{"id":1763,"date":"2017-06-21T10:02:37","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T14:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelittlehalfacre.com\/staging\/?p=1763"},"modified":"2017-06-21T10:02:37","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T14:02:37","slug":"chasing-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelittlehalfacre.com\/staging\/chasing-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing the Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re always “chasing the sun” here on The Little Half Acre.\u00a0 Our tiny homestead sits between two parcels of land that have mature maple, oak and buckeye trees right on or near the property lines.\u00a0 The sunniest spot we have is a ten foot wide strip of grass just out the back door that runs across the width of the property.\u00a0 That area averages seven and a half hours of sun a day.\u00a0 Everything else gets four to six hours, usually in the hottest part of the day.\u00a0 That makes gardening quite a challenge!\u00a0 How do you properly rotate nightshade crops like tomatoes and peppers that demand a full day of sun while employing companion planting methods and properly rotating crops?<\/p>\n

Guess we won’t be rotating our nightshade plants quite up to standards, which is every three years.\u00a0 We’ll probably end up growing our nightshades on the same spot every other year and just plan on limited harvests when they’re rotated to a less sunny spot.\u00a0 We’ll have to see how that goes.\u00a0 Our neighbor to the east is planning on having his property logged and we can’t wait!\u00a0 Although, that was a year ago and the oaks still stand tall to the east.\u00a0 If the oaks were cut, our entire homestead would receive two more hours of sun each day.\u00a0 Sigh.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there are two new raised beds in that itty-bitty sunny area and it’s given me a bit more space for those sun hungry crops.\u00a0 There’s a new 12 foot bed with an 8 foot bed running perpendicular to it and we’ve put grow bags in front of the larger bed to hold even more indeterminate tomatoes.\u00a0 So far (knock on wood) the tomatoes in the grow bags look great and the eggplants, tomatoes and peppers in the two new beds are growing steadily.\u00a0 Here’s how that process looked:<\/p>\n