Experienced gardeners: suburban gardening for the "space"/sun challenged?

[Halftime Hope]

I have a small suburban backyard that poses some difficulty in gardening for two reasons:

 

1) shade. We have wooden fences on three sides that block out some sun, two 20' crepe myrtles in the corners, that provide filtered shade, and then the house. There are only a few small areas that get enough sun to grow sun-loving vegs. Ironically those areas are on one of the fencelines and along two brick walls of the house, so they'd be well suited to "gutter growing".

 

2) The beautiful yardfull of shade-tolerant St. Augustine that we put in two springs ago. Yep, we did it ourselves, so there would be mutiny if I suggested tearing any of it up without making a good go of some other gardening first, to prove that I had the commitment to work it. (Please, no flames, it's just where we are at the moment...baby steps, and all that.)

 

We love salads and low carb veggies, so could you make suggestions in that vein?

 

Beside planting a few containers (tomatoes?), here's what I have to work with and the categories of plant that will work in each space:

 

Full-sun, small plants: I've gotten happy, helpful consent form dh to try some "gutter gardening" attached to our fences and on two backyard brick walls that get plenty of sunlight. We love salads and low carb veggies, so could you make suggestions for things to try besides the usual leafy greens?

 

Less than full sun, under a high, filtered sun canopy: I can plant a few more shade-tolerant plants in the beds around/under the crepe myrtles and in the south-facing bed along the house (3x30'), also under some high canopy, so filtered sunlight. Any ideas there? Those beds could include bigger plants that were too big for the gutters.

 

Full-sun, but need something more "landscape-ish" looking: I have one front yard bed that faces west (2x20') and one small round bed (7' diameter under a new little tree) in the front yard that would have full sun...I could easily plant those, but the plants would have to look "presentable", not "backyard gardenish" to keep the nosy HOA happy. There two areas would have to be something *very* heat tolerant, as it is west facing, in the hot summer TX heat.

 

Thanks for your input! I so appreciate any suggestsions.

Edited March 1, 2011 by Valerie(TX)

[Debbie in OR]

I highly recommend the book Easy Container Combos: Vegetables & Flowers by Pamela Crawford. I was trying to figure out the same thing because the house we are moving into has plenty of yard (nearly 2 acres) but none of it fenced (deer and other critters) but we have several off the ground decks. Plus, the people who we bought the house from left about 7 huge wooden wine barrels that have been cut in half so I figured we could potentially have a large container garden with them.

 

Anyhow, I checked the book out from the library and was so impressed with the information and how easy the instructions were, that I went ahead and bought the book. It has great reference info on what will grow in what areas, which veggies do well in containers, how much sun/shade, what fertilizer is the best, what season to start each veggie in and how to stagger them...she even includes info on how tall or round each veggie becomes so that you make sure and plant it in the right container. I learned from her book why my carrots never grew last year. It's an easy read, as well...not technical, lots of pictures, but very thorough.

 

Plus, all of the containers are so beautiful...mixed with flowers and ornamental grasses. I can't wait to have them sitting on our decks!

Edited March 1, 2011 by Debbie in OR

[Okra]

Question:

 

Are you only looking for vegetables/fruits? Or other plants in general? It sounds like you are only looking for edibles. BUT, If you are looking for flowers that would work in filtered shade, I have had luck with the penstemmon species (all kinds), May night Salvia (there are loads of salvia, and most grow in full sun), and Coreopsis (Moonbeam, and the regular kind also) This might not be what you are looking for, as I believe that you are looking for veggies that grow in filtered sunlight.

 

I think that most vegetables really like sunlight, so it is hard to recommend veggies for filtered shade. But maybe someone else might know.

 

My mother-in-law has had great success planting blueberries and raspberries in pots. They also look really nice in the pots. They need full sun, and they like acidic soil, so you have to be a little bit careful on the soil, or use regular soil and fertilizer for acid-loving plants.

 

Maybe someone else has better ideas.

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[Halftime Hope]

either veggies, berries, or herbs. But, you are right, I might be able to container garden in the front yard if I combined pretties with edibles. Hmmm!

 

Please keep the ideas rolling! Thanks so much!

[Debbie in OR]

We love salads and low carb veggies, so could you make suggestions in that vein?

 

 

 

I was just looking through the book I had recommended and many of her containers are full of lettuce and cabbages...apparently they grow very well in containers.

[Okra]

Just a note on the cabbages. There is a certain kind of white butterfly (it is really beautiful), but the caterpillars eat cabbage. So, you might want to be careful putting the cabbage in your front yard, as it could get eaten by the butterfly caterpillars. I know other people that grow cabbage and keep it netted so the butterflies can't get in to lay eggs. I'm not certain that these would be a front yard crop. Back yard is probably better.