When we look at garden catalogues, almost every plant description mentions “Full Sun”.  Almost every common food plant seems to require it, but there are many exciting, delicious, and beneficial crops that prefer shade.  That’s important information, because the mature trees and woodlands that are most often responsible for creating that shade are tremendously valuable.  If we view our trees as a hindrance to our gardening and farming efforts, then we become more likely to remove them, or to avoid planting them in the first place.  When we truly understand the ecosystems trees create, we can enter into a mutually beneficial partnership with them.  Furthermore, many of these shade-loving food crops are native to Midwestern USA.  When we grow native food plants, we nurture not only ourselves but also the beautiful community of wildlife, birds, butterflies, and other insects that depend on those plants.

A Smattering of Deep Shade Crops:

• Ramps (native)
• Ostrich Ferns aka Fiddleheads (native)
• American Ginseng (native high-value medicinal crop)
• Edible & Medicinal Mushrooms (native and non-native varieties)
• Nuts or fruits from the large trees creating the deep shade (native and non-native)
• Maple Syrup (the best syrup trees (sugar maple & red maple) are both native!)

A Sampler of Woodland Edge Crops (part shade):

• Blackberries (native)
• Black Raspberries (native)
• Red Raspberries (not native)
• Violets (Native violet leaves & flowers are great in salads. Non-native sweet violet flowers are used in perfumes, candies, and flavor syrups.)
• Red Mulberries (Morus Rubra – native. Not to be confused with the more commonly found invasive white mulberry Morus Alba.)
• Grapes (several species are native)
• American Elder (Flowers and berries are used for food and medicine. Native.)
• Spicebush (Bay Laurel relative. Leaves are used for tea, and berries are used like allspice. Native!)
• Sassafras (Bay Laurel relative. Leaves are an important ingredient in gumbo (file).)
• Honeyberry (non-native but non-invasive fruit crop)
• Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana, native)
• Stinging Nettles (The stinging mechanism deactivates when cooked properly, and then they are a delicious and highly nutritious vegetable. Some nettles are not native, but Urtica dioica subsp. gracilis is native!)

Woodland cultivation poses different advantages and different challenges than full sun gardening. Some special considerations include:

• Cleaning up downed trees and limbs after storms
• Maintaining access paths to the planting areas
• Removing invasive species
• Removing poison ivy
• Reducing Mosquitoes

It’s a fascinating topic and we’re just getting started. I look forward to learning more and more about woodland gardening as I gain experience, and sharing that new knowledge with you here. I hope you’ll try a shade crop or two if you have a woodsy spot on your property! And more importantly, I hope you’ll look at trees as garden friends rather than foes.