How bad is a north facing rear garden?

[bajanasinpajamas]

We currently have a south facing back garden. Have SSTC, and are looking around but very little on the market. We (I) had my heart set on either west or south facing rear garden, but there is NOTHING!
We’ve seen a couple of houses that tick most boxes except they have north facing rear gardens. All I want is to be able to sit out in the evening sun after a day at work - is there going to be any chance of this ?

Depends on the length of the garden and what is to either side. We moved from a south to north facing back garden and love it. The garden is long (about 40m) with nothing apart from the odd trees from east to west so we get lots of sun from the east in the morning and west in the evening. We have landscaped the garden so that our seating area is at the end and it’s lovely as it’s so private and you don’t hear the neighbours.

We live in a house with south facing garden, don't get much evening sun due to position of garage.

I think it depends more on how big the garden is and what’s surrounding it. My childhood home had a large north facing garden but part of it was always in the sun and my parents built a couple of different patios so they could rotate around. Whereas my London postage stamp is SW facing which everyone says is the dream but because of the surrounding buildings it’s only in full sun between about 11-2 and we loose the sun completely by about 4 even in high summer. Good idea to view at a different time, preferably late afternoon on a sunny day, and see for yourself.

We have a north facing garden and it is lovely! Our previous garden was south facing, too much direct sun most of the time and the kitchen was like a greenhouse.

We have a patio area near the house and another one at the bottom of the garden. That way we can seek sun / shade all day depending on what we wish for.
The only downside is that our kitchen (which spans the entire back of the house) is quite dark. Not helped by the fact it has dark tiles and the units are wood effect.

We are currently planning a paler kitchen :) (although I currently fancy a sunflower yellow one but that is for another thread)

Depends on the size. I have a north facing garden and suits me fine. It means whenever we sit out to eat the sun is not in our faces and it is pleasant. However the sun shines just beyond the patio over the rest of the garden - plenty of space to sunbathe and plant Sun loving flowers.

Ours is north facing and is great! Sunny all day, loads of plants and flowers. It’s quite long (100ft) and not overlooked at the back which must help. Never been an issue.

I have a north facing back garden and I much prefer it to my last garden which was south facing.

North facing is fine if you have a decent length garden which I do. I have lots of plants and flowers that like full sun and they still get that. The patio has sun and shaded parts that change during the day so there is always somewhere to sit.

It would not put me off buying a property unless the garden was very small so you would really struggle to get sun at all.

I dislike having a south facing garden. Too bloody hot and sunny in summer! My ferns are sulking because they get too much sun. I will happily swap you for one with some shade.

As I understand it, if there are no surrounding buildings or trees and the back of your house is straight aligned, then yes you will get full west facing sun late afternoon and in the evening for you to sit out in even if it’s only a small garden and definitely if you have a large long garden there should be somewhere you can sit and get evening sun. A family member found this too when they were house hunting that there were lots of north facing gardens and very few south facing gardens for sale. We have a very wide corner plot and house is on its side facing east and north and we get tons of sun but also can always find a shady bit. I personally prefer an east/west orientation (although our house is perfect for us as it is triple aspect in our loung) so you get sun morning eveing in the house but not always for a few hours in the middle of the day but if you have windows on the side of the house then you would most likely. You need to look at each north facing house in an individual basis.

Agree with every single word!!

I've always found discounting North facing gardens oversimplistic and, as long as the garden is big enough to not be completely shaded, I'd not a good reason to discount looking into an otherwise perfect house.

I have owned two houses, one with a garden which faced South and the other which faced North.

The South facing garden was lovely but...
We needed an awning in the summer to stop the house getting really hot in the day and to be able to see the TV in the evening.
... We effectively turned it into a north facing garden most sunny days!

The North facing garden gives us...

• Energising morning sun for us to enjoy our tea/coffee in.
• Some relief from the heat of summer inside the house
• Very welcome shade on the patio in the summer

But... We are lucky the garden is big enough that we have sun in the garden midway up all afternoon/evening until the sun sets behind the nearby bank of trees.

The trees that impact our North facing garden would have impacted our South facing garden just as much so I would look at every garden on a case by case basis. As someone who likes the sun I also wouldn't like a garden which doesn't have a sunny space at all.

Good luck with your search!

YES, this is my experience as well. Technically I have a NW-facing garden, in practice I have a couple of South-facing beds that get copious sun all day and need plants that can tolerate it, a SE-facing bed and front of house that gets lots of morning sun and needs plants that can manage part-shade, and a NW-facing border that I’ve planted with lots of big leafy foliage plants and ferns, etc.

I really think the “South facing” thing is too simplistic, both structurally and in terms of it not taking into account what different people want to use their outdoor space for. Growing plants that need full sun all day isn’t in everyone’s list of must-haves.

I currently have a north facing garden.

I don't think its that terrible for most be we have it bad as the extension is built north westward and blocks ANY light from directly hitting the ground which means its a permanent dark/damp swamp. Most people on the street with their extension on the other side get a bit of sun in the warmer months though.

The light through the rear windows can be blindingly bright in summer its just those rays don't get down to ground level because of object blocking/shadowing the yard.

We are buying a house with a NW facing garden. It’s a bit off putting tbh. I do like the sun.

When people are talking about having large N facing gardens and are still getting sun, how large are we talking?

We have a north facing garden. LIke many others, in the summer, it's actually nice to have the shade close to the house and the kitchen is cool, and we generally get sun late into the afternoon at the bottom end so can set up a table and chairs etc. And this is even with a not particlarly large garden - I think it's about 30 feet.

But where we DO have a huge issue is actually in the winter. We get ZERO sun in the winter as we've got houses to both the east and west of us that block what little sunshine we might otherwise get, and as a result our garden turns into a complete bog for 3-4 months a year. This was particularly annoying when we had a dog who was going out frequently, or when DS is out there playing football n a non-rainy day. So that's something to bear in mind.

@kirinm
mine is about 40m long and 12 width. I get morning sun next to the house until around noon then the sun moves up the garden. In the 3 summer months 2/3rds of the garden is flooded with sun for most of the day. We have no buildings to the east or west so can watch the sun setting into the mountains uninterrupted.

Wow that’s a big garden! The one we are buying is, I think, about 15m long.

Ours faces North and we have nothing tall blocking the West side so we get sun on it pretty much all evening. It's perfect for me because our biggest windows face the garden so they stay out of direct sunlight for most of the day and therefore the house stays cool.

Yes the winter muddiness is a pain. We are trying out different kinds of grass to combat it. Last winter the lawn was full of moss so we are hoping clearing that has made a difference.

Sun is from the west in the evening, how much you will get depends on fences and other buildings and how long the garden is. North facing means nice and cool on a hot summer day, again if the garden is a reasonable length you will still be able to find a sunny spot.

Ours is north facing, on the wrong side of a hill. But we have found that we have both morning and evening sun coming in from the sides so only a small portion of the garden is forever dark and that keeps the back of the house cool. But we have no neighbors blocking the sun coming in from the sides.

It's the length of the shadow of the house that is the problem, it will be extremely long when the sun is very low and theoretically zero when the sun is overhead in mid-summer. You could sketch it out for different sun positions if you know how tall the house is.

This is the garden of the house we are buying. The side return is basically a write off in terms of sun as the neighbours house has an extension so any light is blocked. At the back of the garden is the garden of a house on a neighbouring street which is very large. As it’s a terrace, there is nothing blocking the light from either side other than the odd tree. Do you think you’d get sun in the evening?

Ah okay thanks. Not sure of the height of the house. It’s a 3-storey Victorian but I couldn’t even hazard a guess!

The part of the country you are in also makes a difference. London and the south east is increasingly hot in the summer. I cannot sit out in my south facing garden on hot days as it is much too hot and there is no shade. Plants more often die in hot weather. This year a lot has died due to lack of rain, but nothing has died in the north facing front garden.

These questions are daft without context. How big is the garden? What is being and to the side? Is it NNE or NNw?