North facing garden?

[GallopingGreen]

Need to make a decision this morning... after a year of frustrating house hunting we have found a lovely house in a great location. It's at the very top end of our budget... however it is fully north facing garden. DH is not keen as it's the one thing about the house we can never change.

The current owner has made the best of it with a big kitchen extension at the back with lots of glass and windows... to maximise the light.

Any experience with north facing gardens being fine? It's a long garden so will have some light at some point I guess....

Thanks!

Aah, the tall trees to the west will be more if an issue. We have nothing to the west.

I wouldn't. The north part of our garden is always shady and even the tiles and ground get mossy there compared to the rest of it. I would hate that to be the only bit of garden.

I know you said you had to make a decision in the morning, but I would be wanting to be there on a sunny day, in the afternoon (as late as poss), just to see what it's like.

Is there an option to go round later (if it's sunny today, which it isn't particularly here...)

OP, which way does your current garden face? Are you garden people? We are and my children spend loads of time out there from March onwards.

I think the inside is less of an issue if there are velux etc.

Thanks all for taking the time to respond! It's been really helpful.
We are not gardeners - im more of a sit out and enjoy the sun when it's out.
Each viewing I have had it has been late morning and it seemed bright but shady. I'd be fine to sit out in that. It's probably shaded in the afternoon and evening- but we spend 90% of the time indoors....
Reading these comments, I feel it is not a dealbreaker for me

Our back garden faces north east which would usually be a deal breaker for me but the house ticked all the other boxes. Though the garden is not long it does have a complete garden width raised terrace at the end. The main bit of the garden doesn't get much sun in winter but the terrace does and in summer is sunny up to about 9pm.

We have a north facing suburban garden. Our patio is in full sun by 1pm and stays in the sun until dusk, and the entire garden gets sun at some point in the day. We’d actually like more shade! It really depends on what is around you, the positioning of your neighbours’ houses, trees, size of plot, gaps between houses etc.

If your garden is north facing and is behind your house, as is typical, your house will always overshadow your garden. You may have a long garden, or a bungalow which will lessen the impact, but it will happen. I'm assuming your patio isn't directly outside your house?

Our patio is in behind our house - it is behind our rear reception room, and alongside our kitchen.

My house is in the middle of a field, but the part just to the north of the house is my favourite bit! I like the shade and am planning lots of ferns and hostas and all sorts of other things that the sun would scorch in the sunnier areas. It also has my perching rock, which I plan to develop into a lovely tranquil seating area (the perching rock is just a large boulder which happens to be there. It has a dip in the middle and I like to sit there and think sometimes).

If hotter, drier summers are to become more normal then a bit of shade could mean a welcome haven rather than a damp nuisance.

I guess there it's getting sun from the West in the afternoon. I just looked in my front garden that faces North. The house is already shading what would be a small patio sized area. That will gradually move down as the day goes on. Obviously it will be different by height of summer.

I have a 19m (66 odd feet?) long London garden. It gets sun at the top end in winter and good summer coverage despite my neighbours loft extensions. The area close to the very back of the house doesn’t, of course, but I have to say I do love having that shady option in summer.

I don’t feel that the rooms at the back are dim but it is only a small terrace, maybe that helps. I love my garden, I do love to lay out in the summer months and I can, easily. I don’t really spend any time in it on the winter months!

I am currently sat in my north facing garden conservatory in sunshine...

I have a due north facing garden. Site width is about 14 metres and the length is 140ft. Sorry for mixing my metrics but that's what I know off hand.
It's a 1930s semi detached in a street of semi detached houses the same - to give you an idea of the site layout.
I don't get direct sun at the back but I do get sun from the west and from about April - late Sept it's only about 3m out from the house that would be in the shade.
I have a lovely patio down the back of the garden where I hide from the children and have been known to fall asleep in the heat.
We have a long patio at the back of the house and use it as well.
I love the light at the front of the house as we have stained glass and my bedroom is lovely and bright in the mornings.

Our old house had a north facing garden.

BUT - it was a bungalow (so cast a low shadow) and also built on a hill, garden was tiered / sloping upwards from house.

So actually, it got a huge amount of sun to the point where it was difficult to find shade in the garden.

So there is more to it than just "north facing", which a lot of people just consider to be a blanket "no".

We have a north facing front garden. Plants do well there. It still gets good sun later in the day.

If hotter, drier summers are to become more normal then a bit of shade could mean a welcome haven rather than a damp nuisance

agree, last year it was so hot, over 30 degrees for a few days and many days in rhe late twenties, it could easily involve to south facing is the least desirable.

We've just moved from a SE facing garden to a North East one and I love it. We are in London and have found the summers getting hotter and hotter so found the back rooms of our old house unbearable on the hot days, now we still get loads of sun but have a shady strip along the back of the house which is perfect.
For me, it's not all about the direction, it's about how wide and long the garden is, plus how overlooked. Would I move to a house with a small narrow enclosed north facing back garden - nope. But does it make any difference if it's a decent width and length - not really! We get glorious all day sun in our current north facing garden and enjoy it well into the evening!

I recently bought a house with a north facing garden. Just looked out and about a metre and a half strip against the house is in the shade.

It's two storeys to the back garden, but we are putting in a single storey extension, so perhaps then less of it will be shaded? Either way we are having glass and roof lights, but it doesn't seem too dark in the kitchen without these at the moment.

Our south facing front is lovely and bright, and it's in our lounge, playroom and master bedroom, so rooms we use a lot. But we've got big bay windows, and already we can get too hot in those rooms sometimes. And the people working on our south facing drive this month were complaining it had been uncomfortably hot to work on and was in the full glare of the sun. In April!

I'll see how it is when I live in it longer, but for now we quite like it facing north

For me it would depend on the house, and I say this as someone whose current garden is north facing, having moved from a house where the garden was south facing.

I admit it was a concern before we moved (but we loved the house so much we were prepared to make the compromise). However, in practice our kitchen, which is at the back of the house and opens on the north facing garden, is one of lightest rooms in the house!

Yes we have shady areas during the summer, but there’s always a spot which is in the sun.

We aren’t in the garden much from November to February, but are out in it for the other 8 months of the year.

Having had both a North and a South facing garden over the years, I wouldn’t go back to a North facing garden while living in the North of the U.K. The place is so much lighter in the dull months, which gives me hope.

Popping out the back door with a cuppa to bask in sunshine in early spring is a lovely boost to my day.

This is DD’s garden, which faces proper N.
They've only been in 18 months so the garden is a work in progress.
The photo was taken late afternoon (6pm maybe) in mid-May; there’s a solid fence on the W side which was about 5’ tall at the time (it now has trellis on top so the shade extends a bit further) but you can see there’s still plenty of sun to sit in, and during the day about 3/4 of the garden has full sun.
S-facing front of house gets too much sun if anything!
Like others they don’t use the garden much in winter but it doesn’t get boggy.

you can build shade into a garden you can't build in sun which is why i want to move, bloody husband won't think about it at the mo. and my back garden is south west ish facing, it's the houses that cut off the afternoon sun

In the summer it's frequently too hot to sit in our south facing back garden and we choose to sit out the front (it's pretty private). I think as summers get warmed this will just get worse.

It was lovely today to sit in the garden in a warm sheltered spot and have lunch in the sun...

Our garden is west-facing and in the summer from late morning onwards there isn't a scrap of shade anywhere. It's unbearably hot sometimes, and we end up sitting inside with all the windows closed and curtains drawn. It is impossible to have any plants or herbs on the kitchen windowsill - they fry.

I'd love a north-facing garden.