Determining light conditions

It's hard to think about gardening when it's February. One can't help but plan.

 

My town-home garden gets quite a bit of shade at different parts of the day. Light levels change with seasons, and with the neighbouring complex units getting in the way, it's not as easy to situate plants as I would like.

I want to enjoy colour, texture, flower and foliage all in one - instead of sectioning off areas strictly for veggies and flowering plants. I wouldn't be able to grow a section for vegetables anyway, since the sun intensity is so sporadic. I enjoyed mixing the garden all about last year. It was quite colourful. It also provided my vegetables with beneficial insects, which attacked unwanted pests that usually invade veggies if they were situated alone.

Unfortunately, shade limits my choices in vegetable planting.

I'm not fretting for having too much shade. There's a fantastic rule to remember ; "If you grow a plant for the fruit or the root, it needs full sun. If you grow it for the leaves, stems, or buds, a little shade will be just fine". 

Dotted solar lights throughout

My main focus last summer was learning and watching where the sunniest spots were in my garden. The most efficient way was to use my solar garden lights. They helped me determine how much sun I have by their length and duration of  illumination during the night.  I couldn't watch the garden all day, so this was my only other option to get accurate info.  Last years positioning of them was a testing ground for determining where my sunniest spots are.

Those bright spots were marked in the fall and now I am just waiting until spring arrives!