almost no sun in our yard :(

[bluebirdiemama]

i don't know what ill be able to grow, any advise for me?
i want to grow yummy edibles and maybe some herbals/flowers
i do have a tiny bit of sun for about 6 hours

[lakeruby]

Most things that set any kind of fruit (including veggies) need full sun. But you may be able to grow some greens! I would try asian greens or some lettuce in the sunniest part of your yard and see what happens. I am in a similar situation, and only have sun out by the street in front of our house. So I have several rosemary bushes and containers of herbs, onions, and greens out there! We are also able to plant tomatoes there in the summer and get some fruit.

[Owen'nZoe]

I agree that you're more likely to have success with greens, but I would try any veggies that you really want to grow at least once. I've successfully grown tomatoes with 6 hours of sunlight (some of it filtered, even) in the past.

[WorldsBestMom]

Although some produce may grow and obtain their nutrients from sunlight, I would suggest you could do some research on which produce will have a better success rate of thriving in 6hrs of sunlight daily. So that you won't waste precious time and money.

[beautifulboy]

My father-in-law plants his tomatoes in the alley behind his house because he doesn't have proper sun in the yard, so there is hope for a shady yard! Plus tomatoes (and probably other veggies that need full sun and well-drained soil) do great in pots (we're looking into growing our tomatoes in pots upside down for the drainage this year, after getting the blight last year in the garden). Do you have a driveway or front stoop to put some plants and herbs?

[bluebirdiemama]

I guess I could put a pot of two outside our gate, or move them half way through the day.
I was planning on buying my friend seeds for her fav tomato , so ill just snag a couple and try them

anybody have a link for somewhere that has a good chart of growables and their sun needs?

[oceanbaby]

My mom has the same issue, so she has everything in pots with wheels on the bottom (oak barrels), and moves it around during the day to maximize sun exposure. She's grown almost everything, even small watermelons!

[gmvh]

Originally Posted by oceanbaby

My mom has the same issue, so she has everything in pots with wheels on the bottom (oak barrels), and moves it around during the day to maximize sun exposure. She's grown almost everything, even small watermelons!

I've tried several things in my low-light yard and this sounds like the best idea I've heard yet!

[rhiOrion]

I think herbs are way more adaptable than some people give them credit for. I grew herbs on my tiny little apartment patio that got pretty much NO direct sunlight (there'd be a sunbeam on the plants for an hour or two a day... maybe). And, honestly, they did better that year than the years where I've lived places with more sunlight!

[TheGirls]

6hrs a day is really not that bad. I wouldn't get too set on Tomatoes - they're one of the most sun-intensive crops out there - but it doesn't hurt to try. However 6 hrs would be enough to grow many herbs, and lettuce would be very very happy with that much sun. Beans seem to handle it too. My carrots did pretty well with limited sun last year...

[mumkimum]

We've had pretty good luck with eggplants in lower-sun areas of the yard, same with swiss chard. Of herbs, thyme seems to do pretty well almost everywhere, you might do okay with some kinds of sage, borage, and mints (but do those in containers). We have a less than ideal sun situation, so some things are iffy but we'll often give something a try anyway.

[Isaac'sMa]

I'm in the same situation...but last year I put the tomatoes and peppers in the corner that gets about 6-7 hrs of sun and they did great. We also did carrots, beets (didn't do so well), onions, kale, arugula and mesclun lettuce. The greens did great in the shadiest part of the garden.

You can always chalk this year up to an experiment!

Oh, we had lots of herbs and they did great too.

[MissMommyNiceNice]

Try a variety of tomatoe that is proven for mountain regions. I just ordered Mountain Princess from Baker Creek for my customers who live in wooded areas. It does well in lighter sun, cooler temps, a little shade. The ripening is shorter too, it sets in 45-50 days.

[keepitlow]

I've had luck with potatoes, burdock, carrots, spinach, lettuce, arugula, raspberries, beets, parsley with 5 hours of sun.

[Pepper44]

If you need to plant in containers to get stuff in a sunny spot, one cheap option are those 18 gallon rubbermaid tubs!

You just drill a row of holes across the bottom, line the bottom inside with a thin layer of newspaper, and fill with dirt/compost. Then set a brick under each side of the tub for drainage and air flow. Extremely cheap.

This is a link for zone 6 information, but it has container gardening info on it that could apply to anywhere, including the amounts of sunlight and space each plant needs. It has a ridiculous amount of gardening info. I think the container gardening information starts on page 13.
http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id128/id128.pdf

[tankgirl73]

We also just get about 6 hours of sun. Last year was my first garden at this house. I did tomatoes, peppers, onions, greens, herbs, beans, cukes...

The cukes were low producing, and the pepper plants never even got to full size -- and only one made even an attempt at making a little fruit. But, we had a TERRIBLE summer. The 6 hours of non-shade didn't translate into 6 hours of sun, when it rained like 2/3 of the time. And it was quite cool. So, no peppers.

Everything else actually did quite well. Greens were fabulous. Herbs were huge! Onions were fine. Even the tomatoes did fine -- I had problems with septoria and blight, but that's because of the weather, not the shade. The plants grew enormous, and set TONS of fruits which grew very well.

I didn't get a full harvest only because I'd planted late, screwed up hardening off, and almost killed them. They were probably about a month 'behind' by the time they actually started growing properly (at which point they TOOK OFF!) So I harvested about 50lbs of green tomatoes, to ripen indoors.

I have no doubt that if we'd had a more normal summer, and I'd got them out at the right time (and without nearly killing them in the process), I would have had a bumper crop of vine-ripened tomatoes. Even though they only get 6 hours of sun, and were on the north side of the garden to boot!