Shade patterns change throughout the year. Keep a log for successful planting.

Maybe you’ve got it on you resolution list to finally do something with the yard. You’ve got some ideas, but aren’t sure exactly which plants will work well for each garden.

The first thing you need to do is know the lay of your land. Which way is north, south, east, and west? How does the house line up with these directions? Where are large trees or shrubs located in relation to the directions? Are the trees/shrubs evergreen or deciduous?

Before you plant anything you need to know what the shade quality is going to be in any given location. One way to do this is to start keeping a record. You may only be able to do it on weekends, but on one weekend day start as early in the morning as you get up and keep a record of how much shade there is and where it is located throughout the day. You can do this with a video camera, or you can make sketches. In order to be a complete record this needs to be done for an entire year. It would be a great thing to do for the coming year.

You don’t need to wait another year to start your gardens, but if you’ve got areas that are questionable, you might put them last on the list. Some areas will be simple to know. For instance areas that have no trees and the house doesn’t shade it are going to be full sun. The north side of the house, if it is pretty accurately true north will get no sun at all, so plan that area for storage, etc. However, most houses aren’t that perfectly aligned, so knowing how much sun the “north” side of the house gets may let you know if you can have a partial or full shade garden.

When I moved into our current house I made some mistakes, mostly because I didn’t want to wait to see the shade patterns for the whole year. I just assumed the north side of the house was pretty much north. However, our house is almost 45 degrees off from any of the true directions. I planted a whole bunch of deep shade plants up against the house, only to find out, the next summer, that by June the front of the house is in full sun from about 1 p.m. on! Needless to say I’ve got a few shade plants waiting for me to get the garden back in the woods started. They do OK, but will do much better when relocated.

The most interesting thing is I thought that one end of the house would be totally unusable and it turns out that it is going to be perfect for the spring garden. It goes into shade about 1 p.m. So, the plants will get morning sun, but when it gets hot in the afternoon they’ll be in the shade. I think I’ll be able to extend my spring growing season by another month this way. I’ll let you know. I hope to get the garden up against the house started this year, but we’ve got a lot on our list of things to get done, so don’t know if it will get to the top in time. I hope so, cause that will almost double my summer growing space!

Anyway, keep a diary of your yard throughout the year and you’ll have much better success in knowing which plants will fit which area.

Other things to consider are if it is at the bottom of a slope (will get colder), does it stay wet after a rain, is it always dry, can you get water to the area easily. Just really look at all the weather factors that could affect the success of your plantings and you’ll end up with a beautiful landscape ,without a lot of trial and error and plant loss.