Orienting Your Home Garden
December 12, 2022
Orienting your plants is an important first step to creating your home garden. It might be tempting to just place your plants in plots that receive the most sunlight or shade. However, that isn't the best approach most of the time. You need to take into consideration where the sun rises and sets in your plot. This will determine the amount and intensity of the sunlight that your plants will receive.
In the Northern hemisphere, tall plants such as beans, peas, and corn generally do best on the North side of your garden. Medium-sized crops such as tomatoes, cabbage, squash, pumpkins, and broccoli might, on the other hand, do better in the center of the garden. Lastly, short-growing plants such as lettuce, radishes, beets, and onions will do best in the southernmost part of the garden.
The North-South orientation allows the sun to penetrate the garden by shining down the rows. That said, the best thing to do is to keep a journal of your progress, and take note of any plants or sections that are shaded or receive to much sun for certain crops!
Orienting your plants is key. This will help determine which plants will receive the most sunlight, and which ones will receive less light. If you have a large plot of land and want to grow a new large garden, you want to think not only about where you will place your garden, but how to lay it out.
A solid design will save you time and make your garden easier to maintain. You want to make sure your plants are the right distance from each other, that they have the right amount of sunlight, that they have room to grow to maturity, and that you have room to navigate between them!
