The north-facing city garden

Before you buy a pergola, move the table.

Every change below is put into the plan and the whole model is run again. That is why a pergola's winter cost shows up here without anybody having written it down, and why the cheapest thing that works is allowed to win.

Fixing

For

Reading at

1:00 PM·September

Where it stands now

Something growing here

The bed by the back door does not work for growing things on a day like this, and how long it stays wet is why.

How long it stays wet is14h over— 24h against at most 10h
Roots and foliage sitting wet kill more plants than the wrong hardiness zone does.
Hours of direct sun is1.5h under— 0h against at least 1.5h
Some direct sun, even briefly, changes what is possible here.

Confidence medium (60%). Enough to point in a direction, not enough to buy against.

What this answer was built from

Use: Something growing here
Place: The bed by the back door
Weather: Humid continental, hot summers, real winters (scenario shape) (from a published source)
Method: A whole day in September, traced against the scene rather than read at one hour

Something growing here is read across a whole day or year rather than at one hour, so single changes are compared on the questions pages instead. Go there.