Presumably you mean the rear-side of the house is N or NE facing. Clearly, in general the NE facing house would shade the garden a little less, but this might be irrelevant if there is another building due south of the garden, eg, next door, if it is a wall-like housing development. What is the condition of light from the sides? You might like to think whether you'd get any light in the garden late of a summer afternoon, which I think is a particularly useful time for it. Also consider the far end of the garden. The far end of a north-facing garden is south-facing, and the NE one SW facing, provided it isn't excessively overlooked by the housing at the other end, or otherwise shaded. These are good directions for plants that like to be roasted.

Personally I'd think that light into the rooms of the house might be more important. I like having an east-facing bedroom (sun in the morning) and a west-facing lounge (sun in the evening). Assuming that you are heavily overlooked by buildings fomr teh side, an EW oriented house is ideal for me. Though less useful for putting solar cells on the roof.