Lawton is in a pretty hot sunny part of the state and if the bed gets full sun in the morning--that would be about 6 hrs from sunup to noon in midsummer--you won't be severely limited to what you can grow. You may be able to carry cool season veggies a little longer into the summer by planting where they are shaded in the afternoon, but probably not too long because it is the heat as much as direct sun that does in lettuce, cabbage, etc. Dawn and Jay will be along with more detailed advice being closer to you than I am, but if it were me, I would just plant whatever I wanted and be grateful that I had shade in the evening to work in.

Hi Christina,

First, welcome to the Oklahoma Forum.

All shade is not created equal, so what will grow well in one type of shade might not grow well in another.

You also have to consider the type of soil in which you'll be planting. If it is a loose sandy loam or sandy soil (or can become loose and loamy with some amending) and if the tree roots are not everywhere in your yard sucking up the water, then vegetables will do better. If the soil is very dense clay or extemely rocky and if the tree roots are quite dense, you likely would need to build above-grade raised beds or do your veggie gardening in containers.

The kind of shade matters too, as do the number of hours of full, direct sun.

If the shade is a dense, heavy dark sort of shade, even crops that can tolerate shade may struggle in that location. Likely, they still would produce but might be less productive than they would be in brighter light or might be leggy and thin in comparison to the same plants grown in brighter light.

If the shade is not so dense and is more patchy or dappled, and is what you would consider "light shade", then the plants will have better odds of performing well.

In general, plants whose edible portions are leaves, stems, buds or small tubers/roots will tolerate a lot of shade, and crops grown for their leaves or stems would tolerate the most. Plants grown for their fruit, like tomatoes and melons, or for very large tubers or roots like potatoes most likely would not do as well in part shade, but there are even exceptions to that.

The crops that would perform best in partial shade would include leaf lettuce and other leafy greens like spinach, kale, Swiss chard, parsley, basil, mint, arugula, cress, collard greens, mustard greens, beet greens, endive and maybe cabbage.

Crops that likely would peform just fine if they get an hour or two of direct sun and then are in partial, dappled or light shade the rest of the day would include radishes, beets, onions, leeks, garlic, shallots, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, brussels sprouts (planted in mid-summer for a late fall harvest), kohlrabi, turnips and maybe potatoes.

Crops that likely would perform just fine with 2-4 hours of direct morning sun followed by partial shade would include eggplant, rhubarb (does better in our hot climate with morning sun/afternoon shade), some peppers (generally smaller-fruited ones), small tomatoes like cherry, grape, currant or pear-shaped bite-sized ones, cucumbers and eggplant. With large-fruited tomatoes, results vary. I did have a lot of container-grown tomatoes produce very well last year on 4-6 hours of sunlight, but with only 4 hours or less than 4, the will produce fewer fruit per plant but they'll still produce. In fact, some shade is desirable---12 or more hours of full sun in July and August is hard on tomato plants.

I haven't tried growing summer squash or winter squash in partial shade, so can't tell you anything about how they'd do. I suspect summer squash might do OK with morning sun and afternoon shade. With pumpkins, it depends on the kind of pumpkin. Some of them tolerate more shade than others. One pumpkin that's grown very well for me in a morning sun/afternoon shade situation is Seminole, which is not surprising considering its origin.

I also haven't tried growing green beans or cowpeas in partial shade, but think that of the two, green beans are more likely to tolerate some shade.

Remember that plants grown in more shade/less direct sun may not reach the same size as they would in full or nearly full sun, and they may not be quite as productive.

I have a very large pecan tree to the immediate west of my vegetable garden, so the plants in the western 1/3 of my garden get quite a lot of shade from about 12 or 1 p.m. on. I have been pleasantly surprised by how well many vegetables perform in a part-sun location.

Keep in mind, too, that sometimes all you have to do is remove a couple of lower limbs from large trees and that will allow quite a bit more light to reach the ground/plants.

Dawn

I am going to trim a few of the my neighbors branches (not much but they just keep growing in my way like crazy, I don't want to bend down to walk under them!)

I think I am going to slowly plant cauliflower, carrots (a few different types), spinach, lettuce, snap peas, cucumbers (slicing & pickle).

For most of those plants I will try adding a few more plants every 2 wks, as long the heat doesn't get too bad. I plan on getting a few different lettuces, some for the cooler season and some that is heat tolerant. Whatever surplus I have that can't freeze or can will go to the foodbank. They don't get enough fresh produce!

I think my biggest challenge is planting foods that most of my family will eat! I can't bring myself to plant things that I will be eating alone:(