Growing fruits and vegetables at home is extremely rewarding. Learning how to tend to your crops is already a fun activity and a great skill to have, but once your efforts bear fruit (no pun intended) you will be able to reap fresh ingredients for your cooking.
No chemicals, no plastic packages, just fresh veggies straight from your garden! And if you need to know how to grow vegetables, I’ll throw in a few quick tips for each one to send you on the right path.
A common issue homeowners face is that unless you have access to advanced gardening tools, you need veggies that can grow without constant full sun. Luckily, there’s no shortage of those, and below you will find a great selection to get you started – all of which are fine with partial shade.
Broccoli
Broccoli takes over 50 days to be ready for harvest, so the sooner you start the better. It’s a versatile ingredient that can be used raw or cooked in many different dishes, making it a must-have in your vegetable garden.
It’s not uncommon for even adults to dislike broccoli, but I promise you, once you learn how to properly cook and season it, broccoli can be very delicious and nutritious!
Cauliflower
Cauliflower likes partial shade because it prevents the curd from maturing too soon, ensuring slow but healthy growth. Because of the long time to reap, cauliflower seeds are planted in late summer for a late fall harvest.
And hey, if all of this sounds exciting to you, learn how to start a spring vegetable garden!
Cabbage
Cabbage is another slow-growing vegetable, but it grows well in partial shade as long as it gets full sun regularly. It’s useful for making soups, salads, and much more.
It doesn’t have a particularly strong flavor, but it can be used to great effect as a supplement to other meals.
Besides, cabbage grows really well with tomatoes, which despite not getting an exclusive mention on this list, is another common addition to your garden. Learn more about companion gardening!
Carrots
Carrots are superb ingredients and growing them is surprisingly easy. They can even be harvested in just 30 days as baby carrots since they are edible at any point of the harvest. For fully grown carrots, you will wait about 60 days.
They may take a bit longer to mature in the shade, but they will taste sweeter as a result. It’s an excellent addition to your vegetable garden!
Raspberries
Raspberries are a long-term investment because they take up to two years to bear fruit, but the yield is usually quite plentiful. And as you can imagine, they endure the turning of the seasons quite well, though you should winterize them in regions where winter is particularly harsh.
Garlic
Arguably the greatest ingredient in the world (or it could be my personal bias), garlic offers a lot of options to harvest. You can wait for full maturation, but just like carrots, you can harvest fresh garlic at almost any time.
And garlic goes well with almost anything: sliced, minced, or just to add a touch of flavor, you can’t go wrong with it.
Kale
Kale is great for a Fall crop since it’s very hardy for cold weather. The leaves are typically bitter, but it sweetens after the frost if you manage to time your crops just right.
Potatoes
Potatoes are unmatched when it comes to versatility as an ingredient. Mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, or sliced and fried to dip in ketchup – always a hearty addition to your meal plan that offers a ton of sustain.
But just making some fries to dip in a homemade sauce already justify the investment.
Radishes
Radishes grow really fast, in just under a month, and can be enjoyed raw, stirred, sliced, or sauteé just to name a few ways.
And good to note: green radish can be added to pesto sauce if you like that!
Turnips
Turnips are easy to grow like most of the options here and can be enjoyed in a variety of ways.
Turnips have smaller yields when grown in the shade, but their taste and richness remain the same. You can expect to grow them for 3 months, but they can be picked up after one month if you want green turnips.
If you’re thinking about gardening, perhaps you need some help with landscaping first. Get free quotes from landscapers in your area and do it right!
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