North Facing garden?

[NoseyNooNoo]

Is a north facing garden so bad? I wanted a south(ish) garden but we've seen a house we like that has a north facing garden. It's quite a big garden so the house does not block all of the garden from sunlight but the patio area would presumably never get any sun.

Any opinions?

Our previous house had a North-East facing garden.
We had quite a lot of sun and the patio next to the house had sun until 1pm and then there was sun in other parts of the garden until about 6.30-7 in the summer.
The house was not too tall so I agree that this is the key thing (plus nearby trees etc).

I suppose our new one (not moving in till Spring, stuck in rental so using the time to build an extension at the back) has, stricly speaking, a N/NW facing garden. Its not due North, and is very open to the West on one side.

I can see nothing much other than shade-loving plants will flower on the East facing side (thick hedge there atm), but there are lilacs, jasmine, geraniums etc on the West facing side and plenty of sun at the bottom of the garden till around 1-2pm even now, mid December. And a shaft coming down the unattached West side, too.

Do any of the 'wouldn't ever buy one again' people have big or long gardens, I wonder? Curious, because this house has loads of light.

My old garden was north facing and 100ft long by 20ft wide.It was never a problem and I grew everything from tender shrubs to veg.On my eastern wall/border I had clematis,hydrangea,passionflower,rosemary,lavender,thyme,mint,chives,marjoram,bottlebrush plant and grapevines.Elsewhere I had ceanothus,fruit trees,solanum,roses,and lots of annuals,rhubarb,and my veg plot.

Well since it pisses down 50 weeks of the year we've not sat in the south facing garden we probably paid an extra £10k for since 2007

we have a north facing back garden and it gets some sun in the mornings and then in the summer is nice and shaded for the dcs to be out playing in the afternoon. The front of the house is then bathed in light from lunchtime onwards and it's really pleasant in the sitting room, bright and cheery! I had a south-west facing back garden before, so dh and I were also a bit wary of how we'd find it, but it's not an issue for us and I'm not a sunworshipper so having a shady area in the back garden is really nice!

We have a north-facing garden. It's great for us -- we have a patio which is always shady so brilliant for letting the DCs play out in summer, then a lawn which gets plenty of sunlight most of the year. I am not really bothered about sunbathing or growing exotic plants though!

Have a north east facing back garden and get sun in the morning and until about 3pm. There is always some shade so in the summer it's actually very pleasant. Did have a full south facing garden when we lived in the SE and it was like scorched earth in summer, too hot. The only downside to having a mostly north facing back garden is being dazzled in the front room in winter with low sun, but we had blinds fitted.