North facing garden??

[gardensunshine]

Hello!

We're currently looking at a house, huge advantage being a corner plot with complete privacy from neighbours in the back garden.

However, the garden is north-facing. The line on the image is a slope in the garden which we could build decking to level out the garden. I love the sun, not sure if it would be a wise move to overlook the fact the garden is north facing? No houses etc to cast shadow. Myself and husband are at a disagreement with him saying we'd receive sun into early evening however I'm not sure (our current garden is north facing and dissapears around 6 and swore I'd never go for the same position of garden). Happy to be told I'm wrong!

So it's north west facing. There won't be much sun in the morning as it rises in the east, to the right of your diagram. The sun will be fully west, so to the left of that diagram, in the evening. Depending on how tall that sticky out bit of the building is, it'd cast a shadow.

Difficult to say exactly where the sun will hit throughout the day. Could you ask the vendor to take some photos on a sunny day in morning, afternoon and early evening?

I have a North East-ish facing back garden.

We get the sun to some parts of the garden all day - morning patio nearest the house has sun, the sun then extends to all over the garden, gradually disappearing from nearest the house onwards. No sun by late afternoon. (Bearing in mind we don't have much of a summer anyway).

That doesn't affect us as we're not really ones to sit out in the garden early evening.

Should mention on the other side of the road, obviously opposite direction to us so their fronts are facing north-east, they have moss building on the roofs which looks unsightly, given the homes are new. We must have moss on our roof at the back of the house, but you can't see that due to the style of the homes.

I have had homes where the back garden was south, and the back rooms could get terribly hot and too light, to watch TV for example.

I prefer the aspect we have now than South.

We need to see a map with more of the neighbourhood included. It looks as though you may get some sun from the south and some from the east depending on what other houses are surrounding your garden. But it doesn’t look as though you would get much sun from the west in the evening. to the position of your house.

My DD has a house with a fully south facing back garden which is great forca sun lover (which im not!) but the front of their house gets no sun at all and this makes it cold and dark even in summer. Just check to see if some part of the garden gets sun you can sit in - i expect it will.

As I see it, you'll get the morning sun to sit on the decking for your breakfast coffee, shade by the house during the hottest part of the day, and then the sun again in the late afternoon/ evening.

So it all depends when you want to use the garden, and where in the UK you are to determine how hot the hottest part of the day is.

Our garden is north-facing but is big enough, and the house low enough, that there is always a sunny spot. We also have big windows downstairs so that the living areas have enough light, even in winter. The bedrooms however are rather dark. If the sitting room is at the back of that house, will you get enough natural light in the winter or on cloudy days?

Depends what’s to the west.

South West facing is the best orientation IMV.

However, yours is not fully North as I expected to see. You could go round there at various times of the day (on a sunny day!) to see for yourself.

It's the biggest purchase you will ever make, so put the time in!

I have a totally North facing garden. It’s currently bathed in sunshine (midday), I had morning sun for my breakfast, and I have a far corner of patio that will have sun until 6:30 ish in the evening.

Unclear how you are going to build the decking but north west facing is fine. You'll get evening sun and it won't be too hot in the day.

Mines the same MissyB1 and the OPs diagram illustrates that the garden is NW so there will be sub in the afternoon.

I'd ask for another viewing this week at midday ish (or the time you would like to see)
I had a west garden previously and it was lovely!
We have a south facing and I would definitely be checking it gets sun as I love a coffee in the morning outside or sitting in the sun during the day.

Im a sun lover and HATED my N facing garden, im not a massive fan of my E facing garden as i prefer afternoon sun. NW facing might be ok

Depends really - if you’re a sun lover then a fully north facing garden is not for you. That said, our is north facing and we get some morning sun, and a surprising amount in the afternoon. In fact the bottom corner is such a sun trap I can’t bear to sit in it on hot days, but we aren't overlooked at all.

one thing I will say is that if you’re planning to build the decking out to remove the slope on the garden be careful. Next door did that, build the decking straight out the back door to the end of the garden and by the time they walk along to the bottom, the fence is at chest height so they can see right over into our garden!

It also depends on where you live. In the south east a south facing garden is too hot for recent summers. It's only May and today it is uncomfortably hot to do gardening.

I think I’d be alright with that tbh. If you were to sit say where the numbers are on your map, you’d get a decent amount of sunshine later in the day. Plus the flip side is that the rooms at the front of the house will be very light indeed.

Our back garden is north west facing. We get full sun blazing at the back in the spring and summer from about 4-5pm which is perfect for sitting out in the evening. Downside is that it heats my son's bedroom up like crazy.

It's not as simple as North facing vs south facing garden. Depending on trees/hedges etc, you might get some lovely late afternoon/evening sun in the top corner of the garden in the summer.

Rooms at the back of the house might stay cooler in the summer, but might feel gloomy in the winter. Similarly, rooms at the front might get lots of lovely natural light throughout the day, or you might find yourselves keeping the curtains shut all day throughout the summer because it gets too hot. A lot of this might depend whereabouts in the country you are!

I'm not a sun worshipper. I love my north facing garden in the summer - it's comfortable, with plenty of shade in the summer, which is when we use the garden most. In the winter, the grass doesn't ever really dry out, though, so not ideal football etc. Would you have a front garden where you could put a nice little bench to sit out and get a bit of sun in the winter?

Our back garden is pretty much exactly this aspect, but we live in a more built up area - that said, directly behind us are the back gardens of the houses of the side road off our road, and we have the back gardens of our terrace either side.

In winter we get next to no sun at all - I can't dry washing at all out in the back garden between Oct and Apr as it is just not worth it. The rest of the year is fine - there is some sun on the garden from around 9 am I would say and then we get the afternoon and evening sun which I like.

I'm really not a sun worshipper so this works brilliantly for me - our kitchen is at the back of the house and I love how cool it is in the summer. Our garden is very green as well - we inherited it when we moved but it was clearly planted by someone who knew what they were doing.

I've lived in homes that have had back gardens facing most directions.

South in many ways was the worst, front of the house cold and dark. Back glorious, but hot days unbearable in the kitchen/extension. So much so that some expensive candles I left there melted in the heat!

West was nice, sun in the afternoon. North East in many ways better than the South home, all the garden gets sun at some point, but not early evening. My parents have an East facing back garden and don't get much sun at all.

In summary I've found NE no problems, W no problems, that was probably the best aspect wise.

Assuming from the picture that it's a new build. There may not be any houses behind you to create shade but do you know the likelihood of a new phase of development happening behind your house?

I think it's fine , I enjoy sun in the afternoon and evening, NW and I'm happy the house is quite cool although do get some nice afternoon sun in one room.

You will probably get sun on that far corner till later on, in the summer... not sure about throughout the year though.

I like my SF garden mostly for the sun it gets at other times of the year, not just during the summer months and I prefer my front room being NF, as it's always cool in the summer, even if it's roasting outside. I do have a seating area at the back too though, so not sure if this helps.

How much it matters is a really individual thing.

Same here, the North facing garden was my only compromise as we moved from a West facing. I’m so glad we didn’t let it put us off. Also on a hot summers night the North facing bedrooms are a godsend, so cool 😎

I think i depends whats around you. So where is the shadow coming from. Ours is north west and long, but there isnt much around it. This means part of the garden is in the sun at any given time during summer at least.

We have an East-facing garden which is in shade from about 1pm.
It doesn't bother us in the slightest. On a hot day I can sit in shade looking AT the sunshine, but I'm not getting baked in it myself.
We've gone for an evergreen Japanese-inspired garden which doesn't need much sun to look great.