Thoughts on a North-West facing garden??

SarahPL

Hi All,

We are second time buyers looking to size up, we have found a property that ticks all the boxes except for the fact that the garden faces North-West. Our current house has a small garden, and it’s one of the key reasons we are moving, we have two young kids and want a larger outdoor space for them. Not sure if the garden is in darkness for most of the day if we would end up using it…hoping since it’s North west it might get slightly more light than if it was fully North? Any thoughts?

awec

It depends totally what is around you and the size of the garden. If you have clear sight lines to the west, with no other houses or tall trees then you should get plenty of sun in your garden in the summer time. You just won't get it right at the back door.

In the winter, sun will be pretty limited.

Former Former Former

Upgraded two years ago, garden faces due north but because its large and not really overlooked (except to the north) the garden gets plenty of sun all day long.

The only issue is that the sun never shines directly into the kitchen but we can live with that.

So it's a decent sized space, I wouldn't be put off.

awec

Yea same here, our garden is due north and gets the sun all day in the summer months.

SarahPL

This garden isn’t that large, and is surrounded by other houses so thinking it would be more of an issue here than it is for ye. We have a west facing garden at the moment and get sun from about 12 moon until 8pm so was hopeful since it’s angled slightly towards the west but I feel like the sun will be blocked from that angle!

JimmyMW

use http://suncalc.net/#/51.508,-0.125,6/2022.08.30/09:38 to see the levels of sun at different times of the year. This is also helpful http://shadowcalculator.eu/#/lat/50.08/lng/19.9

cruizer101

The aspect isn't bad, in summer by 3 in the afternoon you would have sun on the back of you house.

The main time you want sun is generally later in the day anyway, with north west you could have the later summer evening sun, a patio against the house would probably be a nice sun trap for warm summer evenings.

The issue I see is the trees in next doors garden, depending how tall they are they could block the sun when it is lower in the sky

dory

My garden is the same aspect I’d say. I have great sun til around 8pm in the summer. I also have very good evening sun in the autumn and spring. It’s all about the neighbours , their houses and gardens. I have windows down the west side of the kitchen extension and it’s not blocked by the neighbours. But I’m in trouble if they ever extend. I’ve a fair bit out the back too. Very happy with the aspect.

kodak

We had a NW garden and had sun from 11am to 8pm April to Sept.. and even early sun.. in the garden.

We did have an extension with a west window. This allowed a lot of light into the extension. The original rear room was dark as you’ll never get sun into the back of the house (maybe at an angle for 1 hour in the summer).

The house next door looks like it has a nice extension solving some of these issues.

In my view, it’s an very acceptable orientation, esp. if you extend and there are no tall obstacles to the west.

If you’re unsure i would knock into the neighbours or borrow a drone to check.

also worth downloading Google earth, you can see historical satellite images - might give you a clue re shadows.