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Original poster

North facing garden

16 replies

Aberchips · 17/04/2014 13:57

We are currently house hunting & viewed a house which needs quite a bit of work, this doesn't put us off totally, however it has a north facing garden.

I spoke to the vendor about it & she said they had never found it to be an issue (then she would though wouldn't she Hmm) but speaking to my mum about it later she was amazed I would even consider it.

Do you have or have you ever lived somewhere with a north facing garden & how was it?

OP posts:
NeedaDiscoNap · 17/04/2014 14:01

Hi Aberchips. I live in a new build house with a north facing garden. TBH it's never really been an issue - we still get a lot of sun. There are times of day when it's in a reasonable amount of shadow, but we can still sit in the sun. One bonus is that our living room (at the front) is south facing, so always has lots of light and helps save on heating!

Can you visit a couple of times at different times of day and see what the shadow/light is like?

We live in an area that doesn't get a lot of good weather so not as much of an issue for us. Might be different for you?

mousmous · 17/04/2014 14:03

we do and it is no problem tbh.
but our garden is quite long. I like that the back of the garden is not overshadowed by back wall/fence

beaglesaresweet · 17/04/2014 14:07

depends on the length of the garden, as mous says.

Teabellie · 17/04/2014 14:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mistlethrush · 17/04/2014 14:12

My parents were considering a new house, and this is one of the things that put them off - together with the fact that the living room is on the north side too. However, they actually find it more of a problem finding shaded spaces in the garden, to the extent of having to rig up shade sails to provide sufficient shade to eat lunch out in the summer. They have sun in the garden somewhere for nearly all of the day. I have measured the length from the house on Google Earth and it is 13m so its reasonably big but not really extensive - they have a standard 2 storey house. So if the measurements are similar, no problem. If, however, its a 3 storey terraced house with a 6m garden it will be a very different situation.

dwinnol · 17/04/2014 14:14

Unless the garden is really long and a decent part of it out of the shadow of the garden I wouldn't consider it. My house faces north and nothing except moss will grow in the front garden. I love gardening and sitting in the sun. so it would matter a lot to me.

minipie · 17/04/2014 14:16

whether the garden gets sun depends on lots of things:

  • length of garden
  • height of house
  • is it completely N facing or is it NW (much better)
  • what time of day do you usually use the garden, also what time of year (eg if you want to get sun in March then N facing has no hope but if you only go outside from May to August it may not matter so much)

For me the most important thing is the internal layout - is the room where you spend most time (usually kitchen) at the back? and if so, does the N facing garden mean you don't get any sun in that room? This would be a more important issue for me than the sunniness of the garden itself.

Sometimes you can have a N facing room which still gets lots of light - for example if it's an extension and has lots of roof windows. But if it has rooms above it then it's likely to be dark.

If the room you would mainly spend time in is going to be dark, I wouldn't buy for that reason.

mousmous · 17/04/2014 14:22

tbh, we got the same comment from my parents. but where we are the indoor space had to take priority over any outdoor arrangements.

LIZS · 17/04/2014 14:25

how long is the garden ? We aren't getting much sun on our patio atm (nearest 12 or so feet to the house) but the rest is fine. Mid summer we get sun all day.

LizzieMint · 17/04/2014 16:16

We have a north facing garden. The only issue we have with it is with the lawn laid up to the house, which pretty much dies each winter as it doesn't get any sun for months. This wouldn't be a problem if there was a patio along the width of the house. Towards the back of the garden we get lots of sun and can grow plenty of things.

imme · 17/04/2014 17:01

We have a NE facing garden in London, about 36 feet long. There is no sun from mid October until March, but then again who wants to sit in the garden in winter?
We just had a patio built at the end of the garden which is in the sun all day. In the summer we enjoy using the patio by the house because it is nice and cool. We do have sun in the garden now throughout the day, just not right by the house. Actually, this is not true, the sun does reach the house in the morning.
I would also recommend looking at the house at different times of day to see how much sun it gets.
If the house in question ticks all your boxes and there are no decent alternatives available I would say go for it. There are always some compromises to be made when buying a house unless money is no issue!

ContentedSidewinder · 17/04/2014 17:39

I have a north facing back garden, due to the position of the house, the top of the garden gets sun first thing in the morning and it works its way down throughout the morning.

I liked having a shaded area near the house, because my son is white blonde and burns easily, so as a toddler we just kept him in the shaded bit.

Because I have no-one to the side of me, the entire garden is in full sun by around 1pm to the extent we have to put up a shade over the table to sit out in summer.

My parents had a south facing garden and lounge, you could not see the TV for the sun, had to close the curtains all the time, it was baking hot in summer. My lounge is on the back and I love stepping in from the heat into a cool house.

It honestly does depend on the house, its position, length of garden and whether it gets any sun in the morning or not.

RuddyDuck · 18/04/2014 04:06

As others have said, it depends on the house and on yoyr priorities. For me, the house would have to be fairly amazing to get me to overcome having a north facing garden. But we live in the garden from April through to end of September, and have all our evening meals outside, plus lunch at the weekends.

Our garden faces south west and our kitchen is at the back of the house. I love coming home from work, throwing together a quick meal and then sitting out on the patio to eat in the evening sun. If that's not your thing, though, then it might not bother you that the garden is in shade.

froginthepond · 18/04/2014 10:25

Our last house had a north facing garden and it was no issue. We got sunshine in the morning and late afternoon/evening. The house i grew up in had a north facing front garden and my parents keen gardeners always had it looking really nice although as the layout of houses and trees next to it was different it was more shaded.

Sandthorn · 18/04/2014 14:11

North-facing garden, definitely not for me, but north-west facing gardens are really rather nice for summer evenings.

The thing that's more important to me is the light in the house itself. We're in a semi detached, so windows three sides: back SSE, side WSW and front NNW, so we get every bit of daylight, and we do tend to follow the sun from room to room through the day. It would make me miserable to be next door, where the house is pretty gloomy for half the day.

Original poster
Aberchips · 01/05/2014 14:52

Thanks all - appreciate all your comments. It is a fairly long garden, but having looked again at the amount of work the house needed & the layout we are not going to go for that house any more. Also there is one for sale further down the road with a South facing garden...

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