Ask any estate agent, and they’ll say that a south-facing garden is the ultimate perk. And when my husband and I were in the process of buying our first house five years ago, we decided to pay around £10,000 extra for our home instead of buying an almost-identical house on the opposite side of the street, purely because of the sunny garden.
But now that we’re gearing up to sell our house, we’ve started weighing up what we want from our next property - and we’ve both agreed that we definitely don’t want a south-facing garden. Sure, we know it’s a surefire way to boost the value of our property (and ultimately any property that we buy in the future), but one thing we’ve realised is that money isn’t everything.
I don’t think we’re the only ones falling out of love with south-facing gardens, either. Rachel Hurley, Founder & Principal Architect at StudioHA, told me, ‘Many of our clients love the sun but quickly discover the downsides: overheating interiors, unusable terraces, and plants that don’t cope.’ So, these are the three reasons why I won’t ever buy a house with a south-facing garden again.
1. It’s always way too hot to enjoy
During the cooler spring and autumn months, I will admit that my south-facing garden is a major plus. It means I can still enjoy al fresco dinners and the post-summer sun. But when summer heatwaves hit? My garden is just way too hot to enjoy. And when there’s no wind, it’s completely unusable, and we often have to avoid it altogether and hide inside.
For context, we live in a mid-terraced house and have a long and thin garden with absolutely no respite from the sun. Although we have trees behind our house, they do nothing to shield the sun when it's at its highest, and even our Habitat 2.5m Overhanging Garden Parasol, £100 at Argos, only shields us from the sun and not the heat.
Because of this, we feel as though we’re not getting as much use out of the garden as we should or want to, as it’s impossible to keep a garden cool in a heatwave. We’re also constantly dreaming of shady corners that just don’t exist (and that we can’t create without paying a significant amount of money on trees or waiting years for them to grow).
I do have my eyes on a misting fan like the Shark FlexBreeze Hydrogo Misting Fan to deal with the heat until we move, and we’re also planning on putting up a sun sail like this swift Sun Shade Sail, £29.99 at Amazon, above our seating area. However, ultimately, the fact that it’s a south-facing garden is the main issue we can’t change without moving house.
2. None of our plants survive
When we moved into our home, we also had so many south-facing garden ideas we wanted to bring to life, and we ultimately spent a few thousand pounds installing a new patio, a new fence, putting down new turf, and rejigging the layout before building out some garden beds for plants I was eager to tend to. I even had plans to grow my own fruits and vegetables.
But the reality? South-facing gardens are hard to maintain, and none of our plants have survived for anywhere near as long as they should. Right now, in fact, I’m looking out of my window and looking at dry, crispy grass, dead flower beds, and very little plant life. And while I know the current heatwave is a big reason for that, the lack of shade at any point of the day is also a major contributor.
The problem is that plants in south-facing gardens will only become increasingly difficult to grow as the years grow hotter and hotter. And while I won’t go as far as to say that it’s impossible to grow plants and crops in a south-facing garden, you definitely need to have the time and knowledge to grow anything in one successfully. If you have that, then fine. I don’t, though.
The main lesson we’ve learned is that you need to choose the right plants for a south-facing garden (for example, Crocus has a whole section for south-facing garden plants), but even when we decided to pivot away from bedding plants in favour of sun-loving plants for pots, even they struggle to survive the intense sunlight.
3. Our home maintenance is a nightmare
Although I’ve been a homeowner for five years now, I still haven’t quite gotten used to the fact that I don’t have a landlord to rely on for big repair jobs. Instead, that falls on us, and home maintenance can be expensive. This is even more so when you have a south-facing garden, as most people don’t appreciate that the constant sunlight and heat can also affect your home’s exterior.
The biggest problem we’ve faced is cracked render on the back of our house, which then caused a leak in one of our bedrooms. Both diagnosing and fixing this problem cost us a small fortune, and we were told that our south-facing placement played a big part in that. Another issue has been that our new fence started warping and fading within a year of us replacing it.
Luke Clarke, Director of CE Clarke Fencing, says that this is a common issue. He explains, ‘Constant sunlight dries out timber fencing fast, making it prone to warping, cracking, and fading. Even composite materials can suffer under prolonged UV exposure if they’re not UV-stabilised.’
As well as using the light Cuprinol Garden Shades - Willow Fence Paint, £26.74 at Amazon, to re-paint our fences (after all, dark colours are some of the fence colours you should avoid), we’ve also opted to replace the arris rails rather than replacing the whole fence to solve the warping. This was significantly cheaper than replacing the entire fence, but still a cost we didn’t anticipate spending so soon.
South-facing garden survival kit
Having a misting attachment is a game-changer when a space is too hot, as the water can offer a cooling effect while also absorbing heat from the air and lowering the surrounding temperature. So, it's perfect for south-facing gardens (or those that are simply too hot).
I've just ordered this pot irrigation system for my patio pots as the blazing sun means that they're constantly drying out. It can connect up to 20 pots and comes with 16 pre-set programs so you can tailor them to your plants.
If you have a sunny garden like me, using a UV wood protector like this one should help to prevent warping and discolouration. Unfortunately, I only just learned this myself - but I'll definitely be adding some to my basket.
Don’t get me wrong, our south-facing garden has brought us a lot of joy. But it’s also caused us a lot of issues that I don’t care to repeat in our new house.
