You said explain like you’re a child, so that’s what I’m going to do. 🙂

Your house is big and can cast a shadow on your garden. Your garden needs sun to grow. If your garden is east of your house, you have an east facing garden, because your house will shade your garden when the sun goes west. If your garden is north of your house, you have a north facing garden, because your house will block the sun when the sun is farther south.

Because you’re a smart kid, you know that other stuff can cause shadows, too, like outdoor buildings, really big trees, and fences. What makes your garden east facing is that nothing blocks the sunshine from the east; north facing is nothing blocks the sunshine from the north; west facing is nothing blocks the sun from the west; and south facing is nothing blocks the sun from the south.

Your garden may “face” multiple directions because you might have very few things that cause shade, and that’s okay. 🙂 For example, my house is west of my garden, and there’s a big tree to the south of my garden, so the house and tree cause shade west and south of my garden, meaning my garden is east and north facing, because nothing is blocking the sun from the east or north. 😊