Never fear they will lose there leaves soon, and everything will be fine. I have the same problem, but even the toms are ripening, and I am assuming maybe wrongly that the cool weather crops can get away with less daylight as the days are shorter spring and fall?

On a good day, I can get up to 4 hours of sun in the garden. I can get good results out of everything except for tomatoes. The broccoli grows well, but not as fast. If you're concerned, put some things in containers in the sun and plant in the garden when the leaves fall, if you have time for that. Your leaves should be falling right soon.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Corner Yard

It sounds a little bit more promising after reading your posts.

I can't really plant in pots though. I have a HUGE deer problem and everything must be fenced (except garlic and Hpeppers) and my only 2 sunny spots are seperated. So I would have 2 fenced in area's in my front yard next year. Anything else that get's sun is so small it really isn't worth it to me to fence.

So I guess I can just plant and everything will just have to deal with it for about a month and a half.

If you're around during the day, put the pots out, keep an eye for the deer, then and drag them in at night. I do that to get a head start on my summer veggies.

There are tons of things you can grow with four good hours of sun. Much of my garden is limited to only afternoon sun for 4-5 hours (admittedly it gets a lot of reflected light from the garage to the east). Concentrate on non-fruiting stuff in the shadiest areas, and you'll be fine... all kinds of greens, for example. And just try whatever you want and see what happens, you might be pleasantly surprised! =) I've found cherry tomatoes will still produce in part-shade, just a little later and not quite as productive (which is actually kind of nice if you're like me and obsessed with trying a million different varieties in a small space!)

Is the cutback in direct sun because the trees grew, or because of the change in the sun's angle as the summer went on? If the former, some judicious pruning of lower branches can help. If it's the latter, you can still grow plenty of stuff... it'll be big and mature enough to produce fine with less sun later in the summer. And of course if you're getting all that sun in spring, you can plant a good spring vegetable garden!

Try searching the vegetables forum for part-shade vegetables, there are a lot of threads about it.

yeah...the only problems you'd have with that sun amount are peppers and eggplant. the tomatoes might be okay, too... but for the tomatoes, if im you, when transplanting, id strip them of all leaves and flowers excpet the top two...and bury it to the top two leaves, to form a great root system. i'd also prune all suckers, and also the first flower cluster, too, so it concentrates on more roots and stem first.

all lettuce and every leaf green, four hours is PLENTY. the peppers and eggplant, will produce very little. if you grow those, remove ALL flowers up until July 1st. it will focus all energy on roots.. and you'll get alot more, later.

Vikingkirken, it's the sun's angle that's the problem. Surprisingly, I do have full size very large maples all over my property and my neighber's yard. Even with those the new area still gets the 10-11hrs, until the sun's pattern changes (about mid August) and my neighber's 1 huge maple starts to kill most of my sun. The other side, smaller garden, only get't the 8hrs, but it's consistent throughout the summer.

diclemeg, I didn't even bother with pepper's this summer, becuase I've never had much luck with them. I was considering doing 2-3 SWC with pepper's and eggplant's on the driveway next year though. It get's about 7-8hrs sun and I was wondering if the heat off the driveway would help.

Melissa1977

disneynut,
Hi Syracuse. Glad to hear from someone in my area. I am from Rochester, NY. Your situation sounds alot like mine, only I get about 6 hours of sun starting in July. I grew Juliet tomatoes(large grape type, very sweet) in the 4'x4' with the least sun which is about 4 hours in August. I have enough for DH and myself from one plant. I also grew cukes and eggplant in that same box. I am getting 4 eggplants from one plant. In my other boxes I grew squash, parsley, peppers, corn, leeks, pole beans (doing very well for one sq ft), and all kinds of lettuce and kale. The marigolds did fine in all the boxes.

Keski, How was your cucumber production for being in only 4hrs of sun? I really wanted to grow my own cuc's this year in a pot, but never got around to doing it.

Also your eggplants, what type did you grow?

Melissa1977

My cukes came up and then sat there for quite awhile. Then I worked in some bloodmeal and they started to grow. First year gardens sometimes don't grow well. I've gotten about 8 or 10 cukes from 2 plants in 1 sf. Next year I plan to do at least one succession planting of cukes because the vines do tend to dry up and they are done.
keski

I bought one Black Beauty eggplant from our local nursery. Again it didn't grow right away. Now it is producing.

I know this might be off topic, but if you plant a living fence, like bamboo, arborvitaes, willow, or some other natural fast growing border, it might be a good fence to protect from the deers.

http://www.rutlandwater.org.uk/hedging.html

http://www.gapphotos.com/images/WebPreview/0053/0053568.jpg

Have you thought to add sunroofs in one of your rooms facing the sun in the winter? A flat roof would make a nice rooftop garden if you don't have too much weight, or reinforce it. There are also greenhouse windows you can build yourself or buy.

http://www.greenhousewindows.com/

http://www.aaagreenhouse.com/greenhouse_window_kits.htm

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I am only giving you the above url to show what they look like, not to sell anything for any company.

Here's a website showing you how to build some:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1987-11-01/Window-Greenhouse.aspx

http://www.h2othouse.com/html/window_greenhouse.html

http://www.bobvila.com/HowTo_Library/Build_your_own_Window_Boxes-Pots_and_Containers-A1530.html

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http://cecalaveras.ucdavis.edu/green.htm

Don't forget growing them under cloches will keep them from being eaten by deer. You can make cloches with large mason jars or huge pickle jars.

I hope this may help.

Any kind of green will grow in the shade, so may peas, but not sure.