space-and how many

I have a safe spot with no height limit very luck.
I have posted a pick of the spot. I would like some wise advice on how to situate all 18 plants please.
Also i would like to invite everyone to my grow journal on here and advise as it comes along. thank you to all

how accurate is your compass? or east and west, if right on that line, and depending on your lat and long if the sun is angled or something at all from that fence or house they may get shadowed out, Id try to make it work in the larger section, maybe 2 -4 max down the "alley" side. tough call from the pictures. Are they staying in those pots or new ones? in ground? You could put them up on milk crates or something to give them some height and more direct sun during the end of day / morning if their shadowed. Sorry cant be of much help without knowing the area. You can find your lat long on google maps, then input it into programs like sketchup or other modeling programs that have geolocation where you can enter the lat long of your area, and then track where the sun will actually be during the grow season especially flower... and check what will be the most efficient for your area. (edit: take your modeling program I used sketchup, enter the sat img of your grow area, then make a post in the model, as if it were a flag pole sticking out of the ground, you could use a few, one for the house height, one for the fence height, one for plant height (or few for growth of plants over time.. Then enable shadows, and fast forward the day so you can see where the shadows will land... do that for may june july aug sept oct nov even dec depending where you are and what strains your growing you could do it for the whole year potentially. ) Good luck, hmu if you need help.

Hi dunphy Thank you for the knowledge. They are going into the ground. I can fit 13 in the square area-that spot gets sun all day long.
I guess the 5 will go down the (need a nick name for the ally)ally.
The compass is accurate.The ally seems to get ok sun But the roofs kind of makes it shade sun light. Not sure what i can do there. please fallow my grow journal I would like your advice this season . cheers

here are some pics , the zip code is 94541 in ca .

I went 3 on one side of the fence and 4 on the wall of the house / I guess will find out which side does better

Looks good, Ill be sure to follow. The spacing will be tight if those start to grow pretty big so just keep that in mind, But I think you've got enough that you can have a great harvest and be able to keep some discreet easily managed plants this year. Look forward to watching them grow. Good luck.