Did you know that tending to a personal garden is good for your health? While the health benefits are ample, not everyone is blessed with a natural green thumb.
Successful gardening takes knowledge, patience, and a little bit of trial and error. One of the biggest culprits to lackluster plants is insufficient sunlight.
If your plants are looking more like a weed patch than an actual garden, they may need more sunlight. Keep reading below for five signs your sunlight garden isn't getting enough loving light.
1. Lack of Growth
Photosynthesis is vital for plants. It creates energy that allows plants of all kinds to grow, but only occurs with ample sun.
If you notice your plant not really growing or growing slower than it should be, try moving it to a patio or next to a sunny window.
2. Your Plants Have a Serious Lean
Plants and flowers alike will chase the sun. If there isn't enough light on all parts of a plant, it may begin to lean. You'd be surprised at how far stems and leaves can lean in order to get light.
If you start to see a clear lean, seek out an alternate spot for your plants. If a better spot isn't immediately available, at least consider turning your plant to even it out.
3. Leaf Color in Your Sunlight Garden
Most foliage should have a dark green coloring, coming from the chlorophyll in each of the plant's cells. When a plant doesn't get enough sunlight, the chlorophyll essentially stops working as well. This leads to lighter green leaves, and eventually yellow, dead leaves.
4. Etiolation
Etiolation basically means weakening, which happens when plant stems grow long too fast. This most often happens due to insufficient light. Stems grow quickly desperately looking for light, but this leaves them very weak and likely to crack or break.
5. Leaf Size
Leaf color was mentioned as a sign of too little light, but you should pay attention to leaf size as well. If you start to notice abnormally small or thin leaves, you may need to find a new sunnier spot for your plant.
Determining Sun Exposure
While you may feel more like a scientist than a gardener, to truly know the sun levels of your yard, you need to take notes.
Create a simple time table with columns for each hour between 7 am to 9 pm and rows represented each area of your yard. Check the space every hour and write down if it's full sun, partial shade, filtered sun, or full shade.
Combine this information with the information tabs that come in most plants, and you will have a very successful garden. This is especially important if you are planting yummy fruits and vegetables.
Time to Enjoy the Sun with Your Plants
As you can see, it's easy to understand your sunlight garden even if you've had trouble with plants in the past. Watching something grow is definitely an amazing and rewarding experience.
Want to chat about your specific garden dreams? Please contact us and we would love to help you out!
