North facing gardens have a bad rap. Tell me they are good

[harajukubabe]

Just that really

I have a NNE facing back garden. I would say mostly it is fine. Our garden is quite long, with no houses behind, so the bottom end pretty much always has sun from about March - October. I am a keen gardener and have loads of plants whoch all mostly do well (roses, lilacs,lavendars,lupins, delphiniums, etc... some hostas and ferns in a more shady bit under our cherry tree. )I also have a green house in one bottom cormer which I use to grow a vareity of flower seeds and tomatoes. We have 4 seating area, 2 neaer the house, which then offer some shade in the summer, and 2 towards the bottom of the garden so almost always sunny.
The back of our house stays nice and cool in the heat of summer which is a bonus and I dont find it too dark on the whole (I do have to think about colours when decorating the kitchen and dining room though so they donet appear too "cold".

We have a north facing garden and I love it. It's long and thin though and goes upwards so the end gets sun all day but we get shade on the patio by the house. Best of both worlds, love it. The back rooms of the house are dark though, especially in the winter. We have to use a lot of lightning to keep the interior feeling bright.

Shady and cool during hot summer days. A good thing imo.

We have N facing garden but we live in the SE so a bit warmer than some other areas of the UK. We've brightened ours up with yellow/terracotta 'sunset paving', evergreen palms, olive trees, lanterns and colourful pots (Moroccan courtyard style). The kitchen stays cool which means food items on the counter top don't go off quickly. You can get plants/trees that thrive in less sunny areas. Japanese plants tend to do well in N facing garden to create a Zen type relaxing area.
Our neighbour opposite who has a South facing garden says her kitchen gets unbearably hot whilst cooking during Summer, her plants need frequent watering and her grass is often parched. However the back of her house is flooded with sunshine whilst ours is a bit dark so we tend to have our main living area at the front of the house whilst hers is at the back. You can work around it. IMO I think there's pros and cons with both N and S facing gardens.