Some vegetables can grow with a half day of full sun; usually these vegetables will do best if they are in sun in the morning and protected from intense sunlight in the afternoon. Vegetables you can grow with five or six hours of sunlight each day include: beets, carrots, cauliflower, chard, radishes, spinach. And the following vegetables (including some just mentioned) will grow with a minimum of just two to three hours of sun each day: beets, broccoli, chives, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, mint, parsley, radishes, rhubarb, salsify, spinach, turnips.

Raised beds will certainly work in your space. The soil will warm earlier in spring to get you going. Check to make sure rain doesn't drain from the roof above. And when you make your raised beds, be sure to make it no wider than your arm's length reach from the side of the bed. That way you can easily tend and harvest your crops.

Here is a link that might be useful: HarvestToTable.com

low light plants that do well are the ones where you eat the leaves. this is more efficient. If the plant must produce a "fruit" then it needs a lot more sun on the small leaves to generate all the energy to make that huge fruit.

I would try things like lettuce and Greens the first year and hope for the best. Tomatoes Eggplants squash melons etc have almost no chance of doing really well. So go slow and experiment to see how they do.

Most gardeners learn quickly to put the garden into the sunny spot even if that is on the front lawn. Personally I love to look at a big veggie garden on a front lawn.

I would try the square foot method with a box maybe 4'x8' the first year planted with some of those mentioned above. You would get a good feel for what would grow in that area. It looks like the front of the house is sunny...you could plant sun loving veggies like tomatoes right in the flower beds.

Remember that in Colorado you are blessed with high altitude and the sun is more intense there. As a result, you can get by with less sun. When I lived in Colorado Springs the folks at the extention office said that 6 hours of sun was considered full sun for the purposes of most vegetables.

Happy Gardening,

Sandy
CyberGardener

Thank you all for the excellent suggestions. I think the idea to start with a small box and see what happens is a great one. I would hate to put a lot of effort into building boxes and not have it work out. I will do a bit more research on what types of veggies to grow, but thank you for giving me hope that it might work.

Bart