I just walked out to my porch and I don't even get 4hrs of direct sun.. only the front of the porch does. sigh.

Well, how much sun do you get? Dappled sun, indirect sun???
You can still grow veggies in some part sun. Especially in the fall/winter if you have trees that loose leaves.

Think green veggies - lettuces, bunching onions, asian greens, some leafy herbs...some things could possibly do quite well for you.

GGG

Don't give up! I moved from New England myself and learned that a couple hours of sun here is worth 6 in New Hampshire. Seriously, you'll be amazed.

^^ What laylaa said.

i think the correct answer is, "try it and see what happens". i was quite amazed, and had several people tell me i wouldn't be able to grow veggies in my yard, especially tomatoes, because i didn't get enough sun.

hogwash.

i actually had to stick my peppers under some other stuff so they only get filtered sun all day long, because the sun was actually doing them more harm than good.

grow what you like. give it a shot. what is the worst that can happen?

if you plan to container garden, please give serious thought about the root structure of your plants and moisture. for example, the first year i container gardened with tomatoes, i used ~1 gallon pots. i got maybe 3-4 good tomatoes on each plant (all were larger sized fruit producers rather than "cherry" sized). the following year, i stepped that up to 2 gallon pots and mulched the top of the pot and saw significantly better harvest and less watering. this year, i went to 4 gallon, 14" opening pots and mulch along with a "moisture control" soil product from Miracle Gro, and tied the store-bought cages to the side of the deck for support and they went completely ape! they're almost doing better than I'd see them do when planted in the ground. go figure?

i've had a lot of people tell me i can't grow things here, can't do things there...and a lot of the time, it's totally inaccurate. many plants will grow in our climate. the main variation you will see based on light (from my experience) is color of foliage/quantity of flowering/quantity and quality of fruit.

bottom line: don't be scared, be a pioneer! adventure! the worst that could happen is ... you'd become self-sufficient and not hafta hit the produce aisle at the store as often!

I have to agree with satellitehead -- go for the try and see method. But first, take a piece of paper and assign your yard zones - like "right half of front yard" or "area by stone wall" -- however you want to do it so you can identify the areas in question. Then one day when you are home, start checking every zone every hour. Mark it as sun, shade, or dappled light. You will then be able to tell exactly which area gets the most sun.
I think another reason it is ok to have a little less sun is that our heat and sun get so very intense at times. I think the plants actually appreciate a little break. I have my raised beds in my sunniest spot, which gets about 4 and a half hours sun. I have had great success! And I really like the Ichiban variety of eggplant. Nice mild flavor!
Good luck!

I agree with all of the above. Containers are good, but the larger the better. If growing in shade, you'll have best success with plants where you eat the leaves or stems rather than the flowers or fruits. But try a tomato or eggplant and see what happens. Also, how shady are you talking? Filtered sunlight is a big difference from deep forest shade. So if you're getting filtered light, you might do just fine with just the 4 hours of direct sun. Gardening is experimenting. Give it a go! And let us know how you do.

Best of Luck!
Susan