North East facing back garden - opinions?

[fancypantsmoo]

We've found a forever house perfect for us in every way bar the back garden. We were set on a south facing as that's what we have just now and the evening sun is great for growing berries, bbqs and the kids playing/entertaining. I've no experience with North East, when does it get sun? The back is all open plan so ideally it'd get a decent amount.

I can't go and view at different times as it's not yet been built! Any experience appreciated!

Tia!

Hate mine, seriously!
If you've a very long garden, it would be okay, as you'd still have sun once it's moved round, albeit not close to the house. Mine is fairly short though, and doesn't really get any sun after 11:30am

It will be lovely in the mornings, and breakfast rooms / kitchen if at the back of the house will be sunny, and cool in the evenings. However, unless the garden is long (as pp said) you won’t have much if any sun after 1, which might be great if you have toddler / young kids who need shade, but not great for sitting out in etc.

I have a north facing garden, but to the west it is very open (we are at the east end of a long, straight road, and it's all gardens to the west.) So from late morning on we have summer sun coming over the house, and all afternoon it comes down over the gardens. The garden is about 10m deep and we have a lovely patio at the end which gets plenty of sun into the evening. It surprises me really how lovely it is!

We moved from an east facing garden to a (long) north west facing, and I do miss the direct morning sun of the east facing one as we have to go to the top of our garden to get sun in the morning now!

South west would be the best aspect, but if everything else if perfect, maybe you could live with this compromise? I mean, how often do you actually sit out in the garden due to working full time/ travel etc? If not, keep looking!

I worried about this when we bought our current house. That was 27 years ago, and it's been fine.

You may have to learn about plants that prefer a more shady position!

I've had two. On both occasions I've put the patio in the far right hand corner with another area in the right hand side next to the house. There's always somewhere sunny and you get to have plenty of variety with plants.

Downside is lack of sun in the house.

Thanks for the replies looks like we'll have to keep waiting for something else to come on the market.

The sun streaming in and sunny bbqs in summer aren't something we'd want to compromise on long term. We've created the shade we want in the garden just now but guess you can't create sun. We do use the garden a lot (in all weather)!

Our garden faces north, it’s currently past 4, and it’s covered in sun.

The end of the garden will face South West. The sun will be in the sky and shine into that area over your house. Have your entertaining area there in the afternoons.

You have to look at each house individually. My garden is NE facing but I am in a weird position to the rest of the street so I am not in a line of houses.

It means my garden gets sun at the back 1/3 from first thing, so you can sit in the sun. Then it reaches all the way to the back of the house. We had to create shade.

I wouldn't ever dismiss a house without considering that there isn't a blanket rule for sun/no sun.

We like the fact that if we want sun it is to be found either at the front or the back. So on very hot days we can be in cooler rooms in the house which is great for babies and young children.

Our garden faces NE and I was dreading it... but it's fine! The back half of the garden gets sun right through the day. It really depends how big your house is/will be. Ours is quite small so doesn't block out much light. 😊

The front half of the garden (near the back door) never gets sunlight. That's a slight annoyance, as it means we can't put our garden table there, near the door. So it's a bit less convenient to eat outside as you have to cart everything down the garden. But the house itself is still light and bright.