Small backyard, only a few hours of sun.. Have a question

[sniffs]

Hi, fairly new to gardening.. I took the leap without realizing that my backyard, which is tiny already, has a wooden lattice cover over it.

I've been moving my plants most days into the sun and moving them throughout the day as the sun moves. This doesnt cause shock to the plants does it? I'm finding that my plants arent seeming to grow very big.. I watch youtube videos where you can see plants grow practically overnight and mine arent growing at all.(the matured ones are what I'm talking about)

Getting a bit discouraged at this now. Will moving plants cause stress? and if so, is it enough to stop them from growing?

[Lindsaylew82]

As long as you're moving the pots, they should be fine.
Most of the plants you're growing need FULL sun! 6+ Hours a day of FULL sun. There are LOADS of plants that grow beautifully in lower sun yards, and dappled shade, but squash, peppers and chiles, need loooooooooots more that that few hours. They'll never be happy producers in that kind of shade. That legginess in your plants is caused by not enough light, and Sniff's no amount of pruning is gonna fix a lack of light.

[sniffs]

I think I've found the perfect place for them to sit during the day. Above my lattice! There's just enough space to put my pots(and its not the thin lattice, they are 2 by 4's parallel to 2 by 6's so they would support the weight no problem.)

This way they'd get sun from basically sun up to sun down, all day.

[imafan26]

Good solution. My other suggestion would be to grow plants that can grow in your available light. There are some semi shade plants that would do well under a lattice especially if you have hot summers.

[Lindsaylew82]

That's a good solution!

Your pots are also too small, so make sure you water them very frequently while they're up there! And you may want give them some wind protection. I'd hate for them to blow off the lattice and crash to the ground!