Full Sun

Ok, this might be a stupid question, but what the full definition of full sun. Is it an amount of hours or does it have to be in sun all day?

http://gardening.about.com/od/gardendesign/qt/SunExposure.htm

Full Sun: At least 6 full hours of direct sunlight. Many sun lovers enjoy more than 6 hours per day, but need regular water to endure the heat. .

This message was edited Jul 8, 2008 11:52 AM

This message was edited Jul 8, 2008 11:54 AM

Thank you

Why certainly, Hopefully someone with better definitions will "chime in" here.

I agree--6 hours a day is considered full sun. However, some plants that say full sun cannot tolerate six hours of afternoon/evening sun. Honestly, it depends on the plant. I have found that other plants can handle all day sun--like my sages, stonecrops, stuff like that.

Actually, there should be better descriptors - six hours of full sun in a sky that is often overcast (like Seattle) would be very different from six hours in say Phoenix. I guess that the best way too handle this would be to inquire with your local cooperative extension service (at least that is what it is called here). I always check for information on the web first, then the phone & if I cannot get it ant other way, it is road trip time (last resort due fuel costs, so I try and combine trips to town).

I have a West facing house. I want to put an herb garden in up against the house. So it gets morning sun dawn to around 1pm. I have another area that I want to do cut flower and ornamentals that is up against the back fence. I need to check, but it seems it starts getting sun around 11am till a couple hours before dark (when the house shadow covers it), with a corner that is the first to get sun and the last to lose it. I have trouble with the grass in that corner. Then I have a small side area that is shaded for all but an hour or two a day.

The picture is the diagram of plantable area in my yard. The top is North. The unmarked center area is patio and lawn. Which I would love to get rid of, but I rent so I can't change the basics that are there. I can add plants if I pay for them and do container gardening as long as it doesn't kill the grass. The back edges are fence or house. The East and South beds are raised beds held in with cement blocks. The West beds are really undefined, dirt then grass. The line depending on how well I've been edging and weeding. The long sides (East and South) are approx. 38' 9" and 39' 6" respectively. The picture was originally done on graph paper close to scale.

We have a weird area for planting. I think specifically where I am I might actually be zone 8, but our hot weather is rarely above 90.

This year has sucked. We had a super cold, rainy spring. Lots of flooding in the area. We had an 80 degree day in late march/early April and two days later we had snow. I managed to kill two geraniums that week, but that's a long story. We just got even real spring weather (80+ and sunny) last week. So everything bloomed at once. My allergies hit so bad I had to go to the doctor Thursday. I'd transplanted some decorative grasses and moved some flower bulbs (that I found when I went to put the grasses in, I thought they'd all died off this winter) right before we got three days of just under 100 degrees. I could not keep enough water on them, especially the smaller ones. I lost 15 of 25 grass sections and the bulbs. The raspberries and a couple other things are doing well, but I know a lot of the farmers are seriously struggling this year.