Vegetables that produce edible fruits (such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and squash) have high light requirements and must be planted in full sunlight locations. Other vegetables with leafy or root crops like carrots or radishes require less sunlight for growth.
To select an ideal location for a vegetable garden, spend some time observing your space. Note how the sun moves across your space throughout the day and which areas receive direct sunlight for how long.
Full Sun
No matter whether it’s tomatoes, peppers or squash you’re growing, vegetables need at least six and ideally eight hours of full sunlight per day to thrive and yield their maximum harvest. While they might grow under shadier conditions as well, they won’t thrive and become more vulnerable to diseases compared to those grown under direct sunlight – plus the yield will likely be less.
The amount of sunlight a plant requires depends on its species and variety, making it one of the key determinants in how well it performs. Sunlight affects color and taste as well. While leafy greens can thrive with lesser lighting conditions than others, heat-loving vegetables such as eggplants, capsicums and tomatoes should be placed in full sun in your garden for maximum success.
Vegetables that produce large yields of fruit, such as tomatoes, peppers and strawberries, require ample sun exposure in order to produce delicious crops with huge fruit yields. Depending on where you live, these veggies should be planted in full sun areas of your garden.
Learning your garden and mapping out its sunlight levels will help you determine where and what to plant. A device for measuring sunshine or an app on your phone may be helpful in mapping which spots receive full sun. Or you could try the manual approach by spending the day observing different areas and keeping a notebook of how much and for how long each section receives direct sunlight throughout the day.
If your garden only receives sunlight for part of each day, consider planting vegetables that can tolerate shade like lettuce and kale. Heat-loving produce such as tomatoes and peppers may still thrive here but harvest will likely take longer. For an efficient harvest, containers or raised beds offer better conditions in which these heat lovers can flourish.
Partial Sun
Partial sun can provide your vegetable garden with just enough shade to ensure healthy growth while giving it some breathing room and slowing its progress compared to when all sunlight was being soaked up by all its leaves at once. But make sure it still receives most of its energy between sunrise and sunset!
Leafy greens, carrots, radishes and other root vegetables thrive with less direct sun than plants that produce flowers or fruit and require full exposure every day to thrive. In fact, they even do well in locations receiving only a few hours of direct sun each day.
Vegetables that require full sun include those that produce edible fruits or flowers, like beans, capsicums (chillies), eggplants, melons, squashes and tomatoes. It also includes those such as broccoli and cauliflower that are both flowers and fruits at once.
Though these vegetables will still benefit from sunlight exposure, a sunnier environment will increase their growth and healthiness significantly.
Most of us know that the hottest time of day typically falls between 2-6 pm, yet we may not consider how much sun the vegetable garden receives at that hour due to surrounding trees and what shade may provide shelter from direct sunlight.
To help determine how much sunlight a spot in your vegetable garden receives, sketch out its area before visiting during different times throughout the day to evaluate light levels. A spot that receives six or more hours of direct sunlight per day would be considered full sun.
If there are trees nearby, then using a lightweight shade cloth to provide some respite from the summer sun can provide your vegetable plants some much-needed shade relief from scorching sunlight. A light color shade cloth should block just enough light so your plant doesn’t become stressed out; saving space while growing some edible produce from seed to harvest!
Light Shade
Most vegetables thrive when grown in full sun, but having less sunlight doesn’t necessarily have to spell doom for your vegetable gardening dreams. The key is understanding the amount of sun your plants require in order for them to flourish and then finding ways to give it to them creatively.
Light is essential to initiating photosynthesis and all vegetables depend on sunlight to flourish. Vegetables that produce fruit (such as tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and squash) generally need full sun or at least 6 hours of direct sunlight every day in order to ripen fully, while those producing roots (carrots, parsnips, radishes or potatoes) usually thrive with less light exposure – this applies both for their roots as well as leaves such as silverbeet, spinach watercress and rocket.
To accurately gauge how much sunlight your garden receives, it is necessary to spend a considerable amount of time observing. To do this, sketch a map of your garden area and go outside for one hour every day to observe. Mark on your map the areas which receive morning sun, afternoon sun or no direct sun at all and total up the number of hours each spot receives in direct sunlight each day – this process should be repeated several times to gain an accurate picture of its lighting conditions.
Keep in mind that shadow patterns will shift throughout the day and season, so it is wise to survey your garden at various times of day and season in order to gain an accurate picture of its light conditions. You could try performing a “shade test” by placing cardboard or an old chair in an area under shade before watching how long it takes for rainwater to evaporate from under this structure.
Understanding your vegetables’ individual lighting requirements is the cornerstone of creating a successful vegetable garden. Through careful observation, it should be possible to cultivate enough sunlight so they have adequate conditions in which they can flourish!
Deep Shade
Some vegetables thrive in partial shade, such as leafy greens such as lettuce, spinach, kale and chard. Root crops that don’t produce edible fruits – like carrots, radishes and potatoes – as well as herbs such as chives, thyme, parsley and lovage also do well under less light than flowering crops such as beans, cucumbers, squashes melons peppers or tomatoes that require full sunlight exposure to thrive properly. Deep shade should not be considered viable.
Light levels change throughout the day and seasons, so it is crucial that you pay close attention to where shadows fall in your garden as time progresses, taking note of how much sun each area receives. A notebook or app dedicated to tracking sunlight’s movements would make this task much simpler – saving both you and your produce much hassle in the future! Being proactive now could save both frustration and potentially dead veggies!
If your garden lacks enough sunshine for an extensive veggie plot, try planting crops in containers instead, so they can easily be moved as the sun shifts across your lawn or the season shifts. This strategy works especially well for gardeners living in climates where rain or clouds often provide ample opportunities for planting!
Vegetables cannot thrive without direct sunlight. If your climate matches that of most other places around you, three or more hours of direct sun per day should provide enough support for most vegetable crops while still producing an abundant harvest. If your garden doesn’t allow for this much sunlight to reach the soil surface directly, use reflective surfaces and prune trees accordingly; get creative and try different foods until you find something that works well in your space! Happy gardening!