Beginning gardening

[a1flors]

How do I measure the amount of sun I get?

Well, I ordered a light meter, knowing I won't remember to follow through on measuring light on my own.

[David E. Ross]

I don't think you need to measure the intensity of sunlight. You should merely observe the pattern and timing of light versus shade as the day progresses.

Plants are generally classified as requiring sun, part sun, part shade, and shade. These are broad classifications.

sun: The plant is in full sun at least 6 hours per day with any shade at the beginning and end of daylight.

part sun: The plant is generally in the sun but gets a hour or two of intermittant shade in the middle of the day. This might even be 3 hours of broken shade.

part shade: The plant is generally in shade but gets 1-2 hours of intermittant sun in the middle of the day or only at the beginning and end of daylight.

shade: The sun does not shine at all on the plant. (In this case, the plant likely still needs strong indirect light.)

In some cases, the classification only provides for sun, part sun, and shade. In this case part sun means the plant receives intermittant sunlight during approximately half the daylight hours.

[despen]

Light meter???

For gardening purposes, full sun is where you get the sun all day.

Partial is the sun blocked a few hours by buildings, trees.

Full shade is less than 3 hours.

It's not photography.

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