How much Sun?

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How much sun would the back garden get in the summer?

I have young children and we spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer months, I love being in the sun, hosting bbqs, getting the pool out for the kids, eating tea outdoors. I also want to get into gardening in the future. Would we get sunshine out back much?

I’ve attached a picture of the plot, I thinks it’s more north facing tilted ever so slightly to the east.

here’s a link to the property on Rightmove

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/158004209#/?channel=RES_BUY

The plot

If it’s north facing, then you won’t get sun until probably late afternoon, to get full sunshine all day you need garden to be south facing. We have south facing garden but can honestly say we only sat out there a handful of times last year as the weather was awful.

North east is not good for sun.

NE means you'll lose the sun in the late afternoon

Depending on house and garden size

A lot depends on the size of the house and plot, and surrounding houses. I have a huge garden (not a boast — it’s currently a building site), much of it to the north of the house. We still get plenty of sun on it later in the day because it’s very long, plus open to the west, so once the sun stops casting the house shadow on it, we get a lot of sun, and we use south-facing parts of the garden at other times. But if you look at the garden photos in the link, you may be in shadow a lot, depending on where other houses are in relation to your garden.

These are the houses surrounding. What do you think? Is the garden big enough to get sun all day?

You can’t tell from a map, OP. Can you go and visit? The photos show how shaded the garden is when the house’s own shadow is on it, but it’s difficult to judge whether other houses will also block sun, or how much of the day the house shadow is on the garden.

The pictures look like they have been taken in the middle of the day and there is a lot of shade over the garden so I don't think you'll get much sun if I'm honest. If it's north facing then the sun will be around the front casting a house shaped shadow over the garden which suggests you'd only get sun at the very back. If you go for a viewing, have a look at the decking outside the door. It looks very damp and slippery from the photos which can also suggest it never gets enough sun to dry. We saw a house that was lovely but north facing and the decking was a hazard! It put us off tbh.

I don't think you will get much light at all there, the sun is all on the front of the house.
We have NW and it's fabulous but a tilt to the east makes all the difference.

The house only went on the market yesterday and the photos show trees without leaves, so I think that the garden pictures are typical winter-sun.

However, if you go on GoogleMaps it looks like a fairly nice day in summer (lots of shadow) and most of the garden (not all) is in sun.

In the summer months the sun will be overhead by noon and it will be sunny all afternoon and evening, with maybe some shade near the house end (which is what you want IMO). In the winter, not so much.

South-facing gardens are over-rated if you ask me.

I have a north facing plot and am a very keen gardener (I'm in the garden daily throughout the whole year).
I had my reservations about buying my current house because of the garden but can honestly say that my north facing kitchen like this one stays cool in the summer as does the patio closest to the house and the top half of the garden out of the shadow of the house gets sun in the spring/ summer/ autumn without being overbearing.
As PP has said south facing is not the be all if you ask me. I just follow a right plant right place and work with what I have.

Agree the photo is about midday, and probably from about last August or early September as the deciduous bushes are still in full leaf. There’ll be more sun in the morning, but as the afternoon goes on, that shade will creep round and cover the whole garden. If actual sun is important to you, I’d give this one a miss. If you have to have a N aspect, NW is better than NE.

The placing of the outdoor seating is deliberate - that’s the corner that gets sun.

@senua is right, there is a leafless tree in the picture, so maybe the bushes are evergreen after all? In which case that’d be ok for a recent photo. And those shadows are long, pointing to an autumn/winter/spring picture. Even so, NW would give you more sun in the evening.

Difficult to tell. Think you would have to physically go and look..we did that where we live now,it's ne facing, but it's a detached bungalow, with all bungalows on this side, and 200 ft long,so there is always sun somewhere from 5am to 6pm in summer. I can't believe the house and the price,I'm in the SE!

I don't think you will get much sun after mid-day in all parts of the garden.

However as the grass looks healthy - you need to go and have a proper look to check for moss etc - there seems to be sufficient sun for it to grow. This indicates different parts of the garden are shady at different times.

If you were further south in the country it wouldn't be so much of a problem as it means if it was warm/hot you could find shade. I actually can't use my garden - West facing - for long if it is warm/hot if the sun is out as there is no shade.