| It's time to take a
hard look at your garden and make an honest assessment of the
amount of sun your little patch of Eden really gets, as
opposed to the amount of sun you would like it to get.
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| The sad fact is that
all too often a gardener wanders around the nursery looking at
the strong-backed hollyhocks and the puffy peonies, and
thinks, in some crazy moment of hopefulness, that their own
garden must certainly be able to sustain those sun-lovers. You
carefully read the little information tags on the roses and
the snapdragons, and you think, sure, my garden must get full
sun. Standing there in the nursery, you
think of your garden in the early morning or the late
afternoon and you remember it as flooded with light. |
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This is similar to the way that, standing in the department
store, looking at the tiny polka-dot skirts, you remember
yourself as the size 6 slim-hipped sprite of your youth. It's
wishful thinking, and now's the time to take a cold, realistic
count of your sunlight hours.
To do this, you'll need to spend the day outside in the garden.
Not such a bad assignment, is it? Of course, you could break
this down into three or four parts over three or four days,
but if you want to, you can take this opportunity to really
luxuriate for a whole day outside.
What you'll end up with is a map of the sun in your garden, so
that you can see how many hours of sunlight each area
receives. The reason you need to really observe this and not
just guess is that unless you're really watching, you may not
take into account a crucial factor, such as the shade cast
from the laundry, trees and fencing.
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Start by
making a sketch of the garden. This can be simple, but
make sure you include anything that might cast a shadow,
and include other factors as well, such as dry or wet
conditions. For example, if there's a stream running at
the edge of the garden, make a note of this; if your
neighbour's dog has a tendency to roam around the
northeastern corner of your flower bed, write that down,
too, because you may not want to plant your prize plants
or veg there. |
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| Now, watch the
sun. Every half-hour, make a note of where the sun has
touched, and is touching still. For example, the corner
of the garden that will get the most sun may light up at
6:30; write "6:30" in that spot, and draw a
line to mark the area where the sunlight ends and the
shade begins. Next, at 7:00, draw another line, and so
on. |
| Ultimately
you'll be able to make another map, writing down the
total number of hours each area was basked in golden,
flower-producing light. The corner which was lit at 6:30
may be in shade by 10:30, meaning that this section was
good for four hours of sun.
Bear in mind
that some factors affecting sunlight in the garden will
change during the course of the year. That shady maple
tree may not cut the sun received in May, but come
August it will shade a much larger patch of your garden.
And as the angle of the sun changes during the season,
so too will the amount of sun your garden gets in
different parts.
You can use this
to your advantage; for example, you can plant early spring
bulbs in a part of the garden that is sunny in early spring
but shady later in the summer.
While you're
planning the garden, there are many factors to be considered:
sun needed, the time of year a flower blooms, the colour, and
the height of plants. But consider too the times of day that
certain flowers will bloom; you can plant morning glories,
four-o'clocks and night-blooming jasmine together for a garden
that will bloom from dawn past dusk.
Just because a section of your garden doesn't get full sun,
that's no reason to ignore it.
Now that you've got a more realistic view of the sun in your
garden, you can go back to daydreaming about the way you'll
sprint across the garden in that polka-dot skirt at your next
garden party. And what the heck, why not just buy it in a size
20 and wear it with all your gusto?
See: Shade
Loving Plants
By Sarah Van
Arsdale.
Article reprinted
with kind permission: Sheffield School of Interior Design
Copyright © Sheffield School of Interior Design.
http://www.sheffield.edu
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