Light reflection for lower light areas
I was looking through the West Coast Seeds catalogue at the books they carry, and one caught my eye because it mentioned techniques to reflect light for small gardens. Although you should first and foremost make sure you can meet the light requirements of the plants you are growing and not rely on reflected light, reflecting additional light to your plants can help boost the intensity of the light that is available. A quick web search turned up a number of suggestions:
- Use light coloured mulch (including white river rocks, pine shavings, white plastic) or large white pavers or stones around the base of plants to reflect light upwards.
- Place white coloured garden decorations or pots throughout your garden, strategically positioned to reflect light to the plant (be careful not to create more shade).
- Paint surrounding areas white, such as walls and fences, if possible. Because I live in a condo, I do not have control over the colour of our building exterior. However, I do wonder if the sunlight reflected from the windows on the other side of our courtyard make a difference in my garden.
- Try mirrors or foil to reflect light, but be careful as these can focus sunlight too much and burn your plants. I am using the flat side of tin foil behind my peas to try to reflect light and warmth to them
- Plant white, yellow or light green flowers and foliage around your garden which can also help to reflect light to other plants.
I have lined the outside of a long, dark green planter with the matte side of tin foil and a white pot surrounding my container of Little Marvel peas.
I also have a number of larger, light coloured stones that I collected from a river and that were once decoration in my fish tank. I have scrubbed the algae off and will use these around the base of my butternut squash plant. I know that I marginally have the minimum light requirements to grow a butternut squash plant, so I went into this with the mindset that this would be a bit of an experiment.
Some resources to check out:
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Fresh Food from Small Places book
How can I reflect more light onto my outdoor garden?
Vegetable gardening (see section on Container Gardening)
