How to tell where you garden is facing? (South/North etc)

 

I havent a compass yet but looking at street maps by house looking onto
the street is facing NorthWest so looking at my front door is SE. So
which way is my back garden facing looking from the back door down at
it or from the bottom of the garden up to the house.

 If it's down towards it again looking at it's facing South East
(approx 120). But i think i'll need a compass to get an exact figure,
is there anywhere online that wil tell me this to save me buying a
compass?

But most important is this a good garden for growing? Havent started
yet so what do people recommend?

Thanks

 



At midday, look towards the sun, it will be due south!

Alan

 

That's a really dizzy question, isn't it.

If the sun always rises in the east and always sets in the west and moss
grows on the north side of a tree, why do birds fly south for the
winter?!!!!!

Maybe you shouldn't be such a cheapskate and get that darn compass already.

All locations are good for growing. It all depends on what you want to grow.
For example, this thread will grow tiresome very quickly!!!!

Would recommend you read some books on gardening. You can find them in a
place called a library. Check it out!!!!

 


At 12 noon by the clock the sun will be approximately due south. One has
to correct for the difference between local mean solar time and
Greenwich Mean Time. (For every degree west of Greenwich the sun would
be a a degree each of due south.) One also has to correct for the
difference between local true solar time and local mean solar time,
arising from the elliptical nature of the earth's orbit. (Look up
analemma and equation of time - for example
<URL:http://www.analemma.com/Pages/framesPage.html> .) Also come summer
time, you also have to correct for the existence of summer time.

OTOH, for gardening purposes, the direction of the sun at midday is
probably close enough - unless you're setting up a sundial.

Note that a compass doesn't give one south directly either - magnetic
north differs from true north, and the difference varies with location
and time. One can get an approximation of the difference from a recent
OS map for ones area.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

 


If you're setting up a sundial, isn't enough to wait till the sun comes
out, and then align it so it shows the correct time?
--
Kay