Reading the shadows in your yard

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You don't need a degree in astrophysics to be a gardener, but it helps to understand a bit about how the sun moves. Well, of course the earth moves, but you see what I mean. Actually, it's about how the shadows move in your yard.

The first thing to determine is the daily movement of the shadows. That is, as they move as the sun goes through the sky in the day. My backyard faces east, so it gets full morning sun and then the house starts to shade it after noon. But that's only part of understanding the shadows in your yard.

The other part has to do with seasons. You ignore this at the risk of your plants!

Assuming that you live in the United States, and you are north of the equator, it's summer in June and July and winter in December and January. And if you remember your old high school studies, you know that the sun rises and sets lower and lower in the southern sky as the winter goes on. So, as the winter goes on, the shadows move more and more over to the north. So in the picture at left, you are seeing the sun at about 1:30 in the afternoon in the middle of September.

The edge of the shadow that is hitting the grass in the foreground of the photo will continue to lengthen as the day goes on. The edge of the shadow that is splitting the planting area will continue to lengthen as we go into the fall and winter. My patio cover gives me a clear idea of how the shadows on my property are moving. What this means is that a place that is sunny today will be shady in a couple of months. In the cold months, this area will get very little warmth from sunlight, and so plants that are at risk of freezing are in danger. Also, this is a bad place to plant flowering plants, as there won't be enough sunlight in the fall and winter.

So, if the directions say *plant in a sunny area*, and you want the plant to thrive this fall and winter, go look at your shadows!

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