Direct/indirect sunlight hours?

[FountainMan]

I admit I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as more seasoned/educated gardeners. I have an apartment with a north facing patio that receives no direct sun and I've always considered it to be full shade and have tried to plant accordingly by populating my garden with mostly shade lovers and a few sun lovers. Keeping the soil moisture, temperatures, and ph. ideal, I've always had much better luck with my sun lovers than shade lovers. Always seems like the sun lovers outperform shade loving plants. Maybe there's something else I might be overlooking but today I did an audit and some investigation into the plant that are growing and thriving and those that are struggling and the only defining factor between those doing well and those that aren't are their sunlight requirements and the results aren't what I'd expect from a full shade patio. At this point I'm almost ready to replace all my shade plants with sun plants given what I'm observing.

Any advice or suggestions?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

My good friend Derek died a couple of years ago now, but had a first floor balcony that faced North West, got less than an hour of evening sun. Of course there was a balcony above, so it also effectively had a roof. He managed to grow all sorts of stuff, notably Chilean bell flowers that grow on shaded ledges in canyons, he kept his alive when Kew gardens lost theirs one winter. Have a look at his videos.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs-icUwF9bHINW0rvT19a9g

PS. he found a whole bunch of plastic fruit in a charity shop, he had a sense of humour.