North facing gardens!

[Nearlytherenext]

We are about to place an offer on a new build with a NORTH facing garden.

I feel uncomfortable buying a North facing garden as our family tell us that we will have no sun in the garden.

The garden is large (for new build standards 11X 24m)

There are no other houses to the West of the garden. So I am thinking there will be sun, in the afternoon, in summer?

I'm not a sun worshipper, but I do enjoy a little bit of sunshine. I don't care that the back rooms of the house will be in shade.

If you are comfortable to, please could you share some photos of your North facing gardens?

Bumping this ❤️

I’ve got a north facing but not overlooked from the west - loads of sun all day until sunset in high summer, spring/early autumn sun from 12-1

I have a long North facing garden. We get the sun in most of the garden for most of the day but I do miss our South facing kitchen and garden. If your garden is big enough it should be fine.

We have a North facing garden. It gets the sun in the middle and back of the garden in the summer which is lovely, no sun ever right behind the house- garden also slopes up away from the house so we terraced it into 3 layers with old railway sleepers for the retaining walls. We decked the area right behind the house with composite decking (real wood would rot /go green as no sun! The composite can be washed down with soapy water and that's it) and have got a permanent big heavy duty gazebo with lights hanging under it, sort of like a mini beer garden - it's surprisingly effective and everyone comments on how nice it is!

I’ve had two north facing gardens, one long and shady, the other is on high ground and surprisingly sunny. Have been able to grow everything I wanted and I am a keen gardener so it matters to me.
The only slight negative is that I’ve found the back darker in winter when the shadows are long in the garden.

North facing garden here. We had the garden landscaped a few years ago to minimise the impact which has helped, but we subsequently had to replace the real grass with fake as the end by the house literally never dried out properly even in heatwaves. Our garden is low maintenance.

Our house is about 150 years older than yours so it will be slightly different. We’re in an end terrace and there are mature trees in an avenue along the backs of all the gardens which makes the end of the gardens drier.

In terms of the house, the south facing aspect in summer pretty much heats the whole house. The back is slightly cooler but not hugely so. We have reflective film on the front windows which helps the bedroom not be quite as much of an oven in hot summers.

My garden is north facing garden with very tall trees wrapped around the back and we get loads of sun in summer.

You all sounds so positive about your North facing gardens. This is really reassuring.
It sounds like the patio outside the beach of the house might need jet washing yearly as this will never get sun. But I think one side of the garden will have some good sun between 2-4ish

I don't particularly mind during the winter- it's hardly sunny in the winter here anyway

So... we have a new build with a North facing garden and I loathe it to the point that it's one of our reasons for moving now. Having said that ours is particularly bad as it's the worst of several factors - it's short, narrow neighbour next door has a large tree on the west side that casts a big old shadow and ours is a three storey townhouse... So our garden is never fully in sun and by 2pm in the height of summer the shadow from the house means there's only a thin strip of sun left. So I hate it, but you say your new house has a larger garden and I'm guessing you're not in a 3 storey house- so I think you'll still get an ok amount of sun! :)

GorvidAl ours is the same low maintenance garden and also replaced the lawn with fake grass which is great and love it

mummabubs
It sounds like you had really bad luck here. A little selfish of your neighbors to block you with a tree too...

It seems North gardens are a bit of a gamble.

The fake grass sounds really sensible in a potentially damp garden. But this garden is quite large and I think fake grass might look a bit too ... Fake in such a large space (not too mention expensive 😅)

I’m in a new build with a north facing garden. My last house was SW facing and it was too hot in the summer - the red bricks soaked up the heat (making the rear bedrooms boiling) and the patio was scorching.

In the new house we’ve positioned the patio towards the back fence with planting around for some shade. Looking at your plan you’ve got a decent garden with lots of potions for patio positioning. Don’t let it put you off 🙂

Is yours plot 44? If so then yes you should get loads of afternoon sun from the west. Just don’t grow loads of tall stuff on that side.

You may not get much sun into the back of your house though - but that’s got pros and cons

My garden is north facing, approx 8m wide by 25ish long, and we’re a 3 story house with houses immediately to both sides. It’s a bit dull in winter, but the bottom half of the garden gets sunlight even in the middle of winter, and in the height of summer all but the 2m strip by the house gets the sun in the afternoon. Now that we’ve lived here a year I am planning to change the garden based on what I’ve observed of where the sun is etc. Mainly I want a gazebo/pergola on the patio nearest the house for shade while eating, another patio half way up the garden for spring/autumn sunshine and a veg bed at the bottom of the garden so it gets the light all year.

@Nearlytherenext Don’t be too quick to discount fake grass. If you get good quality properly done, it looks pretty good, is hard wearing and won’t require year round care to look decent.

We battled on with real grass for 10 years and it was a huge pita. The top end was bone dry thanks to the trees and the bottom end was always soggy, even with good drainage post-landscaping, grass seed every year, etc. We just got fed up with it always looking shit and being awful to mow.

You will get a load of—twats— people throwing up their hands in middle class horror and going ‘ooh noooo, fake grass, sooo common’ but find a reputable company doing it and then decide for yourself.