East vs South Facing Slope

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hillarylin Peshastin, WA Mar 13, 2016

Hi all,

This is my first post here but I've been gardening for a few years. I've been planning on moving my garden to a different part of my property but there are a few things that make me hesitate. Basically, the choice is between a south-facing slope (what I have now) and an east-facing slope, but there are some confounding factors.

I live in Central Washington, in zone 6b (riiight on the edge of 7a). We're at about 1200 feet, and our first/last frost date is somewhere around May 25/September 20. We moved in last spring and had a lot of work to do on the house, so we planted where it was easiest - on some land on a south-facing slope. Which sounds perfect, except with everything else that we want to do with our land, it's not the perfect place long-term. It makes more sense for us to have it in the rear of the house, because we also want to have chickens and fruit trees, and for convenience we want the garden to be near those things (we want to put a chicken run around the garden fence and the fruit trees). There's no room for all that in the front, and also we have a stellar view of the mountains that our 8 foot deer fence blocks. So because of the view and the convenience, we want to move the garden next year, which means I have to make plans this year.

However the rear of the house is the north side of the house and has an east-facing slope. We border acres of pear trees. Our summers are very hot once they warm up and there is no more shade on this east-facing slope (from trees) than the south-facing side. I would be planting far enough away from the house that shade from that wouldn't be an issue. It's very open here, and what ends up blocking the sunlight are the mountains to our west (at around 7:30 or 8 pm on the longest days), and I can't imagine that the east-facing slope would get much less sun than the south-facing slope, because the mountains block everything at about the same time and the slope isn't that steep.

So, is there something I'm not seeing here? Is it a bad idea to move my garden from the south-facing or east facing slope, or will the drop in productivity even be noticeable?

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kittriana Magnolia, TX(Zone 9a) Mar 14, 2016

A LOT of plants love eastern morning sun. The south slopes are best for increased heat and light for zones that have the sun tilted away from them during growing seasons. If plants cannot handle full sun, eastern slopes usually are shaded later in the day which helps them. In the summertime, southern/western slopes get a lot morelight and heat.

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