The Sun and Your Food Garden

The other week we were lucky enough to have Fiona and Michael from Ainslie Urban Farm visit the Canberra Environment Centre to run a workshop on Planning a Food Garden. There are so many intricate and overlapping factors when it comes to growing food at home, and Michael and Fiona covered many of them. We thought we’d share one key takeaway from the workshop for you to consider when planning your Spring garden: the path of the sun across the sky.

The Sun’s Arc

We are possibly stating the obvious, but plants need sunlight to photosynthesise and grow. So, when you’re planning the location of a vegetable patch, or trying to work with a particularly shady part of your garden, this is worth putting some thought into.

The sun rises in the East and sets in the West, and it is the morning sun in the East and the North that is ideal for your plants. The Western sun tends to be quite hot and has the potential to fry more delicate plants to a crisp. There are ways of dealing with this. One example is growing a tall crop, like corn, on the Western side of your garden bed to provide the plants on the Eastern side of the bed with some shade in the afternoon.

The Sun’s Path Across Your Garden

To help you get your head around where the sun is and at what times, there are handy websites like SunCalc that show you where the sun rises and sets, as well as its arc across the sky at different times of the year. You can even input your own address to check the sun arc across your home or rental property.

Create a Garden Plan

Once you have an idea of the path that the sun takes across your garden you can now check where shade will be cast by any fences, structures, or large trees. We recommend drawing up a rough map of your garden, including any large structures that create shady spots. You can also sketch the sun arc over the top.

You are now ready to plan the location of your garden beds.  If you already have established patches, this can help you plan where to plant those shade friendly varieties and know where those sun loving crops might flourish.