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This isn't a question that's really occurred to me before now, but I feel it will make a fairly big impact on my yield. For the most part, I don't have anything really tall in my garden, with tomatoes being the largest. I was thinking of trying some corn, this year and planting beans to grow up it. This would cause quite a bit of shade. I will also have squash, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, etc... I'm sure they'll be getting light, because I'll be spacing them apart, but if I was going to plant with the smaller ones at the front and the larger at the back, which direction should I face it to get the best sunlight? I hear a lot of people saying that if you have to choose between early morning and late afternoon sun, that plants tend to like early morning, so should it be facing east?

I live in the South-East in zone 8, I believe. Thanks.

Dalton
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There are different variables and it depends on what season but generally speaking to get the most light, assuming a rectangular garden. rows should run east to west and your taller plants should be on the north side.

You can always use shade cloth to reduce sun if necessary on some plants that can't tolerate that much sun (or put them to the north of taller plants) but you can't really add sun easily.

OrganicLawnDIY
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  • Thanks. That's helpful. This would be a garden I'd be planting now, in late March/early April, after the last frost, and it would be going till it got cold enough to kill the garden off. That would probably be sept/oct. All of the plants in the particular garden are sun loving. – Dalton Apr 01 '15 at 20:26
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    One more thing you should try to look out for are any structures (houses, sheds, trees, fences, hedges, etc) that produce shade. If you can monitor the shadows one day to see how they travel across the area it might help. – OrganicLawnDIY Apr 01 '15 at 20:33
  • There isn't any shade in this area. We have a good bit of land and it'll be in a completely open area backed up to an electric horse fence. It's probably mean to put food that close to them, but it's where I have and give me the option of tying into it and running a strand of electric around the garden. Also, with the horses hanging around waiting for the wind to blow something their way, it might keep the critters away. – Dalton Apr 07 '15 at 20:32