Morning sun really helps plants dodge some disease problems associated with shade.

I have been growing in a "shady corner" garden for over 15 years and get quite a lot out of it. There are 5 trees on the south and west within 50' of that little, triangle of ground!

The shade begins to move across that garden about 10am. By noon, or a few minutes later, it is entirely in the shade. The sunlight breaks thru the evergreens every now and then. There is ample blue sky to the north and east and that helps.

Of course, I grow lettuce but green onions are usually on the east end and often joined by leeks. I've also grown spinach and lots of basil. On the furthest corner to the north, the sunniest location, I once grew a couple of pumpkin plants. They did fine but wanted to vine out into the driveway.

Oh! That ground is entirely in the shade right now and has been for at least, 6 weeks. It will be another 6 weeks before that horizon-hugging winter sun is high enough to clear the hill on the south! Yeah, there is no hurrying seeds and plants into that cold soil. I think of it as a summer salad garden. Sun-lovers have to be planted elsewhere.

Steve

basil LOVES afternoon shade and will bolt quickly in colorado if you don't get it some.

Sounds like your flat sunny patch is a good bet, 6 hours of sun is full sun in my book. Some plants might need a touch more for full production but you can grow tomatoes and leafy greens no problem!

Thanks Steve and goldenguy! I'm a big fan of trying to work with what you've got in terms of climate and land, but I'm also a fan of trying to grow what you will use. My family will eat a lot of lettuce and spinach, so its good to know I'll be able to put my shade to some productive use. Other shade lovers we aren't so crazy about-- I just can't get my people to eat much Swiss chard or kale unfortunately.

Unfortunately we eat a ton of sun loving veggies-- peppers, eggplant, tomatoes-- I'm going to have to maybe tuck them in to the flower beds.

How does asparagus do around here? Any thoughts on brassicas? We don't eat much cabbage or cauliflower but we can certainly plow through a good amount of Brussels sprouts and broccoli.

This post was edited by GertrudeJ on Thu, Jan 15, 15 at 12:37

My main garden is a big fenced area in the far side of my front lawn, lol. All the neighbors love it (honest!). The guy across the street even got mad at me when I dug up my basil last year (turns out he had been helping himself to it whenever he needed some, lol)

You can make also put several small gardens in the sunny areas you have instead of choosing just one of them for a single large garden.

Another thing to consider is building lasagna beds or just amending your existing soil. You need not build elevated frame raised beds unless you really want to.

I have had good success in a sunny spot with some eggplants and tomatoes, peppers are a little trickier due to our (relatively) short growing season and rabbits/ground squirrels.

I have the best success with peppers in containers. They tend to fruit earlier for me and I can move them inside in late September/early October to finish ripening whatever is left. Of course, they also happen to be the ONLY thing I can grow in a container lol.

Good point with not needing framed raised beds. "Mounded" beds are what I prefer and people have been planting straight in the ground since the dawn of agriculture.

I do what Zach does for peppers, grow them in containers, and move them around as the season dictates. Same for egg plant. Tucking tomatoes in with the flowers is a good idea.

Brassicas do pretty well here with the cool nights, late and early frosts, etc.

Thanks zach and david. I'm keeping track of sunshine and shadows across the various sites this week to see where various plants might do best. I think I might have to tuck edibles in the beds in the front yard, but the more I think about it, the more attractive I think it will be (I'll just be sure to plant a few extras for the bunnies and neighbors!) I was trying for raised beds just so I could control for critters easier, but I might just have to go with what sun I have.

Interesting about the peppers in pots... I'll give that a try. I usually have a miserable track record with potted anything, but I think I just need to set up a watering/fertilizing schedule and stick to it.

Ordered some seed catalogs last week-- can't wait to see what I end up with :-)

I was going to mention containers for pretty much anything.. I had a relatively extensive container garden last season and will have one twice as big this season. As Zach said, peppers do exceptionally well in containers (I harvested nearly 900 peppers from 17 plants last season). Eggplant does well, too (my single plant got over 4' tall and produced 78 Japanese eggplant).

The main reason I container garden is strictly because of the mobility of it all. I moved all of my pepper containers into the garage several times last fall to avoid frost damage and had gobs of peppers through early November. I would've certainly lost them if they stayed outdoors.

If you're not interested in container gardening over the long haul, it is certainly a good way to grow some things until you're able to construct raised beds or amend the existing soil.

This post was edited by NBM81 on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 14:32