my limited gardening options, let me show you them

January 24, 2008 10:37 AM

Where should I put my garden?

I live in Albuquerque, NM, at about 5,000 feet. My backyard is basically a north-to-south rectangle, roughly 60'X30', with two tall ash trees, surrounded by 6-foot block walls. Here is a crude mspaint map.

In past years, I have done container gardening of herbs, lettuce, tomatoes and peppers. I'm not a natural gardener, but I'm trying to turn a brown thumb at least a greenish shade of brown.

This year, I want to clear a 15'X20'ish east-to-west garden, at one end of the yard or the other. This garden would be automatically irrigated with drip lines.

Unfortunately, because of tree roots in the center, I'm limited to two environmental extremes for this garden.

The north end is not shaded at all during the summer, and gets hot.

The south end is shaded by the north-facing wall, and gets dappled sunlight through the two rather scraggly trees and a massive grape vine that hangs on the wall and is creeping over a clothesline. Because of the relative coolness at this end, rainwater pools, grass grows oddly there, and even mushrooms pop up from time to time.

From moving my container gardens around, I've found some plants like the full sun, but some don't.

If you had to put a garden at one end or the other, which would you choose?

posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! to home & garden (12 comments total)

You didn't mention what you're planning to plant. You can avoid the tree root problem by building raised beds for your plants. There are numerous benefits to raised bed planting, one of which is the challenge of your tree roots.

Your sun-shade challenge is no different from what all other gardeners face. I would separate your list of plants into two groups: sun and shade loving, and build two separate smaller raised bed areas. Most herbs and vegetables thrive in full sun, so if that's your preference, make your sun-loving bed larger. There are numerous articles on companion planting with herbs and vegetables - I would pay attention to that as you plan your layout.

Have fun!
posted by Flakypastry at 11:02 AM on January 24

Based on your previous gardening it sounds like you want to do a vegetable garden; if so full sun is the way to go. This site suggests at least 6 and ideally 8-10 hours a day of sun.
posted by TedW at 11:03 AM on January 24

Yes, I'm sorry, I should have said I want to plant herbs and vegetables.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 11:12 AM on January 24

Put your garden at the full sun end. If the grass isn't growing well on the shaded end, it probably isn't good spot for a vegetable garden. That said, you may want to consider a small secondary bed in a cooler, less sunny, area if you want to grow a lettuce, spinach, and other similar plants as long into the summer as possible, as these tend to bolt quickly in very hot, sunny conditions.
posted by ssg at 11:27 AM on January 24

I tried growing vegetables in dappled sun and it was totally unsuccessful. Go for the full sun!
posted by onlyconnect at 12:05 PM on January 24

So it looks like full sun wins! I'm going to try to grow lettuce and spinach in this garden, but I'll also do some in barrels in the shade, and see which ones bolt later. Thanks everyone for your great advice to a gardening n00b!
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 12:23 PM on January 24

I agree that you should put the garden in the sunny spot. If you find that it's really getting too hot for the plants in the afternoon, consider rigging your drip system with a few sprinklers or misters. If you've got an automatic system, you can program it to come on for about 10 minutes in the heat of the day just to cool the plants down. I've done this in my vegetable garden and it works really well and keeps the plants happy.

Another option is to water deeply at night. Even if the plants wilt a bit in the afternoon, their roots will have access to plenty of water and they'll perk up again when the temp begins to cool.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:48 PM on January 24

The north wall will also reflect additional heat and light onto the garden, as well as dry out the soil that is touching it. Arid sun-lovers like Mediterranean herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, etc.) will do better in those conditions than plants that need more water.
posted by cardboard at 1:01 PM on January 24

Yes, in the sun! You can always plant sun-loving things at the south end (like tomatoes) and plant stuff that gets a little sunburned (spinach/lettuce) in those plants' shade.

And yes to raised beds, too. Well worth the effort! In NM you may even get to have spinach and lettuce year-round, I am so jealous. It's about 10 degrees here today.
posted by Camofrog at 1:47 PM on January 24

You can start planting cool season crops (broccoli, lettuce, spinach) pretty soon. They all go to hell as soon as it gets warm anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much about the area that gets full sun.
posted by electroboy at 1:48 PM on January 24

Don't forget mulch - this will help protect your soil from drying out. I use sugarcane mulch which adds to the quality of the soil over time. (Pine bark is kinda pretty for flower beds etc, but not so good for vege patches).
posted by b33j at 2:19 PM on January 24

My "garden" is a light colored courtyard and it gets up to roughly 100 million degress in the summer. Peppers and tomatoes love it! Nasturshims and lettuce, not so much. My solution is to grow things like lettuce underneath things like tomateos or scarlet runner bea vines. They can decide how much they want to grow towards the sun on their own and it works well. Also it keeps the soil damper.

Lettuce also does really well in hanging pots under the overhang of your house.
posted by fshgrl at 6:22 PM on January 24