Vegtable Garden

I read that you should not plant a vegtable garden by a tree but my husband planted a flowering crab in the only place that gets the necessary sun...will the garden survive?

Most vegetables required full sun or 8 hours sunlight a day.... beside if you planting vegetables under the tree, it probably absorb most of the nutritions from the soil.
Also consider Raised garden bed to plant vegetables. Read www.starting-a-garden.com/Vegetable-Garden-Tips.html for more info :)

I've read that some of the greens maybe able to get by with some shade.

I've done fine with loose-leaf lettuces and romaines under the shade of a large live oak tree. They would fry under our Texas sun and don't like hot temps, so part shade works great.

Adding that to what I've read, you might be okay with the following:

loose-leaf lettuce
romaines
garlic
dill
coriander
rosemary
parsley
chard -- will tolerate some shade but yield is better in sun.
spinach -( I grew some. It stayed fairly small, but it did produce.)
And I *think* I read that strawberries can tolerate some shade, but not positive.

Here's the site where I got most of the above info - http://www.gardeningpatch.com/
Note: most herbs do need full sun, the above are the exceptions (apparently! I'm still learning).

How big is the tree now? If you planted a 1-2" caliber tree it is going to take a few years to get to maturity. That means you will have a few years to plant what ever kind of vegetables you want until the tree produces too much shade to plant there anymore.

Strawberries will not do well in the shade. They made only produce green leaves and no fruit. They really need that full after noon sun.

You might need to go with the raised garden beds or you can plant in containers. You can plant almost everything in containers. I have planted tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, potatoes, cucumbers, squash, herbs, lettuce and corn. You just need to make sure your containers are at least 14" in diameter so the vegetables have enough room to grow.

I have a wild cherry tree just (6 feet or so) west of my tomato patch, and there's never been a problem.
HOWEVER *G*.
I plant the tomatoes in Hay Bales.
My inground squash garden is slightly south of the tree, and also does fine.
Most cherries aren't that big.

Catmad, in actual hay bales? I'd love to see photos of that if you have any...?

I just saw an article about that. I think it's in the latest Organic Magazine. The technique they are using originated in Austraila

gmun, there's a whole forum devoted to StrawBale gardens, I just have better results with hay :)

I'll try a pic, but I don't do this right all the time...

The main part of that pic is Tomato Row, you can get a little glimpse at the left of the Squash Patch. The Maters topped the wire in July sometime, but I don't know when this was taken. All my nightshades go intp bales, and the Cucurbits. Okra, Peas, Lettucey things and Coles go in the ground, or containers.

Cool. Thanks for the photo, I must check out the straw bale forum then, hadn't heard of that before. Your garden looks very lush in this photo!

Things seem to really like growing in the bales. Very few problems with them, at least for me (knocking on wood).