AIBU to rip out a beautiful garden in potential house?

Of course you can, it will be your family’s home and fit your family’s purpose. I bet this couple didn’t have a garden like this when they were raising their family.
It’s going to be a Hugo job to turn it into what you want though, and very expensive.
if you don’t like gardening, do you need a veg patch? It’s still a lot of work.h
i completely re did my garden when I moved it, the previous owners taste wasn’t the same as mine. Rubble, dog crap and rubbish weren’t my thing.

@Mum2HC I would buy it if I were you and wait for an year and see just how much maintenance the garden needs. We bought a house with a similar garden, but smaller, which was teeming with wildlife and much to our surprise. It has more or less taken care of itself with lots of plants self seeding and popping up in other areas of the garden so that it looks slightly different every year. We’ve kept on top of the hedges, which makes things look good and we keep the grass mowed but other than that we just pull out the weeds as and when. We’re not Gardeners but we do love sitting in the garden and hearing the hum of bees.

I think it’s important to note that when we first bought the house we were like you and fully intended to rip everything out and replace it was a lawn and borders but we didn’t have the money to do it so lived with it for a while and strangely it has grown on us and I can see now that our original plan would have been a crying shame.

We did take out some of the shrubs we didn’t like, which made it more to our taste.

Good luck with your move, OP

Sure, I’m sure you really worry about others when you’re doing something you want to do!! Have you consulted anyone about decisions you’ve made in your garden???

Ignore these idiots … by the house and do what you like. What business is it of anyone’s anyway. Don’t know why you’re even asking the question … you know what people are like on here!

Look for something else, kids don’t stay kids forever it would be a terrible thing to disturb all the wildlife you have within it .

Try and minimise these actions. You'll regret it down the line if you remember what it used to look like. Really hard to recreate an interesting mature garden..

We've dug up some roses that were maybe twenty years or so old. I can feel their ghosts whispering to me when I'm in the garden sometimes

And it can make a property much more attractive to other buyers.

Translation--some people care about things other than themselves.

I would ADORE a garden like that.

I agree with others, find somewhere else, something will come up. I too would feel heartbroken if I saw someone had destroyed that gorgeous patch of nature.

My garden is tiny in comparison.

When I first had my eye on this house it had shrubs, a lawn, flowerbeds and was teaming with birds and bugs and buzzing things. And a gorgeous little summerhouse.

I was thrilled when it went on the market, and then learned that the previous tenants had paved all over it.

Grrr.

AND they'd knocked the summerhouse down.

I am currently in the process of sorting it out. I have taken up a lot of the flags, and now need to get rid of rubble from the cement and rake the ground. Luckily they'd done a bit of a botch job so (with the help of a large dog) I have dug down and there is still soil. I should be able to throw some topsoil down and some compost and grass seed. I can't wait to have a patch of nature.
Please find somewhere else OP. Or could you just minimally create a 'football pitch' and other than a potter once a week to keep things tamed, leave the rest for wildlife? You don't have to have a perfectly coiffured garden.

If I was the seller and a potential buyer told me they were going to rip out my beautiful garden in favour of a football pitch I probably wouldn’t sell the house to you.

i don’t understand how you think a veg garden is a good idea when you don’t enjoy gardening and say you have no time to do it.

Employ a gardener. A couple of hours a fortnight will keep on top of it

Exactly … some people are off their heads!!

They do want a garden, just not one full of flowers and plants. So they can charge that … same a changing the inside of the house!

What tosh … all because of a garden. People change things to suit how they live, not be dictated to by how the person had the property before them.

Not the house for you then. It will cost you to demolish the garden and replace with whatever. If you don't want a garden and its benefits don't buy one.

Once you own the house, you own the garden. You can do what you please to suit how you live. The owners may have spent hours decorating the house, but if it’s not to your taste then you would change it … same with the garden. Maybe you could sell some of the plants / give them away where possible if you didn’t want to bin them … or create a compost heap.

Once you buy a house, you can do whatever you like with it. You make your home and garden fit your lives….even if that mean plastic grass!

I totally agree with you on that point. Where I disagree is that its going to be a lot harder to change than wallpaper because the acreage will remain and whatever they decide to do with it will be costly and/or time consuming if they choose not to do it themselves. I have already said that I know that my own beloved wild garden likely won't survive when i sell the house and I have made my peace with that.

I haven't read the whole thread. It is a shame, but at the end of the day it has to be functional for you. Maybe live with it for a while to see what works and what you can manage. You can tweak things, it isn't like you are intending to rip out the whole lot.

That would be an absolute travesty.
If you can’t afford it and it doesn’t suit your needs, don’t buy it 🤷‍♀️

I think it would be a horrible thing to do. We need as much biodiversity in gardens as we can get and just grass is rubbish at supporting insect life.

I love my garden. I have been in this house over 30 years and my garden is my pride and joy. However when I move, it will no longer be my garden and whoever buys the house will rip it apart and do whatever suits them, their family and their lifestyle. I dont have a problem with that.
I fully intend to establish MY garden wherever I move to... regardless of other peoples opinion of my style!
You do what you want to make your home and garden yours. But may I suggest that you offer the sellers any plants they want and also if they want to take cutting from shrubs etc.. If there is a local gardening group you could ask them to come and take what plants you need removed from the beds and suggest they make a small donation to a local charity in lieu of any payment.
Good luck and much happiness in your new home.

This is still a bit of a shame, but I do think there is a more than subtle difference between taking something on then, once you have owned it some time, finding you need to change it, and taking something on with the clear plan and intention of destroying it.

Bathrooms, kitchens, wallpaper all fair game for the most part, provided they aren't special examples of something. But a beautiful garden is something that we should be safeguarding.

Buy the house & see what evolves. Yes it would be sad if you had to take some of the plants out but it will be your home so has to work for you.
its a daft reason not to buy a house imo. Someone else might come in & do exactly the same thing.

"We have no idea how to look after it" is not a good reason for trashing it. There may be other good reasons but ignorance is not one of them