What's with certain direction facing gardens?

[Bells3032]

I don't get it. see people obsessing over south facing gardens? what's the reason for it? esp in the UK when you don't spend that much time outside?

And how does the garden direction face towards the house or away?

Sorry just confusing

[PickAChew]

I have a South facing garden and it gets bloody hot. Some people enjoy that more than I do.

[JudyGemstone]

It's the one thing I won't compromise on. I had a rental with a garden that got no sun after about 2pm, I hated it.

I love the sun and sitting outside though, I'm sure not everyone would be as bothered about it.

[BluebellsGreenbells]

We had a south facing garden and it was incredible hot in the summer, I wanted one of those butcher type awning put up but it was expensive at the time.

The front room was cool though.

We now live in a north facing garden, but have seating in the front for evening sun. It’s quite sheltered and hidden. Nice place to read a book. While the back garden is shaded by the house. Good for hanging out the washing in the morning.

[felineflutter]

We have a garden facing SW it is beautiful but can get very hot. We have a large pergola and some trees for shade and our living room windows are tinted to reflect the sun.

Every time any neighbours come from across the road they are literally amazed at how different our houses are and say our gardens are far better.

When we bought our house one across the road was also for sale. The feel of the SW house and garden just felt more alive whereas the NE house felt lifeless somehow. Also Master bedrooms tend to be at the back too.

[OfUselessBooks]

We have a north facing garden - it is quite sunny for most of the day but has a bit of shade near the house. It's perfect! I'd hate to have bright sun and no shade all day so it's the perfect balance.

[Beachhuts90]

I think it depends on the size and layout of the garden.

We have an east facing garden with the patio at the far end (long garden). We get direct sunlight in the summer until around 6 when the sun slips behind the house, but it's still light and warm through the evening for BBQs etc.

DH's nan has a north facing garden but a short house (bungalow) and the garden is big. The shadow of the house only ever falls on a tiny bit of the garden and the rest is in sunlight all day long.

[RedRiverShore]

Ours is north facing and I prefer it as it is quite big so gets a mixture of shade and sun, I wouldn’t want all sun all day

[Bol87]

Why do you all hate the sun & warmth?! 😂 My garden is south facing and it’s a joy. Sun all day long. We have a parasol which provides ample shade when needed. My daughter spends 99% of her time in summer outdoors & enjoying the sunshine 😊

The south side of our house is also much nicer. Our kitchen, living room & master bedroom are so bright & light! Even on a day of pouring rain it’s bright in here!

We’ve just sold our house on it being south facing. Our neighbour opposite out their pretty much identical house up at the same time & our buyers viewed both & chose ours for the south facing garden!

[sunshinesupermum]

I've got a large north facing terrace and my sitting room window also faces north. When the summer is hot as it has been this year and a few other years the room remains cool while my west-facing bedroom bakes as much as if it was south facing!

[Beebumble2]

We have a long N facing garden, not over shadowed by trees or buildings. We grow loads of veg and have a large greenhouse. It gets sun all day in the summer, the beds at the end face south.
The windows at the back are N facing, but bliss in hot weather.

[CalicoTheCat]

We have a south east facing garden, so sun all day, but it does disappear early evening in the summer. On the other hand, our drive and front of the house are west facing so blisteringly hot in the evening. Our bedroom is also at the front of the house. In the summer it stays hot all the time and in winter it's the coldest room in the house!

[FurierTransform]

I've lived in a mixture of house types & garden directions now -2up/2down terrace, modern semi, old semi, detached.

I'm genuinely not fussed at all which direction the garden faces - it makes no difference to us. Good sized windows & proximity to other buildings seem to matter far more for interior light.

On the gardening aspect, unless your garden is less than 3m long it matters not IMO. Different plants want different conditions, & a north facing garden of average size will still have majority sunny areas.

Unless you have a desire to sunbathe right outside your back door, the only benefit I can see is a south facing garden will typically have the roof of the house also sloping south, which gives ideal positioning for a solar installation.

[Pepperwand]

We have a south facing garden and it gets ridiculously hot with no shade at all. It's a nightmare with small children as on very hot days we have to be inside as the patio is boiling hot for standing on or baby crawling. That said I'm not a sun worshipper and I'm sure if I didn't have young children it wouldn't be such an issue. Ideally I'd have a west facing garden I think.

[rorosemary]

I love our north-north-west facing garden. The livingroom is quite cool in summer because the sun doesn't reach the windows. I can sit outside in the shade close to the house and further from the house I can sit in the sun. I can have either sun loving or shade loving plants, I just have to put them in the right spot.

Whereas MIL has a south facing garden and it feels like being in the bloody sahara inside and outside in summer. I don't like to visit her during the summer months.

[MayFayre]

Our last house had a north facing garden. As a gardener I got frustrated that I couldn’t grow most of the plants I wanted to grow because most of the garden was in shade or partial shade.

[LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow]

my house is diagonal...the corners are at the compass points and |I have a kitchen stuck on the side with windows on three walls

front of the house is south east, only house in front is set way lower so it's hugely light and bright, as is the kitchen, and the garden is wrapped round from south back to north

the back has a small courtyard which has the sunniest back corner EVER once the sun is over the house mid morning and then the back of the house catches the sun as it sets in the west. Mind you it is pretty dire in the winter, as we are very far north and basically it sees almost no sun from November to March! We are never out there in the winter though :o

I am really going to miss the light when we move/downsize.

[seayork2020]

I love things growing and I love sun in certain rooms at different times of the day plus it helps with mould if there is sun

[minipie]

We have a south facing garden and it gets ridiculously hot with no shade at all.

Could you get one of those big parasols? Or even a pop up gazebo?

[GiantKitten]

@HelloDulling

When I get home from work, all the sun is gone from my back garden, the front is still bathed in sun. I would def not buy a house with this aspect again, I love sitting outside in the evening with a glass of wine, but it’s chilly on all but the hottest days once the shade comes.

@HelloDulling

We are E at the back, with tiny front gardens (Victorian terrace in Lancashire)

Our neighbours happily sit out at the front on sunny evenings with their glasses of wine

(I never sit in the sun anyway, & luckily now he’s retired DH can get his fix at breakfast & lunch in our back yard, which is also small, but longer than the front & full of sun all morning)

[GiantKitten]

However watching TV in the front room on a sunny evening requires drawing the curtains completely, which is a bit depressing

[user1497207191]

If you want to be able to sit out in sunshine early evening on your patio, then the back of your house and garden needs to be facing the right way. If it's facing North, you're patio area will be in the shade from mid afternoon onwards.

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

We have a S/SW facing back garden. We moved our main living room to the back as it's so bright and lovely. In the UK, afternoons are generally warmer, and when people tend to have the most free time (including evenings) so if the sun is on your garden in the afternoon and evening it's a more enjouable place to sit, especially in Spring when you first start sitting outside.

We do also have a front living room that faces N/NE. It's the coolest places in the house so nice when we have mega hot weather but the rest of the year it feels a bit cold, dim and gloomy sometimes so we tend not to use it much.

[TaleOfTheContinents]

I agree that it depends on the house. Our garden is north-facing and it gets lots of sun with some shade on the patio, which I love because I wouldn't want to sit and spit-roast on the patio in summer.

What I don't understand is the argument that the house is lighter if the garden is south-facing. Surely the rooms at the front of the house would then be north-facing, so you'd have the darker rooms at the front rather than the back? And vice versa for north facing.