North facing garden - what if any sun will it get?

[lechatnoir]

We went back for another look at a house we really like & still do like the house but have realised the garden is predominantly north facing with a slight east slant so NNE (?).

It's a reasonable size (about 40ft wide & 70ft long) & bar fence/hedging & a couple of tallish tree is reasonably open on al sides. The actual house is low (bungalow with dormers) so there shouldn't be a massive shadow BUT, I really don't want to buy a house & then find it only gets an hour of sun in peak summer as we do spend quite a bit of time outside but we haven't actually managed to view on a sunny day yet & really need to make a decision.
TIA
LCN

PS We're buying in a small village so opportunities don't come up often otherwise we wouldn't have considered a north facing garden!

You'll get quite a bit at the height of summer, I should think about 7 hrs a day ime, central England latitude -- more if you're further north. Obviously at the ends of the day (morning, early evening. Good aspect for a conservatory (won't get too hot).

I tend to avoid N facing in small London gardens, but recently we saw a house in our area with about the same size (great, for SW London!) garden and it was north facing: it had sun all day long, at some place or other, so sun in the garden was not an issue.

OTOH, some people say that end of the house may be cold in winter, so thats something to think about. We weren't too worried because we'd have been building a wrap-around conservatory anyway, which would have warmed it up (and underfloor heating).

Our own house sale fell through and we lost it, but would have gone ahead. Not in a village, but like you v few good houses at that price in our area or we wouldn't have considered it either!

HTH!

The house we have offered on has a north facing garden, which I was not happy about so arranged second viewing on sunny day (called in the morning for afternoon), drove down ad found out the sun reached 3/4 of the garden (which is enough as long and narrow garden). Look at the shrubs and flowerbeds, are the plants quite grown and in flower? A luxuriant garden gets sun. I rent a house with southfacing garden and the sun is not there all day everywhere as tall fences cast shadows, you sort of have to more around to follow the sun! Also if it's open, it's bound to be sunnier! The front of the house we rent is north facing but it gets sun most of the afernoon so my borders are doing well there too.

I had a north-facing garden for many years and was amazed by how much sun it got in spring/summer. I also dislike very bright light and liked the fact that I could sit outside without being blasted by the sun and we could eat on the terrace without wearing sunglasses. (I think there is a photo of my old garden on my profile - I put it up there for someone who was considering buying a sloping garden - so you can see it got plenty of sun and it was easy to grow a good variety of plants.)

We have a north facing garden (long and narrow)and the sun is still on our patio as I type and will be for a few hours yet. Much depends on how close any neighbouring buildings or trees to East or West may be as to whether they cast a shadow

After a year of renting, we've finally found a property that both my husband and I both like (doesn't happen very often) It's perfect for our family in terms of space and location, but...it has a north facing garden which measures roughly 32 x 90 feet. I am driving us both mad, worrying that the garden will be dark, cold and damp all of the time. People have said that during spring/summer the garden will have sun in one or another part of the garden at some point in the day, but what about autumn/winter? Will we get no sun at all!! Help :(

The length of the garden, similar to mine, does get sun as long as you aren't overlooked by another rebuilding or trees.