Landscaping a 90ft garden currently on multi-levels?

isofa

Can anyone give me some advice on getting a 80ft x 90ft garden into some sort of nice usable space?

It's at a house we are considering buying, but the garden is a total disaster and is putting us off, as it's way beyond a bit of gardening to get it right! It's currently on 2-3 different levels, probably 4 to 6 foot between the lowest (house level) and highest, there is a badly fitted pond (which we'd want out) and paving, gravel paths and half of the plot at the top (the highest section) is badly lawned with another poorly laid patio in the centre, which we'd want removing. A large patio area near the house we could probably live with, but the rest needs urgent sorting out.

We would need it child safe - this is our biggest concern - it's a death trap at the moment with sharp drops and dangerous, poorly finished/unfinished features everywhere. It'd be impossible to get to one level, so on 2 levels it'd be ok, as long as safe and mostly turfed, and easy to maintain.

Thoughts, ideas, ball-park costs?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Thoughts?



Buy somewhere else.

isofa

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Thoughts?
Buy somewhere else.

:doh:
Seems for some posters I need to clarify – thoughts and advice from people with experience and skill in this area...

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

isofa wrote: »

:doh:
Seems for some posters I need to clarify – thoughts and advice from people with experience and skill in this area...

So I can't have experience of dealing with dangerous gardens.




Fair enough.

Go ahead, it'll be really cheap and easy to do. Just buy the house because it can't be a great price because they've already reduced it due to the huge cost involved in sorting out the garden properly.

mvteng

Its going to be impossible for anyone togive a ballpark figure without seeing it.

Do you have a friendly local landscaping company that dould have a look & give you a rough price.

Wouldnt put me off buying the house as long as the price is right after including the landscaping work.

You could even look on it as a good opportunity to get your ideal garden.

Mojisola

mvteng wrote: »

Its going to be impossible for anyone togive a ballpark figure without seeing it./QUOTE]

Got to agree with this. We bought a house with a garden that had been totally neglected for years and was a wasteland but, because we worked in the business, we could see the potential and knew we could do most of the necessary work ourselves.

No-one could give you an idea of price without seeing the garden and having a better idea of what you want to do. The changes in level make it more difficult because you have to get the retaining walls right to prevent more problems in the future. Changing the levels in your garden could also affect the neighbours' gardens. You also need to consider the fences which would be affected by changes in the levels. How with the neighbours react to altering what may be their fences?

isofa

mvteng wrote: »

Its going to be impossible for anyone togive a ballpark figure without seeing it.

Do you have a friendly local landscaping company that dould have a look & give you a rough price.

Wouldnt put me off buying the house as long as the price is right after including the landscaping work.

You could even look on it as a good opportunity to get your ideal garden.

Thanks mvteng - glad some poster have a bit of perspicacity! I appreciate it's almost impossible to give prices.

If we get to the stage of putting in an offer we will definitely take a local landscaper around to have a look, as any offer would be subject to sorting the mess But having no experience in this area, I just wanted some advice and things to look out for, before we get to this stage.

The house is superb, it's the danger factor of the garden, with a young family which is putting us off. It certainly doesn't look like anything we could do without specialists and a lot of soil/item removal and then replacing much with good topsoil and I suspect that would add great expense. The garden backs onto the gardens of a couple of other large gardens, so levelling off totally would be impossible, and we fear there are large old features lurking under the grass sections too!

Mojisola wrote: »

mvteng wrote: »

Its going to be impossible for anyone togive a ballpark figure without seeing it.

Got to agree with this. We bought a house with a garden that had been totally neglected for years and was a wasteland but, because we worked in the business, we could see the potential and knew we could do most of the necessary work ourselves.

No-one could give you an idea of price without seeing the garden and having a better idea of what you want to do. The changes in level make it more difficult because you have to get the retaining walls right to prevent more problems in the future. Changing the levels in your garden could also affect the neighbours' gardens. You also need to consider the fences which would be affected by changes in the levels. How with the neighbours react to altering what may be their fences?

Thanks Mojisola too, I think that's why it'd always have to be on 2 levels, but with a safe transition between the two. Many years ago (from satellite imagery) it was just two levels.

Mojisola

isofa wrote: »

The house is superb, it's the danger factor of the garden, with a young family which is putting us off. It certainly doesn't look like anything we could do without specialists and a lot of soil/item removal and then replacing much with good topsoil and I suspect that would add great expense. The garden backs onto the gardens of a couple of other large gardens, so levelling off totally would be impossible, and we fear there are large old features lurking under the grass sections too!

Is there access for machinery to get into the garden? It would make a big difference if you need a lot of manual labour rather than hiring machinery?

isofa

Mojisola wrote: »

Is there access for machinery to get into the garden? It would make a big difference if you need a lot of manual labour rather than hiring machinery?

You'd get a mini excavator in without issue, but no large plant machinery. You'd definitely need some sort of mechanised help!

Itismehonest

isofa wrote: »

Can anyone give me some advice on getting a 80ft x 90ft garden into some sort of nice usable space?

It's at a house we are considering buying, but the garden is a total disaster and is putting us off, as it's way beyond a bit of gardening to get it right! It's currently on 2-3 different levels, probably 4 to 6 foot between the lowest (house level) and highest, there is a badly fitted pond (which we'd want out) and paving, gravel paths and half of the plot at the top (the highest section) is badly lawned with another poorly laid patio in the centre, which we'd want removing. A large patio area near the house we could probably live with, but the rest needs urgent sorting out.

We would need it child safe - this is our biggest concern - it's a death trap at the moment with sharp drops and dangerous, poorly finished/unfinished features everywhere. It'd be impossible to get to one level, so on 2 levels it'd be ok, as long as safe and mostly turfed, and easy to maintain.

Thoughts, ideas, ball-park costs?

It's impossible to say without at least knowing the layout of the plot, access & what you want to end up with ....... just lawns, shrubs, flower beds?
We've landscaped hillside land but on a larger scale & with, in places, a much deeper drop than the 4-6ft you speak of.
It doesn't matter what you do you will still have the same drop from top to bottom. Reducing the overall number of levels will only make the drop between each level steeper or reduce the amount of available level land if you slope them into each other.
People have lived in places like ours for hundreds of years & brought up countless children despite living beside sheer cliffs down to raging seas; having large ponds, streams & rivers almost outside their front doors.
If you think the place isn't child-friendly enough then you may be better looking for somewhere flatter

Mojisola

Itismehonest wrote: »

It doesn't matter what you do you will still have the same drop from top to bottom. Reducing the overall number of levels will only make the drop between each steeper or reduce the amount of available level land.

This is the problem - have you any ideas how you will make steeper drops safer for the children?

If you love the house, it's worth getting a couple of firms to look at the garden and suggest possible designs to you. You may find no-one will give you too precise a quote because, until they start moving soil around, who knows what's hidden under the ground?