any leaf vegetables, perennial onions & perennial leeks, possibly in your area strawberries but I'd check that out, mostly green veg & probably some root veg like carrot, parsnip and radish would do wonderfully well there. I think Rhubarb would do well, but asparagus needs more sun on it's fronds ...

Like yours, I also have two beds in the side yard with about 3-4 hr of direct sun. I grow mostly herbs, garlic, and some greens like chard there.

I agree that asparagus wouldn't do well but I don't think rhubarb would either. Shade gardening is pretty much limited to leafy greens and herbs for a high level of tolerance. But some root vegetables like the carrots and onions mentioned above will "tolerate" it.

Dave

I have not heard of perennial leeks. How does that work? My husband likes to cook with leeks.

I'm hoping to try things that are not readily available, so unless growing your own carrots is very different from store bought carrots (I wouldn't know, so if they are, please do tell me!), I'll pass on those. Pardon my vegetable ignorance: I've only grown tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers. Even lettuce I had no luck with, it was so bitter.

What about beets? Are there other root vegetables besides carrots and onions and leeks that will tolerate a short day?

And, what kind of greens besides chard would you suggest ? I've never used it but maybe it's time, I know it's popular but I've never known what to do with it. Spinach? Dill?

Thank you!

Perennial Leeks

Dill is a herb so it will do ok. There are lots of leafy greens - spinach, leaf lettuce, Romaine, chard, collards, mesculun, etc. They are all primarily salad vegetables but many are also eaten cooked. You can easily find recipes for each searching by name.

Shade gardening is very problematic and limiting but there are several discussions here about it that the search will pull up for you if interested.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: List of leafy greens

linnea,

In the book "Lighting Up Profits" Paul Fisher talks about research done by James Faust and a concept known as Daily Light Integral. This is the amount of usable light (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) plants need to be productive. Vegetables need about 22 mols per day, with a mol being an accumulation of the PAR.

On a summer day, direct sunlight will provide about 10,000 footcandles but I'll use 9,000 FCs. Multiply the 9,000 by .000718 (the value of PAR light from sunlight) times the number of hours per day it receives it.

9,000 x .000718 - 6.462 mols per hour. Four hours of this light will give you over 25 mols per day - more than enough for even tomatoes or peppers. Even if you average only 8,000 FCs during the entire period, you'll still get nearly 23 mols per day.

This page explains DLI if you are interested in reading more about it.

Mike

"... bed is now mostly shaded from 3 pm onward. The only period of full sun it gets is from (more or less) 10 am to 3pm. 4-5 hours, tops."

Is that now, or in the middle of the growing season? What is shade now may be sun later.

The basic rule is that fruits that come from a flower (esp the tropical types), such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, and corn are the least tolerant of shade. These are the SUN KINGS of the annuals.

Yes, peas and beans and other things come from flowers too, but they will tolerate partial shade far better. Any annuals other than the Sun Kings should grow in your available sunlight.

Re: your lettuce problem: the sweetest lettuce grows fast and is never stressed from lack of water or too much heat. Try them near the edge of your shade line, and they may do far better than in the past.

Homegrown carrots taste MUCH better than the store-bought ones. Grow a small patch this year and see. Just don't use manure in the bed, it will cause the roots to fork. If you manured the bed last year, it should be fine.

Sue

Thanks for all the suggestions. I like all kinds of salad greens so that sounds very promising. Ditto the beans. I will have to fence for those, though, as animals nipping the newly emerged shoots have always been a problem. That's true for most salad greens too, isn't it? It's been so long for those I don't remember.

I WAS doing tomatoes, melons, and cucumbers; so no wonder they were failing to perform.

The sun amounts I was stating are for after the deciduous trees leaf out. Before that, I have more sun. But there is a still a big blue spruce shading the bed at all times in later afternoon.

I hate to grow things that are cheap to buy when they are ripe in my garden, but carrots is the exception. A freshly pulled carrot tastes SOOOO much better than one that has been sitting in a box, a truck, a warehouse, a store, etc. My kids HATED carrots, but they will eat them fresh from the garden by the handful. Last year we tried Purple Haze carrots and they loved them even more. Yum!

This is an interesting thread. I grow parsley in the shade in the summertime and it does great, even when it is 100 degrees outside.

Many of my decorative plants died due to the unusual frost this year so I am thinking of utilizing those partial shade areas to grow winter crops in the summer.

I noticed that all my brocolli was about to bolt except the one planted in partial shade so I'm thinking brocolli may work there as well. Had to cut all the rest of it so it's baby brocolli tonight :)

I was also considering cilantro, lettuces and cabbage.

I have never been able to sucessfully grow root veggies in the shade. I think they need mild weather but a sunny place.

Ania

In Phoenix, I use my shade garden to extend my seasons. I still have lettuce growing despite 98 degree days and it's sweet! I can get away with a year round, self-seeding parsley patch which wouldn't otherwise survive. Have you tried fresh picked Italian parsley in spaghetti sauce or chicken soup? My garlic chives do wonderfully. Chard survives our heat and self-seeds. We have greens to eat all summer because of the chard.
You will be able to extend the season of peas, cabbage and other cool weather plants and may get several batches of cilantro in our shaded garden. Also, check out Asian greens. And when it gets really hot your beans should continue to produce, even the yard longs.

Arugula!

I grow tomatoes in about that much sun--not the highest yields, but okay.

I have mostly half-sun garden areas for vegetables because I don't have a super reliable watering system for the drought months in my full sun areas, and I have concentrated on "quality of life" harvests. For me that is greens and herbs that I can add to other foods and that "hold" awhile in the garden so if workweek is busy, I can still use, and things that overwinter so I get late fall, winter and spring use. Things that I can wander out and pick or cut a little to perk up a meal.

--cilantro and parsley--add a few leaves or grow enough to add a whole bunch to specific recipes--instead of having to buy and then find it slimy in the frig just when you need it.
--arugula is high-value 'cause you can harvest a cupful of leaves every few days and add to purchased Romaine or other lettuce and mmmmm good. Also mizuna, red mustard, kale. Of course in your site you could grow actual other leaf and head lettuces but I find it more efficient to grow the spicy additions.
--collards--I cook both the greens, and the "flowers" when they start to go, in the spring (now). I overplanted this past fall and finally had to put some on the compost pile this spring so I could move on.

Agree that peas and some other things tolerate shade better than say eggplant.
--basil really does better for me in partial sun--it wilts in all day sun unless totally watered.

Here is another thing I am going to work on--in areas that have less sun, you may need to get a really good start on the seedlings. So, I had been putting out transplants of things too late, or starting seeds in mid-fall when if I had started earlier when the sun was "higher" then I think they would have done better. Or if you find that seeds grow too spindly you might find that transplants do better.