Seems like I put it in the wrong place...

I put in a 48sf garden this year. In April I found a place in my yard that got good light and went ahead. Apparently the sun is different in May then in April; now I don't get sun until noon; before then there is a tree in way.

There is one spot in the backyard that gets sun all day long. Unfortunately it is square in the middle of the yard and my wife assures me I am not putting a garden there.

So, is half a day of sun adequate for a garden? I realize that June will be different than May, but that tree is not going away. I guess in April it was actually below the tree.

I am not thrilled about moving a garden (especially to where my wife doesn't want it) but it seems silly to put work in and not get proper results.

It seems a shame to waste all that nice sunshine. How about a berm instead of a boxed bed. That's just pulling up the soil in a hill without boards around it. Shape it like a kidney or a circle and pile the soil at least 6" high. A circle of rocks around the site would make it pretty. Stick in a gnome or fairy in a couple of places and a few annuals around the edges. Make it marigolds or nasturtiums to help against insect damage. Would your wife accept that in the front yard?

As for the sunshine, your garden is going to need at least 6 hours of sunlight a day, more being better. If you can get that in western sunshine, which lasts longer and is warmer than the morning eastern sun, you might manage a decent SFG.

I made that same mistake with our community garden. Chose my 2 rows in early April before the trees budded out. By summer, a couple of huge trees shaded most of my rows so my harvest was very low but I still managed some tomatoes, squash and kale so I was happy. Sometimes you have to make do with what you have.
Good luck.

I remembered reading you could use white paint or reflective surfaces to help with light when you have a lot of shade, so I did a quick search and found this.

"...You can also use human ingenuity to maximize available light. Paint the sides of nearby buildings white, or erect white panels in summer to reflect light back onto plants. Metallic surfaces also can be used, for example small boards wrapped in aluminum foil, placed between plants or on nearby walls. Inexpensive mirror tiles mounted on boards can have similar light-boosting effects..."

http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=264

Since the garden is already there, I would keep it for now.
If you get sun from noon til dark that will be 6-8hrs of sun.
If the garden doesn't do well this year then you have "proof" that you need to move the garden.
Best of luck!

Others may disagree but I find the follow to be the relative order of importance.

1. Sun
2. Water
3. MM/Soil

Not enough or too much sun and the rest is immaterial.

The right amount of sun but drown or dry up your beds and it doesn't matter. A good MM makes it hard to drown your bed though.

The right sun and right water and you actually get a lot of leeway on the condition of your MM or soil.

> There is one spot in the backyard that gets sun all day long. Unfortunately it is square in the middle of the yard and my wife assures me I am not putting a garden there.

Two things. First, does your wife love a particular home-grown veggie? Then grow that -- a lot of it. Second, make sure your garden is neat and beautiful everytime anybody looks at it.

Then in the fall, revisit the wife-not-letting-you-put-the-garden-in-the-middle-of-the-yard thing.

Toller ...

Give it a run through for two years or more as most plants will do something in slight shade and warm temps. The thing about sun is much more to do with hours of good UV light than direct hot sunshine .

I know I live across the other side of the world from you , one of my beds rarely sees sunshine except for a few hours of an evening and if I'm lucky an hour or so at dawn ( 0545 hrs ) then the bed is shaded entirely by the shadow of the bungalow which is orientated at NNW & the shadow of next door either side .

I had no great choice of putting it any where different due to the orientation of the bungalow ,my concreted drive way down the garden to the garage, siting of my glasshouse and other buildings in my garden .

Last year & the one previously was a very wet and cold year for us here in South Wales UK .

In these sheltered beds I sucessfully grew onions & galrics where the sun struck first and in the non sunny parts , leeks , lettuce ,radish, C&C again leaf crop , celery , broad beans , sugar snap peas , curly kale ,cabbages ,carrots rutabager , turnips and massive parsnips .
Purple sprouting broccoli was reasonable but Romain broccoil and heading broccoili were failures so were cauliflowers as there was not quite enough sun to grow the heads quickly , the prolonged dampness caused them to develop a black mould in the tight packed crowns and once that happened they were onlyfit for the compost heap .

Obviously crops like tomatoes and other sun loving crops need to be grown else where .

If you read up on your crops from the likes of google ( dare you risk it ) see if it says that the crop you wish to sow /plant likes full sun if there is no mention of it or on the seed packet go a head and try the crop .

One advantage of a shade area is that you don't get the ground drying out so much nor do most plants get too much sun and get roasted on hot days ..