Sun Mapping - How To Pick The Right Plants For Your Garden

One of the things people often talk to me about is confusion and uncertainty about which plants will work or not work in their gardens. When you go to the nursery there are so many choices and on all the little tags it says - Full Sun, Sun to Part-Sun, Part-Sun to Shade, and Full Shade. How do you know what you have and where, and how should that shape the decisions you make about plants?

We moved here to our new house last July and at that point in the summer, the yard was in full swing already. I knew that it was going to take me several years to build the garden I was envisioning and so I committed that for the first season I would take the time to really understand the environment, growing conditions, and the sun/shade patterns in the yard. So, I did not rush into projects and planting that first season and instead began working on a plan.

The first, most critical part of that plan was to develop a sun map of the garden in order to select the right plants for the right places in the garden. Mapping your garden successfully takes a little bit of attention, but armed with a guide, and a better understanding of plant labels, you will be able to plan an amazing and successful garden next season.

How to understand plant labels:

1. Sun = at least 6 hours of direct sun (with no shadows/shade)

2. Part-Shade = 4 to 6 hours of direct sun

3. Shade = less than 4 hours of direct sun

Make your own sun map:

1. Make a sketch of the parts of your garden. Don't worry it doesn't have to be pretty :)

2. Make 5 copies of the map. You can use the camera on the NOTES app of an i-phone to create a PDF from your drawing and then print it or I've also used an app called Genius Scan.

3. Pick a sunny day when the trees are fully leafed, take one of your maps in the morning and draw in where you see shadows and shade them in with a colored pencil.

4. Repeat this steps 4 times during one day to see how the shadows move across your garden. For example: 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, and 6 pm. (Note: in Mid-Summer 6 pm will be a lot sunnier than this time of year.)

5. Using your fifth and final copy, check all previous maps and identify if 3 or more of your maps show an area to be sunny or shady, mark the final map as sun or shade. You can use different colors to indicate sun, part-shade, or shade on the map.

Now you have sun mapped your garden and are fully ready to start picking out plants and planning your garden! I will spend the winter months referencing my sun map and planning for spring planting.

Here are some of the things I'll be doing in my garden this week:

1. Give trees and the dry lawn a drink now and again.

2. Continue to cut down spent perennials such as Black Eyed Susan (especially if you don't want them to spread.) I am cutting them and actually laying them down in beds where I DO want them to spread.

3. Collect some of the leaves just starting to fall and add to the compost pile. These are "browns" that are needed to help the grass and plant clippings decompose.

4. Pull perennials out of planters that can be planted in the garden. I'm moving Dusty Miller from my window boxes and into my front garden where it will come back next year!

5. Continue to sow fall seeds such as - native Bee-Balm, Rudbeckia, tall Phlox, and Garlic.