Is this enough sun for a Veggie Garden?

I took pictures of the entire (crappy for right now) back yard. Want to do some light landscaping and turn portions of the backyard into a veggie garden with some raised beds. The pix are attached. I'm in zone 9a and have 3 questions.

1. Is this enough light for a veggie garden or should I just do some landscaping sans veggie garden?

2. I want to eventually grow enough for all my year round veggies. I'm single with a son on the weekends. Is this doable back here?

3. I know I want to do crop rotation, as organic as possible, and a full range of veggies. Problem is there is so much info out there and so many ways to do things I feel overwhelmed with what to do. If you could choose one source of well organized info what would it be to get started?

Oh, and thanks in advance!


Pix taken at 1.5 hour intervals starting at 830 AM and going until 4PM

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jic-designs/sets/72157629073889935/show/

Also, unfortunately I don't have the option to trim the trees. Renting and its a no go with landlord.

You don't get much sun there.

Got to love Google.

http://organicgardening.about.com/od/vegetablesherbs/a/shadeveggies.htm

http://www.gardenerscorner.org/subject066594.htm

dilbert - it doesn't look as though you have enough sunlight for a vegetable garden. Also, the tree roots would be a problem.

ditto, not enough sun, especially for "a full range of veggies".

Do you have a sunny front porch or walkway you could use? Perhaps grow in containers or put some boxed beds together lining your walkway (if it is more sunny).

Shoe

Hi Dilbert, is there any way you could ask the landlord IF you could just branch the tree that is causing all the light problem, I don't think you would have to remove any more than maybe 3 branches and that would make a huge difference.

As regards the tree roots taking up all the moisture and the soil will be depleted of nutrients from this tree, my answer would be to make deep beds by using old scaffolding planks (these are normally cheep, well aged due to climate and weather) you could make the beds any size you want but for easy of working and filling, I like to have the beds no wider than about the reach you have to bend over the bed and reach into the middle, you walk around and reach the same from the other side, this gives you ease to work the beds, you can make them as long as required.
I like to work with 4 beds or even 5 if you have space, the fifth bed is for veg / fruit you have to leave in the same area for several years like say Rhubarb, Berries fruit, herbs, or veg like Asparagus that cant be disturbed.

your other 4 beds are A, B, C, D, then you rotate the veg you grow each year, I grow onions, garlic, carrots, (onions keep carrot fly away) pea's etc, in say A, next bed B, will grow all the salad stuff along with a few Garlic to keep greenfly and other insects away.
Bed C, would be root veg like Brussels Sprouts, cabbages, Kale, Cauliflowers etc, and in bed D I would use as a nursery bed to keep sewing things like cabbages, as they get transfered once they are bigger, grow a second or third set of mixed Lettuce and pick when bound and tender, also your tomato's etc can be grown here, but this bed will be non stop sewing and transplanting into the A,B,C, beds to save you having a glut of everything needing harvested at the same time,
you would be able to sow your seeds for pea's, beens, onions etc, 2-3 weeks apart to space out the harvest time preventing a glut.
End of season is time to empty all your beds when you have gathered and stored your goodies, this is when I like to add as much horse manure (well rotted) about 4-5 inches deep on each bed and then let the cooler winter weather help take this manure down into the soil, the worms do this too, come spring, turn the soil over and mix in manure that is on the top of soil, where you plants up bed A last year you sow this up with the same plants but they go into Bed B, old bed B gets planted into C, bed C goes into Bed D, and every year you change the beds in rotation so you don't get a build up of any soil born diseases etc, also you will learn that each group of veg requires different nutrients, this way you are able to rotate these needs.
Hope this makes some sense to you, I can vouch it works well for me and many of my friends garden this way, but as I always tell new gardeners, you will find the best way for yourself, this is just a few starter tips and ways. good luck. Weened.

I going to agree that you are going to be limited in what you can grow. Tomatoes supposedly need 6 hours of sunlight to set fruit and 8 hours to have any kind of quanity of tomatoes.

However, you might want to look at a couple of locations and check in less than 1.5 hour time intervals to see how long you get sun there. One is the left side of the shed. Another is a sunny spot on the right side of the yard. Another suggestion would be to take a series of photos at the other end of the yard to see if you get more sunlight up by the house.

Another thing would be to look at if you can use a mobil or vertical garden in any place on the property.

I noticed that you live in Florida. I'm always reading on the thread some of the southern gardeners (esp Florida) mentioning that they use shade covers in the warmer months and/or quite growing things. You might wander over to the Florida thread and see what they say about growing in the shade in the Florida summer heat. I don't know if the shade in Florida might be used to your advantage or not.

I also agree that tree roots are going to be an issue. Container or vertical gardening would solve that issue.

Ditto what Susan wrote about sun and shade in Florida.

Please keep in mind, the great majority of garden literature is written by writers who live in the Northern states, especially the Northeast quadrant. So they write things like:

"Basically, a good rule to remember is that if you grow a plant for the fruit or the root, it needs full sun. If you grow it for the leaves, stems, or buds, a little shade will be just fine."

...But when they talk about tomatoes, as a prime example, "needing" full sun, they aren't necessarily talking about the NEW MEXICO sun. Tomatoes as we know them came to be what they are in the Yucatan rain forest. They don't necessarily mind a little shade in a hot climate, and often even benefit from it.

Your part of Florida is hotter than Albuquerque, similar but a bit different. You don't have the high altitude and drought, which makes your sunlight a bit different from ours, but it's still a very similar story. I'd still try to give the nightshade family and cucumber family as much sun as I can scrounge up without straining things too much, however.

...But see also my response to this thread:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1229850/

If that's a salt marsh in the background, you may have some salty soil to contend with. Your county's USDA extension office would know more about the soils in your area.