East facing garden? 26 April 2021 at 10:52AM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 13 replies 458 views

Boardiegirl

We are considering buying a house but it has an east facing garden, plus when we viewed at 9.15am it was half shaded by the property behind it.
we are not the bbq kind and apparently we should get garden sun during the morning; (possibly into the afternoon??).
but I’ve seen people saying they’d never buy a property with an east facing garden, takes days to dry washing, back rooms are always cold etc etc.
Help! Is all that really true? I hate dark rooms. Plus how much would the house behind us affect our sun?
all replies welcomed, good or bad!!

Boardiegirl

I’m in South Wales UK by the way!

Boardiegirl

How much is a large orangery with no fold doors? Anyone got one?

Boardiegirl

Bi fold doors!! 🙈

Farway

If you go on Google Earth, bung in property address then within bar at the top is a Cloud icon, which says "show sunlight etc according to time of day"

Playing with that shows the shadows as per heading, you can set the days & time to what you fancy, mid winter or 18th June at 4pm for instance

twopenny

Facinating Farway. I'm going to try it.

South Wales is warmish, I'm just over the channel and have had 2 front gardens that are North and East facing. Wonderful sun in the moring till midday and then again in the afternoon.

But it does get shady by lunch time and the rooms go cooler. For me that's bedrooms so suits.  If it's a living room it will be cold in the evening in winter or cool in the evening in summer which is useful. So you win some you loose some.

The shading from the other property may be a problem if it's adding to this.

I'd have a look at the plan on a google or printed map and work out where the sun turns. Presumably the sun was behind the neighbours house at 9.30 causing a shadow but which way does the sun go from there? Further round the neighbours or to you.

Though I had a neighbour that didn't think about the garden and found that it was shaded by the house itself most of the day.

twopenny

Blimey Farway, the site just keeps moving and loading random stuff to the point I felt motion sickness!

Couldn't find out how to do this.

Apodemus

twopenny said:

Blimey Farway, the site just keeps moving and loading random stuff to the point I felt motion sickness!

Couldn't find out how to do this.

Yes, I couldn't get the cloud icon and couldn't control the movement.  But having had a quick look at my house, I spent a happy time exploring the mountains in the Sahara, where Libya, Egypt and the Sudan meet - a place I have always wanted to visit.  Then I was appalled to see how little vegetation there currently is along the east shore of Lake Turkana, compared to when I used to visit the area in the 90's.  I can easily get lost for hours in Google Earth!   

twopenny

Keeping it garden related I used to look at the octopuses garden.
The first underwater pictures they did were of my favourite secret island on the great barrier reef. Wasn't the same as snorkelling there though.The fish didn't move.
Returning to an easterly garden, true it is more likely to get frost that lingers and you would have to be specific about what you grow there.
Things don't quite work out like the telly gardens. I found 7 manhole covers with associated drains so my garden plans went down the tubes. And south facing too hot. Front east bedroom like a sauna at ridiculous timed sunrise. If you like the house and location you adapt and work with it.

Ganga

Well this is an East facing garden ,in the NE of England and sunshine is no problem.

Silvertabby

Our garden is east facing.  After a lot of trial and error, we've had it re-designed - partly to make gardening easier for me for when age and creakiness sets in, and partly to create 2 small (ish) patios.  One for morning, the other for afternoon/evening.