Novice gardener needs help with the basics of sun and shade....
BatNix
Posts: 9
Hello all.
I am a brand new gardener who has inherited a very nice garden when I recently moved. The borders are a little patchy and I want to add some plants where there are some obvious gaps but I don't really know where to start with the basics of gardening. I am currently mostly confused about what type of sun and shade I have. (Please bear with me, I really don't know a lot!).
As I stand at the back door, my garden isn't ahead of me, it stretches out to my right as I live on a funny L shaped plot. At the back door, my compass points west, with a little lean to north. So I think I have a west facing garden. But... if I stand in front of the lawn (the bit stretching out to my right), my compass reads bang on north. So do I have a west or north facing garden?
And.... as my garden isn't the desirable south facing one, when I am looking for new plants for the borders either side of the lawn, should I only look at shady plants? If a border has a bit of sun in the afternoon, does that make it sunny or shady?
Sorry for the garbled post, I hope I made a little sense! Thank you! I'm very grateful. 
Posts
Simple solution Batnix and it saves us trying to decipher your description, take a picture at 8, 12 and 4 PM, then post them here by clicking on the green tree icon in the toolbar. Advice will be plentiful and useful as always. Welcome by the way always nice to welcome new people to the forum. You won't get any better advice than on here. No silly questions by the way. The only silly question is the one you didn't ask.
Thanks so much Dave, what a friendly welcome!
I guess I just have to wait for a sunny day. Could be a while coming, it was snowing on the weekend!!
We had a lovely sunny day today Batnix
Welcome to the forum
In the sticks near Peterborough
Welcome aboard BatNix
Looking forward to the pictures.
Don't worry - we all started somewhere - and we all still get it wrong sometimes
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It was indeed lovely and sunny today, but my phone is telling me it was the last sighting for a while! Bleedin' British weather eh?
Lovely to meet you all!
Yes welcome BatNix!!
Hi BatNix. Welcome.
In my book if a border gets a bit of sun in the afternoon then it is semi shady but that doesn't necessarily mean that all shade loving plants will love the spot. It rather depends on the strength of the sun and how hot the area gets. You can have damp shade or bone dry shade and will have to match the plants to those conditions. But fear not, plants can't read the labels and a lot of things are quite happy to grow in the wrong place.