Said It Here

What vegetables actually grow in a shady backyard?

Most traditional garden crops fail and look weak when they receive only two hours of sunlight because they require full sun to produce a harvest. Gardeners keep planting sun-loving crops like tomatoes and herbs in shady spots and getting nowhere, unsure of what alternatives will actually survive or how to adapt their soil.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Thinking about trying leafy greens or root crops instead of sun-loving vegetables like tomatoes and herbs
  2. 2
    leaving the area alone
  3. 3
    growing shade-tolerant plants like hostas, ferns, and coral bells

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/Landscaping2 people · September 2026

“This is my front yard and it received little sun because my house casts shadow on most of it. I did however plant three limelight hydrangeas in the spot that does receive the most amount of sun. Should I plant anything else in the area behind it or leave it alone considering it gets little to no sun?”source ↗

thesnowing · r/Landscaping · 11 upvotes

“The back third of my garden barely gets two hours of sun now since the neighbor's oak filled in.”source ↗

“Tomatoes gave up last year and the herbs looked pretty weak too.”source ↗

“I keep planting the same stuff in the shade and getting nowhere”source ↗

“I'm not sure what kind of harvest I'd actually get or if I'd need to change the soil for them.”source ↗

Ill-Wing-5103 · r/Landscaping · 2 upvotes

Where this came up

r/Landscapinggardeninglandscaping

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