I don’t understand why south facing gardens are sought after

[Uncomplicated]

I was wondering if someone could help explain this to me. I have googled it and it says if you exit your house and stand in the garden with your back to the house and your compass points south, then your garden is south facing. But why is that so important? Surely if you are in anything but a south facing garden you can just position yourself or your chair so you are south facing. Also how does a south facing garden apparently get more sun? Is it because your house isn’t blocking the sun? Because even if your house doesn’t block the sun, your neighbours probably will.

I had a North facing garden. The house literally cast a shadow over my garden. It was cold and shaded. I moved to one with a south facing garden. The sun is always in my garden, and It's warm and sunny.

I have a north facing garden , not particularly large but get sun somewhere in it all year round. What we do have is lots of different seating areas and we move around depending on how much sun is desired. The main seating area is at the back of the garden and has full sun all day. By the end of the day we move to the corner patio and in the early evening we have sun on the patio outside the dining room French doors. We had a south facing garden before and lost the sun quite early because of other houses around blocking it. What we have now is much better.

It's just the terminology used though. Of course there are many variables, but generally people don't have a wrap around garden, they have an area behind their house, so it's often important which orientation it is, if sun/no sun matters to you.

The PP seemed to think that for years people have been coverting South facing gardens, when all they really all they need to do is turn and face the sun!

i'm sorry OP.
i'm not usually taking that tone. no offence meant.
as you say there are different experiences/opinions on how valuable it is; but i was surprised by what i took to be a lack of understanding about what the term meant.
anyway, the main thing is don't buy anywhere til you have visited at all times of day/night and days of week.

There's long been a premium on my street for houses facing the right way

We have sun all day long and are south facing

Yes. Often you can tell a north facing garden just by pics on rightmove, as they might have a seating area nearer the bottom of their garden. Personally I like to sit closer to my house though. It was a deal breaker for me, but as you can see, many people are happy with gardens other than South or West (which I would have considered).

Snap. I'd actively avoid a south facing garden when we next look to move. It's hard work with young children as too hot to sit out for much of the day.

Thanks @alexdgr8 but i didn’t know what the term meant and I’m not ashamed of that. I didn’t know because no one has ever explained it to me properly, probably because before today I had never asked. But today, I asked the question and now I do know and I’m genuinely grateful for the explanations. I will hopefully learn something else new tomorrow

Our garden is on a North facing slope. Means it's much harder to dry washing (almost impossible in winter!)

South facing here, more of a bonus than an essential, sun all day but lots of shade from trees, would not like an unshaded south garden, too hot!

I always like West facing in evening when sun setting. Usually have garden furniture West facing nice when sitting out on summer evenings.

While it is generally better, I do pull slight faces at those on property programmes that won't entertain anything else.

Not all gardens are the same and garden length and house height also play a part.
I have a north east facing garden (200ft) and it gets sun all day. Patio takes until mid morning but I have seating in other places and it's great at tea time.

My washing line is in sun all year round and in summer the trees at end give dappled shade which is really useful for the kids playing.

To think someone would dismiss even looking at my house puzzles me. Plus we get sun on front in morning but I enjoy afternoons and evening with it shining through the back

Never really understood the hype until we brought a house with a south facing garden.

It's not just the garden but the light in the house, even in winter it's lovely.

We are lucky that our kitchen diner is facing the garden (great for entertaining on sunny days) and our living room and master bedroom are on the cooler north side of the house. It does get warm in our house so definitely appreciate the cool living room/ bedroom in the summer.

We definitely eat in the garden over a longer period of the year in this house.

“I don't know how anyone could live with this in a South facing house, you'd just fry!”

i assumed this too but in the height of summer, the sun doesn’t come into the house as much because it is directly ahead, so we don’t fry at all. In the winter the sun is lower in the sky and it comes through the windows and warms the floor. It’s only when you have days of heatwave that it gets very hot - and then almost everyone has a hot house anyway

Ours is north facing but 150ft long so it doesn't really make much difference as most is in the sun anyway, if it was only 50ft long a lot would be in the shade though so not so good, we have seating in three different places so we can sit in the sun or shade

Actually most of the north facing gardens in our little area are about twice as long as the south facing ones, I wonder if that was deliberate -1930s houses

Not everyone thinks about it. Looking at houses with DH he wanted to see one on a street of terraces where the back yard was north facing. I wouldn’t ever have had it on a list but he was adamant. I clocked the garden furniture in the front garden….also had a friend with a house in same street and knew her back yard was virtually unusable as it only got sun at the very tip of it for an hour in high summer. Pointed out the damp cold back yard and asked if he really wanted to always bbq out the front?

suited my friend as not a gardener, didn’t want to sit out etc

bought a house with south facing yard that I filled with plants, had seating and room for his precious bbq.

We have just bought a house with a south facing garden. It was entirely on purpose and we sought it out vigorously 🔆

This thread just reminded me to buy one of these www.millets.co.uk/15987562/eurohike-gazebo-15987562/?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-pCVBhCFARIsAGMxhAc6JOrqaVqmYTUj3oH8TeqEmqms6W7vQE1Yu_upuEFEvIOxQNswHNcaAtKXEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds 😬

the appeal presumes you are not a vampire like me, hiding inside and watching for the shade to finally overtake the garden so you can go outside.

I used to have a southwest facing back garden and it made the house unbearably hot. I had to have the blinds closed all the time and the house was impossible to cool down. We had the sun late into the evening though so it was nice to sit out and read after work.
I now have a north facing house and garden. It's an old tall Georgian house which is back to back with our neighbour. Theirs is entirely south facing and ours is entirely north facing. In summer the house is very cool but unless the weather is very very warm, the house always feels cold. It's also quite dark inside so I use the lights a lot more than at my old house. The garden gets far more sun than I'd have expected. It's roasting hot on a nice day from mid morning until the sun goes down, but it's wider than it is long and only has houses affecting sun on the south side. We get a lot more winter sun than I'd expected too, it's just a shame we're back to back as if not, we'd at least have some sun warming warming the back of the house.

Is East facing terrible if no house at the back & the garden is 70-80 ft long?

Not at all the sun rises from the east

thank you, have seen a house I like for sale!

South facing here (and further south than the UK). I would be okay with east or west facing, but not north. The rooms at the front of my house don't get good light, and it affects which plants I can grow in front. Everything grows beautifully in back. It gets somewhat warm in the kitchen, which is at the back. But the kitchen is warm anyhow.