Ideas pls - to make my muddy garden presentable on a budget

[JohnHamer1977]

Hi,

Any idea's (and approx costs) as to what to do to make my muddy garden more presentable?
Front garden is the priority, the back gets severly water logged as you can see.
I'm a lone parent with 2 lads and a daft boxer dog so could do with budget options really.

thanks!!! pics below

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• JohnHamer1977
• 7 Mar 2012
• 1

Untitled

• JohnHamer1977
• 7 Mar 2012
• 1

Untitled

• JohnHamer1977
• 7 Mar 2012
• 1

 

[wrathkeg]

As well as thinking about what would be aesthetically pleasing -- which of course is really up to -- and the costs of the initial work, I would suggest you think about what you need from the garden too. You say that you are a lone parent, with children, and a dog. So you probably aren't going to be able to spend a huge amount of time looking after whatever you decide to install. That's going to pretty much rule out vegetable growing, delicate plants which might need a lot of care, a lawn which really should have weekly maintenance, areas that will need regular weeding etc.

To be honest, I would probably looking at something like taking up the slabs, and the ramp, putting some kind of edging by the fence, then using weed fabric and gravel on top of that, with a stepping stone path down to the gate. I suppose given the bit of a slope you have, you might look at doing some kind of terracing before the gravel. It might stop the gravel shifting around too much, and make it look more interesting. And you can add plants in pots troughs etc as money allows, or even plant something like alpines through the gravel and the fabric. This would give some year round interest, and they are inexpensive. Pots would give you some work in terms of watering, but even if you take your eye off the ball due to family commitments and lose some of the plants it wouldn't be the end of the world, and they would be easy enough to tidy up/replace.

 

[wrathkeg]

oh, despite what I said about vegetable growing, you could always plant e.g. a small apple tree (or other fruit) depending how much sun it gets.

 

[JohnHamer1977]

hi... thx for the reply
I had wood chippings on there at one point, they got all over even with borders so I reluctant to use a loose surface... but I won't rule it out.

Plants in tubs/buckets would be a good decorative the plan I think.
Would look great on deckin if I did that at the back, but don't think deckin would look right at the front.

I would appreciate further idea's, I have concrete all along the side and it does the job for the side but not very attractive for use at the front, is there anything inteseting you can do with tarmac??? or is that expensive?

I was thinking may be artificial grass one side of the front with a plant in the middle... but the grass install apparently costs £55 er sq meter (ish).

Any sort of idea's on costs per sq meter on things like block paving, nicer looking flags etc?

 

[wrathkeg]

I haven't done decking so can't advise, but you might look into how well it lasts, what kind of maintenance it would really need and so on. It's easy to find examples of poorly maintained decking, which quickly seems to look terrible.

Actually, if you could afford it, in my view you could do worse than well laid concrete. And no maintenance. Lots of people near me have that pattern imprinted, coloured concrete, though that's not to my taste. A few years ago we had some quotes for concrete and tarmac for our drive, and the tarmac quotes were always quite a bit higher. Having said that, they also all wanted to tarmac much bigger areas than I really wanted them to, so maybe they weren't the best of 'tradesmen'.

I find this site really good for giving ideas of costs.

http://www.buildingsheriff.com/index.html

Regarding the movement of the bark chip. Was it maybe birds shifting it? They do that in my garden and can make quite a mess. They don't do that with gravel. But if it was being moved around by people walking on it, movement on the slope etc, it might be an issue with gravel too (unless you plan paths carefully).

 

[MartinBraidwood]

I completely agree you need to think about what is actually doable for you. Maybe a bit of initial investment will help to keep the garden low maintenance.

You could get some new turf laid down but this may be redundant with a boxer and kids trampling the lawb. Perhaps some decking laid down would be good?

Also using features like this can help to corden off sections of the garden that shouldn't be walked on and you can put plants/ flowers in to make look a bit prettier

Rounded edge log sleeper

• MartinBraidwood
• 7 Mar 2012
• 1

From Farmac, Pudsey, Leeds

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Let us know how you get on

 

[JohnHamer1977]

thanks for the replys, I will take a look at that link too.

Concrete or pattern imprinted was the original plan of action but the costs are now well out of my league.

Decking is probably the plan of action for the back, but I'll hit that at a later date, for now I need to make the front more presentable.
That raised planter looks good.

I was trying to avoid doing the main job myself with the tarmac, just don't know about costs and hw creative they could be with how it looks, just dumping a load of the black stuff down would be no better than me dumping a slab of grey concrete down like I have on the side.

Paving slabs are looking like the most likely option as I'm browsing the web now - and seem DIY-able, I've laid MOT type1 and used a whacker plate machine before so think I could do the sub base for something like that.

 

[wrathkeg]

Bear in mind with slabs that you might have to do other things than just lay them e.g. cut them to size to fit the space you are dealing with. I suppose there might be issues with drainage too, though somebody on here would likely be able to advise on that; it must be in your favour that the ground slopes away from the house.

If dealing with slabs, this is likely to be a source of inspiration and instructions.
http://www.pavingexpert.com/

 

[JohnHamer1977]

^^^ posted on there earlier today.

I think I more need advice on what my options are, for exaple what jobs can be done at what cost.
Could do with a few people who might have done patio/front garden stuff before post up what they did and how much it cost maybe.
Don't know, just trying to sort out information right now so I can narrow down what I can and can't do and what I need to get into more detail with.

 

[JohnHamer1977]

thoughts on this? http://www.easypave.com/Pavings/Budget-Manufactured-Stone/Bowland-Windsor-Welsh-slate/index.htm

 

[Arthur2shedsJackson]

I know you said earlier that you are reluctant to use a loose surface because it gets into the borders, but if you use the raised bed idea this won't be the case.

Loose surface is the quickest and easiest way to achieve a good result on a budget.

Also consider that a loose surface may well be more forgiving than a hard surface if the kids fall on it.

Remember also that decking can become really slippery when wet.

Good Luck whatever you decide.

 

[Arthur2shedsJackson]

By the way, if you decide to go with bark for your loose surface, contact your local tree surgeons, I bought a trailer load for £30.

And it must have been abig trailer, took us all weekend to move it !!

 

[r896neo]

Cheap block paving would be around 40 per metre laid or 20 if doing it yourself

Gravel is by far the cheapest option but not great maintanance wise

Why deck it? are you ever going to sit out there and do you like breaking your neck in the wet?

Plain concrete is the cheapest bound surface especially if you do it yourself.

 

[JohnHamer1977]

Found some bowlans welsh slate £14 sq meter
Gonna go with that, £400 + some mot1, sand and cement all done for less than £800 hopefully