Growing guides
How much sun a bed gets changes what is worth planting there, and when. These guides walk through the parts that come up most once you know your garden's sun — or once you are trying to work it out.
How much sun does a north-facing garden get?
The usual answer is two to four hours in summer and almost none in winter — but that average assumes a house height and a garden depth that are probably not yours. Why the same building throws a shadow seven times longer in December than in June, and how to find your own figure.
How much sun does a south-facing garden get?
The aspect everyone wants, with one catch nobody mentions: an ordinary 1.8 m boundary fence throws a 6.7 m shadow back into the garden at midwinter noon. Where the sunny parts actually are, and why the bottom of the garden is the wrong place for a greenhouse.
How much sun does a north-facing yard get? (US)
Same physics as the general guide, worked through with US numbers — feet instead of metres, and a look at how much the answer changes between Miami and Minneapolis.
How much sun does an east-facing garden get?
Morning sun, then shade from early afternoon. Why the sun rises 40° north of due east in June and 40° south of it in December, and the early-morning frost risk that ruins camellias.
How much sun does a west-facing garden get?
Shade until midday, then sun until after nine at night in midsummer. The warmest aspect to sit in and the hardest on lettuce — both for the same reason.
What to grow in spring
The sun is climbing back and days are lengthening, but deciduous trees are only just leafing up — which means a bed's shade can shift through spring even if nothing around it has changed. What to plant, and the sun each crop actually needs.
What to grow in summer
Longest days, highest sun, and the crops that actually want all of it — tomatoes, capsicum, zucchini and the rest of the classic summer bed. Also where six hours of full sun can tip into too much.
What to grow in autumn
The sun angle drops and shadows stretch further from the same fence or tree that barely touched a bed in midsummer. What to plant as the light changes, and why it is worth checking a bed's sun again rather than assuming summer's answer still holds.
Beating the heat
Signs a vegetable garden is struggling with heat rather than thirst, when temporary shade cloth actually helps, and a simple watering routine for the hottest stretches of the year.
Plants that cope with shade
A shady bed is not a wasted bed. Vegetables and herbs that are genuinely fine with a few hours of sun, plus an honest look at what can survive almost none.