One question. How did your vegetable bed perform last year? Most vegetables require 6 hours of full sunlight.

Lettuces, spinach, arugula perform quite well for me in a partly-shady bed, especially since I sow the seeds in mid-April, before the trees leaf out. Also some herbs (mint, coriander, parsley) grow fine.

Thanks everyone for their replies.

It performed very well last year, but it wasn't shaded then. This year I'm getting a new gazebo that will shade it.

I've read that leafy vegetables (not those that grow a fruit or a root) will be good for shady beds. So I will probably try spinich and lettuce, perhaps some herbs too.

Thanks :)
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I've not given that a try yet, but I suppose if you harvest leafy vegetables when relatively young, it will be okay. It's possible you have an area that isn't considered deep shade and so it just might thrive.

I share a similar situation as yours. I have a light shade backyard with one spot that receives approximately the same amount of strong light as you have. In order for me to set up my vegetable garden, I have to resort to a bagged method which can be set on any difficult areas.

I have had some of my best tomatoes in partial shade. They maintained root moisture much better than those in more sun and the tomatoes were bigger because of the root moisture content. Swiss chard, greens, carrots (more light is better). Experiment and have fun.

mcpeg, can you elaborate? What kind of tomatoes? I have several heirloom tomatoes needing to be planted and if you had success in partial shade, that gives me hope.