AIBU to rip out a beautiful garden in potential house?

Highly unlikely. The pollinators alone will benefit hugely. Even if they were laying up slug pellets and using weed killer (which clearly they wouldn't be with that type of garden since it would also kill the intentional plants), that garden will be creating a significant ecological benefit.

Seems a shame you can't leave the house for someone who would love the garden.

Fundamentally, unless you pave it over completely - 0.8 acre takes a lot of looking after - even if you lawn it all.

Friends in their late 60s took on a large established beautiful garden - they both love gardening but won't pay for help - it's too much for them and they are fit and energetic.

Depending on how that garden has been managed, there may not be that much wildlife!

That is so sad ! And the lawn is possibly more work than the flower bed, dragging the lawnmower from the back garden.
I hope your new garden is beautiful and full of bees and butterflies.

Awful thing to do, just think of the wildlife.

bring back the laugh emoji

its the "not huge" that makes the difference!

Its soooo not like wallpaper. Whatever they do with what is in the garden, the actual acreage will remain and need some kind of care. If you can't/don't want to put in the care or pay for the care and don't want to live with a total mess then maybe its not the house for them?

A family member had a similar dilemma recently. The house they moved into had a mature garden, not huge but with no grass and some unusual plants, some very large. They just wanted mostly grass for their young children to play. They had the whole lot taken out and the area grassed over, with just a narrow flower-bed at the side - but before it was done they advertised locally that anyone who wanted any of the plants was welcome to come and dig them up and take them, free (with times arranged, obviously). A local community garden took a lot, and neighbours etc. most of the others.

Perhaps you could do something similar. I don’t think you should be bound by the previous owner's taste in gardens; over the years beautiful gardens rise and fall, but it was nice to think that the plants were going to good homes.

.8 of an acre is a big garden, whatever you do to it is going to be a lot of work. I’m not sure this is the house for you.
I couldn’t rip it out, I just couldn’t !

presumably that comment was to put the OP off buying!

Of course you can be selling your home for lots of reasons and still love it.

We are merely custodians of the properties we live in. I've loved, and continue to love, my first home in London. I had it for five years and loved being a part of its history. It was 100 years older than me and will no doubt live another 100 or more after.

I also loved the tiny arts and craft house I rented in Belfast. Though I still wince when I pass that house knowing the new owners ripped out a beautiful flowering wisteria as soon as they moved in and all the irises that lined its tiled pathway. The house looks less pretty from the street. I dread to think what they did to its period features.

I love the old stone cottage I'm in now with its 0.75 acre garden and I will be sad when we put it on the market, probably next year. It's been a very happy home that has been loved by us and the families before us. We bought this house over another because it had a mature garden - you can't buy that. We weren't gardeners as such and we've happily let the borders go wild but its bought us so much pleasure. The grass is the most high maintenance part of our garden as others have pointed out on this thread.

Yes, you can look at a house as purely transactional (me and mine) if you must but I pity those who do. What a miserable way to go through life. Our choices do impact on others, not least the creatures we inhabit this planet with and the future generations who find their way to that front door. It's simply not the same as ripping out a wetroom.

I really hope you reconsider. There are other houses and this one deserves better stewards.

Not buying a house which is otherwise perfect for you because you don't want to manage a garden is mad. What next, not buying a house because it has a room with nice wallpaper?

OP, absolutely crack on, buy the house and rip the garden out if that suits your lifestyle.

open days and selling posies? really???

Buy another house that’s someone’s dream garden.

while I agree about not being able to expect stewardship, you have zero idea why the sellers are selling. Saying "if they loved it that much then they wouldn't" is just ridiculous.

I know that dilemma OP! I took over a very small but beautiful and loved garden with old rose plants that smelled divine in the summer. It took me a long time to develop an interest in gardening as it always felt like there was something better to do during the weekends.

I can only say that established gardens take a lot of time and money before they get to that stage, so are worth preserving if within your means.

Do you think there will be people living nearby who love tending to gardens but have too little space of their own? I have an elderly gentleman neighbour like this… he’d go up and down the road trimming all the hedges back and tidying up the paths in general - he is very much appreciated by everyone!

Also, are you likely to have lots of roses to take as cut flowers when they’re in bloom? A bit fantastical, but I can imagine Open Days in a garden or a little flower cart with posies out front. Sorry if that’s totally unrealistic.

My advice If you do feel you need a lawn would be just to change one area into lawn. Then tell the owners you will be changing a small area to create a lawn for playing and if they want any plants from that area alone they are free to take them. Don't just tell them to take stuff out randomly since that will leave spaces everywhere and create work.

I think it’s fine to clear SOME beds (maybe the rose garden) to create a space for football climbing frame etc but leave the borders round the edges. As pp say the roses could be offered to others.

I know a couple of families who have taken on gardens like this, both have ended up clearing some beds but left a lot of it. The owners in both cases were downsizing and admitted the garden had got too much for them so I think that reduces the guilt. There’s not very many people who would have the time and the health (or the money) for this kind of garden. Basically it’s empty nesters but who are still in good health and love gardening- a fairly narrow pool of people.

The families I know do however both love plant and have kept as much as they could. I think it would be tragic to take all this out and just have turf. If you really have zero interest in plants and keeping any of it then I would pass.

I think people who are keen gardeners, those who feel a deep connection with nature and love having their hands in the soil do understand how this can be heartbreaking.

I've said here I'm a professional gardener but it's also my hobby too.
I upsized from my old garden and left behind a front garden that I'd put my heart and soul into. Here's a photo of the garden I created from new build debris. Obviously the new people were free to do exactly as they'd pleased and they tore out the plants and laid lawn.

It made me sad, but I've created a new garden here that is 100% wildlife friendly so I all is well.

On Saturdays I visit my old next door neighbour and I have a wry smile to myself when I say hello to the new owner of my old house as he plugs in the mower. Here's the lawn he has now. I suppose it's what he wanted.

I'm not sure you realise how much work you would be creating by doing this. A wildflower meadow is a lot of work. Far, far more so than an established garden with no bare earth and full of perennials.

OP when we were house hunting we looked at a beautiful house with a garden which sounds similar to the one you describe. We were at the time in our early/mid thirties with two very small children. DH outright refused to buy the house on the basis that the garden was far too much work. It was full of perennials and there was hardly any bare earth in sight.

We bought our current house instead. At the time it was mainly semi wooded meadow with a very small amount of planting close to the house (things like rhododendron and camellias with a few geranium covered areas underneath the shrubs.). Very small as a proportion of the land.

Mowing the lawn took him far more time than tending the planted areas ever did. They literally looked after themselves and it was only when one summer he decided to pull out all the geranium cover leaving masses of bare soil that the weeds really took root. That one act created a lot of work for years.

Our kids played football on the lawn for a few years. Once they got to secondary school stage they were no longer interested and by then I had become very interested in the garden looking beautiful. I have spent the past ten years or so trying to create an established garden look. I have spent thousands on plants and I'm still not there. Plants take a long time to grow and to create the sort of repetition and flow that those photos show (appreciate they're not the exact garden), is an expensive undertaking.

Buy the house and leave the garden. It's a significant asset and will bring you great joy. Mature gardens do not need a lot of upkeep. Creating one from scratch costs a lot of money.

I agree with this. Explain about kids wantimg to have more lawn area for garden toys/football/summer paddling pool.

Would they want to empty the garden of plants they want to take. Similar to them taking their furniture from the house, they takr their plants from the garden. It can be done.

I would seriously love a garden like that, but I do appreciate it's a lot of work.

I wouldn't get rid of the whole thing straight away. Start by adding a smaller turfed area (or extending it if there's one already there) for the kids sport and leave the rest for at least a year. Don't make any big and unchangeable decisions until you've lived with it for a while.

As an aside, if this is the kind of area (village?) where people stay a long time then you can guarantee all your neighbours will be up in arms about the buyers who ripped out Bob and Sue's precious garden they spent half their lives creating. Being a pariah isn't how you want to start off in your new home!

I agree it sounds an awful thing to do.

If real, then offer the plants rather than junk them..if not just to the current owners then to gardening groups in the community.