garden direction

[SweetPeaPods]

How important is it to want a south/west facing garden?
Seen a house that ticks all our boxes but has a north/west garden. It's at the very top of our budget. Will we regret going from a south facing garden to a north?

In my opinion it depends on how big the garden is and how much you like the sun. And what you We currently have a north-facing garden - but as ours is 300 feet long it doesn't really matter - half the patio is in shade most of the time but apart from that we are OK.

I would be warier with a small garden though. If you want morning sun you may be screwed. If you want evening sun and there is a lovely seating area in the right spot then brilliant.

I agree with Chop, a large N facing garden with an open aspect will get sun most of the day. The downfall of a SW facing garden is that unless it has some shade it can get too hot in the summer and curtains and furnishings fade.

I'm north facing and get the sun for most of the day and the shade is where we need it (over the chickens) so we are all happy.

Go and look at it 4 x at different times of day.

south facing every time. For us it was one of our main criteria, along with how many bedrooms we wanted. I'd do the same again.

Like others have said, it depends on a lot of factors. People with a south facing garden will always say it is amazing but ours is north facing and large and gets more sun than our friend's garden that is SW facing and smaller with trees around in the wrong places. They feel pretty silly now after telling us we were making a huge mistake buying a house with a North facing garden, and they bring it up EVERY time they are here in summer. I like that I always have a bit of shade on my patio for the kids, as it also does get sun too at different times of the day. We grow veg, have loads of flowers and nobody has ever complained of being too hot in our conservatory! So don't write the house off completely. :)

We have a large north west facing garden and get lots of sun in the afternoon and evening.

We have a huge south facing garden, I don't like eating in the sun, so I'm shade hunting all the time, plus we've had to fit tinted windows to the back of the house to help temperature control and it gets incredibly warm in our back extension that houses the kitchen, dining room and family room.

Definitely don't write it off, it's not all about the south facing garden!

Excellent thanks. Garden isn't huge.
Our house is too hot now so maybe a cooler house would be a good thing.

To me the main consideration is not so much the sun in the garden but the sunlight inside your rooms. After all in the UK we tend to spend a lot more time indoors than out!

Think about how the house is laid out, where do you spend your time, at what time of day, and will there be light coming in to the right room at the right time?

For example if the kitchen is at the back and you are likely to be there mostly in the evenings then west facing (even northwest) is better for you as you will get any evening sun.

On the other hand if you will generally be in the front sitting room in the evenings and back kitchen in the mornings then you might prefer an east facing garden.

Also where are the bedrooms and do you prefer sunlight in your bedroom in the morning or the evening?

In terms of the garden - when do you use your garden? For example if you have school age kids then a NW garden may work out because the sun will be coming to the garden when they get home from school. On the other hand if you have babies/preschoolers it may be frustrating if there is no sun till 3/4pm.

We have a N facing garden - quite wide and relatively long, plus a smallish garden in front of the house. It's fine - one bit of the patio immediately behind the house doesn't get much sun, but we get sun at each end of it, and my washing line (which sits just off the edge of the patio) gets sun all day, even at this time of year. I find it's better for our young kids, as they can always find a bit of shade to play in. The only hit I don't like is that our kitchen (which sits at the back, middle of the house) doesn't get any direct sun and can sometime be a bit cold. We hope to install a skylight at some point to help with this though.

As everyone says, it depends. With a big enough garden, you will be able to sit in the sun, you just might need your table further from the house. I rented a house with a north facing garden and it was not a problem. When we bought again we were open to having a north facing garden. Ours us south facing and I personally love having sun stream in the back and sides of the house all day, but I'm strongly affected by that sort of thing. If yours is n/w it sounds like you'd get lovely late evening sun.

We've just renovated a house with a medium sized north facing garden. Gets plenty of sun in afternoon. We fitted a new window to the side of the house too where there was a previously a grotty old pvcu dor and it has flooded our new kitchen diner with natural light . The front lounge is lovely and bright in mornings though. We have no regrets (people also told us not to buy it!)

Mine is north west facing and its really sunny.

Hi
Really wanted to comment on this as we have just moved from 100ft south facing to 150ft north east facing garden.
We got really hung up about this one thing that we didn't like about the property and I read EVERY article online
Currently we have full sun on the garden from 10am- 6pm.
I'm just sitting inside the back doors and the sun is shining - there's about 5ft of shade at the back of the house (2storey)
So for us it hasn't been a problem & I'm sure as the sun gets higher in the sky during the summer we might see it for even longer in the evening.

I do think it depends on how many other things you dislike about the house... But for us it was the one compromise we made

Good luck