The sun rises in the east (Towards virginia/east coast) and moves west (towards the west coast). East gets "morning sun" (great for Hydrangeas) and the west gets the stronger sun (good for lavenders, salvias, etc.), generally speaking. Buildings, trees, fences, etc. can change the aspect. The sun is strongest from noon til 4.

"I have a nice space I'm thinking of turning into a garden."

Are you saying that there is one specific spot on your property that you would like to cultivate? Versus your whole property being your "garden"?

Here in California, our entire property is our garden. Not just a desginated space.

But maybe you mean you want to create a special vegetable or flower garden. Is that it?

And if so, you've realized it's important to know where da sun shine and where it don't.

As Wanda said, the sun rises in the "east...". There is morning sun and afternoon sun and the sun on the south side of the house (the hottest sun, especially worth knowing in the Valley) and shade on the north side of the house.

I usually recommend to my students that they watch the sun/shade movement throughout an entire year. You can pretty much guess that shade will dominate the north side of a building in the winter and will be a thin strip in the summer. You'll have to figure out the exact shade percentage based on the height of your house, any trees, etc.

Cynthia is right, too, in that you should get a Sunset Western Garden Book. You'll be surprised just how different gardening is here versus what you've done in Virginia.

You'll also realize that even in the Valley, you can grow flowers and vegetables all year round. There is no "spring planting" and "winter catalog reading" here.

Joe

To add to what's already been said: Take some gardening classes from the local Master Gardeners, or wherever. I've lived just about everywhere in this US of A and no where have the "rules" been soooo different then in the SW... perhaps especially CA. Then there is exactly where you live in CA.... that will make a difference too. Remember when you use to worry about too much humidity ruining your plants with fungus diseases? Here you worry about the "low humidty" drying out the plants and turning them into crispy veggies. In CA you have a whole new way to garden.

There is a device available that will tell you the percentage of sunshine in any particular place on that day. It is put in place and left for 24 hours and then can be read and put into another location for the next reading. Over a year you could map your whole garden, keeping good records, and excluding those days "when the sun don't shine". Leevalley.com sells them for about $30. Al

What wonderful feedback, all! Thanks!!!

Cynthia~ Thanks for the link, and book info. I'll get that one ASAP! ;)

Joe~ The "nice space" is indeed for a veggie garden. We've already been blessed with a green patch of grass, several fruit trees, and a few lush bushes in the back yard. If I was still in VA, I would take the time to watch how the sun hits my yard (I did this for a yr in our home, only to realize the huge back yard was mostly shade!). I'm anxious to get an area going so I can garden over the "winter." I'm going to do square foot/above ground gardening, which is why I'm extra curious about how the sun will hit my plot. Once I place the box, I don't want to have to move it again, and I want to be able to add more if my green thumb succeeds!

Calistoga~ Now THAT device sounds like it's right up my alley! One more thing to create a spreadsheet for and have DH poke fun at! ;)

Amy

Amy:

Assuming that the sun will be about 25% at its highest in the wintertime, any structures or tall plants will cast a shadow twice their height during the middle of the day. An even longer shadow in the morning and in the afternoon.

Joe

Welcome to the Valley Amy! You will certainly find that it is a completely different environment than VA. I don't mean to be nosy, but where exactly in the valley are you? It stretches for over 400 miles from Redding to Bakersfield, and your location (microclimate) many times will dictate what will succeed in your garden, and what will not. Regardless of where you are in the Valley, large expansive lawns are not a smart option. Water is a precious and scarce resource here and dumping gallons upon gallons to keep a lawn green is not the best thing to do. Particularly if your locality charges for water by the gallon. Like many people, i started off with a temporary lawn covering my backyard, and i slowly but surely removed it to make space for planting (both edible and ornamental).

Gardeners need to be reminded that the longer you garden in ANY location the less areas of full sun are available. When ever I visit Western Hills Rare Plant Nursery in nearby Occidental, I am struck with the fact that hardly any open planting space on the three acre site is left in the sun. My own garden is almost as shaded. After 20 years here I have started removing the trees I planted to "provide a little shade from the summer sun" which has become a JUNGLE. Al

central cali~ np on asking where I am. I'm in the Pleasanton/Dublin area. I understand what you're saying about water being a commodity, but we're renting, and the landlord wants the grass kept lush! It's not too big of a section. ;)

I'm beginning to feel discouraged with being able to grow vegetable in the dirt plot at the back of the yard because of what calistoga mentioned... The yard that backs to ours has 2 LARGE (I'm guessing close to 3 stories) pine trees. These trees just *happen* to overshadow my potential space--one on the left side, one on the right. **GGRRRR**

From watching the yard throughout the day, it looks as though I may have a small section that gets kissed by the sun for only 2-3 hours... Then it's shaded again. *sigh* Needless to say, calistoga, I purchased the sun device you recommended. As much as I love looking at my yard all day, I must have precise information! teeehee

My next plan is to convince DH to let me build a garden box on our concrete patio! I WILL have a veggie garden, darnit!

Welcome! The good news is that you can grow things all year round. I sometimes have fresh tomatoes for the holidays, and one mild year there were a few lingering on the vine on President's Day (yes, I mean February). You can put in a crop of fall-winter veggies now, and perennials (herbs, most tress) are happier being planted in October than in spring. The bad news is that all of your "gardening across America" books are best used for bonfires, or mulch if you prefer.

Before you do anything substantial (read costly), watch for a year to see where you get sun and where you don't. Take notes. The most important part is to remember that YOU must provide water for the April-Nov part. The water part was the BIG eye-opener for us folks transplanted from the mid-west. You CAN do it.

-Babka

Here's a little game to compliment what cynthia h has written:

You can figure how far an east-west wall or fence will throw a shadow by consulting
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/AltAz
for the altitude of the sun for your area on any given day.

For instance, I live in Burbank. According to the chart on that site, the sun's highest altitude (at noontime) for Burbank on Dec 21, the shortest day of the year, is 32.4 degrees.

1.) I took a piece of graph paper and made each one-inch block equal one foot. I drew a horizontal line for the ground. Then I drew a five inch perpendicular line for my wall, because my wall is five feet tall.

2.) I got a piece of tracing paper, and traced over the ground line. Then I drew a long, intersecting diagonal line on the tracing paper using a protractor. This line was 32 degrees up from my ground line, and represented the shadow cast by the sun.

3.) I slid the tracing paper, keeping the ground lines matched up, until my shadow line intersected the top of my wall line.

4.) I then counted the graph-paper blocks between the shadow and the wall along the ground line. It came out to 7 3/4 blocks, or 7 3/4 inches. Converted into feet, that equaled seven feet 8 inches, so my full-sun beds have to be clear of that distance to not be in shadow on the shortest day of the year.

Sounds complicated, but it's really not, especially if you like making little scale drawings like I do. :) And yes, when I checked the wall's shadow last winter, it was a little bit over seven feet at noon on the Solstice.

The grass may not be in "too big an area," but believe me: it is a water hog. The heat wave we're having in the Bay Area right now (temps over 100 deg. F = 38 deg. C) is forcing me to water my fall veg starts every day.

I hope, for your sake, that the water bill is on the landlord's dime; otherwise, you may be in for a rude shock when the bill arrives. I'm on EBMUD service (which also serves San Ramon), and EBMUD imposed drought restrictions and higher consumption $ rates. Our first "drought rate" bill should arrive this week or early next week (EBMUD is on a bimonthly schedule).

So my take on it is: if the landlord wants you to keep his grass green, he needs to pay for the water. That sucker is going to take a LOT OF WATER per square foot to keep alive, much less "lush."

in el cerrito

Good luck with your brand new gardening experience. It is a total turn-around from the East coast. Don't count on it being anything like what you already know.
Another major thing I think you should ask your neighbors about is gophers because the little buggers can ruin your plantings almost as fast as you can make them! I hope you are lucky enough not to have them in your area.

Min

If you have more sun in your front yard, you may be able to grow some vegetables there, especially if they look "decorative" and you can tuck them in between the pansies or whatever. Look for books on edible landscaping; Rosalind Creasy (who lives on the Peninsula -- the other side of the bay) has written several, and her latest one is coming out soon. Her whole front yard is her vegetable garden. Certainly you can grow herbs in a front yard.

Actually, your location would be considered part of the greater San Francisco Bay Area, rather than the central valley, although your location is as much influenced by the central valley as by the bay. Your additional comment about large existing pine trees in your adjoining neighbor's yard may not be as bad as you think, unless they are to your south, in which case you will most definitely have limited sun in winter. You might find it just as practical to get yourself some half oak wine barrels and put these on your patio if this is your sunniest spot, and this size container is plenty large enough to grow tomatoes next summer, or use for winter veggies. For a winter vegetable garden, it does help to locate it in maximum sun, but if you get some of your winter veggies started now while they still get sun, some vegetables such as carrots, peas, lettuce, radishes, most root vegetables in general that are cool season growers will perform okay even with less than full sun,(but of course more is always better). You might also find that things like Alpine Strawberries do okay in less than full sun. Get yourself a copy of the Sunset Western Garden Book for general info on what cool season crops are possible in your area; as you do get frost and potentially some ground fog in winter, this will also tend to make winter crops slower growing or more subject to frost damage than locations closer to the bay. You might also consider some perennial crops such as Artichokes, which can be planted to grow over the winter also.

Good luck with your endeavor, and realize that besides the shade from your neighbor's pines, there might also be a lot of moisture stealing roots, and raised beds with added top soil will probably give you better results than planting directly in the ground where large tree roots will compete with the vegetables.