The wiser part of me knows that it is good that I arrived at Five Apple too late in the season to do much growing. This might be the only thing that will get me to observe first, then dig.
Since we arrived in mid-Autumn—besides having wonderful fall colors on the land —I did have a great opportunity to observe the sunlight/shade patterns on potential garden areas— which will be very similar to the Spring pattern as the sun will be passing through the same angles, just moving the opposite direction. This is handy since the plants that like cooler temps are often grown in both spring and fall.
Good thing I had this chance because what I saw influenced a total future-garden relocation.
The nice flat spot down by the creek (shown above when everything was still green in September) I’d initially chosen for the main veggie garden was ruled out when I saw how little sunlight it turned out to get due to trees being uphill on both the east and west sides of an otherwise south-facing spot! While I may grow something there as the soil is lovely, it won’t be main crop veggies which really need a solid eight hours of full sun at minimum.
I often read a veggie plot needs a minimum of “6-8” hours but lets just say your tomatoes and other hot-weather lovers are not going to bear very well on 6 hours sun if at all. That goes double in this cooler, wetter climate where I’ll be lucky to find a sunny enough, dry enough spot to get good tomatoes anyway! Knowing though, that you can get cherry tomatoes at least on the lesser amount of light, I still plan to fill the freezer with sauce for the winter. If it’s cherry tomato by cherry tomato, so be it!
Even with nearly five acres to work with, it was surprisingly hard to find the best spot for the main garden and the future greenhouse. The land is complicated – it faces south but is more or less on an eastern slope. Most of the land is forested. There’s a wooded rise to the east and the west of the open ground. The eastern rise isn’t that high but the trees on top of it are quite tall and cast a dramatic shadow in the morning. There’s a big lovely field in the southeast corner but it’s the farthest from the house which is not good for a garden as you have to make a point to go all the way out to the far-away garden to check on things. Deer know this too. It’s much better, especially for someone as distractible as myself, to have a garden close to the house where I walk by or through on normal daily rounds to check what’s going on. Having the garden right out the door is best of all!
So after observing the light, I decided to relocate the main veggie plot quite a ways uphill from the original spot. The new spot has the most sunlight on the whole place. The soil is not quite as good as the lower spot, but I can build better soil, unlike sunlight! The new spot turns out to be in the backyard, which is north of the house, so I had to back even further up the hill to get out of the spring-winter-fall shadow cast by the house. Luckily it’s a one story rancher, so the shadow isn’t so huge. But the new spot is very nearly right out the door. Yay!
I’m glad I had the time to make this major plan-correction before I’d spent time and work digging a whole garden only to relocate it later when it turned out to be too shady for main summer crops! (I say main summer crops because the lower, shadier area would probably be perfect for most greens and many herbs. I’ve found if there’s enough sun to grow good grass in an area, most leafy crops will do fine there. But when it comes to things like corn, tomatoes, okra, and cowpeas – our summer faves, the more sun the better. Especially since we are in a cool zone at about 3000 feet elevation in the Southern Appalachians.)
But full disclosure, once I picked the new spot and felt good about it I did start soil prep and start cover crops on a few future beds! Couldn’t help myself. As the green trees and fall colors show I didn’t wait very long after all, hopefully just long enough to make the wisest choice.
P.S. For more on analyzing your land – even the smallest city lot – check out this article by Eric Toesenmeier at Mother Earth News: http://goo.gl/G9VWlZ His book is wonderful by the way – highly recommend! Note the little greenhouse set at an angle in the photos. That was the one spot in the entire yard that got enough sunlight for it. That is the beauty of learning the light patterns first before building things…remember this Leigh, remember this! 😉
—A Larrapin Garden…recently re-settled in the Blue Ridge of North Carolina. Leigh’s posts on this blog may be boom or bust depending on the season, but if you subscribe here you’ll get one weekly email—usually on Wednesdays—to let you know what’s new. You are also invited to get garden related miscellany at the Facebook page or on Twitter. The Pinterest boards (Pinterest should carry a habit-forming warning label by the way) are here. Would love to hear your comments about what you have learned as you located, or re-located your garden!
