Portland gardening

I need some advice on a problem area in my yard. My neighbor has a garage that shades a corner of my yard. This area is shaded for almost the entire year, except for the peak of summer. So what happens is shade loving things will do okay here for most of the year and then July and August this area gets baked with midday hot sun for a long period of time!!!! So my shade things get cooked and the full sun things never really get started. The full sun plants sit there stunted until late June and July and then do better but are still stunted. Even the full sun/partial shade things seem unhappy because it is deep shade and then full hot baking July sun. Anyone else have a problem area like this? What do you plant there?????

That area might be a good candidate for a container garden. Plants could be moved in and out with the sun exposure.

You could try a salad garden - lettuces, greens, and so on. There's a fair number of bolt-resistant and bolt-delayed varieties, and in your particular situation, putting them in raised beds and using shade cloth might work. You'll need to water well every morning to make sure the greens keep going, though.


Alternately... are there shrubs or other things that *you* can remove in your own yard to enlarge a growing area? I've done the same myself just this last month - I've removed two azaleas and ten 10' arborvitae and reclaimed about 100 square feet of space and increased the light by amazing amounts. :)

The salad garden is a good idea. There are some greens, such as amaranth, New Zealand spinach, and malabar spinach that would love the sun and heat.