Observe sunlight and shade in your garden.

Know where the sun rises and sets on your garden. And pay attention to shade producers – your house, trees, shrubs, etc. I use sticky notes on the inside of my windows as I look out at my garden to record when it’s sunny and shady in various flower beds. I was surprised to find that a container that I thought was shaded by my house all day actually had full sun until 3:00 PM.

Below is the sticky note method for this year’s vegetable garden. My theory that a tree had started to shade part of the garden proved to be false.