Read Grow Food Now free: the opening pages

Read Your Space Before You Buy Anything

You have a spot in mind. Maybe it is a balcony off the living room, a concrete patio behind a rental, a strip of yard beside the driveway, or a window ledge that gets "pretty good light, I think." You have seen photos of tomato vines spilling over railings and baskets of lettuce on apartment tables, and part of you wonders whether that is possible for you or only for people with real gardens and green thumbs.

Here is the honest answer: the single biggest factor in whether your small-space garden produces food is not your skill, your soil, or how much money you spend. It is light. Plants turn light into food, and the food they make is the food you eat. A plant that gets enough light forgives a lot of beginner mistakes. A plant that does not get enough light will disappoint you no matter what else you do right.

So before you buy a single pot or seed packet, you are going to measure your light. This section shows you exactly how, with no special equipment, and then shows you how to match what you have to what you can grow.

Why "sunny" is not specific enough

Most people describe their space with words like "bright," "sunny," or "gets afternoon sun." Those words are useful for houseplants. They are not useful for vegetables, because vegetables care about the number of hours of direct sun, and our memories are terrible at counting hours.

Direct sun means you can see the sun itself from the spot, or the spot casts a crisp, sharp-edged shadow. Bright shade, where the area is well lit but the shadow is soft and fuzzy, is not direct sun. A room that feels bright at noon may only get two hours of actual sun on the windowsill, because the sun moves across the sky and the window frame, the building next door, or a tree cuts it off.

Vegetables fall into three broad light groups:

Light group	Direct sun per day	What grows well
Full sun	6 to 8 hours or more	Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, squash, beans, most herbs from the Mediterranean (basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano)
Part sun	4 to 6 hours	Bush beans, peas, beets, carrots, radishes, chard, kale, broccoli, parsley, cilantro
Part shade	2 to 4 hours (plus bright indirect light)	Lettuce, spinach, arugula, Asian greens, mint, chives, scallions

A simple rule to remember: if you eat the fruit (tomato, pepper, cucumber, squash), the plant needs the most sun. If you eat the root, it needs a medium amount. If you eat the leaves, it can manage with the least. This rule is not perfect, but it will steer you right most of the time.

The sun audit: measuring your light in one day

You need one clear day, your phone, and a notebook (or a notes app). If your days are mostly cloudy, pick the clearest you can get and note it.

1. Pick your candidate spots. Walk your space and choose every place you might put a plant: each section of the balcony railing, the floor near the sliding door, the patio corners, each windowsill. Give each spot a short name, like "rail left," "rail right," "floor by door," "kitchen sill."
2. Check every hour on the hour. Starting at 8 a.m. (earlier in midsummer), go to each spot and note whether it is in direct sun (sharp shadow) or not. Set a repeating phone alarm so you do not forget.
3. Take a photo at each check. Stand in the same place each time and photograph the whole space. Later you can flip through the photos and see the light move. This is also a great record to compare against in a different season.
4. Stop when the sun is gone from every spot. That might be 3 p.m. on an east-facing balcony or 8 p.m. on a west-facing one.
5. Count the hours for each spot. Count only hours where the spot was in direct sun. If it was sunny for half the hour, count half.

You can copy this template into your notes:

Sun audit date: ____________   Weather: ____________

Spot name      | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Total hrs
rail left      |   |   |    |    |    |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
rail right     |   |   |    |    |    |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
floor by door  |   |   |    |    |    |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
kitchen sill   |   |   |    |    |    |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |

Mark: S = full sun, H = half the hour, blank = shade

Action step: Put a day on your calendar this week for your sun audit. Set hourly phone alarms labeled "sun check" and do it, even if you plan to grow only on a windowsill. The numbers you get will decide everything that follows in this guide.

If you cannot be home all day, split it across two days, or ask a household member to snap the photos. Sun-tracking phone apps are a reasonable backup, but a real check beats any app, because the app does not know about the neighbor's tree or the overhang above you.

Reading your direction: what each exposure usually gives you

The direction your space faces gives you a head start before you even audit. In the Northern Hemisphere (flip north and south if you live in the Southern Hemisphere):

• South-facing: The best for vegetables. Sun for most of the day, especially in winter when the sun sits low in the sky. Often enough for full-sun crops.
• West-facing: Afternoon sun, which is hot and strong. Good for fruiting crops in moderate climates. In very hot summers, plants here can wilt in late afternoon and dry out fast.
• East-facing: Morning sun, gentle and cool. Excellent for leafy greens and herbs, and often enough for compact tomatoes and peppers if you get 6 hours. Plants here stay less stressed in heat waves.
• North-facing: Usually little or no direct sun, apart from early morning and late evening in midsummer. Stick to leafy greens, herbs like mint and parsley, and plan on grow lights for anything more.

Corners and angles matter too. A balcony that faces southeast gets a mix of east and south light. A balcony recessed under the one above it loses the high midday summer sun, so it may get more sun in spring and fall (when the sun is lower) than in midsummer. That surprises a lot of apartment growers, and it is one of the reasons your audit matters more than any general rule.

Pro tip: If you have a balcony above you, measure how far the overhang reaches. Plants placed right at the outer edge of the railing may get several more hours of sun than plants pushed back against the wall. A railing planter or a pot on a stand at the front edge can be the difference between a part-shade spot and a full-sun spot.

Seasons change your light

The sun's path shifts through the year. In summer it rises higher and stays up longer. In winter it is low and the days are short. This has three practical consequences for you:

1. A spot that gets 7 hours in June may get 3 in December. If you want to grow in winter (we cover this fully in Chapter 5), you will need to re-check your light then, or plan on supplemental lighting.
2. Low winter sun reaches deeper into rooms. A south window that only lights the sill in summer may throw sun halfway across the floor in winter. Indoor winter growing near a south window is more realistic than people expect, though the short day length still limits growth.
3. Buildings and trees cast longer shadows when the sun is low. A patio that is sunny all summer may sit in the shadow of a fence or garage for much of spring and fall.

Write down the date of your audit. If you do it in spring, you will have a good sense of your light for the main growing season. If you do it in midsummer, remember that early spring and fall will be shadier. If you are starting in fall or winter, assume summer will be brighter, and plan to audit again in late spring.

Reflected light and heat: the hidden helpers and hazards

Small spaces are often surrounded by hard surfaces: walls, glass, concrete, railings. These change your growing conditions in ways that do not show up in an hours-of-sun count.

Light-colored walls bounce light. A white or pale wall behind your plants reflects light back onto their shaded side. This can noticeably improve growth in a part-sun spot. Some growers hang a white board or reflective panel behind plants for the same effect.

Dark surfaces and concrete store heat. A dark patio or a brick wall soaks up heat all day and releases it into the evening. In spring and fall this is a gift: heat-loving crops get a few extra warm hours. In midsummer it can cook pots, especially dark plastic ones sitting directly on the ground.

Glass can magnify heat. Plants placed right against a sunny window can get scorched leaves in summer. Indoors, a gap of a few inches from the glass usually helps, along with watching for leaves that bleach or crisp.

Upper floors get more wind. High balconies often have strong, drying wind that can snap stems, tip tall pots, and dry soil fast. We cover wind in the next section, but note it during your audit: is the air still or gusty?

Example: Lena's balcony is on the seventh floor and faces west. Her audit showed 6.5 hours of direct sun at the railing, but she also noticed the plants on a test shelf drooped every afternoon and the concrete floor was hot to the touch by 4 p.m. Her plan: put heat-tolerant peppers and a compact tomato at the railing in light-colored pots raised on a small wooden stand, and keep lettuce in the shadier corner by the door, where it gets 3 hours of morning-ish light reflected off the white wall.

Matching your spots to crops: the decision rule

Once your audit is done, sort each spot into a category with this rule:

• 6 or more hours: "Fruit spot." Reserve it for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, squash, and sun-loving herbs. These are your most valuable spots, so do not fill them with lettuce that would be happy elsewhere.
• 4 to 6 hours: "Root and leaf spot." Good for beets, radishes, carrots, peas, bush beans, chard, kale, and most herbs. Compact cherry tomatoes may produce here, but expect a smaller harvest than in full sun.
• 2 to 4 hours: "Leaf spot." Lettuce, spinach, arugula, Asian greens, mint, chives, parsley, scallions.
• Under 2 hours: "Light-assisted spot." Plan on a grow light (Chapter 5), or use this space for storage, seed starting under lights, or a worm bin.

Then write a one-line plan for each spot. For example:

rail right (7 hrs)   -> fruit spot: 1 cherry tomato, 1 basil
rail left (5 hrs)    -> root and leaf: chard, bush beans
floor by door (3 hrs)-> leaf spot: lettuce mix, spinach
kitchen sill (2 hrs) -> leaf spot (weak): chives, mint; add light later

That small table is already a garden plan. Everything else in this guide (containers, soil, crop choices, timing) builds on it.

What to do if your light is limited

If your audit came back disappointing, do not quit. You still have real options:

1. Lean into leafy greens and herbs. These are some of the most expensive produce to buy and some of the most forgiving to grow. A part-shade balcony that grows salad and herbs all spring and fall is a genuine success.
2. Move plants to follow the sun. Pots on wheeled plant caddies can be rolled into the sunny patch in the morning and moved later. It sounds fussy, but many apartment growers do this with one or two prized tomato plants.
3. Go vertical toward the light. Sometimes the top of a railing or a high shelf gets sun that the floor never sees. Chapter 5 covers vertical setups that lift plants into brighter air.
4. Add reflective surfaces. White boards, light-colored walls, or even a pale outdoor rug can bounce more light onto plants.
5. Supplement with grow lights indoors. A modest LED setup can grow greens and herbs with no window at all. This is a real, practical option, and we cover it step by step later.

Warning: Do not try to "make up" for low light with extra fertilizer or extra water. A light-starved plant cannot use more food, and overwatering in low light is one of the fastest ways to rot roots. If a plant is stretching, pale, and floppy, the fix is more light, not more feeding.

Signs your plants are not getting enough light

Even after an audit, some spots surprise you. Learn these signs so you can move plants early:

• Stretching (legginess): Long, thin stems with big gaps between leaves, leaning hard toward the light.
• Pale or yellow-green new growth, especially when the plant is otherwise watered and fed.
• Flowers but no fruit, or fruit that never ripens on tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers.
• Very slow growth compared to the same crop elsewhere.
• Leaning: A pot that has to be turned every few days because the plant keeps bending one way.

If you see these, move the plant to a brighter spot, raise it, or switch the spot to a crop from a lower light group. It is not failure. It is information.

Recording your baseline

Keep your sun audit notes and photos in one place, such as a notes folder called "Garden." Every decision in the next sections refers back to it. Next comes space itself: room, weight, wind and water.

The sample ends here.