Understanding Sun Placement in Your Garden: Learn why this step can make or break your food forest!

Before you plant a single thing, you need to become best friends with the sunshine in your yard. SUN PLACEMENT is all about figuring out how sunlight moves through your exact space—not just your general region, but your actual yard, garden, or homestead.

In CHAPTER 1 of my Edible & Herbal Food Forest Guide, I go over how important it is to THINK AHEAD! In great detail, I walk you through the many reasons WHY you should prioritize SUN PLACEMENT, and how missing this step could cause you a lot of heartache! Below are a few steps that you can take to assure you understand your sun placement, and why you should THINK FIRST before planting ANYTHING!

Get to Know YOUR Sun

Every yard is different. Your morning sun might be perfect on one side of your home, while another area stays shaded all day because of trees, fences, or even your neighbor’s garage. That’s why it’s so important to observe exactly where and how the sunlight hits your property throughout the day.

Start by asking yourself:

• Where is the sun at 6 a.m., 9 a.m., noon, and again at 4 p.m.?
• Is the light direct or filtered through branches?
• Are there spots that stay in full shade—or worse—never dry out?

It may sound simple, but this step is absolutely vital. Sunlight determines how well your plants grow, how much food you can harvest, and how quickly your food forest will thrive. Just remember: the sun rises in the East and sets in the West—but how it moves across your landscape is what truly matters.

How to Map the Sun’s Path

Here’s how I did it: I set hourly timers from dawn to dusk and went outside to take note of where the sun was hitting—and where it wasn’t. I focused mostly on the areas I planned to convert into my food forest.

You can:

• Snap a photo of the same spot every hour
• Jot it down in a notebook
• Or sketch it out on a simple hand-drawn map

Do this for one full day, and if you want to be extra thorough, repeat it a few times throughout the season. Once you’ve tracked the sun’s path, you’ll have a clear understanding of which areas are best for sun-loving plants and which spots are better for shade-tolerant varieties.

Best of all? After you figure this out and understand your sun's placement, you will never have to worry about this step again! Your food forest will be THANKING YOU with abundant harvests and happy, healthy plants!

SUN PLACEMENT is just the start; let me walk you through the rest of the steps to your own backyard HAVEN with My Edible & Herbal Food Forest Guide!

The Future Is Worth The Patience Of The Present

-Michele

The Homemade Gardener