We’ve been searching for a house on and off for the past 3 years and finally found one that we really like the only worry is it is a north facing garden. I really want to plant vegetables and potentially a small flock of chickens 2-3.
As it’s a lot of money with the stamp duty I just don’t want us regretting purchasing a home where non of these things will be possible or challenging.
We’re moving from a flat that is sunny and bright in the evenings but with no garden so having a garden is something we’ve been dreaming about for so long.
I really don’t want us to regret this decision. I’m not a sun demo but would love at least some sunshine to bask in and also to grow things.
The back of the house has large tall trees at the back not on the property which is great for privacy but again may contribute to blocking the sun light.
I have had a look on the shade map simulator but want real life experience as I really want to start growing vegetables like courgettes, tomatoes, carrots etc
I guess I’m just looking for some reassurance or honest advice would be greatly appreciated.
northfacinggarden #uk #gardenorientation
by francesfinds92
47 Comments
I have a NE facing garden and I have sun in the garden all day every day. There’s nothing around me to enclose or block in the light. You might be lucky like me
I have a north facing garden only the patio is in shade most the season.
We’re on hill incline so it angles the shadow away.
Have a play with shademap see how it’ll affect you throughout the year.
https://shademap.app
Have you not noticed how hot UK summers have become? A north-facing garden is exactly what you want.
I’m assuming the arrow points north. If so, it looks like you’ll have a shaded patio but the garden will get lots of sun. Unless you’re on the north side of a hill, it’s not “north-facing”, it’s just to the north of your house. Also, that garden is far too small for chickens. They will destroy anything growing, unless you leave them cooped up 24/7, and they’ll attract rats. Don’t do it.
North facing is best facing
My dad lives in Leeds with a north facing garden with a lot of trees at the bottom of the garden. He has been able to have multiple veg patches and gets a good amount of sun until later in the afternoon 🙂
https://preview.redd.it/m7pdswvf8kmf1.jpeg?width=1620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5207cef815396fb20572005270b91c6754f9a1ef
This is my north facing garden at around 4pm. gets plenty of sun all day, just the patio doesn’t get sun until around 4pm, but thats after i finish work anyway., Also, this keeps the back of the house a lot cooler in the summer months. The back fence gets sun pretty much all day.
I always wanted a south facing garden, but i actually prefer the north facing aspect now. works so much better for us
Another thing to be aware of is that big trees suck all the moisture and nutrients out of the soil.
So I think the back garden is a bit limited veg-wise.
It looks like the previous owners are very car-oriented. I would use the garage (looks like there is one) and grow flowers and veg (cherry tomatoes for example) in tubs on the sunny front patio.
My guy, I have a north-facing garden.
First off, compared to my neighbours opposite, my house is a lot cooler in the heat and more pleasant to be in.
The shade is only on the patio, the rest of the garden has sun throughout the day.
My neighbours struggle as their kitchen gets extremely hot and either have to close blinds/curtains to keep it from becoming a sun trap. Further when they cook and it’s hot outside, it’s almost unbearable.
We’ve got a north facing garden. The back half gets all the sun (from ca half way point). The front half gets all the sun from June – August, not so much deep autumn – spring because the house is in the way. But I love it. The back patio stays reasonably cool on hot days and our courgettes and tomatoes are happy as anything. They get grown in a cold frame and then put out in may – plenty of sunny spots to choose from for them! It looks like you also get a south-facing front garden / parking spot – ours is slowly becoming a wonderful gravel garden with some trees so can recommend not discarding that from your considerations! Last weeks gardeners world has a segment with someone who has also done this – might be worth catching 🙂
the trees at the back won’t affect the sunlight at all, because they are to the North.
what you should think about is where the Sun tracks throughout the day and therefore whether there is a good enough spot for growing things.
looking at the photos I think you’ll be OK because most of the garden looks sunny.
You’ll probably lose some evening sun due to the house and the trees to the West.
And you’ll get less sun in the winter but you probably won’t be trying to grow things then.
For gardening, I’d be put off more by the fact that the garden is on the smaller side, such that a greenhouse and decent sized vegetable patch will take a decent chunk out of it. But if it ticks all your other boxes this might be worth compromising over.
With all those trees behind you it would probably be worse if it was a south facing garden.
We used to have a north facing garden and it was no problem. We had a few chickens and grew veg too and the bottom of the garden got sun all day so were able to grow some really nice plants there as they had no shade.
I have a north facing garden. And didn’t consider it was going to be a problem at all. But we got it all paved and it’s constantly cold even when the sun is shining. We came from a house that had a wonderful sun catching garden and took that fro granted. The house is so much bigger and better. But we miss our garden. Our kids are drawn to play at the front too more so.
I have a North facing garden. I can grow so much produce. Don’t forget a lot of produce wants partial shade or will grow good crops in partial sun.
Don’t know what time of day the overhead was taken but the house only shades a small section of the garden. You can do a shadow map and see what that looks like.
I have a south facing garden. As the day goes on my house gets hotter and hotter and I have to pull all the blinds. The nicest areas of my garden stay in shade most of the day and I would rather have a north facing garden with a lovely corner to sit in the evening sun. I do get a lot of Sun on my patio which is lovely in the spring but too hot in the summer months.
I have a north-ish facing garden, but I do get a fair amount of sun at different times of day. I need to put up my parasol during the summer when sitting out, as I otherwise it is way too hot when the sun is high in the sky. However, I have taken to growing veg in my front garden as there simply isn’t a long enough period of full sun each day to successfully grow in the back garden – it looks like that could be an option for you too. If you have room for a decent size greenhouse that would help though. In terms of the house, I really appreciate the coolness of my back bedroom, kitchen etc during hot summer days. However, light on winter days is lacking, and I need to use electric lights more. If you love the house, I wouldn’t let the north-facing garden stop you, as you can work around it.
Yeah you can quite clearly see it’s a north facing garden that gets loads of sun there.
I have the same. Got to look for sun path and adjacent buildings blocking light
North facing gardens as long as the shadow is only at the patio area is a godsend with the increasingly hot UK summers.
My last garden was north facing but always got intense sun right at the end of the day as the sun set (as well as most of the day). It was only the bit closest to the house that didn’t get the sun but my patio and seating was in the sun trap at the back.
love your welsh dresser. garden looks great tbh
We live in a north facing home. The garden and back of the house gets so much sun all day long. The front of the house is lovely and cool. It might be a little cooler in winter but just put another log on the fire or a woolly jumper on and you’re sorted
I have a north west facing garden and like others say it has a lot of sunlight through the day, particularly in late afternoon. You can adjust the location of your seating to suit where the light is too. The house before that was east facing, and that was terrible, most of the garden was in shadow from early afternoon noon and it was completely uninviting
You will get plenty of sun in mid summer when the sun is high overhead. It’s winter and maybe early spring/late autumn, depending on the height of your house & surrounding buildings, when you won’t get so much. Those trees would block a lot more sun if the garden was South facing – if they’re as high as they look. That conservatory would be unbearably hot in a south facing garden. We had a SW garden and regretted putting a conservatory in.
I personally could not do it as when I’m home I want to be in the garden as much as possible.
Why don’t you take a drive to street at different times in the day to see how it goes for peace of mind?
I love my north-facing garden. Patio has permanent shade during the hottest times of day, the the rest of the garden still gets good light.
It’ll be fine because the last frosts are relatively late anyway (relative to the sun at least) so most of the garden will be in sun by the time the garden wants to put on any significant growth. For the fun part of the season, it’ll look like this image and you can see that the shadows aren’t a problem — in fact they give you a place to sit that’s safe and somewhere where cooler plants can live.
Northern winds will be cooler for sure, although those trees should help mitigate the worst of it. Keeping warm plants alive in Winter will be harder but not impossible. It actually could be worth moving anything on the north patio to the front and making use of the south facing wall for some extra heat.
I have a ton of tall trees which have just grown to the point of completely occluding my south facing garden from about September/October until March. Veg are fine, had a great year. Just give grapes the south facing or east facing wall down the side. Due to the height difference, I imagine your situation would be less severe than the trees in my garden.
North facing isn’t as important as how large the garden is and how many big trees you and your neighbours have. I have a large garden so only the patio is in shade, and at the back I have trees which cast way more shade onto the bottom of my neighbours south facing garden. It does however always feel cooler than the front which is always baking from the sun soaked brick radiating heat.
Depends on your preferences a bit.
I’m on the south coast and have been adding trees and shrubs to my west facing garden to create more shaded places to sit/grow things. But then I don’t like strong sun and it can be really hot and dry where I am.
If the house is right in other ways, could you get an allotment for your veggies? The chickens probably need a mix of sun and shade so will be fine in a N facing garden.
You could also put your patio/seating area at the end of the garden instead of by the house.
A north facing garden isn’t the no-no it was 40 years ago. And I believe a south facing garden will become more of a liability in the future (especially in the south of England).
Sure, probably west or east facing might be ideal, but no home ticks every box and I don’t think this garden is the deal breaker you’re fearing.
I prefer a North facing garden, less sunlight, directly on the house through the hottest points of the day.
– You’re going to want shade. It’s getting way hotter
– shady plants are great (hostas ferns woodland planting
– that kitchen would be a greenhouse in summer if it was south facing.
First of all, the tall trees at the back shouldn’t contribute much to the shade because they’re in the north, so the shadows will fall behind them, away from your garden.
Second of all, is the garden reasonably long? My northeast facing garden is still sunny at the back at the moment and most of it has sunshine for a good portion of the day. The patio by the house is usually shaded but that’s only a few feet, and first thing in the morning it’s very hot and sunny in the room facing the back garden (that’s the hint of east though probably). The garden is lovely and toasty on hot days but never unbearable like some south facing gardens I’ve had.
That being said, if the garden is one of your big dreams and you have actual plans for it beyond drying your washing, then maybe you shouldn’t compromise.
Edit: having looked at the pictures, it looks like it’ll be a really good mix of sunshine and shaded areas. In particular, having the kitchen in the north-facing room is going to be really helpful when you’re cooking or anything that generates heat in there. My kitchen faces south and it fucking sucks.
I live on the NNE side of the hill, there’s 2ish months of the year where I get no direct sunlight at all.
I grow all the things everyone else does and we have great sun in the summer, tomatoes are still going strong. It’s only really a problem when you have lots of things crowding you creating deep shade, there’s nothing in the picture that would do that. I have what I call “bright shade” with a big sky and everything, including houseplants are very happy.
North facing isn’t a problem if it’s a large garden , and as such you will get morning and evening sun through – have a look on a sunny day to get a feel for it
Aberdeen here so much further north than you.
our house is almost identical in layout. sunny front garden, sunny front of house.
nice cool dark kitchen utility dining out the back
back bedroom upstairs is a bit cold in winter. front bedrooms super hot in summer, so we have blinds drawn.
back garden is great. trees never shade the garden. patio is in the shade (which is what you want) and the garden itself is sunny.
You also have East and West either side so will get sun all day.
I think you’ll be ok. Some shade is good for a lot of plants and you’ll have to do less watering. It looks like you’ll have enough sun for most things, you can always put heat loving plants like chillies in big pots in the front facing south (or even put in some raised beds or take up some of the driveway).
I would put the chickens in your shadiest bit probably under the trees, the chickens will appreciate the shelter and they’ll likely destroy the ground anyway so you don’t want them taking up a sunny spot that will be better for growing.
It’s only maybe 3-4 metres at the back of your house that will be shaded. The rest will mostly get full sun
My garden is North facing, TBH it’s one of the things I don’t like about the garden as we are surrounded by tall buildings so it can be very cold when the front of the house is sunny as anything.
I’m just about to move into a house with south facing garden and have the opposite worry- what if it has too much sun?
I’ve always had north or north west facing. There are some areas where there is still full sun for the plants that need it but those areas get very dry so I only put plants in full sun if they actually need it. Most my garden now and previously has been a mix of sun and shade which is needed by lots of plants to stop them from just drying out completely. And animals obviously need access to shade at all times.
If it’s true north, the end of the garden gets full sun, one side will get sun in only the morning, the other side only in the afternoon, and the patio will be shaded, meaning that your conservatory will actually be useable and not an oven. As long as you’re okay with not having your herbs and salad right next to your back door ready for cooking, you’ll be grand.
My garden is south facing. My living room too. Half the day I have to sit with the curtains closed. It’s a pain in the arse
North facing house here. In the summer it’s an absolute blessing.
I have a NE facing garden, and it gets full sun throughout the summer. It will likely vary significantly depending on the time of year, but also potentially depending on where in the UK you’re going to be living. Up here in the Pennines, my garden is completely shaded through winter (basically from late October to around April) but once Spring arrives it very quickly shifts to partial and then full sun. It produces plenty of vegetables!
North facing will be a blessing with the global warming no one wants to be fully baked alive in their own home.
I had the same concern. My north facing garden is almost too hot, it gets the sun all day because there’s nothing blocking it either side. I can’t grow certain flowers or herbs because they bolt or just crisp up. My baby’s bedroom faces north and it keeps it much cooler than the rest of the house.
Ours faces West but that means a whole side faces North. You make light work in any garden as the day progresses.
For what it’s worth I have a completely south facing garden and I get very little sunlight because trees block it. It’s not just the direction, it’s what you have near the garden.
I have a south facing garden and I’d swap for a north facing any day. It gets so hot and there’s barely any shade, so many of my plants died this summer from the heat and dry ground. Don’t take shade for granted!