Hi all, I've just moved into my first house and har a east facing garden. On
The left of it I've built a raised bed, but having never owned a garden before I'm unsure what to plant in my south facing bed, that has sunlight from around 8am-midday.
Any tips?
Thanks a lot
As a rule, in the Northern hemisphere, you want "South facing" for maximum sun exposure across the seasons, but this still has to do with where obstacles are - basically, you don't want anything such as a structure, fence, or treeline too close on the south side of your growing area.
But, that applies to East and West as well - if your garden is on the East side of your house, or there's a tree on the West side of it, that could block nearly half of your sun, depending upon how far away from the obstacles the garden is.
Which is, ah, what compass direction? Are you facing East when making this positional reference?
Morning light without afternoon light is good for partial sun plants, because the ambient temperatures aren't as high as they'd be in the afternoon (after the ground and air have thoroughly warmed). I have wallflowers and fuschias (but am in a warmer climate than I suspect you are in). Fuschias respond well to having _some_ light, but not an abundance - too much light actually stunts them.
Are you looking to plant vegetables or ornamentals? You're posting in rec.gardens, not rec.gardens.edible. Afternoon shade would be excellent for lettuce.
What is your climate and soil? It matters.
What do you want out of your garden and what are you prepared to put into it? Nobody can guess that from half a world away. You might want to eat, to play , to admire or just to sit, or some combination. You might be prepare to work 4 hours a day or 4 hours a month. It matters.
David
I'm afraid this is all new to me, so you'll have to bear with. The garden is east facing, and I have a raised bed that faces the south. The sun shines onto the bed from (I've re-adjusted my times here) 8am -
2pm.I'm not looking to grow veg or fruit (I have a different bed for that), nor am I interested in bedding plants (dislike having to replace them every year). I'm after plants that I can plant, and will last a long time.
Along the back of the bed, I have planted some sweet peas, to grow up Trellis' on my fence. I planted these mainly because I read they attract bee's to pollinate my runner beans.
I live in Nottingham (midlands), UK. I'm afraid I have no idea about what type of soil I have, although I have dug in 2 bags of compost into the top foot of the raised bed. (the bed itself is about 2feet tall)
I'm interested in having colour as much of the year as possible
You want perennial shrubs and ground covers then. Go to the local library where you are likely to find several books that catalog common garden plants describing their requirements, size, habit etc, often with pictures. The same library may have other useful stuff, eg garden design and layout.
I don't know what the climate is like in Nottingham so knowing you live there isn't a great help and since you don't know about the soil it is hard to make specific recommendations. You need to get some local knowledge from a neighbour, gardening club or competent nursery. Look around the district and see what does well. If you just gamble or take the word of the teenager at the local retail outlet (same thing really) you may waste your time and money as often the wrong plant will do very poorly or die.
DGreedo wrote: ...raised bed perennials...
figure that because of the raised bed that the soil will be warmer and dryer than "normal" for your area, so certain plants will not do as well as you might expect. the larger the raised bed the better in terms of keeping temperatures more even, but the plants near the edges have to be more hardy for temperature and moisture changes.
songbird
OK, your email address indicates you're in the UK and you indicate you have a raised bed that faces south and east.
I don't know what you should plant - only what I would plant. You should read up on companion plants. See
Dick
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