I MOVED IN A NEW DIRECTION with my annual plantings this year. I grew flowers and vegetables in large pots placed randomly around my wooden deck. My old garden in the yard only gets about two hours of sunlight a day, which is not enough for most of my annual plant choices. Shade from the neighbor’s hundred-year-old maple tree is winning the battle for sunlight.
My garden has morphed into quite a settlement of Goldenrods Solidago spp. They are prolific - a native plant with little regard for my other plants. By encouraging Goldenrods you support late-season insect pollinators—bees, beetles, butterflies, moths, and wasps—that depend on it. I accept Mother Nature’s ways with a smile. I no longer fear bees at my age. I watch these critters work Goldenrod's yellow florets, collecting the nectar and pollen available in August.
I’m confident this shade issue can be turned into a new opportunity.
What about growing red raspberries?
Through my research, I have discovered that most raspberry varieties can grow in partial shade and still produce a good crop. Raspberries are more tolerant of shade than other fruits. Armed with this new knowledge, I will be moving my white hydrangeas to my shady garden and will establish a little 5-foot section for a raspberry patch in my mixed sun and shade spots that had been home to my hydrangeas.
Life’s challenges continue. I like it!
Light and shade create all the variety, charm, and beauty of life.
Leo Tolstoy
The following fact sheet is from MSU Extension for those who have further interest in raspberry varieties. https://www.canr.msu.edu/uploads/files/aabi/raspberry_variety_factsheet-final.pdf
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