Would you choose a garden or location?

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I grew up in a 70s new build with a massive garden (they would build 3 houses on the same size plot today), and come from a family of gardeners, so I have ended up getting into gardening and this was a priority for me. There is a difference between wanting "outdoor space" and an actual proper garden.

BettyBoof

I agree, I'm starting to think that what we really want is a decent bit of outside space rather than a proper garden.

I found a house with a garden in our location this morning - it's £19K over our budget and needs lots of cosmetic work so we'd have to get it for less then spend the next few years improving it but it might be doable. Anyway I showed my daughter the photo of the garden online and said "look, it's got a nice garden for you to play in". And she said "ooh lovely but could you get rid of the grass so we can ride our scooters?" !!!

Noctu

How much worse would the location be where there are gardens?

We bought a house with a lovely large garden in 2008, in a middling area. Unfortunately the area was on a slow but sure downhill slide and we got to the point of not being able to enjoy our garden due to incessant neighbour noise in adjacent gardens - shouting, music, etc.

We've moved to a much better area but with a smaller garden now and don't regret it.

BettyBoof

That's really interesting Noctu, I'm sorry you had your enjoyment of your garden ruined. There are a couple of locations that have houses with gardens in our budget - one is nice in the sense that it's not rough at all but it's a 1960s housing estate with unattractive houses which are just boxes without character (just my and my husband's opinion of course) and it doesn't have the 'vibe' that our current area has - very hard to quantify.

The other location under consideration is out of town so although we’d still be close enough to easily drive into town, we’d have to start again a little bit as it’s its own community if that makes sense. It has a bit more character but I’d say it was ‘middling’ to borrow your word.

On a practical note, I think the houses where we live now will hold their value better but who knows? The lack of a garden/opportunity to extend may always hold them back a bit.

ethank

Victorians used parks rather than their gardens.

Location would win me over everytime.

[Deleted User]

My OH would definitely choose a bigger garden whereas I would probably go for location. In an ideal world we wouldn't have to make that compromise!

BettyBoof

And we are lucky to have a lovely local park ethank, I should make more use of it.

I agree Deleted_User!

lessonlearned

You can have the best of both worlds........the location you love and an outdoor space that meets all your needs......

Using Gingervamps picture as an example of an average sized Victorian yard/garden you can easily make it both look bigger and also make it more productive.

Plant the two side walls up with herbs, vegetables, salads and flowers. gOodgle vertical gardens and you will get loads of ideas.

Place a large mirror on the back wall, planting climbers each side to form an arch, have a path leading up to the centre of the mirror.

It's just an optical Illusion of course but it does the trick making the garden look bigger and of course mirrors reflect and add light - often missing from small back yards.

Then you can still place tubs around the edges of the garden for specimen plants and small trees.

Then you would still have the central area for sitting, children's play Area etc.

if the surface has been paved over or worse still is just slabs of manky concrete there is still a lot you can do, decking,or gravel can just be laid on top of concrete.

Concrete can even be painted to look like nice flagstones.

You can, with a bit of careful planning turn a A small space into a lush relaxing oasis, it can be made to look very pretty. Add scented plants and outside lights and you have a magical outside room for summer evenings.

An urban space doesn't have to be A drab dingy looking yard.

You can transform a garden, you can't change an area so if it were me I would go for the area I love.

moneyistooshorttomention

What I did when I had my starter house (ie a Victorian terrace) was had painted walls repainted white, put up several bits of attractive type trellis with large attractive pots underneath with plants in them growing up those trellis and a small attractive set of garden table and chairs. Also some huge plants in expensive big pots elsewhere in the yard.

It wasn't possible to deal with the "overlooking" unfortunately and that was one of the things I didn't like about that house - but I did the best I could to make a reasonably attractive outdoor area.

....and yep...grew some food in pots too.

Gigervamp

I do like the use of mirrors in the garden to reflect light and give the illusion of space, but they do have a tendency to also fool birds who fly into them.