SandT - another post of reassurance here. The back of our house faces due north and there is a shadow area extending probably about 6 - 10m from the house which gets no sun at all from September to March.
From March to September, however, there is just a small area in the centre of the wall which gets absolutely no sun and the shadow extends only about 5 - 6' from the back wall in June and July. If we faced NE I suspect the back wall would be quite sunny very early in the morning in summer.
If you are looking for a sunnier terrace I would also put it at the far end of the garden. But, if you can afford to do, it I'd also consider a smaller area (just enough for a bench or a couple of chairs at the back of the house where you can enjoy a sunny early morning cuppa or sit comfortably in the shade on one of those heatwave days (which seem such a dim and distant memory at the moment)
Last edited: 07 March 2017 11:09:25
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Thanks guys! I suppose my worry is though that both of you have longer gardens than us (unless I misunderstood?)
I know North facing gardens can get light when they're nice and long but when you only have 9m length and a house thats maybe 5.6m tall... are we only going to get a back section?
Aha! Thank you for the science lesson. I don't know why I didn't see you post earlier.Thinking about plants, is the left hand bed (as you look at the picture) the sunny bed or the shady bed? Or is that all irrelevant since the sun moves over, and we should treat both front beds as shade, and maybe the beds nearest the fence as sunny/ shady plants?raisingirl says:
If your garden is exactly the length of the shadow in early March, roughly two thirds of your garden will be in sun at the same time (making adjustments for daylight saving) in June.
In winter the sun rises probably roughly parallel to the end of the terrace, so you won't get any sun on the back of the house at all, but in mid summer it rises in the northeast - you'll most likely get a couple of hours of sunshine into your back windows every morning for a few weeks (unless there's a tree along the road that shades you).
The reason the odd number houses are in shadow - assuming all the back extensions are roughly the same size and shape as yours - is the angle of the roofs of the extensions. When the sun is highest, it's slightly to the left of the ridge line as you look at the back of the house. So the garden to the left will get sunlight coming over the main terrace ridge and the low corner of the extension, whereas for the odds, the sun is behind the highest point of the extension roof. Later in the day, the situation will reverse and the odds will get sun when the evens don't. But at this time of year, the sun angle is too low, so it's dropped below the main terrace ridge line before it gets to you.
My guess would be that in mid summer - mid May to mid July - your back garden will be in sun in the morning until about 9am and then shaded for a couple of hours. By midday at least half will be back in sunlight for 3 or 4 hours (and for longer than your 'even' neighbour), then shaded again as the sun drops below the main terrace roofs. Very probably for a week or two in mid June, you'll get another late hour of sunlight just before sunset, as long as there isn't a tall building or tree along the row to the west.
So plant a few sun-lovers on that back fence and put your terrace down where your neighbour has. In a few weeks it'll be a lovely little sun trap down there
If you draw your garden as a rectangle plan, with the house at the bottom of the page and the back fence at the top, the top right corner will be hot and sunny, the bottom right corner will be warm and shady, the bottom left corner will be cooler and shady and the top left corner will be sunny and cool(ish). The whole top half of the plan would probably be called sunny for summer plants. The only real shade will be against the house wall (though even there may get sun for a little while in mid summer). The rest would be 'partial shade' from a plant's point of view.
Woodland plants won't like it because it'll be shady in winter and sunny in summer and woodland plants like the opposite (sun in winter, shade in summer) but ferns and hostas and real shade happy plants will be fine at the house end (where the house wall will give them some shelter from hard frost)
Last edited: 07 March 2017 13:38:21
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
My garden faces NNW and it all gets sun in the summer apart from about 6 ft from the house. I grow shade lovers in the border directly against the house wall.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
I have a NNE garden and had the same concerns as you. As the sun gets higher in the summer, you will get less shade. I like to have a patio that's shaded in the afternoon as it is much cooler and the plants need less watering. I put all of the sunloving plants on one side ans the ferns, hostas etc on the other side. You will find the sunny spots in the garden as the year progresses. You might also enjoy the more subtle beauty of shade-loving plants.
Posts
I was doing that as I typed
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Raisingirl - that was a simply brilliant post!!
SandT - another post of reassurance here. The back of our house faces due north and there is a shadow area extending probably about 6 - 10m from the house which gets no sun at all from September to March.
From March to September, however, there is just a small area in the centre of the wall which gets absolutely no sun and the shadow extends only about 5 - 6' from the back wall in June and July. If we faced NE I suspect the back wall would be quite sunny very early in the morning in summer.
If you are looking for a sunnier terrace I would also put it at the far end of the garden. But, if you can afford to do, it I'd also consider a smaller area (just enough for a bench or a couple of chairs at the back of the house where you can enjoy a sunny early morning cuppa or sit comfortably in the shade on one of those heatwave days (which seem such a dim and distant memory at the moment)
Last edited: 07 March 2017 11:09:25
Thanks guys! I suppose my worry is though that both of you have longer gardens than us (unless I misunderstood?)
I know North facing gardens can get light when they're nice and long but when you only have 9m length and a house thats maybe 5.6m tall... are we only going to get a back section?
SandT, my garden is no longer than 8m at the maximum (though a lot wider), so I really don't think you need to panic.
If you draw your garden as a rectangle plan, with the house at the bottom of the page and the back fence at the top, the top right corner will be hot and sunny, the bottom right corner will be warm and shady, the bottom left corner will be cooler and shady and the top left corner will be sunny and cool(ish). The whole top half of the plan would probably be called sunny for summer plants. The only real shade will be against the house wall (though even there may get sun for a little while in mid summer). The rest would be 'partial shade' from a plant's point of view.
Woodland plants won't like it because it'll be shady in winter and sunny in summer and woodland plants like the opposite (sun in winter, shade in summer) but ferns and hostas and real shade happy plants will be fine at the house end (where the house wall will give them some shelter from hard frost)
Last edited: 07 March 2017 13:38:21
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
My garden faces NNW and it all gets sun in the summer apart from about 6 ft from the house. I grow shade lovers in the border directly against the house wall.
I have a NNE garden and had the same concerns as you. As the sun gets higher in the summer, you will get less shade. I like to have a patio that's shaded in the afternoon as it is much cooler and the plants need less watering. I put all of the sunloving plants on one side ans the ferns, hostas etc on the other side. You will find the sunny spots in the garden as the year progresses. You might also enjoy the more subtle beauty of shade-loving plants.
Thanks, Verdun. There was a basic plan, but things then evolved...