Would you buy a house with a north facing garden?

Picky

I bought my house at the end of last year and it has a north-facing garden. We both fell in love with the house and didn't even think about the garden, but I know that our next house definitely won't be north-facing. When it's summer and all you want to do is sit out in the sun after work, it's disappointing to only have shade.

Soot2006

We have a north facing garden, which is on a hillside and we have about 2 m of shade along the back of our house for most of the day (which is very nice in the middle of the summer, bit dark in winter -- however the front of the house is so bright that it makes up for it!). The rest of the garden is sunny most of the day, most of the year. In fact we run the pond equipment exclusively off solar energy and have never had a problem. Totally depends on the set-up.

Thrugelmir

Size of garden is far more important to us than the aspect.

penguingirl

Our garden is north-east facing and gets a surprising amount of sun. But that's because we have a drive to the more western side of the house (if you look at the house from the road the drive is on the left) so it means in the evening that the sun comes down the side of the house through to the garden. Our conservatory gets pretty much no sun which is very pleasant in summer! Our kitchen-diner is cool, and thankfully big enough that once painting white it doesn't look dark (it did when we moved in thanks to poor layout and brown walls) and I love that our lounge is very bright

Billie-S

jaylee3 wrote: »

I'm with Boo ^^^

If it was at least say, 40 feet long, then I would consider it, but if it's smallish (like less than 20 feet long,) then I would be reluctant. Basically the average house is 20-25 feet high including the roof, so if the garden is south facing, then you will get NO sun for about 5 months of the year, and only about a third to half of the garden in the sun for 5 months a year. Only around June/July will you get proper full sun, in virtually all of the garden for about 10 weeks, if you're lucky.

sulphate wrote: »

Our garden faces north west and it gets some sun, but we don't have many flowers - I guess it depends how keen you are on gardening. However we are able to sit out there in the summer and get sunburnt!

I can't remember the exact length but it's a reasonable size for our needs. Maybe about 40-50 feet. If it was extremely small I would reconsider.

On the flip side the lounge faces south east which was important to us, we like a nice light house. One of our previous houses' lounge/living area faced north which meant it was pretty dark and depressing. We spend more time in the house after all

^^^ As these posters said: if it was 40+ feet long, then yes maybe. But if it's less than 25 feet long, it will hardly get any sun all year round really.

Also, it depends on the side garden. I know someone who has a garden that is small at the back (less than 20 feet,) and is north facing, but she has a 45-50 feet wide plot at the side and about 30 feet long at the front (she is an end plot; ) and so all that gets a lot of sun.

She and her family sit at the side, between the garage and the house, on the patio there, and lie/sit on the lawn at the side in the summer. (There's plenty of bushes to block the view from people passing out front.)

If it was a perfect house, I wouldn't give it up just for that one reason though. You must have a front garden right?

Air_Cooled_75

We have a north facing garden, it's about 100' long though so we do get plenty of sun. The polytunnel does great! The garden was really what sold the house to us. There is a little development of new builds on the main road close to us, they will be going for top dollar and have no garden at all. They are family sized houses but I wouldn't be tempted at all, how do you have kids and no garden??

clayton16749

If it was a very, very long north facing garden then fine. But if it's small you won't get much sun. It'd put me off personally.

ibizafan_2

I've got a west facing garden which is great. Not so keen on south facing gardens as I like having the sun on the front of the house first thing. By late morning the garden is pretty much all sun, and that then lasts until sunset. Bliss! West or south west is the way to go for me and is the only aspect I'd consider.

Kynthia

Garden aspect doesn't really enter my head when looking for a home and most of my family have bought houses with north or East facing gardens. I used to live in a ground floor flat with it's own short north facing garden. However even though it was short it got the sun from mid-afternoon until sunset in summer as there was nothing blocking the light at the sides or rear of the garden. So each property really does differ and you need to do more investigation than just using a compass if it's important to you.

Old_Git

you could buy a house facing south east ,or west and the neighbours stick a tree in that blocks your light .