Scott, great drawing. Assuming I can read North on my phone, the only benefit I could see to change would be to put the gaden in the south facing yard. However, if the shadows are right, you should get ok sun. My fear with long shadows would be the house shading the garden.

Good luck and welcome!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure

Scott:

What utility did you use to draw that rendering? If that's a later SketchUp, IIRC you can change the solar angle to modify your shadow positions.

IMHO, in that alignment that 3x6 bed will receive little sun and you'll want cool seasons in there, esp if I understand the rendering correctly and that's a 2-story. Your 16x16 will likely do OK and maybe in fall might struggle a bit with that tree shade there. Otherwise, overall more sun is mo' bettah and moving all beds south will derive more benefit and the yard will flow better from your patio [not be so choppy and broken up].

Dan

Scott - have you monitored the amount of sunlight the area gets throughout the day? If possible, i'd be inclined to put the garden along the entire length of that fence. It is essential, that you have at least 6 hours of direct sunlight.

EG

I think it looks fine. The shadows are a bit short, but as long as you pay attention and plant things that can bolt if they get too much heat/sun you'll do fine. In my previous garden I put the 1st foot wide row filled with herbs. My basil never went to seed the whole growing season, until I stopped watering it. It was because it received a good amount of sun, but not so much to make it bolt.

Yes, I drew this in Sketchup 7 - the shadows are adjusted for my solar orientation and shows noon in September. The bed placement was chosen by running through the entire growing season and generating a set of heatmaps. The best light is in what I call "tomato corner" - the upper left of the "L", which gets about 8 hours in peak summer.

The house shadow misses most of the "L" until about 4 pm in peak season, cutting the 4x4 in half around 3.

The 3x6 bed is for shade-tolerant herbs.

The right side of the back wall does get a lot of light (and radiated heat from a concrete half-wall that the fence sits on) but is already populated by compost bins, so I'm unsure if I'm willing to relocate. (That neighbor doesn't mind compost, the one on the left feels differently)

You'll do fine. Great drawing!

EG

Scott, if that's noon in Sept you should have few problems as long as you pay attention, and again stick to the cool-tolerant plants closest to the house. Remember, you should avoid planting tomatoes in the same place over and over, so ensure you have enough room for rotation.

Alternatively, you can drive the grumpy neighbor crazy and make them move for more optimal placement. ;o)

Dan

I loved the way that design program looked. My biggest hurdle in planning my garden is figure out if it's truly a good location for growing. I even went and downloaded the sketchup and watched the tutorials, but I am definitely not enough of a computer person to figure that out! I did find the latitude and longitude of my house - is there any other program that can help you figure out your north/south orientation and the progress of the shading throughout the times of day and months of the year?
Thanks for any tips... and awesome garden plan!