ozbuc
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Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2013 10:34 am
Location: N.E. Long Beach CA

Shade herbs

Hello all from a garden newbie and his newbie wife from Southern California.

My wife and I would like to grow some herbs this growing season. We have a south facing patio that is 2/3 covered by a balcony. My patio gets a strip 2x4 ft of direct sunlight that moves with the sun. Our patio is all concrete.

So my question is, are there any herbs that grow well in low to indirect sun light and that would grow well in containers.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

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PunkRotten
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Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
Location: Monterey, CA.

I asked the same question on another forum awhile back and this is the response I got:

Lovage does well in part shade.

Self-heal and dandelion will grow in part shade. They grow any place they want with little effort. Mints may do ok,
but I would expect them at the very least to get leggy.

Some partial shades or full shades (depends on plant or location) I have are: feverfew, monarda, sweet woodruff,
violets, trillium, blootroot, twinleaf, black cohosh, blue cohosh, matdenhair fern, white baneberry, ramps, wild geranium,
solomon's seal, wild strawberry, wild ginger, great lobelia, jack-in-the-pulpit, mayapple, patridgeberry, lady's mantle, etc.
Most of these are *not* culinary but are medicinals. Shade loving native medicinals for your region may vary much from mine.

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

OP is also in SoCal, so their conditions shouldn't be too different from yours Punk.

Some more traditional herbs that should do well in your shady containers, ozbuc, include parsley, mint, lemon balm, chives, cilantro, culantro, ginger, and perhaps thyme, and oregano, depending on how much sun.

Much of what PunkR listed are what I know as eastern woodland native wildflowers. I grow them here. They may have western species as well, but many of them need cold dormancy. All those things like jack-in-the pulpit, wild ginger, trillium, twinleaf, solomon seal, etc need cold dormancy and will NOT do well for you in SoCal. Ozbuc is in zone 10, I don't think most of that stuff will handle zone 10.

Mayapple is one that is listed to zone 10. But again, most of what Punk listed, including the mayapple, are what we call spring ephemerals. They are very pretty in a woodland setting. But they are born, bloom, fruit, and die back in a relatively short period of time. Half the year, it would leave you with what looks like an empty container. You can plant some summer-fall stuff on top of it, but for SoCal, probably not what you are looking for.

Punk, you are also in SoCal. Is there any of what you listed that you actually grow yourself?
Last edited by rainbowgardener on Sat Feb 02, 2013 1:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ozbuc
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Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2013 10:34 am
Location: N.E. Long Beach CA

Thanks for the replies. The herbs that Rainbowgardener was exactly what I was looking to plant. We will proceed with our plan and post results or more questions.



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