North facing garden?

[Court459]

Hi

we have see a house we like
but the garden is north facing. Would we get any sun?
our current garden is smaller but west facing and gets the sun all day. I don’t want a shady garden in the sunshine!

I’ve attached some photos. Thanks!!

Well the photos show the garden in full sun!

That looks long enough to get sun at the end furthest from the house.
With the weather changing I would.prefer a long north facing garden..house stays cooler without the sun beating down on it. You just need to have seating areas at the end

And dont forget it means the front of the house will be sunny

You'll get lots of sun at the front of the house, but the back rooms may be a little darker. It looks as though the garden will get some sun, it just won't be for as much of the day. If possible I'd try and take a look round at different times to see so you've more of an idea exactly what you'll get. My preference would be south facing, with plenty of trees for shade, but if everything else was perfect it wouldn't necessarily put me off.

I lived in a house with a north facing garden for 5 years and really regretted it. I didn’t think it would be a big deal as there was a park nearby and this was in Manchester, which was well, Manchester. But when it was sunny I got nothing but a sliver in the morning and sat enviously listening to my neighbors behind having bbqs. I was so glad when I moved.

Always always a no for a north facing garden for me. But can’t see that that one is. Are you sure?

I have a north east facing wide shallow garden. During the main summer months it’s an absolute benefit to have a mixture of sun and shade. Your photo is showing the garden with just a strip of shade down one side.

It depends how important it is - I garden so it is to me. Recently looked at a house with a north facing garden on the downward slope of a north hill - so you lost the evening light about 90 mins before the other side as it dipped below the hill. It really upset me even though I know something like that is very fussy.

I like my north facing garden. It means we can have a glass roof at the back of the kitchen and glass doors looking out, but it never gets too hot. Plus, all the flowers face the house. The area right behind the house is a bit damp and chilly, but everywhere else is nice. We just put the patio at the far end of the garden.

Our old house had a north facing garden and I didn’t like it. The bottom part of the garden got the sun but where we had the patio and seating was always in shade and freezing. I’m not even an outdoors type of person and don’t sit in the sun.
Now we have full sun over the whole back and it’s lovely, although we live in the middle of fields so it’s windy and gets cold but at least the sun is blazing

Same here. It was depressing im in south facing now. Sun most of the day feels much nicer

We have a North facing garden, but it slopes upwards away from the house. The slope is a pain (don't buy a house on a steep plot!), but the North facing aspect is not. It means the back of the garden at the top gets loads of sun, and can get too hot, but then we have the patio close to the house which is mostly in shade, so it's cooler on a hot summer's day. That pic looks like it's getting loads of sun.

My Mum has a South facing garden, and there is no shade anywhere, so she can't use it on really hot days (not that there are many of those). She's planted a couple of fruit trees at the back, which helps.

We've had a north facing garden for years and have never had any problems with not getting the sun. In fact one year I fell asleep out there and got sunburnt.

I'm not sure where this idea that the aspect of the garden matters comes from.

What blocks the sun is how close surrounding buildings and/or trees are. The garden's aspect, IME, has little or nothing to do with it.

All it has to do is get over the house (the sun) which even in that photo it’s managing to do. It’s the height of the sun and the objects it has to clear. We have a NNW facing garden and only have about 3-4 weeks where we get no sun in January and ours is a terraced house in a row of houses 3 storeys high.

you can also check on an app called sun’s path which shows the sun in position to your garden (and there’s another one that will show the shade but I forget the name!)

Here’s the shade one https://shademap.app/@54.57623,-1.23483,15z,1775463668911t,0b,0p,0m

Just type the postcode in the top bar then you can move the time and date around

We have a 150 ft north facing garden, which has no buildings overlooking it. It has sun all day, it gets east sun in the morning and west sun in the afternoon. The sun passes over the south side of the house and shines on the garden.
The good thing is that the kitchen facing North is cool in the summer.

My garden is a wide NW facing and it's great. Sunny somewhere all day, from left to right. Loveliest garden I have ever had.

Mine is NE facing, and I love it. Different parts get the sun at different times of day. I personally much prefer it to the South facing one in my previous house, which throughout the Summer months was an unbearable oven - we ended up buying a large marquee for refuge. I’m not a sun worshipper, I like being able to find shade when I need it.

NW garden here, you have to be smart how you plan your garden to maximise the sun. So for example looking at the picture of that garden where the trampoline is I would suggest that might be a great spot for a patio for your morning coffee.

My garden has a really shaded corner and the room next to it is cold in the winter. But in the heatwaves we sometimes have we sleep in there as it’s so much cooler!

If you are used to West facing, then you are unlikely to enjoy North facing.

😂

I have east/west facing gardens and think I'd struggle to enjoy a north facing garden now. I have my shady east garden on hot days, after I've enjoyed breakfast there in the morning but I also have my sunbathing warm garden spring and autumn. The configuration also means i get lovely sunrises and sunsets.

Another one with a (quite long) north facing garden. In midwinter it’s in full shade near the house pretty much all the time. In summer we get sun in the morning on the west side, then sun over most of the garden in the middle of the day (10ish until 2ish), then sun on the east side until quite late.

Plants tend to grow better on the east side than they do on the west side, I’ve noticed.

As others have said, it’s a big plus during heatwaves because our living room stays cool and we can eat on the patio in the shade.

But if you’re a big sunbather or like eating outside in full sun, it might not be ideal. We do have a patio at the far east end of our garden to catch the afternoon/evening sun, but we’re quite lazy and rarely make it all the way up there…

That is excellent ! Great find