Design / Cost our Garden?

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Discussion

Dan_1981

Original Poster:

17,377 posts

199 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Moved into a new house - rear garden is none existent. We have nothing but rough soil / spoil down.

Its approx 10 x 8m

We're not massive gardeners so looking for something low maintenance but where we can sit out to eat etc.

So basically, a patio area or decking, the rest liad to turf with maybe a couple of raised flower beds.

Pictures:

The sun comes up from the right of the house in this picture from about 11am we have sun accross the whole of the garden until it sets bottom left corner in this picture. Meaning sunshine mostly in the corner infront of the single door.








So how much do we reckon to lay a curved patio from one side down to the other and then turf the rest with a couple of beds in too?

Or am i missing something clever that we should be thinking of doing?

drivin_me_nuts

17,949 posts

211 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Depends what you want. So.e trees at the back would be very handy to give you some privacy. The rest depends upon what you want and the proportions thereof.

Nick_MSM

681 posts

186 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Just a word of warning re turf - normal turf won't grow too well there in places by the looks of it (typical issues with high fences etc). I would personally seed with a shade specific variety (lawnsmith are good), yes it's more hassle short term but you'll have a much hardier lawn by the end of it. You're best to wait until autumn for the lawn but you can make a start on the borders. Low maintenance plants - have a look at ornamental grasses/ferns/hosta etc if you like the sort of thing?

campionissimo

578 posts

124 months

Thursday 30th June 2016
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fake grass. with that amount of shade it'll be your safest bet, and ultra low maintenance.

Dan_1981

Original Poster:

17,377 posts

199 months

Friday 1st July 2016
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The pictures were taken fairly early morning - by about 10:00am the garden is in full sunlight - sun comes over the top of the house and garden in full sunlight until prob 7 / 8 pm

Will try to get some better pictures.

Couple of quotes we've had have come in at around the £3k mark for levelling, patio, and turf.

Never having had to do this before I have no idea if this is abbout right or not?!

snobetter

1,158 posts

146 months

Friday 1st July 2016
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Do you need shed*/storage/compost bin? Is there a corner someone might climb the wall to gain access? Nice prickly thing there could be helpful. Have you had a garden before, for the reason if not, you might find yourself enjoying it, or like me, not really enjoying the work but liking the outcome. A raised bed near the single door for herbs and some veg, easy and rewarding.
When planning the lawn, consider cutting and edging it every week or two for however many months a year, this is also where a compost bin comes in with getting rid of the cuttings. As it's not huge break it up with different colours, leaf shapes and sizes and bed shapes. Think vertically, gives an impression of space with some height from plants / trees / objects. Nice to have some shade, but nothing that will dominate in 10 years time.

Turning into a lecture, I'll stop, other than, take your time now, try viewing a few gardens etc to see what you like.

  • you do need a shed...

Dan_1981

Original Poster:

17,377 posts

199 months

Friday 1st July 2016
quotequote all
All good advice!

Yeah we had a similar sized garden in our last place.

We enjoy using it, but aren't really "gardeners" as such - we'll mow the lawn and maybe plant some flowers once a year.

Its more somewhere to sit in the evening, eat, BBQ, Chimenea etc.

Access to the garage is just inside the single door so we think we can get away without a shed.

Only thing we would need is a bin store of some sort - thinking in the left hand corner as you look at the house.

snobetter

1,158 posts

146 months

Friday 1st July 2016
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For future low maintenance, you could at this point fit an irrigation system in? Perfect lawn and plants even if you go away...

randlemarcus

13,516 posts

231 months

Friday 1st July 2016
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While its not planted up, its probably worth borrowing a spade, and seeing how deep the building rubble/leftover insulation and plastic brick pallet wrappers are buried.

If you have six inches of stone filled cheap top soil on top of a tip, nothing is going to work properly, and if the builders are still around, you can shout at them now biggrin

Dan_1981

Original Poster:

17,377 posts

199 months

Friday 1st July 2016
quotequote all
randlemarcus said:
While its not planted up, its probably worth borrowing a spade, and seeing how deep the building rubble/leftover insulation and plastic brick pallet wrappers are buried.

If you have six inches of stone filled cheap top soil on top of a tip, nothing is going to work properly, and if the builders are still around, you can shout at them now biggrin
Buried?!

I don't need a shovel biggrin

randlemarcus

13,516 posts

231 months

Friday 1st July 2016
quotequote all
Dan_1981 said:
Buried?!

I don't need a shovel biggrin
Get the shouting bit right, and you may find the decking solution comes in a lot cheaper than if you were funding it all by yourself then.

anonymous-user

54 months

Friday 1st July 2016
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I would spunk most of the budget on some decent sized trees to give you some much needed privacy. Followed by hard landscaping.

My tip is buy plants in 3s and 5s bar for specimen plants.

Craikeybaby

10,402 posts

225 months

Wednesday 20th July 2016
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How are you getting on with your garden OP?

Dan_1981

Original Poster:

17,377 posts

199 months

Wednesday 20th July 2016
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It looks very very similar to the pictures above.....