Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Vegetables for part shade/part sun
You can still grow a vegetable garden if you don’t have full sun, that means 6 to 8 hours! That, according to former University of Minnesota Hort professor, Jeff Gillman in his book “Decoding Gardening Advice”. A great read.
Gillman says these vegetables/herbs need as little as 2 hours of direct sunlight:
- Arugula
- Brussel sprouts
- Cabbage
- Endive
- Kale
- Leaf lettuce
- Mustard greens
- Spinach
- Swiss Chard – if you want the leaves only. If you prefer the stalk, then they need more sun.
Consider dappled sun! That’s light filtered through trees like aspen or honey locust that have small leaves.
Other vegetables that do fine with 4 to 6 hours of sunlight include:
- Beans
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Carrot
- Cauliflower
- Coriander aka Cilantro
- Leek
- Onions
- Pea
- Radish
- Rutabaga
- Turnip
The vegetables that grow in less sunlight are also generally frost tolerant too, so can be planted earlier than our last frost date of May 15th (give or take). Plant full sun vegetables when the soil has warmed to at least 60 degrees. It’s a better gauge than a date!
If you truly don’t have any sunlight, except maybe in the driveway or on a patio, then plant in containers with wheels so you can move them around. Just remember, they’ll need more watering as those containers dry out much quicker.
Must have full sun of 6 to (preferably) 8 hours of direct sunlight:
- Cucumber
- Egglplant
- Peppers
- Squash
- Tomatoes
- melons
