Making a sun chart is an excellent step to take before planting your first garden. Many gardeners suggest placing your garden in a spot that receives 6-8 hours of sunlight. Here is a way to find the best spot in your yard.
Step 1
Draw a map of your yard. Include the relative locations of anything large enough to cast a shadow such as buildings, fences, and trees. Scale is not important.
Step 2
Draw yellow lines one half inch apart, parallel with one edge of the paper to represent where the sun shines on your yard in the morning, about 9:00 AM more or less.
Step 3
Draw blue lines right next to your yellow lines to represent where the sun shines on your yard at midday, about 1:00 PM more or less.
Step 4
Draw orange lines right next to your blue lines to represent where the sun shines on your yard in the afternoon, about 5:00 PM more or less.
Step 5
Pick the best spot in your yard for your garden.
Tips
*If you discover that your yard has no spots with lots of sun then you know that you should choose shade tolerant plants choose plants like: lettuce, spinach, impatiens or begonias. - To get more accurate information about how much sun your yard receives, you could choose eight colors and add lines every two hours.
Warnings
- Sometimes the sunniest spots are not the best spots because it's the driveway or something equally unsuitable. The sun chart is just one tool to help you pick the best spot.
Things You'll Need
- White paper
- Pencil
- Three colored crayons or pencils
