Tall plants like tomatoes and corn should be planted on the north side of the garden to avoid them shading shorter plants. I prefer my rows to be in a N-S direction. Greens and squash can handle a little shade better than most veggies so these may do well on the south end of the plot.

I lay out a garden according to good drainage of any excess rains.

If you type 'row direction' in the search bar here you'll find several previous discussions...all with differing opinions. ;-) Personally I find E-W rows works best for me with my June-July sun exposure. April-May and this late in the season N-S would work better. So I just change the row orientation when possible with early and late plantings and leave the rest running E-W.

The point - there is no absolute "best" but given your description I'd probably run them E-W.

Dave

If all your plants are the same height, and equally spaced, it simply doesn't make any difference.

To the extent rows and plants within rows are spaced differently, I'd orient the short-spacing direction E-W. They'd produce less shadow on other plants when the sun is high, and more shadow on other plants when the sun is low. Best to optimize sunlight when the sun is high.

If you have large plants like corn, near smaller plants, their rows simply have to run E-W to minimize shadowing.

I think latitude is largely irrelevant, because the sun path is symmetrical around the N-S line at all latitudes. That is, if maximizing sunlight is the goal. If, on the other hand, it is best to get sunlight just at certain times of the day, row direction can indeed make a difference. N-S rows will get optimal sunlight in morning, and afternoon, and less in mid-day. If you don't care about early morning or late afternoon sun that much, then E-W rows will suit you fine. But an hour of sun at mid-day is more light than an hour of sun in the morning or afternoon, partly because of the angle of exposure, and partly because the opacity of the atmosphere is higher when the sun is lower. So E-W rows will likely get you more sunlight in toto. That is, if you're after sunlight, you don't want to shadow your plants at mid-day, when the sunlight is strongest.

Down here, in the intense heat of the summer, I'd rather have some shade in the late afternoon (3-4pm) when temps max out. I guess in order to do that, I should really be planting along lines running NE-SW.

Because of the length of the growing season here, I plan my rows for the late season, early season afternoon growing because there is abundant sun in the summer. I have a morning shade from a hill, and so this is just me maximizing my little patch. As the season wanes and the sun is lower in the sky late in the day, I can get a few more minutes of light down the row if the row is aimed a little west of south.

I would cut down the pine tree. They are weed trees in our area anyway, and soon grow so big you won't have any sun at all. Gardens need 6 hours of sun to grow most veggies here in the Hudson Valley and need south facing sun.

But of course it's your property.

I plant in blocks, not rows. Check out square foot gardening.

Anywhere in the northern hemisphere, the sunlight is going to come largely from the south. As in, there isn't any "north facing sun". The issue here is entirely about what's going to shadow it, and how you arrange plants so they won't be in the way.

But that's a good point about the pine that I had ignored. If the pine is blocking sunlight from due south, most of your sun will come from the east and west. In that case, I suppose N-S rows would be suitable. But really, it's probably not going to make much of any difference. (The cottage in the north is completely irrelevant.)