Northeast facing garden

emcb20

We are considering purchasing a new build property with a Northeast facing garden - please see plot 47 on the attached plan. We love the house, but have concerns that we may only get sun first thing in the morning and the garden will then be in darkness for the rest of the day (unless it is long enough not to be shaded by the shadow of the house).
Does anyone have a Northeast facing garden and have any advice on whether or not this is a deal breaker? The living room and open plan kitchen/diner are at the back of the house so we also have concerns that the magic of them will be lost if the garden is in darkness. 
Annoyingly, we also had the option of Plot 23 and stupidly did not go for this as we had to make a decision on the plot quickly and did it based on garden size alone as the garden for plot 47 looks bigger. That plot is now gone and the garden wasn't small at all (9.5m x 9.3m). Very annoying!! 
If anyone has any advice that would be really helpful as we are moving from a flat and a key consideration for us is to have a garden, so it's a lot of money to spend to have a shaded garden. We may be able to live with the bottom of the garden having sun as at least we would have some sun, but would welcome advice from anyone who has had experience of a Northeast facing garden.
Thanks very much.
Thanks

Lespaul1960

We have a North East facing garden, the sun is gone by 12 noon. Our garden is quite long so the shadow from the house only reaches about 1/4 of the way down. But I must say if you are a keen gardener it is a pretty hopeless proposition for growing anything!!

emcb20

Lespaul1960 said:

We have a North East facing garden, the sun is gone by 12 noon. Our garden is quite long so the shadow from the house only reaches about 1/4 of the way down. But I must say if you are a keen gardener it is a pretty hopeless proposition for growing anything!!

Thanks very much. We're definitely not gardeners so not worried about that, more so just being able to sit out, enjoy the sun and entertain! Are you still able to do that? Do you know how long your garden is?

Lespaul1960

Our garden is approx 35 meters long by about 15 meters wide. We can certainly still sit out there and sometimes it is nice not to be in direct sunlight when the weather is very warm..

bouicca21

I have a north east facing garden too.  My patio is in shade for much of the day but I like it like that as it means it is pleasantly cool on hot days.  Also keeps the rooms at the back cool.  The front bakes.  But I have a very long garden so I can shift into the sun if I want to.

The problem for me with that plot would be the lack of privacy.  What sort of fence will you have at the bottom to shield you from plot 111?  How will you cope with their complaints if your fence puts their garden into shade?

The planting isn’t too bad, bit hit and miss as I’m none too good a gardener, but since I get sun in the early morning, most things seem to thrive.

really?

That's a very good question above you'll want a fence topper or a pleached hedge to give you some privacy from the houses behind. Worth looking into the legalities around that.

I know you don't want to hear it but I'd personally I'd avoid. Our garden is south east facing and it annoys me that it loses the sun at around 7 on the longest days. When you just want to sit out with a BBQ and a few beers. (Our garden dimensions 10m long X 7m wide).

I suppose it could still be a perfectly good buy though if you don't see yourself there for the rest of your days. Where I live there's maybe 10 of the days I refer to above in a good year.

amandacat

I grew up in house with a north facing garden, the garden was quite long and we got sun all day from about half way down the garden to the end and my parents built the patio further down to get the sun. The key is the length, you won’t receive sun directly outside your door but potentially could if you had a patio at the end of your garden. 
My current house has a south facing garden and from April to September we’re lucky we get sun all day but from October we don’t get any sun because our garden isn’t very long and so the house that is at the end of the garden blocks the sun once it is lower in the sky. 
A north facing garden doesn’t mean no sun, just probably not exactly where you want it. 

emcb20

bouicca21 said:

I have a north east facing garden too.  My patio is in shade for much of the day but I like it like that as it means it is pleasantly cool on hot days.  Also keeps the rooms at the back cool.  The front bakes.  But I have a very long garden so I can shift into the sun if I want to.

The problem for me with that plut would be the lack of privacy.  What sort of fence will you have at the bottom to shield you from plot 111?  How will you cope with their complaints if your fence puts their garden into shade?

The planting isn’t too bad, bit hit and miss as I’m none too good a gardener, but since I get sun in the early morning, most things seem to thrive.

Thank you. I'm not sure if you live in England? We live in Scotland and propertie come with a boundary fence as standard so there will be a fence along the back boundary, as there will also be at the sides. 
Appreciate your comments about the sun and you enjoying the shade. I just worry that the living room and kitchen/diner at the back may be cold and dark too if North east facing.
Thanks for your help. 

emcb20

really? said:

That's a very good question above you'll want a fence topper or a pleached hedge to give you some privacy from the houses behind. Worth looking into the legalities around that.

I know you don't want to hear it but I'd personally I'd avoid. Our garden is south east facing and it annoys me that it loses the sun at around 7 on the longest days. When you just want to sit out with a BBQ and a few beers. (Our garden dimensions 10m long X 7m wide).

I suppose it could still be a perfectly good buy though if you don't see yourself there for the rest of your days. Where I live there's maybe 10 of the days I refer to above in a good year.

Thanks very much for your feedback. We are pretty concerned now and considering not going ahead. Just a shame as we really love the house! 

hazyjo

Mine's east facing and my last was north.

The sun has gone early from outside the back doors, but we have a patio at the end which gets sun all afternoon. Garden is prob only 30-40 feet.

In my last house, we got sun outside all afternoon as there wasn't much blocking us to the west. Didn't expect it! Was a very sunny patio area!

Really depends on what's around and where the shadows are cast.

emcb20

amandacat said:

I grew up in house with a north facing garden, the garden was quite long and we got sun all day from about half way down the garden to the end and my parents built the patio further down to get the sun. The key is the length, you won’t receive sun directly outside your door but potentially could if you had a patio at the end of your garden. 
My current house has a south facing garden and from April to September we’re lucky we get sun all day but from October we don’t get any sun because our garden isn’t very long and so the house that is at the end of the garden blocks the sun once it is lower in the sky. 
A north facing garden doesn’t mean no sun, just probably not exactly where you want it. 

Thanks very much. We are going to ask for the exact garden dimensions and height of the house to try and work out whether we would get any sun at the back of the garden. I suspect the garden is 9-10 metres wide and is longer than the smaller plot I mentioned above so must be 10 metres plus length wise. 
The other consideration is the open plan kitchen/diner and living room being at the back, especially with the bifold doors, as wouldn't want them to be cold and always to be in the shade. 
A lot to think about!