Sunlight
Here's the Cheat Sheet:
Full sun (6+ hours) — tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, cucumbers, eggplant, peas, onions, carrots
Think of their leaves as solar panels. Feed them light or get nothing.
Part sun (4–6 hours) — lettuce, spinach, kale, most leafy greens. Happy to skip the afternoon roast.
Under 4 hours — Lettuce will do OK. Not enough for other leafy greens. You'll get leaves from other veggies.
How do I find out how much sun I have? Try Sun Mapping
Timing, Angle, and Placement:
Not all sun is created equal, and where you put things matters as much as how much light they get.
The daily arc:
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Morning sun (~6–10am) — gentle, low-angle, warming gradually. Easy on tender leaves. Good spot for lettuce, spinach, arugula. Let them wake up slow and gentle, like you want to be woken up. Perfect time to water.
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Midday sun (~10am–2pm) — highest angle, most concentrated. This is the sun that does the heavy lifting. Tomatoes, peppers, squash want this.
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Afternoon sun (~2–5pm) — sun's tilting down, but the ground and air have been soaking up heat all day, so this is often the hottest stretch regardless of angle. Hard on shallow-rooted, thin-leaved vegetables which will often wilt.
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Evening sun (west-facing, low down and nasty) — This is the sneaky one. Sun feels weaker because it's low, but it hits sideways across leaves and stems, and lands on plants that are already hot from the day. West-facing beds can scald lettuce and sun-scorch the exposed side of tomatoes even though the light "looks gentler." Don't be fooled by the strength.
east exposure = gentler, forgiving.
West exposure = hits later and harder, when the plant's already cooked.
Placement strategy:
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Use your tall plants as shade cloth. Plant lettuce, spinach, and other heat-shy greens on the east or north side of tall crops (corn, staked tomatoes, trellised beans, sunflowers). They get morning light, then the tall stuff blocks the brutal afternoon/evening sun.
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Avoid putting greens on the west side of anything. That's double exposure (afternoon heat + evening raking light). This will cause them to go straight to seed and give you no leaves.
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Root vegetables (carrots, beets) are more tolerant of a west spot since they're not sunburning leaf tissue the same way. But, they'll still want consistent moisture if they're catching that late heat.
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Fruiting vegetables go wherever gets the longest unbroken stretch of midday-to-afternoon sun — they can take the heat, and it's what they need to actually flower and fruit.
Provide shade with structure, not guesswork.
Let your tall plants do the shade cloth's job for the plants that can't handle a full day of it.
