Garden facing direction

[3orangekissesfromkazan]

Just wondering what people's thoughts are on the best aspect for a garden?

I know South sees the most sun through the day, but is it overwhelming?

My back garden is North West and gets sun from late morning right through. It’s lovely in summer to be able to sit out really late and get the warmth but it’s a bit much for me during the hottest parts of the day.

We have a west facing garden- the house is really bright all day long no matter what season (big bay window at the front and huge landing windows). Good to have some shade and nice to have the sun as it starts to cool off a bit in the summer and sit out after work. With young kids now I really don't think I'd like to have a south facing garden now - we've had one before and parasols/sun shelters were useless really, and still too hot under them.

We have a south facing garden and I love it! Yes it can be hot on the odd hot day but it’s not like that is common in the UK really. We have a table with umbrella and an apple tree for shade.
It’s so lovely to have the evening sun until 7 at the moment. My DH is a gardener and he’s not seen any plants die because it’s south facing, but I suppose it’s down to layout and personal preference.

Perhaps I’m being daft but does it make much of a difference which way the garden faces. I think ours is north facing and only a very small part of it is in the shade.

@Awmum42

Perhaps I’m being daft but does it make much of a difference which way the garden faces. I think ours is north facing and only a very small part of it is in the shade.

It all depends on what's around you. If you are in detached bungalows with long gardens then direction has less impact, but in three storey terraces with shorter gardens then yes.

Overall though I would be more minded to think in terms of 'how much sun does the garden get' rather than simply direction.

Will a small west facing garden in a terrace get any sun? That's what I'm moving to and the sun hadn't come round yet at 3pm in early April when I visited. I'm now worried about it...The house itself however was very bright.

@UneAstuce

Will a small west facing garden in a terrace get any sun? That's what I'm moving to and the sun hadn't come round yet at 3pm in early April when I visited. I'm now worried about it...The house itself however was very bright.

It is quite hard to work out sometimes, as height/proximity of neighbouring buildings impacts. The sun is lower now than in summer.

What is on the south side of the yard?

There's a fence on the south side. Has some ivy going up quite high but we will give that a chop. Actually I think the garden is slightly more south west facing than straight south.

I'm hoping for late afternoon/evening sun in high summer!

@UneAstuce

There's a fence on the south side. Has some ivy going up quite high but we will give that a chop. Actually I think the garden is slightly more south west facing than straight south.

I'm hoping for late afternoon/evening sun in high summer!

Sorry that should have read "rather than straight west"

Ours is due south and largely the reason why we have not traded up. My patio is a complete suntrap, hot on any nice day from April to September. I absolutely love it best thing about our house! I dont want to sit at the bottom of the garden, I want sun at the patio doors

@UneAstuce When you viewed at 3pm was the sun behind the house that is backing onto yours? I'm thinking where the sun is at 3pm in my house currently and at that time the sun is at the SW corner. In summer the sun is much higher.

There are lots of websites/apps that will plot it for you if you Google.

I have a garden which faces east. It's not ideal for most, because of the lack of evening sun, but it works for our young family. The kids are up early and like playing out in the morning. Our garden warms up quickly and we always have a sunny breakfast with the sun through the kitchen window. It never gets too hot in summer and ours plants do well. I do think sometimes people get obsessed with garden direction. It really depends how long your garden is and the height of nearby houses and trees.

Ours is south east, but it’s quite long and narrow. One of the long sides of the garden gets loads of sun and things grow easily there. The patio gets boiling in summer, so you need an umbrella, or I just move to a bit under a tree if needed. Then when the sun goes down the slabs are still nice and warm so you can stay out on a warm evening. If you’re desperate for sun you can move about a bit. After lockdown I feel so lucky to have our little garden, and after the past few weeks of sitting outside with hot water bottles and blankets we’ve proved that we can still enjoy it even in cold weather.

@beginningoftheend I'm not sure where the sun was when I viewed - but thank you I will google regarding plotting it out!

After a gardening failure I plotted the sun in our garden and it was quite different to my casual impressions. In gardening terms 'full sun' is 6+ hours but the middle of the day is more impactful than either early or late sun.

North facing, but its a long narrow garden. I get a tiny bit of sun 1st thing in the morning in the kitchen but thats gone by 8.30, we had an extension off the side of the kitchen a couple of years ago and that gets sun until about 10am. As much as I'd love a bit of sun on the little patio outside the kitchen window its actually nice to have somewhere to sit in the shade.
About 10 m from the kitchen to the end of the garden gets all day sun barring moving area of shade from a couple of ornamental trees and the fences.
I'm finishing laying a patio today so we can put a summerhouse at the top of the garden.
The sitting room at the from of the house boils! We tend to have to close the curtains in the afternoon when it's sunny or we all sit squinting.

Totally agree with @beginningoftheend that it depends on so many other things other than aspect.

I have a NW facing garden but it's about 130ft long. I also have bungalows nextdoor. So, I have sun from the east in the morning and then when the sun is 'behind' the house, the bottom 2/3 of the garden are still in sun. By about 12ish, the sun is now poking round the other side of the house and the rest is in sun. The only part that is shady all day is that closest to the house. Which is actually lovely in the summer! Plus it keeps the house cool at the back, especially nice to have cool bedrooms.

The winter the sun is obviously much lower so the bottom half doesn't really get sun (half closest house). But the back does all year round.

I would imagine that if the garden was short and surrounded by houses, the garden would struggle to get sun in for most of the year tbh. So it does depend on everything else rather than the aspect.

We have an East facing garden and are really happy with it.

We get sun on our deck/garden by our house in the morning, then through the afternoon the deck gradually gets covered by shade when it's hotter. I'm extremely fair skinned so want to be in the shade anyway.

Our garden is long and thin (Edwardian semi) so we still get sun at the bottom of the garden at 6ish. We've just added a bench in that area to catch that sunny spot.

Very surprised with the vast majority of south facing garden owners complaining that’s it’s too hot. Most people travel south for holiday in the summer not Scandinavia or Scotland, but yet suffocate in the British summer with maybe 10 days a year over 30 degrees?

With a parasol, I suspect most day will be ok to lunch on the patio, and yea, when comes 3 o’clock and it’s 30+ then it’s time for siesta or kids playing in a small pool while adults sip a rose under a tree or back inside with shutter half closed. And let alone the heat, the light in a north east facing garden is awful, it’s dark from early afternoon from most of the year.

The house we lived in before buying ours had a small south facing garden with no shade and whilst it was nice on cooler days, on the hot days we couldn't actually sit in the garden as it got so hot. The lounge was also freezing in the winter in that house as it never got sun. Nice during the summer though as it was cooler.

We now have a slightly bigger but still small garden that is south east facing and get lovely morning sun in the garden and in our bedroom waking us up. The sun stays quite late in our garden so can sit out and enjoy it and then later when it moves to the front we get sun in the lounge and get lovely sunsets from the bay window. Plants do really well too and I also grow vegetables in the summer with good success.

It all depends on how much heat you enjoy and how important the late afternoon/evening sun in the garden is for you.

Oh and if you have a large garden it doesn't really matter.

As PP have said, it completely depends on the size of the garden. My partner and I both have north facing gardens and his is twice the size of mine. It makes a huge difference as there's a bit that is sunny all day. Currently got stupid massive tree stumps in that area making it unusable but we're working on that. Both have a significant area that doesn't get much sun at all near the house but I'm getting better at shade planting so it's okay. I'd love a south-west facing garden because I'm basically a lizard and just want to bake on a rock in the afternoons.

Interesting responses!

Our garden is westerly facing, but until a couple of days ago was still shaded for a large part of the day by our neighbours massive plum tree.

They had a tree surgeon in a few days back who pollarded it right back and the difference it has made to our sun is amazing!

My garden faces South and get sun from early morning until early evening. We love it. There is shade from trees and a big pergola and a swing seat with canopy.

A South or West facing garden is something I refused to compromise on when I bought my house. On threads like this, so many times it's said "oh this is the UK, we can only use our gardens for 2 months of the year anyway". I'm assuming these people don't get much sun in their gardens! For me, it's not about the hot summer days... it's all the sunny days almost throughout the year (bar a couple of months over winter) when it feels warm in the sun but chilly in the shade. I can happily enjoy my garden on those days, as do my children, but wouldn't go out there if it were shaded as it would be too cold!

We get the sun all day, till it goes down, which was also important to me as DP works long hours and I wouldn't want him to come home to zero sun. I also wouldn't want my seating area at the bottom of my garden... I want it outside my house. We have a lot of windows in our kitchen diner at the back of our house. It can get hot at the height of summer but we have a lovely cool north facing lounge to transfer to. The chilly, but sunny days again outweigh this as it's so nice to sit in the sun as it blazes through the glass knowing it's freezing outside!

I had no idea this was a thing before we bought our house and as a result we have a small north facing garden. We absolutely love our garden and the amount of sunlight that we have. I can’t imagine wanting a south facing garden in the future, though I would consider a west facing one.