Patio Plant Performance

 

🌱 Light Mapping the Soul: How a 2-Week Sun Study Transformed My Patio Garden

By Tiffany T. Johnson — Soul 2 Soil / Culturecare.online

For two weeks in early October, I ran a simple but revealing experiment: mapping the sun’s path across my patio garden. My goal was to understand whether my so-called “full sun” plants were actually receiving the light they needed to thrive.

What I discovered was a three-hour shortfall—a hidden gap between expectation and reality that was silently shaping my plants’ growth.

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🕶️ Step 1: The Sunmapping Phase

Each day from October 1 to October 15, I tracked the sun exposure for my garden’s most light-dependent plants. This process—known as sunmapping—involves recording how long sunlight directly reaches each plant.

The results surprised me: my full-sun species were only receiving about 6 to 7 hours of strong light per day. That’s nearly three hours less than the recommended 9–10 hours for vigorous growth.

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💡 Step 2: Photoperiod Correction

Instead of moving my plants, I tried something different: photoperiod correction.

Using a simple patio light as a supplemental light source