Garden DIY - Advice needed please

hannah2008

I would like to get my garden done for our wee one to play in (this will be her first year shes been walking) so im sure she'll want to go out and play with her toys!

I dont have alot of money, Id say probably about £500, however it is a patch of 14ft by 28ft being slabbed or grass'd. preferably slabs.

I have been qouted £40 per hour, and aprox 3 days to complete. aprox 7hours per day, which with my calculations add up to £840! allready thats taken me over my budget for this... and thats not even including the materials! The way he was talking, things like we'll need a skip... £130, slabs which would roughly be 100 x 2 by 2's. It just seemed to me all alittle bit expensive... I have never had a garden before.. as I lived in flats, but now... Im finding having a big garden allthough a nice thing... quite expensive!!

does anyone have any advice about this situation, weither I am exadurating and £500 wont do, or is this qoute too expensive? I just feel abit down about it as we've lived here just over a year and the back garden is abit of a sight for sore eyes! And as I said the summer and our child will want to go out and play in the garden.

any advice is apreciated.

thx

MX5huggy

This sort of job should be for a fixed price not per hour. Per hour will just end up in you paying for his tea breaks!

What is garden like now? post a picture if you can. Grass is cheaper than slabs and nicer for a littlen to fall over on! but harder work with mowing and cleaning clothes.

Clive_Woody

Whether or not you need a skip will depend on what's there at the moment, if there's concrete to be broken up or old slabs to be removed then you will need one.

Have you considered part slabs, part grass? With a little one, grass is a lot softer to fall over on. I am sure a few rolls of turf to lay the lawn would be a lot cheaper and quicker than laying slabs over the whole lot.

I would ask around for other quotes, see if there's a local handyman who could do it rather than a paving company. It might be best to tell them your budget and see what they suggest

You can also get recalimed slabs from various places which will be cheaper than buying new ones.

Have a look on yoru local Freecycle website to see if anybody is giving away any outdoor kiddies toys. We were given a plastic Wendy house which our little one loved, we added a couple of cheap kiddies chairs from Wilkos and she was chuffed to bits.

nimbo

would it be possbile for you to make a few trips to the tip, and clear the garden your slef to keep costs down, and i would rccomed looking at a DIY store to see how much the materials might set you back...

it might be hard work, but if there was anyone who could help with the heavy lifting etc, it might be good fun to clear it... that way you would only have to pay for the man's time....

i would also always reccomend getting a few quotes, and try to find someone that someone you know has used, and thought did a good job, as in theory they will finish it to a good standard....

£40 an hour seems to be very high, as my ex used to do gardens at the weekend, and was no where near that price, but we do live in Barnsley where things are cheap... (and that may have been mates rates as he was only doing it for friends...)

hannah2008

As you can see.. it is pretty messy and looks abit of a disaster at the moment - the stuff like the bags of rubbish, bbq and little table along with the door(s) at the left side are going, just waiting as we have another few big things going out and need to phone for an uplift to get them all away.

This guy was a handyman, and he said it would take allmost a day to get rid of the greenhouse foundation(top right), and thats what the skip would be for, our plan was to get slabs right along the top of the garden to meetup with the grass, and the left sqaure patch of dirt on the left would just be grassed(to the top of the drive where the stones are)

we have only been in this house for just over a year now, and I was really hoping to get it sorted this summer - front garden was sorted last, so this year.. its the back! :-)

MX5huggy

Don't rush to get rid of the Green house base, it would be perfect for a greenhouse, but more likley useful for the lawn mower and the toys a shed.

A little insperation for you.

From this


to this

andrew-b

Which part of the garden gets the midday sun? If the old greenhouse base gets the sunlight then i'd have a patio or decking there in preference to a shed (i wouldn't bother pulling up the old base it should be possible to cover it up or reuse. If not use the greenhouse base for a shed base and maybe a patio /decking elsewhere.

As you've got a lawned area already (albeit a "second rate" lawn) i'd improve it (get an upto date copy of Lawn Expert by D G Hessayon from your library) and extend to near the left-hand fence and towards the back fence a bit more. Perhaps with stepping stones to reach the end. Then around the left and rear edges i'd have flowerbeds - perhaps lay weed control fabric and bark chippings to keep maintenance low. I'd definitely have some flowerbeds though as when your daughter grows up then she can enjoy growing things (i was bought up a gardener from when i could walk!). Also think about where you might put a swing/slide/climbing frame/playhouse later on!

Oh and get a rotary washing line - interesting line arrangement you have!

Andy

hannah2008

MX5huggy wrote: »

Don't rush to get rid of the Green house base, it would be perfect for a greenhouse, but more likley useful for the lawn mower and the toys a shed.

A little insperation for you.

From this


to this

I must say that is some transformation. Very nice :T

As far as the washing line(s), I dont like them but at this moment thats all we have, the aim is to get rid of them and yes, get rotary airer.

We do have a puppy, and so Im not sure plants or anything as such is to our liking at this moment in time, however definately something to consider for the future!

angelavdavis

Your garden reminds me of a garden which was used as one of the examples in a series called "gardening from Scratch" presented by Helen Yemm. The video of this series (it was pre-DVD!) is available (I found it on ebay here). The person with the garden was a complete starter and needed something her toddler could use and not tread mud into the house. I was really impressed with the result and in fact, based my patio area in my last garden on this style.

Personally, I would try to do as much as possible yourself. It isn't that difficult - honest! I did most of my hard landscaping myself, my OH helped me after I met him, but I did a lot before I met him on my own! As long as you don't expect an instant garden, it can be very satisfying. As has been said, its crucial you know where the sun comes up and travels around the garden as it will dictate the areas where you might want to sit out in the summer, where you can grab a glass of wine in the evening in the last rays of the day, where best to plant veg, etc.

Decide which area you would like to leave as grass, what you would like to pave. Generally grass is harder work to keep looking good in the shade. BBC have a free garden design tool that you can use to decide how you want your garden to look (ideally). It can be found here. Think how much time you will have free to cut grass in the summer, etc. This should determine how much grass you want to keep. I personally prefer to spend my free time on nursing my veg - not cutting grass, so I have completely removed my grass. Not a cheap option (although I have really wide beds).

With the paving, you need to start in March - April (depending on how mild it is) by hiring a turf stripper, stack the turves to one side of the garden, they will take about a year to rot down and you can dig them back into the soil.

I would then look at levelling off the soil underneath the lawn ready for slabs. You can mix mortar on an old board or on your greenhouse base using a shovel. There are some good instructions here.

I personally would stagger the edge of the patio so you don't need to worry about cutting slabs, this will help soften the edges with planting. You can even leave out the odd slab off the main path area and plant in the gap.

Then choose some child/dog friendly shrubs (they will stand more chance of living!) and leave small gaps for bulbs, a bit of veg or annual planting. When planting stuff small, cut off the bottom of plastic water or pop bottles, remove cap and leave in place until the plant outgrows the bottle, it stops the pup damaging it. It has been mentioned on here, but Lidl are selling fruit trees for £3.99 at the moment, so its worth picking some up as this is a good deal.

It is nice to grow herbs and children love gardening, so its worth planting herbs such as rosemary or thyme in the gaps left between slabs.

If you keep your grass, its worth buying a good "play" mix of grass that is a bit tougher to patch any bald bits (roughen up the surface with a trowel before sprinkling the seed on top) and start feeding regularly - spring and autumn. Just a warning on feeding - it will grow faster!!! Don't let it dry out in the first year.

Get hold of some cheap compost from your local council or some rotted manure from a local farmer and feed the soil ready for planting. Keep everything watered well in the first year until it becomes established.

Use the greenhouse base either for a storage shed, playhouse for the little one or a greenhouse (if you feel keen enough to grow veg in there).

If you still think you need assistance from someone, do the clearing and levelling yourself to cut down on the paid time. As them for a fixed price quote including materials. If you get a design sorted, it helps set the right expectation and should help prevent the likelihood of the price creeping up.

As has been mentioned, post on freecycle for plants, seeds, garden furniture, children's garden toys - gardeners are very giving folk! Greenfingered moneysaving pages should help too

hannah2008

how easy is it to build walls with cheap 13p bricks and cement? (just curious) My friend built a wall and it was collapseing within a year all in all it mustave cost about £500 on materials, and then had to pay a professional £6000 to re-do the garden wall (it was only about 3ft high)

angelavdavis

I have built retaining walls as my patios in the current garden were stepped as the garden goes downhill away from the house. If they are to retain beds, you need to include weep holes to allow water to escape.

You also need to be careful with the mortar mix - walls aren't as forgiving as slabs! You also need to lay a foundation layer for the wall to sit on and need to ensure the wall is level. You might even need re-enforcement (as I did in my walls). There are lots of reasons for walls to fail - it might be he/she might have needed to soak the bricks before building, mix wrong, etc.

They are more challenging for first timers - I would stick just with slabs if I were you.

More info on building garden walls here.