A commonly overlooked element in garden planning is allocating for sunlight. You may have a beautiful Hosta Garden with several varieties and foliage variegation planned for your front walkway but without consideration of how much direct sun light your plant needs you may find your foliage burn, or the color variegation won’t pop due to faded leaves singeing and fading your foliage where another planting would have popped and dazzled.
Planning for Light in your Garden
Because I am a bit extra in my favorite things, I have an ongoing map of my landscaping areas. It could be improved with better measurements, but it’s a rough idea and works for my current needs. One thing that has helped me tremendously is adding a light map to my gardening notes. I use the symbols below on the map of my garden to indicate growing conditions. It’s a great refresher for spring and to keep handy as I peruse the hundreds of seed catalogs. My January ambitions don’t always match my may plantings.
Take a look at this list of sun requirements and how I went about mapping out my garden.
Sun Requirements for Plants
Full Sun
Full Sun refers to an area in your garden that regularly requirements are a common misconception for plants who like Full Sun is that they prefer sun from sunup to sundown. Full sun is a plant that prefers sun at least 6 hours a day, in peak summer we receive sun often for approximately 15 hours a day. This makes Full Sun Plants kind of tricky. The best way to determining what works best in your yard, and your zone is to experiment a little and talk to successful gardeners in your neighborhood. One of my favorite plant shopping methods is to take a walk in my neighborhood and observe what plants are successful or not.
Partial Shade or Partial Sun refers to an area in your garden that regularly receives 3-6 hours of Direct Sunlight a day You’ll find this is where most plants like to hang out. You may find additional recommendations for Morning sun or Evening sun, although you are more likely to see morning sun. Morning sun tends to be less intense and scorching. If you find the leaves or blooms to be scorched but your Direct Sunlight period is within the recommended time, then you may want to move your plant or experiment with increased shade. You may see some gardens with small umbrellas or temporary shade guards, this mi
Full Shade refers to an area in your garden that regularly receives less than 4 hours of direct sunlight in a day. Full Shade areas often receive filtered light from other plants. You can create Full Shade areas in your garden by strategically placing Sun Loving Plants in locations that will allow light to filter. Think of our Hosta Garden, Hosta’s love to be planted under trees and next to buildings as long as they are in a shady spot.
Take a few days to figure out what part of your garden gets the most light. This is needed no matter what kind of garden you are planning. It’s best to take a few minutes throughout the day when it is particularly sunny. This allows you to see shady areas clearly. Knowing that shady areas will change as daylight increases but it can be a good indicator as to what to expect during your growing season. Know that these measurements in the off season will just be an indicator, you will likely have to make adjustments during the gardening season.
As you continue through the growing season make sure to make notes and keep them in your gardening journals. You’ll appreciate adding these notes to the map of your landscape. Include notations like “hot afternoon sun,” “2 hours of morning sun” “hot evening heat” ” and shady evening light from Hydrangea bush”
I’d love to hear what you added to your notes. What unique things did you find while mapping the light in your garden, and during the gardening season? Make sure to follow me on Instagram @glitterglue_and_ducttape, on Facebook @glitterglueandducttape, and on Youtube @Glitter Glue and Duct Tape.
Gwen Bautista is the author of the blog Glitter Glue & Duct Tape. Gwen is a retired Dog Trainer and the current Social Media Manager for MaryMaxim.com. When Gwen isn’t knitting, chasing her kids, or playing with her pups, she can be found in the garden in her favorite overalls and flip flops.
Pingback: My 5 Best Gardening Tips for Beginners – Glitter Glue & Duct Tape
Pingback: My 5 Best Gardening Tips for Beginners - Glitter Glue & Duct Tape