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North facing back garden
lesley probert
Posts: 1
My back garden is North facing. Can I grow fruit? What other plants will thrive?
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Does it get any sun at all Lesley? North facing gardens can be problematic in some situations but you must get some sun somewhere?
My garden is on the north side of the house and has hardly any sun from mid November until mid February because he sun is so low in the sky and my house casts a shadow but from now on it gets sun at the bottom nearly all day because the fence at the bottom of the garden faces south, I don't grow fruit up the fence but I'm sure that it would be a suitable position to do so.
Our garden faces north, and to be honest we don't find it a problem at all. We give anything a try!
We have a thorn- less blackberry bush,2 vines( early days with these!) 3 apple trees, 2 pears trees,2 plums trees and one cherry tree.
We have quite a few shrubs, and I grow a lot of summer bedding from seed, This year I'm growing more perennials from seed.
I'm not good at putting a name to plants, shrubs or trees
so will find a few pics from last year.
Hope this will be of help to you.
You don't mention the size of your garden. Mine is 6m x 12m and north facing and shady as you describe until early March due to northerly latitude. On the earliest section to receive sun in the year have, and continue to, grow raspberries, gooseberries, strawberries (in hanging baskets) and outdoor tomatoes successfully. But it is a difficult aspect in small gardens even for dense shade lovers such as ferns which I collect but still possible.
Don't get hung up on which way it faces. It's more about how much sun it receives. If it's north facing AND small, it's likely to be perma-shaded, but if its large enough parts of it will get good sun. And if not, theres plenty of bushes that do well in semi-shade.