Food plants for shady area?

[Nicole Rankin]

We have a shaded garden area under the stairs, gets maybe 1-2 hours sunlight a day in early morning / late arvo. Right now we have some herbs and cucumber happily sprouting there, but there's more space and I wonder what we can put in there! Any suggestions?
The soil is clay-ey, and I'd rather something that I can plant at this time of year, and doesn't need heaps of water, maybe that's too much to expect!

Thanks :)

[Paula Hewitt]

warrigal greens and qld arrowroot like shady areas, but the arrowroot might be a bit big under the stairs. lettuce likes shade in winter, but likes lots of water too.

[Elaine de Saxe]

The herbs - depending on what they are - and the cucumber might not grow onto maturity given the amount of sun the spot is getting. The only herb which loves the shade that springs to mind is Pennyroyal. There's probably others though. Cuke will love the sun so if it can grow out into the sun you should get some fruit from it.

If you want food plants then you might be pushing it a bit with only 2 hours a day and a dry clay soil. but ... Bromeliads and Ferns love the shade. Broms don't need much water, so long as their tank is full and ferns can get by so long as it is damp. Or you could put say and "indoor" type palm/s in a pot there - "indoor" plants are generally rainforest plants which can live happily in low light situations. Anything sold in a Nursery for "indoors" will do fine there except you need to remember to water potted plants a bit more usually than ones in the garden.

[Scarlett Patrick]

if the cucumber can twine up into the stair railings to get sun it won't matter if the roots are shaded

other things you could try would be:

* cardamom
* turmeric
* ginger
* galangal
* gotu kola/ Centella asiatica (more medicinal than edible really)
* coffee bush (but you'd have to prune it)
* surinam spinach
* comfrey (again more medicinal/ useful than edible )
* asparagus (but you'd need to improve the soil and drainage)
* pit pit
* passionfruit vine (they love cool shady roots)
* mint

cheers SJP

[Addy]

Thanks for this list, Scarlett! We've got a long narrow shady area south side of the house, beside the boundary fence, at the moment I've got monsteria and some groundcover. I'll make a ginger and tumeric bed there!

[Scarlett Patrick]

:)

[Nicole Rankin]

The cucumber grows out from under the stairs and down the garden path, where it gets heaps of sun. We've grown Syrian cucumbers from the same spot before with success - this one we have now is Marketmore. Will be interesting to see how it goes.
The herbs we have there are chives, sage and oregano, they've been there for years and have stayed reasonably healthy.
Even thought the soil is clay beneath, there's a decent layer of compost and mulch on top.

I love fresh asparagus, so might give it ago. Mint we had growing there but it's now in a pot as it spread too much in the garden.
Will look up qld arrowroot as I've never heard of it. Does it taste good?
Cheers :)

[Scarlett Patrick]

no, it hasn't got much taste at all - the starchy pith from inside the stems is edible, it's like a cornstarch sort of thing, you can make biscuits etc from it, but mostly it's used for pig food i reckon - sort of marginal as an edible really

[Florence]

I feed the leaves to the chooks, they seem to like it.. it suppose to be good for the compost too..

[Addy]

You can peel the roots, and slice fine, and deepfry till crisp - like potato crisps - really yummy!

[Addy]

Here's a link to Isabell Shipard's info about arrowroot :
http://www.herbsarespecial.com.au/free-herb-information/arrowroot.html

[Nicole Rankin]

Thanks :) Arrowroot sounds like it could be a goer. I prolly wouldn't deepfry, but we often slice potatoes, baste in olive oil then bake...I wonder if arrowroot would taste OK done this way? Maybe worth a try.

[Donna]

Asparagus is great, but it takes 7 years from seed or 2 - 3 years if you buy 3 yo crowns. It also takes up a bit of room as you are *supposed* to plant them at least 45cm apart.

I planted 10 3yo crowns last year and we harvested about 3 bunches (maybe four spears per plant?) - the older they get the more you can harvest. I have planted another 20 3yo crowns this year so should be in for a real treat next year!