To buy north west facing garden with neighbouring trees?

rosehenderson90

Hi folks,

We went to view a house today. The only real drawback is the garden is north west facing.

As it's reasonably long, I thought it wouldn't be much of a problem.

It was overcast when we viewed and the sun hasn't moved around the side yet, but there are also a lot of big trees in the neighbouring garden.

Does anyone else live in a property of similar aspect / situation and have any advice?

Ideally I want a sunny spot to sit in but the most important thing for me is that I want a greenhouse, and I'm now questioning if it would be possible.

Some photos. This one shows where North is and also shows the neighbouring trees.



The trees themselves add a lovely backdrop.



The next door house is also up for sale so I've managed to get photos of the trees from within that property.

So this is next door:



Thanks

Rose 

Loxley

That certainly wouldn't put me off, you'll perhaps lose some evening sunshine as the sun dips behind the trees in the west, but for most of the day that south west facing hedge will be quite the suntrap 

SYinUSA

Any aspect has its own challenges and can be made beautiful with care, so that wouldn't put me off at all. And as @Loxley noted, plenty of sunshine along that fenceline.

I also love that this is a huge consideration for you while househunting! That's why I'm on a UK gardening forum - you all take your gardens seriously! Where I am, a line of shrubs tortured into tight meatballs along the front of the house passes as "curb appeal." 

Simone_in_Wiltshire

@rosehenderson90 If you have got shade coming from trees on the west side, be grateful as we can see currently here in the South.
We used to have trees on the right until our neighbour cut them off and now our garden is baking in all day sunshine.
Our garden is also on the NW side, but it has still plenty of sunshine over the summer
It depends how high the house is.
Our house is 9 meters high, and it covers in December the entire garden, in March/September 2/3 of the garden, but in June less than 1/2 of the garden for just 2 hours a day! Even on the "shady" side, there are 9 hours sunshine.
If it's hot, you can sit on the north side and enjoy while others can't avoid the sun in der south facing garden.
I wish my neighbour had planted trees that would give a shade.

General tip for everybody: if your neighbour has got Conifers, don't buy the house. Your garden will be bone-dry, you can't plant and lawn will look awful.

Busy-Lizzie

We have a partially wrap around garden, mostly north and west, in Norfolk. Neighbour has a huge Leylandii. The ground under it is very dry but it doesn't affect the rest of the garden, apart from the shade. That is irritating as it blocks a lot of the only bit of sun from the south, but the neighbours are lovely, friendly, so we can put up with it, even though I think it's illegal.

We've still managed to make a pretty garden. It didn't stop us buying the house because we liked the house so much.

KT53

The trees to the south will cast a shadow for most of the year.  The only real exception being the height of summer.  That will only get worse as the trees mature.  If you are concerned now, I would think hard.

rosehenderson90

Loxley said:

That certainly wouldn't put me off, you'll perhaps lose some evening sunshine as the sun dips behind the trees in the west, but for most of the day that south west facing hedge will be quite the suntrap 

Great thanks Loxley! The trees and hedge are part of what make the garden so lovely as they give it a really enclosed and green feel. 

rosehenderson90

SYinUSA said:

Any aspect has its own challenges and can be made beautiful with care, so that wouldn't put me off at all. And as @Loxley noted, plenty of sunshine along that fenceline.

I also love that this is a huge consideration for you while househunting! That's why I'm on a UK gardening forum - you all take your gardens seriously! Where I am, a line of shrubs tortured into tight meatballs along the front of the house passes as "curb appeal." 

Haha I love the meatballs description!

I have done some reading on different aspects and even looked at what's possible in a north facing garden and seen there are different possibilities. I suppose that's part of what makes gardening so interesting - opportunity to learn about plants for the right place!

I was a bit worried a greenhouse might not work if it ended up to be quite shady.

It doesn't sound like that would be a problem though!

rosehenderson90

Simone_in_Wiltshire said:

@rosehenderson90 If you have got shade coming from trees on the west side, be grateful as we can see currently here in the South.
We used to have trees on the right until our neighbour cut them off and now our garden is baking in all day sunshine.
Our garden is also on the NW side, but it has still plenty of sunshine over the summer
It depends how high the house is.
Our house is 9 meters high, and it covers in December the entire garden, in March/September 2/3 of the garden, but in June less than 1/2 of the garden for just 2 hours a day! Even on the "shady" side, there are 9 hours sunshine.
If it's hot, you can sit on the north side and enjoy while others can't avoid the sun in der south facing garden.
I wish my neighbour had planted trees that would give a shade.

General tip for everybody: if your neighbour has got Conifers, don't buy the house. Your garden will be bone-dry, you can't plant and lawn will look awful.

Thanks!

The garden goes up on a gradient so it's a bit higher at the back. It's overall higher than the footings of the house. The patio is actually a bit higher than it should be so it might need dug down a bit to prevent damp in the future, so says the home report!

The trees do look lovely.

I was very spoiled growing up in a southish facing house with a lovely historic church yard at the back and massive trees. So they remind me of sitting out there in the calm looking at these beautiful big trees.

Sorry to hear your neighbours cut down their trees. It's great to have a bit of a nice borrowed view.

rosehenderson90

Busy-Lizzie said:

We have a partially wrap around garden, mostly north and west, in Norfolk. Neighbour has a huge Leylandii. The ground under it is very dry but it doesn't affect the rest of the garden, apart from the shade. That is irritating as it blocks a lot of the only bit of sun from the south, but the neighbours are lovely, friendly, so we can put up with it, even though I think it's illegal.

We've still managed to make a pretty garden. It didn't stop us buying the house because we liked the house so much.

Thanks! It is a very nice house and a bit of shade doesn't bother me, but would like to get some sun and have a spot for a greenhouse.

rosehenderson90

KT53 said:

The trees to the south will cast a shadow for most of the year.  The only real exception being the height of summer.  That will only get worse as the trees mature.  If you are concerned now, I would think hard.

Thanks! It's so hard to know how much of an impact it might be without seeing the shadows. They are tall trees and they look pretty old. The current owners don't grow much so it's hard to see if they have had any troubles. They do have some patio areas so I suspect that's where they get the most sun.

I might see if I can ask them about it.