Every plant has different light requirements for optimal growing conditions, but how do you know where to plant each one? Sun mapping your garden is a great way to know exactly how much sunlight every area of your yard gets so that you can plant accordingly for happy, thriving plants; you won’t have to worry about relocating your plants to get sun or shade! Here’s our five-step process to mapping your yard for a strategically-planned garden!
Step 1: Plan When to Sun Map Your Yard
Mapping your yard in the middle of summer allows you to accurately measure the sun’s movement throughout the day. Why mid-summer? It’s the sunniest time of the year! Once you have a map based on the peak-summer conditions, your plants will adapt through the rest of the year with the changing seasons. Choose a day where you’re staying home and can go out to your yard multiple times. A sunny Saturday is perfect!
Step 2: Sketch a Map of Your Yard
You can take a piece of paper and a pencil to sketch your backyard. It doesn’t have to be perfect; as long as the elements are roughly to scale, you’ll have no problems! Fill in your sketch with the elements of your yard, including your patio deck, garden beds, lounge areas, etc., and label each one. You’ll want to make a few copies of this, so don’t get too caught up in the details (unless you love detailed artwork!)
Step 3: Measure Sunlight
We recommend tracking the sun in yard four times during the day, each time using a new map that you’ve sketched ahead of time: 9:00 am, 12:00 pm, 3:00 pm, and 6:00 pm are the best times to check where the sun hits and will give you an overview of the entire day. You can go out more frequently if you want to be super detailed.
To map, simply go outside throughout the day and note where the sun hits your garden directly. You can do this with a different colored pen or a highlighter if that’s easiest! Next, sketch any places in your garden that have shade on your piece of paper with a gray colored pencil. Make sure you note what time you made your notes on the map!
Step 4: Create One Final Sun Map
Using all of the maps you’ve made through the day, you can now make one master map that you can use to assist your planting strategies. Spread your maps out in front of you, choose a location on your fresh and final map, and see how much sunlight it got through the day.
- If the maps show sunlight in one location for more than 6 hours, it’s a full-sun area.
- If the maps show areas that are shaded for the majority of the day, then it’s a full-shade area.
- Partially-shaded areas receive both sun and shade throughout the day. In this case, note when the sun hits, such as morning or afternoon sun.
Step 5: Learn the Sun Requirements for Your Plants
Now that you’ve mapped the sunlight in your yard, you can plant according to the tags on your new plants and feel confident that they’ll be in the perfect spot! Here are the common light requirements on plant tags and what they mean:
- Full sun: plants need more than 6 hours with no shade
- Partial sun: plants require 4-6 hours of sun
- Shade: plants require 4 hours of sun or less
If you need help tracking the sun in your yard, visit Plant Perfect. We’re happy to help you ensure that your plants are in ideal locations.