Explain north and south facing gardens to me

[Hittapotamus]

I imagine it's something to do with the fact we're in the northern hemisphere. But can you explain to me why, if the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, south facing gardens are sunny all day and north facing gardens are in the shade all day? I feel there's a piece of the jigsaw missing that will make me say "Ah! I get it!"

A north facing won't be in shade all day but it will get less sun.

My mum is obsessed with not having a north garden. I dont really care Our summers are too hot now anyway.

The sun shines from the south. A north facing garden would be partly shaded by the house all day.

Well, it's not all day, just some of the day.

Isnt it to do with the angle/position of the sun. For most of the year, it's not right above us, but off to one side, so if you have a two storey or taller house, the back garden is in the shade a lot more of the day in a North facing garden. In a bungalow, not overlooked by other properties, or with particularly high fences, though, it's not really a factor.

Yes, I agree, Madeye.

Our summers are too hot for me, now, so I prefer having a North facing garden. I get stacks of sun/daylight in through my front (living room) windows which is lovely in the winter and also have a garden room at the back (north facing). If the garden was south facing, the garden room would get too hot in the summer.

In the northern hemisphere the sun is in the southern part of the sky at noon - lower in winter, higher in summer, but always in the south.

It also depends what trees surround you and on which side as they also cast shade into your garden. And the length of your garden. My north facing garden is long, so the bottom end is effectively south facing as it is well beyond the shadow of the house.

I'm not quite sure what you mean but the sun isn't one shaft of light and isn't directly above the house so the house itself will mean a North facing garden is in shade from the house a lot of the time

Plants have to be sought that’ll grow in the shade, so for a north facing garden it’s more difficult to grown nice plants etc

The house will shade the garden so it’s not as pleasant to sit out on patio

A south facing garden will have sun in parts most of the day, so you can sit in either the sun or shade

Yes, it's because we're in the northern hemisphere.

The sun would be directly overhead at the equator (therefore north and south facing gardens would have equal amounts of sunshine). The further north you go, the sun hits at an angle - hitting the south side of the the building and leaving the north in the shade.

I was speaking to an American woman who'd moved over temporarily. She said she didn't get the north/south facing garden thing until she moved here and rented a house with a north facing garden. She was from one of the southern states.

South or south east facing gardens get more uninterrupted sun ( assuming no tower blocks or huge trees) and therefore can grow a wide ranging selection of plants. I now have a true south facing garden and it is very nice

The height of the house makes a difference. A two storey house will cause a shadow of a metre or two even in mid summer in a north facing garden. Sometimes if you have small children it is useful to have shade in summer.
If there are trees around they will add to the shade.
Most time is spent in the garden bbqing etc in the height of summer so being north facing shouldn't matter too much.

I imagine it like Wembley Arch, with the sun moving along the arch. So in a south facing garden the sun will shine in more than a north facing one. The north facing one will have the arch 'leaning' into the front garden so the house will block more of the sun.

I feel like it’s mainly older people who were obsessed with having a south facing garden, like my sun worshipping nan. (Who died of skin cancer.) I don’t think it’s that important personally, it’s not a deal breaker.

I’m currently in a flat and have a north facing balcony. It’s bliss as there is no way I could sit there in the summer if it was south facing. For the hottest part of the day I don’t have any sun and then late afternoon I do get some.

With a north facing garden you'll get some early sun, and some late evening sun, but the test of the day the garden will be in shadow from the house. In the middle of the summer the sun will be high enough so that there won't be much shadow, but for most of the year the sun will be quite low, especially in the mornings and evenings, so can easily be blocked out by trees and hedges.

If your garden is big enough, it doesn't much matter which way it faces because there's always some sun and some shade, but if you have a typical long thin garden of a semi-detached or terraced house you can end up with very little sun if it faces north.

Personally southwest is my favourite because the garden gets the sun both afternoon and evening.

I live in a three storey house with a north east fa ing garden. The patio is always shaded but there is sun in the rest of the garden all day. DH has an illness that makes him photosensitive so the shade is prefect for him.

I have a North facing garden and my lawn still gets scorched every summer so much so that I hadn't ever considered whether we were north or south facing so just had a look on google maps and was convinced we would be south facing!

My garden, at the back of my house, gets sun from about 11am until the sun sets as there is nothing to block the sunlight behind house. We get sun at the front from dawn up til about 10am. Our garden faces SW. Our house is a mid terrace.
Our previous house which was an end terrace, is not joined on the left as you look at the house, faced the opposite way round so got a bit of sun in the back up til about noon, then full sun for the rest of the day in the front. Our living room at the front of the house was very bright, and we had to have blinds for shade, whereas the rear was always gloomy apart from about an hour early evening when the sun came rough the side window.

Earth tilts on the axis it spins around which means that in the norhern hemisphere anything facing north with a large object to its south will be cast in shade a lot of the time.

I find these diagrams helpful when trying to visualise different aspects www.gardenersworld.com/plants/types-of-garden-shade/

We have a north facing back garden. In the summer we get sun on our patio in the afternoon/evening and most of the garden has sun on it at some point. So if it is really hot it is nice that you have the option of shade. During winter the bottom of the garden gets snippets of sun, so we have put in seating there.

Also means the back of the house keeps cool, but we get sunlight in our lounge which is at the front of the house.

We have a south-facing garden. It was a deal breaker for DH when we moved. We now have a lovely, light, sunny kitchen at the back, where we spend most of our time, and a cosy dark front room for evening TV at the front.

@DinosApple bingo thank you! That's the explanation piece of the jigsaw that now makes it makes sense. The sun is at the equator (yes that's a simplification but it's what I was missing).

I know our north facing living room is almost permanently in shadow and our south facing garden is wonderful and sunny but it was the why I was missing.