuce plants with cardboard wood lattice or whatever will keep it from getting bitter for a lot longer.
Try planting your lettuce, next to your strawberry hill.
If you find your lettuce bitter and can’t throw things out like I can’t soak it in ice water for an hour and then let it sit under a damp paper towel in your refrigerator. I found I have gotten inedible lettuce to edible doing this.
On a sunny day that you are home all day, make a sun log. Draw a diagram of your yard where you are interested in planting, and record when those areas move into full sun and then back into the shade. If you do this military time, you then subtract the start time from the end time and thus have how many hours the areas was in full sun.
John, and easier ways is to use an Android app called “Sun And Shade Analyzer”.
GREAT WORK, LETS KEEP NATURAL..
Thank you I am still searching on how to grow so many things from trees to vegies without success due to a large totally dense Peppercorn trees stopping the morning sun and only get access just before midday …can anybody help me???
If you want to know exactly how much sun any location under you tree gets, try an Android called “Sun And Shade Analyzer” . It will tell you.
if you own the tree, either chop it down or prune to were you can get the sunlight
Can you tell me why my lettuce tastes bitter …..?
Plant with your strawberries
I was wondering what kind of veggies or greens can be planted in rich soil that stays wet most of the year. We have developed an underground spring. Wasn’t there 25 years ago when we started our garden. So we can’t use the back half of the 40′ x 40′ garden we put in. Thanks for any information you can help me with. Linda
Arugala likes soggy soil. Also, celery is actually a perennial (in some zones) if planted in wet soil. It can even become invasive if you’re not careful. If that spot ever dries out at all, (if it’s a “pop-up” spring, it will dry up in your dryer months) you might be able to grow cabbage there without it rotting. If it is a spring that is strong and year round, you might try capping it and using it to water the garden. Or heck…pipe it to the house! Good luck. 🙂
I prefer to keep pesticides out of my vegetable garden. A drop of Dawn detergent in water seems to do the trick when sprayed directly on the plants. Another thing I do is to make a border around the entire garden with onion sets. These onion sets are also planted in among the vegetable plants. The back of the yard borders on woods. I have never had a problem with any critters making their way into the garden. The onions seem to keep away most bugs.
Last year I thought I would take a different approach to gardening. Instead of turning the soil (I mean sand here in Florida), I bought bags of potting soil. On one side, I would punch holes for drainage and put that side down where I wanted the garden. On the other side, you cut most of the plastic bag out leaving about an inch of edging. All the plants that went into the bags were all vegetables with short roots. There was even a variety of short carrots. Everything did well. This year I am going to hire some teens to turn the soil.
Does anyone have any idea to make a raised bed without costing too much?
Use anything you can think of for raised beds. Recycle wood pallets, wood shipping boxes, there’s lots of ideas on YouTube. 5 gallon buckets, even kiddie pools if you poke some drain holes are $5-6 with lots of growing space. Be mindful of materials and whether they leach chemicals.
Our local sawmill put out slabwood (the bark-covered sides they shave off a big log before making lumber) for free. We were also able to pick up some scraps of wood for the corners. Looks kind of cool and natural! And did I mention free?!
For raised beds or container gardening, try to avoid plastic. It doesn’t take long for sunlight to degrade it to where it cracks, crumbles, falls apart and becomes a big mess. No telling what kinds of chemicals leach out of it, also, especially with pvc. Plastic– yuck!!
all my gardens are raised. treat them exactly the same way you would on the ground. When you ad your soil or soil mixtures, you may want to ad lime to get the nitrogen and cow manure to get the rest of your necessary traits like calcium phosphorous and phosphates. Raised beds are like creating new ground, except you isolate it from everything else
Kind of, to many will make it acidic if you don`t ballance it with some lime.
Thank you. Very helpful——I will be starting my first garden next year. Planning it now.
Can I grow iceberg lettuce in Ghana where we have almost 30c of weather every day?
You list light shade plants and state that radish, asparagus, swiss chard and a few other cool weather crops bloom in light shade. I wouldn’t want those plants to bloom because that means they are bolting. Flowering leads to setting seeds which means plants are shutting down, especially annuals. You seem to suggest blooming is a good thing? I don’t get it.
Here is a link to information on wood pallets & safe vs. dangerous ones to use in gardens: https://preparednessmama.com/pallet-safety/
I recently moved and went from all day sun to partial sun. I grew all my vegetables in containers. Can I grow collards in partial sun in containers?