North facing garden

[KCpip]

Help! Seriously considering a house with kitchen/diner and garden North facing. Can anyone share good news stories on their North facing garden?
We’re South facing at the moment and often find it too hot so quite happy with a bit of shade but don’t want constant gloomy. It is a new build so plenty of windows and doors leading into kitchen. Hit me with your positive stories please!

Ours faces north-northwest. We have bifold doors on the back and it's lovely and light but before we had that done it was really gloomy.

We are in a new build with a north facing garden and kitchen diner. I am not good in the heat so I actually love having a cool oasis during the summer as part of the garden is always in shade (but there are always areas in sun too). In the winter it doesn't get sun at all but we aren't out in the garden in the winter anyway. To keep the kitchen diner cheery in the winter we have gone with a teal, red and white scheme which has really worked. Our front room is south facing so it's lovely to sit in there in the winter and soak up what little sun there is.

We have north facing garden and even the dreaded conservatory which is absolutely fine, in the heat of the summer it is pleasantly warm, but not sweltering. In the winter it is still bright, just not direct sun on the part of the garden near the house. It sounds as if you have lots of windows which will make it light and if it is a little cool then you can turn the heating up in the winter. You can't turn the sun down in the summer.

Also in praise of north facing. If the garden is long enough you will get sun during the summer months anyway and won't roast indoors as you do in south or west facing gardens!

with not in!

Our garden is north facing but gets the sun all day in different parts. But it means the front of the house (living room and front hallway) are always hot from the sun!

I wasn't keen on a north-facing garden but it's actually worked out well - there's always some sunshine and some shade.

Try visiting at different times of the day (morning and late afternoon/evening) and ask to take a pic (or do it secretly) so you can have a think about where the sun hits and if it would suit you.

Thanks, this is all really encouraging:) feelingsicknow can I ask how long your garden is coz I’ve heard length of garden vs size of house can play a factor in how much sun you get, obviously with house blocking sun

We have a north facing garden, with living room/patio doors also facing north. Kitchen/office(converted garage) are south facing. Garden is quite small, maybe 10m deep.

Pros:

• I don't enjoy the heat and the north facing living room is always comfortably cool. We can open the French doors wide on a hot summers day and keep cool.
• Garden more comfortable to sit in on really hot days as more shade.

Cons:

• We tried to grow grass for 10 years, it was always a damp bog from autmumn to spring. When ds wanted to play out more when it began to warm up in spring but couldn't because it was always damp/muddy due to lack of sun we gave up and landscaped with patio/chips/artificial grass and lots of container shrubs/plants/hanging baskets and it looks good, very low maintenance just replace the flowing plants in the containers/baskets every year and give the patio/grass a wash.
• We don't get the sun in the garden for any length of time until June-ish so only get a few months hanging out washing.
• Living room is always a bit dull even with a patio door/4 window bay, and a second window also facing north.
• South facing kitchen/office at front of house can get very warm.

Overall, for me personally, the comfort of the pros outweighs the cons and I would especially go north facing for my living room again.

Yes, I love mine.

It’s a ling (80ft) North facing garden though so lots of different areas get the sun. Patio/seating area at the bottom, lawn in the middle, another patio/seating area near the french doors. Lovely and cool in summer but sunny areas if you want them.

The trick is to decorate, plant and use accordingly. My house is scandi style so very light and airy. I have shutters in south facing rooms. I plant according to the soil and sun exposure (there’s a bbc or rhs website tool that helps you map your garden’s sun and then suggests suitable plants and trees. If you go for full hardy plants suited to Northern climes you’ll be fine.

Re the grass, if you dont fancy the lawn upkeep, go for expensive artificial grass. I have ferns, alpines, laurel, boxus, begonias, lillies and several fruit trees.

It just needs a bit of thought and planning.

Now you're asking!!! I'm, let me think. I would say it's wider than it is long. I think it's about 30ft by 40ft but I'll see if I can find the listing (we only moved in last year)

Can't find size and I'm pretty useless at estimating but I've attached three pics from the listing when we bought. These would have been taken in early Spring 2018 so obviously during the best part of the day.

Decking area is closest to the house so in the shade. I'm going to guess this was earlier in the day. It gets the sun by the afternoon and we've had to put an umbrella up.

Our is N facing 150ft. Nothing overlooks it, so it gets sun in different parts all day.
In the height of summer ( July/ August) the shade begins just at the back wall, so the kitchen and dining room are blissfully cool.
Apart from flowers we grow fruit and veg. Have a greenhouse and the fountains are operated by solar batteries. So very sunny.

Thanks for sharing! I think the depth looks similar to the one we’re considering but yours looks probably a lot wider. Good to know you do get sun at various points. I’m coming round to the idea of a North facing garden more and more. Looking after the grass sounds a bit of a pain but we’ve got a dog that will mess it up anyway! My parents have a South facing kitchen/diner in a newer home and it can get stupidly hot . In the Summer they end up drawing the blinds half the time. Our current home is an older property so even the South facing rooms never really overheat but in a newer home I’m starting to think a bit of shade might not be so bad.

My mum has north by north west facing garden and it’s great. Gets the sun into the evening. Like others she has patio doors on the back, letting in as much light as possible. She uses her conservatory a lot more than I did when I has a south facing garden.

I have a North facing garden, about 50 ft long by 30 wide. It gets plenty of sum in different places at different times and there is some permanently shady patio by the house. I have a green house at the far end which has loads of ripe tomatoes at the moment, and lawn. As long as the garden isn't surrounded by high buildings or big trees you should be fine.

Ours is a north-facing new build. We still get the sun out the back, but not unbearably hot in our rear-facing living room. Our kitchen is at the front & isn't unbearably hot either. We have a large-ish front garden with seating & sit out there a lot in summer, but in the height, for me it is too hot & rear garden better. We have the best of both worlds!

KCPip, there is an app you can get or sun/shade simulators online if you know the rough height of your house. Find your house on Google Maps, plug in the height and it'll map out 24 images of what the shade looks like as the day progresses, hour by hour. You may be pleasantly surprised at how much of your garden actually gets sunny.

I have three very young children with very sensitive skin and my south-west facing garden was ablaze the entire day today with absolutely no reprieve apart from the poxy patches of shade offered by some parasols. I would have been so grateful for some shade!

Our house had a North facing garden and it was great! It was 40-50 feet long. The patio was in the shade until early evening, which meant the kids always had a cooler area to play out of the sun arms we set the walking line up at the far end of the garden where it was sunny about 80% of the day. I wouldn't want a South facing garden now.

Thanks MoreCookiesPlease do you know the name of any apps? Had a look but can’t seem to find any

My garden faces north and I love it. We have big windows at the back and it’s never felt gloomy. It’s quite a long garden and I always feel like there are plenty of sunny spots as well as areas of shade under the trees. I’ve been able to grow everything I wanted to, it’s great. I’m moving to a south facing garden and I’m not sure I will like the direct sun as much.

Yes ours is North facing and that meant we could basually have floor to ceiling full width glazing with no need for blinds (we are not overlooked from behind). The room is light enough and it's only single storey at the very back so not too much garden shade. If given the choice West facing might be nice to get the evening sun, but even North facing gets a bit in midsummer.

We’re NW faxing and I love it after burning alive in a south facing garden in our last house. We still get sun in the afternoons and evenings and can actually enjoy the garden in summer (especially a morning coffee on the terrace) without feeling like we’re sizzling on the surface of the sun. We have huge sliding glass doors though which keep it from feeling gloomy inside.

I have a north facing garden with the kitchen diner and utility at the back.
It's quite a large garden but don't know the measurements.

We have sun at our patio area outside the french doors in the morning then it moves and it's now towards the bottom of the garden

It's fine, but we have lots of big windows/doors in the kitchen so it lets light in.
I didn't know it was a north facing garden when we bought it but I still would have bought it because everything else is perfect.

Upstairs there's one bedroom, a bathroom and an en-suite facing the back but they are all light enough. There's never been a problem and in the summer the back is warm enough. In the winter I don't notice anything.