Herbs love the full sun! Or at least, so say a great many herb authorities, and for the most part it's true – but what are you to do when you have great big splotches of dappled shade and large areas of full shade in your garden and want to grow herbs? Well, you could decide to stick impatiens in every semi shaded spot in your garden for a bit of colour and rather get your fresh herbs from the supermarket shelves – although they are never quite the same as the home-grown ones! Or you could always move house to somewhere with a brighter and sunnier garden – but although you may love fresh herbs for food, healing, beauty or ‘just because’, moving house is most certainly not really a viable option! The good news is that you needn’t take any drastic measures; you can very successfully grow many herbs, some even with full sun preferences in your shady garden!   What does all the gardening lighting terms mean? Quite simply, a plant’s preferred lighting conditions refer to how much light (sun) is needed during a full day cycle for the plant to grow at its optimum. Horticulturists have come up with the terms to help us distinguish the different lighting conditions: a plant that is said to be a “full sun” specimen will thrive when placed in a spot that receives at least 6 – 8 hours of full sun during a day. Similarly, a plant that is marked for semi-shade, dappled shade or filtered shade will grow healthy and strong when it receives around 6 – 8 hours of dappled shade throughout the day, this is normally where some of the sunlight is blocked by overhead trees or structures such as trellises. In the garden, an area is classified as partial or light shade when it receives a minimum of 6 hours of direct sunlight, but with at least 4 of them in the less intensive morning sun. Areas where there is a lack of direct sunlight are called full or densely shaded and with the exception of a few wildflowers, not many plants survive in this unless there is a lot of ambient or reflected light. It is important to note that most of the shade-termed lighting conditions do not mean that the plant should be in full sun for half a day and full shade for the rest!   Take all the growing conditions into consideration One must remember that every form of gardening is artificial and depend on its success on matching as far as possible the natural environment of plants. Finding out where your chosen herb plants normally grow wild will give you a good indication of their soil, moisture, nutrition and lighting needs. It is important to take all of the growing conditions into consideration when planting your herbs. More often than not, balancing these conditions to provide the best possible, albeit not the ideal natural conditions, prove to be more than enough to produce a healthy, lush and potent herb. Luckily also, herbs are among the easiest plants to grow and they are definitely also the most forgiving when it comes to providing for their preferred conditions. Many herbs prefer full sun, but will do well enough with some partial shade and then there are those that thrive in shaded areas, but that will grow nicely still in a bit of sunshine.   Plan your gardening Indeed, gardening with herbs in the shade can provide a welcome retreat from the burning sun in your garden. The exact amount of shade a particular herb will tolerate depend very much on the intensity of the sun and other regional climatic factors. Another very important factor to take into consideration is the yearly cycle of light in the garden – how does the sun move with the seasons? Will you have a plant that has perfect summer conditions, but is in totally the wrong spot in winter? Plan your herb garden so that for the most part of the year, as with the most part of a day, the plant is as near to its ideal conditions as possible. Also take into consideration the growth of your herb plants and other plants around them – maybe you have a small sapling that currently lets through dappled shade, but in a year or two’s time, it might be quite big and dense and leave very little sunlight through.   Container gardening Plants in containers are wonderful if you have shifting light conditions as you could move the plants to suit the seasonal changes. Be careful though as plants in containers often need a double take on their growing conditions – if your plant states full sun and moderate water, but is being grown in a pot in the full sun, it will probably need a little bit more water than “moderate”. Or, place the plant so that it will get some dappled shade or full shade toward the end of the day rather than being in the full sun all the time.   How will my plants compare? While it is fair to say that for culinary and medicinal use, most of the very aromatic herbs, as well as the hardier wood-stemmed perennials need plenty of warm sunlight to really develop their essential oils and to ripen into their growth, the worst that you can suffer if you plant these in semi shade is that you will sacrifice some of the plant’s potency. Sometimes these plants look much lusher than the ones planted in full sun, but they often do not taste just as sharp or smell quite as sweet as their ideal-condition counterparts.   Herbs that do fine in shaded areas So finally, to answer the very frequently asked question of “What herbs grow in the shade?” here is a list of plants that should prove to be perfect for your shaded garden: Agrimony – Agrimonia eupatoria Anise (Giant) Hyssop – Agasatache foeniculum Angelica – Angelica archangelica Bergamot (Bee Balm) – Monarda didyma Borage – Borago officinalis Bugle – Ajuga reptans Chamomile (German) – Matricaria recutita Chervil – Anthrisus cerefolium Chives – Allium schoenoprasum (and Garlic Chives – Allium tuberosum) Comfrey – Symphytum officinale Coneflower – Echinacea purpurea, E. pallida Coriander – Coriandrum sativum (will need sun to ripen seed) Feverfew – Tanacetum parthenium Ginger – Zingiber officinale Hyssop – Hyssopus officinalis Lady’s Mantle – Alchemilla vulgaris Lemon Verbena – Alloysa triphyla Lemon Balm – Melissa officinalis Mints – Mentha spp (e.g. Apple Mint, Chocolate Mint, Corn Mint, Corsican Mint, Eau de Cologne Mint, Garden Mint, Ginger Mint, Peppermint, Pineapple Mint, Spearmint, Slender Mint and Water Mint) Stinging Nettle – Urtica dioica Parsley – Petroselinum crispum Pelargonium – Pelargonium spp (Particularly the Peppermint scented one) Pennyroyal Mint – Mentha pulegium Primrose – Primula vulgaris Rocket – Eruca versicaria subsp sativa (will need sun to ripen seed) Soapwort – Sapponaria spp (Does better in less shaded areas, but tolerates dappled shade very well) Strawberry – Fragaria vesca Sweet Woodruff – Galium odoratum Valerian – Valeriana officinalis Violets – Viola spp (e.g. Heartsease, Sweet Violet and Pansies) Wormwood – Artemisia absinthium Yarrow – Achillea millefolium   Personal experience Although Oregano and Sweet Marjoram (Origanum spp) grows much more vigorously in full sun, I’ve had great success, in particular with the creeping oregano in a semi-shaded area. A favourite of Mediterranean cooking, my Bay tree (Laurus nobilis) is also as happy in its lightly shaded position as its friends in a sunnier spot. This year I have managed to grow a most spectacular sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) and dark opal basil (Ocimum basilicum var purparescens) pair in semi-shade. Dill (Anethum graveolens) and Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculoides) are also on the list of my plants that grow quite well in dappled shade. Even a prostrate Rosemary (Rosmarinus spp) I planted in a very shady area in my garden seems to be doing rather nicely. The other typical Meditteraneans such as Sage – Salvia spp (e.g. Common Sage, Purple Sage, Tricolor Sage, Golden Sage, Pineapple Sage and Clary Sage) and Thyme -Thymus spp (e.g. Common Thyme, Lemon Thyme, Orange Thyme, Silver Posie Thyme, Creeping Thyme and Mother of Thyme) can also be grown in dappled shade with a fair amount of success, although I've only tried a Pineapple Sage, Purple Sage and Creeping Thyme myself. As part of the mint family, my catnip (Nepeta cataria) also tolerate some shade as does one or two of my beautiful Lavenders (Lavandula spp). Another group of plants that I can recommend for shady garden areas are the silver-leafed and variegated plants as these have really attractive foliage that seem to shimmer in dappled light (try the silver Artemesias (artimesia spp)). If you have the space in your garden, Lovage (Levisticum officinale) is also a gorgeous herb for partial shade. I have run-away Gotu Kola (a.k.a Pennywort / Centella / Hydrocotyle – Centella asiatica) that grows under my granadilla and receives the minimum amount of morning sun and is incredibly happy in its spot!   Go paint your shady garden with herbs! So go on now, let these wonderful herbs bring their interesting shapes and textures, scents and colours to your shady garden spots! Even when they are not in flower, their foliage will create attractive gardenscapes. Planting herbs in the shadier part of your garden also provide you with the opportunity to mix them with your other plants to create different landscape styles. You can combine your herbs with some statuesque shade-loving garden specimens or interplant them with beautiful little groundcovers and wild flowers. The shaded herb garden is your palette – go paint!