How Many Hours of Sun Does a Vegetable Garden Need?

Vegetable gardens need varying levels of sunlight depending on what you’re growing. Tomatoes, squash, zucchini, corn and beans need more light than do plants grown for their leaves or roots, such as radishes or lettuce. Read on for more tips about what you can grow with the sunlight you have.

If you have six hours or more of direct sunlight hitting your plants’ leaves all day, you have your pick of what you can grow. Corn, tomatoes, beans, peas, squash, melons, basil, potatoes, cucumbers and culinary herbs are great candidates for your garden. You can also grow any of the other plants recommended for lower-light situations. It’s not that those plants don’t like sun, but rather that they will tolerate some shade.

If you have four to six hours of direct sunshine hitting your plants, you can grow broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts and other cruciferous vegetables. As a rule of thumb, plants where the edible part is the leaf (like kale) will need less light than if the edible part is a flower or fruit (like broccoli or Brussels sprouts).

If you have two to four hours of direct sunshine per day, you can try any type of plant grown for its greens, such as Swiss chard, lettuce, endive (great sauteed), mesclun, arugula, spinach, bok choi, parsley and mustard greens. You can also experiment with growing some root vegetables like carrots, beets and radishes. They will grow slower than if they have sun, but they should grow.

If you have less than two hours per day of sun, then growing vegetables may be a challenge for you, but all is not lost. Try with the toughest shade vegetables first like radishes and leaf lettuce (not head lettuce). You can also try growing sprouts indoors with no direct light.