north facing garden

[merlinscarlet]

After a year of renting, we've finally fund a property we both like (a miracle as we are so different) It's perfect for us as a family in terms of size and location, but.....it has the dreaded north facing garden. in size the garden is around 33ft wide x 90ft long, house is around 32ft high, with a single storey rear extension going out by 12ft. I am imagining a completely dark cold garden, especially during winter months. I'd be really grateful to hear from people with similar experience as to whether they get any sun in their garden at different times of year. TIA

We do get sun in ours especially in the morning. It’s ok in the summer but is quite dark in winter. We have had ours paved and some fake grass down and it’s fab now. Borders round edge.

We have a similar size NE facing garden. No problems getting light at all in summer. Winter it can be dark and boggy but on bright days it’s still lovely out there. No complaints.

I have a 100 ft long north facing garden... I reckon that because it's so long, you can pretend the bottom of the garden is South facing!

The catch with my garden is that it's about 18ft wide with 6 ft high fencing, so evening sun after 6 pm is non existent. However, if the garden you like is 30ft wide you should get evening sun for longer than that... (I'm jealous)!

I'm a keen gardener and discounted other properties with north facing gardens, but this house ticked all of the other boxes and we both lived it so we went for it. On balance, I still have no regrets!

*loved it!

@merlinscarlet

There's a reason North facing gardens get a bad rep. Someone once said "anything except North facing gardens". However, people do live perfectly fine in north facing gardens.

My worry about North Facing gardens is being able to sell them on in the future. Some buyers won't care, but it will reduce the pool of buyers.

P.s. I'm talking about evening sun in the summer in my response. Sunlight in the winter is obviously reduced, even in the middle of the day, but I don't mind that so much!

Poppins2016 Thanks for your comment. Although the sunlight is reduced in the winter due to the sun being lower, do you still get any at all at the back end of your garden?

If it’s long it’s fine. Ours is long and north facing and it was lovely in the summer for the patio to be cool during the day and then have the evening sun. But, I think it only works well with a big, open space. If there are lots of trees, you’ll notice it being shady.

Our London north facing garden is in shadow now for 10m by a standard 2 storey house. By December 20th the shadow is 25m. In the summer the shadow is about 3.5 metres.

If you live further north the effect is magnified.

Our garden is north/northwest facing, and all spring, summer, and up until now, the middle and end of it get the sun all day. From now onwards the shadows are getting bigger, but then it isn’t really the weather to be sitting out anyway!
We are quite lucky, as we are not in an estate, we are rural, so the only house giving any shade is our own and there is nothing on the other 3 sides of our garden.

Our North facing garden is 60 feet wide by 150 feet long. It has sun all day long. In the summer the whole garden is in sun, in the depths of winter the shadow reaches about 1/3 up the garden. The right (East) side of the garden is sunny in the mornings and then the sun moves round to the left (West) side in the afternoon. The back of the garden is sunny all the time, all year round.

I like the fact that I can sit in my conservatory and not have the sun directly shining into it from the North. My neighbours opposite on the South side often complain that their conservatory is just too hot to sit out in.

I did worry about buying our house with the North facing garden but I can honestly say it is not a problem and I actually prefer it. There is no problem with bogginess in the garden or anything like that and I grow a lot of plants/shrubs/vegetables in the garden.

The house height to garden length ratio will make a difference, but our garden is long and it is not a problem.

I'm on my second north facing garden house and wouldn't even be able to tell you about sun and shadows! Doesn't bother me at all! The previous owners did a lovely job with the garden so it didn't seem to effect the plants. My parents have a south facing conservatory and it gets too hot to sit in during the summer!

You see I’m not sure I would want a south facing garden. The heat in my parents can be relentless. I’m also a keen gardener on my second north facing garden and it’s causing me no problems. I’ve pretty much been able to grow what I want, particularly in this second one which doesn’t have overhanging trees.

I'm a gardener and I have a north facing garden on a fairly standard semi. It's no problem for socialising - from spring to autumn it gets plenty of sun, and actually in the summer it can still be too hot and exposed as the sun is so high.

I can't grow veg out there, that's the only thing, I do that out the front now.

If we moved I would like a bigger garden but wouldn't really bother me if it was north facing.

Ours is 70ft long but only 13ft wide! And 6ft fences... the area next to the house is in deep shade all year round with just a glimpse of sun at the top of the fences, but it was great in the heatwaves as no need for a parasol over the garden table. Rest of the garden gets enough hours of sun in spring/summer/early autumn to grow roses, clematis, perennials, whatever you want. And the shady bits I’ve just stuffed with ferns.

Ground does get quite boggy in winter as it’s all so dark, but that’s partly that it’s very clay soil.

The far end is absolutely baked in sun despite the fences and we can grow vegetables and have masses of roses.

I think south facing gardens are overrated personally. Our last house was south facing and as a pp says it was relentless, I couldn't just sit on the patio on a hot day as it would blind me (it was a short term house so to be fair didn't invest to make it more usable). Our new house our garden wraps around the house and the patio by the patio doors is north facing, it seems to be in the shadow all day (haven't had a summer here yet!) but I'm hoping that means I will be able to sit out on a hot day and enjoy the warm weather without feeling blinded/burned, we've put our dining table here. There's a corner of our garden at the bottom that seems to get sun for most of the day, we have had a separate patio put there so we can put some garden furniture in for lounging. I'm not a gardener so can't help from that point of view!

We have a north facing garden. I don't mind the garden too much because we also have a south facing one on the other side of the house. I do find though that the north facing rooms can be a bit gloomy compared to the other side of the house and wouldn't want to live in a house that only had north facing windows.

I wouldn't worry. The sun is overhead at the middle of the day, so you'll surely always get that, at least.

I wouldn’t worry about winter, there’s no sun around anyway... my south facing garden has experienced nothing but rain and gloom recently.