Newbie...How do I judge how much sun...

Hey all,

As my log in name suggests...I'm not so good at gardening but I just keep trying... :D

We just bought a house last November and this is my first spring in my new home. The old owners have rocks around the front of the house and I want to change it to a border of flowers. How do I judge how much light I am getting in the spots I want to plant in? There is a mature tree that shades part of the bed and I think my house faces East (if that helps). Any tips you could give me would be AWESOME.

By watching an area and noting at what time the suns shines down on it and for how long. An area that has direct sun for at least 6 hours is considered a full sun location. It is also important to note whether that area is in sun in the morning only, evening only or a combination of the two. Most info on planting will specify what light conditions the plant needs to thrive.

It is best to "map out" where the sun rises and sets and the path across your property before you try planting. It will save you a lot of time, effort and plants. This can be done simply by noting the sun's location at different times of the day, taking into account any shade cast by trees, houses or fences.

Hope that helps.

Another cheap way to figure it out: buy a few packs of annuals, some that need full sun and some that need full shade, then plant them in the locations you're trying to judge. (Of course you'll have to wait til your average last frost date) For example, a shade annual like standard impatiens will usually burn in too much sun and Lantana won't bloom in the shade. You won't have your answers until later in the season but at least you didn't spend a fortune on plants that won't work.

I actually started figuring the sun patterns when I was digging the holes to plant dogwood trees. I ended up filling the first holes back in so that I could place the trees in a more suitable (shadier) location.

You are smart to think about this before investing in a lot of plants. Good job! When I first started, I just walked around my house at different times of the day and took notes. One thing that kinda caught me off guard is that the way my house is oriented, some things that are in shade one season are sunny in the other season. My neighbor's house shades one of my beds when the sun's path is lower (to the South) across the sky, eg late fall, winter and early spring. However in the summer, the sun is higher in the sky and the strip between my neighbor and me gets full sun.

My front yard faces East and I have a diagonal bed that runs kinda Northwest to Southeast. It has a shady side and a sun side. Taller plants are planted in the spine of the bed and shade the medium and low growing plants on the more Northern side of the bed but not the ones on the more Southern exposure of the bed.

I had no trees in my front yard and neither do my neighbors so in two other beds I planted a tall shrub in the center creating again... a shady side and a sunny side. This helped me to grow a larger variety of plants than I normally would have. Oh, all my beds are visible from all sides. A bed against the house has a different set of conditions. I just wanted to get you thinking about how you can create micro climates to grow what you want to grow. What fun to be able to have a clean slate and design your own spaces. Enjoy. Cam

Cam - you sound just like me lol...when I moved last year I started keeping track in a journal what got sun and what didn't - especially since we have numerous deciduous tree's around the house that by late spring the amount of sun in most beds is cut way down...but being in the south I had to be aware that the afternoon sun would burn a lot of plants even if they only got 3-4 hrs sun a day due to how hot it gets down here...

Black_Thumb - one of the best things you can do is to ensure you have really good soil - chances are if previous owners put in a rock bed they 'moved up' because the soil going down may not have been so great - you can incorporate plants into those rocks and make a stunning rock garden...

your local library is a great source of books to help you define what
you do or don't like in plants (meaning do you want to spend time dead heading flowers, do you have the time for that? do you want color year round (as in evergreen shrubs or perennials)

Buy a small notebook - when you're out and about and see other homes with colors you like write it down and why you liked it, gardeners are friendly - stop if they're out and ask about their plants if you don't know what they are

and remember - you can always move a plant if you've found it's not happy where you've placed it...lawd knows I've done that enough - in fact I just moved all my ginger from all around the house into just one spot by the pond so the scent of them blooming will have a larger impact when we sit on the deck by it :)

Hello!

I was reading through this thread and thought I would mention that I found a pretty neat app that could help with this. It's called "Plant Picker". I can use my iPhone to take photos of the location during the day, and then it tells me what type of lighting conditions are at the location, like full sun, part shade, etc. It will also recommend plants for that location. I've been using it and am going to try the plants it suggests to see if they work out. I'll let you know.

I found the link for it:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plant-picker/id426421780?mt=8

I had a question about lighting conditions too. But mine was for an indoor plant. Some people on the forum here suggested might be over watering the plant though, and I think that's the issue. Anway that iPhone app sounds pretty neat, and could help me find other plants to put in different spots. I'll check it out, thanks for the link.

I hope they have an app for Blackberry like this.

I'm also new to all this, and I'm also a new and first-time homeowner. I bought a SunCalc device and try to run out in the morning to start the 12-hour measurement in different spots. I've been really surprised by a few locations. I'm keeping a journal with the notes of the dates and results of the measurements, because as steadycam3 noted, there are several locations that are going to change as the season develops. I want to get an idea of where and when that happens so I can better plan for next year.

You will save yourself a lot of work and even some money by not having to move or replace plants because the either languished in too much shade or burned up from too much sun...Good move Amy.

THanks, themoonhowl! :)