I'd pay more attention to plant sizes. In the northern hemisphere, taller plants belong on the northern side of the bed, and smaller ones on the southern side. If you do that, the row direction isn't going to matter much.

treenoflane, I am in Springfield as well and as Dan stated, either orientation will work just fine. Some of my raised beds are north/south and some are east/west. No problems.

Agree with taller plants being on north end of garden (in northern hemisphere of course) as I try to keep my staked tomatoes from shading out other plants. I do plant plots of tall corn in N-S rows as this keeps them from shading each other a little bit better than E-W rows. All plants less than 3' tall are good to go in any direction.

I still think there's benefit to a north-south orientation for planting rows... otherwise, the north side of the plants is ALWAYS in shade. With n-s rows, the shaded side changes somewhat throughout the day. And definitely keep your tallest plants on the north end of the garden.

I don't think plants have trouble with one side always being in the shade. For a singe isolated plant, one side of the plant shades the other side. Not much you can do about that, without using big mirrors. "Full sun" means full sun for the side facing the sun. I have trellised plants aligned EW, and the leaves on the north side seem pretty happy. I think the issue is how much sun the whole plant gets, and not whether some leaves get more sun than others.

Treenoflane: Your mom looks so happy! That's cool, even if she doesn't want to help weed :)

naturegirl_2007, Yes, I really just love her company in the garden!

She has so much fun picking out crazy looking veggies (like our insanely hot peppers) & has grand dreams of a colorful garden. She's my best cheerleader!

I'm not so sure about always planting taller plants on the north side. Starting around the spring equinox the sun rises and sets increasingly more towards the north until the summer solstice. What is growing, how long to harvest, can it do better with some midday shade are a few things to consider.

The standard assumption is that you want to get more sunlight. Not less. Besides, when the sun is rising and setting, the amount of illumination that you get from it is minimal, just because of atmospheric absorption. In the northern hemisphere, where you get the most sun is when it is high in the south. That's when you'd rather not have anything in the way.

My 2¢: The NS vs EW row debate can be solved if you make sure the spacing matches the height of the plants. Tall plants and narrow spacing will cause shading. If you have low plants, you can space the rows more tightly. Taller plants need more space to get their full dose of sun. The rows can run either way if the shading can "solved".

I grow my corn with the direction of the sun. I have 5 rows that are 25 feet long with drip tape. I start on the east side where the sun comes up in the morning and plant 4 rows 5 feet long and every two weeks I add another 5 foot section going to the west until the rows are full. This way the newer corn gets more afternoon sun and isn't shaded by the older taller corn. And once the corn ripens we have a continuous supply of corn for a couple of months. I think this is the only thing that would need direction of rows in my garden. As stated above you don't want to shade out any sun loving plants.

That's a creative strategy to plant from east to west, in order to take advantage of the afternoon sun. But it specifically blocks morning sun. Now, when I lived in CA, most mornings were cloudy, so that strategy makes some sense. But if you live where you have good morning sun, it won't be that helpful.