North east facing garden

junebug87

Hi all,

Looking for peoples experiences with a North East facing garden.

We're looking at buying this property. Garden isnt huge. Kitchen/diner is at the rear leading out to the garden.

We've always had south/southeast facing gardens and I'm wondering if this will get any sun or it will just feel dark and dingy. We have kids who will use the garden during the day on the weekends and would occasionally have BBQs in the summer but we're not sun worshippers or particularly keen gardeners or anything. I do enjoy hanging washing out to dry in the summer though!!

Hoping for some positive experiences of North east facing gardens as we're struggling to find another house that we like...

ic

When viewing houses, I used a mobile app called "suns path" that uses augmented reality to show you where in the sky the sun will be at different times of the day and year as you wave your phone around. It was easy to see how much of the day would be in the sun vs shade due to surrounding trees and houses.

That garden looks like it should get good sun through late morning till perhaps mid afternoon before the surrounding buildings cast shade.

TroubledTarts

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west so you will end up with a corner sun garden it really depends on the time of year as to how much sun you will get.

When viewing look for obvious less sunny damp patches and always have your own compass to check orientation.

Roughly this

RelievedSheff

Our last house had a north east facing garden. It was lovely and sunny in the morning but we would tend to lose the sun off the patio by about 2pm and had no sun in the garden from about 6pm.

Fine in the height of summer when it was hot and we appreciated some shade but spring and autumn were a bit annoying when it was too chilly to sit out for a BBQ despite being sunny.

We now have a north west facing garden which we didn't thin would get much sun but due to the layout of the buildings around us it does get sun somewhere all day.

We used this app:

https://shademap.app

junebug87

Thanks for the tips - those apps are great - didnt realise they existed. For some reason shade map isnt working for this house, but it works for the one next door so I can assume it would be very similar.

horsewithnoname

My garden faces north. I love it because it means the back of the house where I mainly live doesn’t get too hot, and there is always some shade in the garden to sit in. I get plenty of sun and my house doesn’t seem dark at all. I’m not much of a sun worshipper I should add, and it does mean that my garden flowers later than some. I’d not have a south facing garden.

Albermarle

The location in the UK matters.

A shadier garden could be a negative in the North of the UK, whilst in the hotter South East it could be an advantage, especially in the Summer.

vic_sf49

A consideration, is how you want to use the garden, vs soil type and whether the space has good drainage.

I'm on clay soil, and even bits that get sun most of the day, were mossy, and the lawn was quite squelchy even into spring this year.

All fixable, given time, money and drainage, but might make the difference between a usable lawn/garden, and a bog. It does look nice and green in the screenshot.

(ETA, had overlooked some of your first post Op, sorry.)

Skiddaw1

For what it is worth, our current garden is east facing. We get the morning sun and there's always a sunny patch even late in the day. Things grow really well and there's no waterlogging. As it happens, we have a small garden at the (west facing) front of the house too and tend to sit out there on summer evenings. We're in Cumbria (so not exactly a hot part of the country).

kipsterno1

Another consideration, would you be getting solar in the future? If so the orientation doesn't look great.

ChirpyChicken

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82020387#Comment_82020387

I miss the sunsets on the west coast of Cumbria