North facing garden help!!

[HappyGirlNow]

Hi, does anyone know how much more sunlight you will get in a North facing garden in June/July than we're getting at the moment? Just moved in and not sure what I can plant to grow..

TIA

Depends on more factors than direction. Dampness, height of shading buildings vs length of garden, drainage, microclimate, existing planting etc.
I have a north facing garden, with ferns, love-in-a-mist, bleeding heart, crocosmia, alpine strawberries, tulips, daffodils, teasels, arum lily, London pride, ice plant, alliums, fritillaries, flowering currant, foxgloves, geraniums, sage, marjoram etc. low maintenance, I grow it as a cottage garden and let it self-seed, thinning when anything gets too big.

Thank you. It's a bit wet as its on a slope but we're putting some drainage in. At the moment it's depressingly getting around an hour and a half sunshine early morning and that's all! I suppose I just want reassurance that we'll get lots more in the summer for plants but also for enjoying it, building a patio area and sitting out in the sun

Wet&dark is better than dry & dark, you can plant bog plants such as marsh marigolds or ferns. I used library books for inspiration, 1.5 hours sunshine is pretty good this time of year, plant the bog plants in the darker end of the garden, mid-shade plants in the brighter end.
IME geraniums will grow anywhere, as will ice plant. Teasels are great in poor soil and good for wildlife, peas or beans are good for food, pretty to look at and enrich the soil when they die back.

We have north facing front garden. Hostas love it, as do bergonias, ferns. My hanging baskets fry at the back that's south facing, but last until the end of Sep at the front. I can still grow daffodils snowdrops and tulips in the Spring. In a way it's easier at the front than the back!

Climbing Hydrangea likes north-facing walls, agree with hostas, ferns mentioned above, some species of hardy geranium like shade also pulmonaria & dead-nettle.

Thanks all, some great ideas there. I suppose I also wanted some idea of how much more sun it will actually get in the summer. For example if I'm getting 12 feet at the bottom of the garden for a couple of hours late morning at this time of year is it possible to take a guess at how much I'll get June/July/August? I'm trying to plan for plants and patio etc.

My garden is north facing , get very little sun in the morning. Get the sun at the bottom of the garden afternoon and evening. I have host as and ferns by the house.

Thanks sixty'- does the sunshine cover a much larger area in summer than in winter? And does it last much longer? It's just hard to tell because we only moved in in December.

I am going to give you the geeky solution...!

if you have an android phone, download an app called sundroid and also a compass and clinometer app. make a note from sundroid of the azimuth of the sun at various times (say 8am, 1pm, 6pm) on various dates in the year. (e.g. 15th of each month) for your location. then go and stand at various points in your garden, and use the compass/clinometer near ground level to see whether the sun will be visible beyond your house.

alternatively, wait this year out and see what comes up and seems to do well, and take a picture from an upstairs window at 8am, 1pm, 6pm a couple of times a month on sunny days to see what gets sunshine.

Wise gardeners have told me you ought to live with a garden for a full year before you do anything to it. Sound advice I'm sure, but I could never be that patient personally. If you want to start getting plants maybe you could keep them in pots for a while and move them around as you understand where the garden gets it's sun and shade.

The app sounds good LexyMa. I was going to say it depends whereabouts you are in the country - we are in Scotland and the sun rises in the NE and sets in the NW in summer. It's not very strong (especially at those times of day!) but there is some.

Ask your neighbours what they grow. Or just peek over the wall.

I grow a row of crocosmia under one wall (E facing poor soil) and clematis jackmanii, wisteria and roses up the W facing wall (neighbour's garage - absorbs sun and stays quite warm) with veg in raised beds along side. Garlic, rhubarb, parsley do well. Root veg and brassicas okay too. Would have had asparagus spears last summer, but the cat ate them.

We have a fuschia, dogwood, viburnum and potentilla at the sunny end. Hardy herbs do quite well, so thyme, mint, sage, marjoram, fennel (for seed). I put some heathers in in autumn, they seem to be surviving.

In the depth of shadow against the house I have daffodils and ivy in pots. They come up a bit small but do okay.

Good advice about looking over the wall, and waiting a year. In the meantime use pots; especially good for hostas, and they're easier to protect in pots. In the summer have pots of impatiens new guinea, felicia, non-stop begonias and petunias; all fairly cheap, full of blowsy colour which will fill your yard while you watch the sun go round. An acer in a pot is good too, lovely feathery foliage which turns brilliant red in autumn

Climbers which like cool roots such as clematis should do well.

Thanks everyone! The neighbour's gardens are, oddly, much smaller than mine. And their garages are at different angles to their houses and its my garage that appears to be causing some of the issues. I suppose I just wanted to know if you could say perhaps that if I get 12 feet of sun in February, when the summer sun is higher that'll be another 50% or 100% ie 18 feet or 24 feet at its best. Just roughly. Maybe too simplistic..

happygirlnow you will get more sun for longer. However this has to be balanced against any trees coming into leaf and then casting a shadow.
My garden is also North facing. About this time of year the sun reaches the top of the back fence and in the summer it shines on at least half the lawn as well.
Some of the neighbours optimistically built a raised patio at the north west end of their gardens but as these face the house they dont really work in my opinion.
Take comfort that if there is a very warm summer, your patio will be pleasantly in the shade.
Roses, clematis, jasmine, honeysuckle all do very well in the garden. Fruit trees not so well. All spring flowering bulbs are fine. Lilies, day lilies, irises, herbs etc all fine. Loads of plants on www.plantsforshade.co.uk

Lots of famous gardens and gardeners are very container orientated so plants can be put into lovely large terracotta and then moved around as necessary.
This is my strategy to bring interest to the patio, though my son thinks I am a bit bonkers moving stuff around.

"plants can be put into lovely large terracotta and then moved around as necessary."

You must have strong arms!

Thanks all! Plenty of ideas for me

And thanks funnyperson that's the kind of reassurance I need lol No trees in way of sun so that's good. How big is your garden? Problem is ours slopes downwards too..

Hi happygirl

I have a north facing garden that slopes towards the house, it doesn't get much sun October to Feb but gets loads of sun in June/july. The shady patio by the house is lovely during a hot summer, our neighbours have their patio at the sunny end.

I've not found the orientation limits choice of ornamental plants in the garden, although flowers tend to bloom a couple of weeks later than ones in the south facing front garden. We do struggle with the grass at the end of the lawn nearest the house because of the damp/shade but we have heavy clay soil here which doesn't help.

I have some ferns and hellebores in the most shady areas but mostly I grow herbs, fruit, veg and roses without problems.

Slope makes quite a difference. Our back garden faces south but is sloping, so the ground doesn't get as warm as you'd think and houses at the end of the garden make more difference to the shadows than if the ground were flat.