I feel for you. I live in a wooded area and I only have one spot to grow sun loving plants. My veggie garden gets 5 hours spring and fall and 4 during the summer. With that I grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beans, sweet potatoes, basil, parsley, dill, oregano and mint.

I'm sure if I had more sun my yields would be better but as it is I get plenty for hubby and me.

Leafy greens, broccoli & beans are all veggies that can reportedly do OK w/ less than 6 hours of sun daily, which is the common rule of thumb.

I'm like Bea. I get 4-5 hours of full sun in my courtyard in the winter, and don't get very good yields, but I get something at least. My tomatoes tend to be leggy and spindly, so I'm not taking up much space with them anymore. I'm going more to greens and beans this year, hoping for better luck, since they need less sun.

Thanks. What about grow towers for pots? Like this one.http://www.towergarden.com/tg I can't imagine being able to grow that much in them, but does anyone here have experience?

Tower garden. I have one, have had it two years now, so here's the lowdown on those.

Actually you can grow quite a lot of different vegetables in them, but you're limited to about 4 large fruiting plants. I grow tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, herbs, lettuce, kale, watercress, celery, chard, etc. However, there are some things you need to know.

1. Never, never, never buy a new tower garden. The concept is sound, but the company that sells it is a multi-level marketing scheme. Their advertising is dishonest enough that there is a huge secondary market from people who didn't understand what they were getting into when they bought one. If you want one, start watching craigslist. You can find one for as little as $150 if you take your time.

2. The tower tonic is just plain old hydroponic nutrients. If you find one that still comes with some, use it, but then go to your local hydroponic store and they can suggest less expensive alternatives. Flora series is very popular. All that "earth minerals" nonsense is just that, nonsense.

3. It grows a lot of plants, but for large fruited plants like big tomatoes the production level is not going to be what it is in a dedicated single species hydro set up or in the ground. Tower tonic is designed to be foolproof over high production (i.e. won't burn your lettuce at the cost of getting fewer tomatoes).

I like mine very well, but that's because I only have the courtyard of my townhouse for growing space. If I had the space, I would have a ground garden. Also, if you are only interested in leafy greens, don't spend the money. Go to youtube and you will find plenty of directions to build a plant tower for a few bucks, but those can't support the weight of heavy plants. Even secondhand, a TG is a heck of an expensive way to grow lettuce.

Also, the only real help is their support forum and 99% of the people there know absolutely nothing--NOTHING about gardening. They know about pyramid type marketing, so it's hard to get good help when you need it.

I'm not at all sure in your case how a tower garden would be especially helpful, though. They have to be absolutely level and have access to electricity. My understanding is that your problem is lack of sunlight more than lack of space?

I find that one tower produces most of the non-root veggies I need, but it would be a tight fit for two or more people. A friend who is a raw vegan has three and I believe her when she says she needs that many, because it's best to harvest the whole plant or things can get so big they can break the tower. So you want to have several plants of most veggies at different stages so that you can harvest one and have another nearly ready.

Mine last Feb:

I have good morning sunlight all year, except for a couple weeks either side of the winter solstice.

It's true that if it's not on dirt you won't get soil-borne disease/insect problems, but I still get thrips, white fly, powdery mildew, etc if I don't stay vigilant.

BTW, the TG doesn't use pots per se. The seeds are planted in rockwool cubes that go into little holders in the tower itself.

I have some space in my pool cage but its limited. I have to watch the sun and see where its going. I do want to grow lettuce and kale, cukes, tomatoes. Its hard to get started, so maybe I should just start with some greens in my pool cage in one pot. Thanks for the data on the TG.

For the lettuce and kale you can do something like this, if you want a vertical system. Much cheaper than a regular TG, but not for cukes or tomatoes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzbPBx9KiuM

I think I should just start with a couple of pool deck. What stops me is the soil. I don't want to have to go around buying a lot of components before I can start. Is there an easy soil mix I can begin with?

For lettuce you can just throw down a bag of potting soil or black kow, punch a couple of small holes in the bottom for drainage, then plant in the top side. When it gets cooler, of course.

So would lettuce work in my pool cage in the summer? If not, is there a green that will work? ( I'll use pots there.)

It's way too hot for most northern greens this time of year. Lettuce will bolt immediately, if it even sprouts This is the time for things like callaloo, Malabar spinach, okinawan spinach, etc. You can start lettuce when it starts to cool off a little.

Thanks. Any others?

Well, it's kind of tough to start some plants right now, but okra, peanuts, sweet potatoes love the heat. Peppers and eggplant can take the heat.

Realistically, July is the time most people put their gardens into hibernation and then they start their seeds indoors/out of the sun in the next month or so for fall planting. Here's a link to the IFAS planting guide:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/vh/vh02100.pdf

How big a pot for sweet potatoes? How long do they take?