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We are considering buying a home that has a north facing backyard. I'm concerned that the patio might always be shaded and therefore too cool to enjoy in the spring and fall. We want to add a screened porch and are worried that this would make the rooms at the back of the house dark all day.
Also, since most of the back yard is shaded much of the day by the shadow of the house itself, maybe not much will grow there. No bushes or flowers are growing around the back wall of the house at the present time.
Anyone else have a north facing back yard? Are the rooms at the back of the house dark even when the sun is out?
We are considering buying a home that has a north facing backyard. I'm concerned that the patio might always be shaded and therefore too cool to enjoy in the spring and fall. We want to add a screened porch and are worried that this would make the rooms at the back of the house dark all day.
This is a valid concern.
My neighbor across the street has a north-facing back yard and a screened porch. It's beautiful in the morning, but kind of gloomy the rest of the day and pretty dark at suppertime.
She came over to my house one day and commented on how pretty my screened porch was with the sunset coming in. I had not thought about the difference, but we do eat dinner out there much more often than we would eat breakfast.
You will just have to gauge how important this is to you relative to the other features of the house.
The answer depends on where you live. If you live in a snowy area, you don't want a north facing front because then the driveway and sidewalks never melt. If you live in extremely hot/ sunny communities, a south facing back yard might be, essentially, unusable due to the heat.
The upside:
There are plenty of beautiful shade plants...Bleeding Heart is my favorite.
I love shade bec there are such hot yards that are just unbearable for months.
If grass won't grow, good for you...what beautiful flag stone paths you can make.
There are so many ideas in magazines and books on backyard decor and landscaping...
Lounging in the shade on a hot day...heavenly.
Our home is in metro Atlanta, so it is sunnier here than some places, but we do have winter weather. Probably we could use the screened in porch from April thru October and possibly longer some years when we had milder weather spring and fall. We don't usually don't have much, if any, snow most winters.
But I am concerned about the inside of the house along the back being dark and dreary much of the day.
Last edited by staywarm2; 08-27-2014 at 06:57 PM..
Anyone else have a north facing back yard? Are the rooms at the back of the house dark even when the sun is out?
No.
I would think that in a hot, humid climate like Atlanta, such an arrangement might be beneficial. And there are plenty of beautiful plants that grow well in the shade.
Is your house, not lot, completely facing north in the back? Not tilted a tiny bit east or west?
Another consideration is how windows are positioned. Skylights are terrific. Perhaps there is a jut out in the back so that actually sun comes in side windows of that jut out room, catching some bright morning or afternoon light.
On the screened porch. Yes, that roof forms a sort of awning for the space inside the house at that point. Perhaps you could put skylights in the porch roof.
Another consideration for light is trees. They will allow less light.
As you know, the southern side will have the most sun. But I am constantly happily surprised by how even a supposedly north facing backyard can get sun as it passes over. Not in the dead of winter of course.
Our back deck is gets sun in different parts throughout the day in three seasons. In winter, not close up. However, sliding glass doors and lots of windows make the rooms perfectly bright, even then. Just not sun streaming in.
Shade is only where the house shades the deck and yard. Not an entire yard. So we have a shady 2' or so in winter and even then sun on the deck beyond that and sun in the back yard.
We had a house with a sunroom built on the north side. The builder did that. But the back and front had windows. But since the sunroom was on the north side it only got some of the east and west sun...but did get light. And there were skylights. We had the best flowering plants in that room and the best African violets so large people thought they were some sort of oversized begonias.
A south sun will allow you to grow roses against the back of the house, which we did in another house.
A north back of the house (I don't say 'back yard' because not all the back yard is in the shade') allows for enjoyment without hot sun, and azaleas all around the outside of the deck. And bright spots of color in the semi-shade like those orange flowering angel wing begonias.
We have friends who enclosed their deck in siding and lots of windows. So their sunroom is on the north side of the house but...it's where they have all their wonderful plants and flowers because is get the afternoon sun streaming in the side windows of the sunroom.
I know people who utilize one side of the house part of the year more than the other...and then swap, following the sun or shade.
A problem we have had is that a north facing back of the house means a front yard in full sun, which can be difficult.
I think your north facing porch would be a plus in the summer - mine certainly is. A cool, shady oasis on a hot day is wonderful. As for light in the house, we put a skylight in our north-facing kitchen which made a world of difference.
I've got a new house, north facing back yard which I sought out as a requirement - Houston area - it is great, far superior to any East/West elevation. Summer is longer than winter, and hotter than winter is cold - Atlanta is similar. North facing back yard is more indirect light in the summer, spring, fall when you will use the patio...It is actually a selling point in my opinion.
My previous house had a West facing back yard and the yard was unbearable in the evening during much of the year...my next rental while I was building was a East Facing back yard and it was too dark with the sun setting in the East...The North/South guarantees sun, or at least partial sun year round and is superior in my opinion...but everyone has an opinion of their own.
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