Transforming a flagged garden

[thewitchery]

I've just bought my 'forever home' (I am single and childfree).

When I first got my eye on the house, the garden was lovely, a lawn, loads of bushes and shrubs, buzzing with bees and butterflies.

Come to it being on the market and the previous occupants have flagged the whole thing (😡).

I would probably keep just a small 'path' of flags in the middle to give myself a non-wet and muddy walkway in the colder seasons but I want rid of the lot of them as they look a twat awful IMO.

I am on a low income in my 'main' job although I do regularly pick up well-paying freelance work. The latter is sporadic so if possible I want to do this frugally.

Suggestions from friends include advertising the flags for 'Free to person who removes' as they can work out quite expensive and people might want them.

I could also just splash out and get someone in to sort out the lot.

Or pay someone just to remove the flags-I'd rather they went to someone because even though I personally hate them, as far as flags go they're a nice colour and they're fairly new.

And then what, once they're removed am I being silly to think I could just rake the ground and stick some lawn seed down and do some planting and that's that?

This situation is not my forte at all. Has anyone ever DIY'd a situation like this?

TIA

I agree with giving the flags away to whoever will take them.

The ground underneath will be compacted sand, so you can't just rake it and seed. We just put a couple of inches of top soil on to and grass seeded that. It's fine for grass but not great if you want plants that needs deeper roots.

Thank you, that is helpful.
The flags are cemented in.

Erm... when you went for the viewing, was the garden still a garden? Is it shown as a garden on the estate agent plans?

Because if you made an offer on that basis, then you were also buying everything in the garden and that would have included all the plants in the ground, lawn and all. If they've removed them, they shouldn't have done so because they formed part of what you were buying.

See if you can get some free legal advice about this, because you may be able to pursue the vendor to recompense you for the work needed to put the garden back to the condition it was in when you agreed to buy it.

Cemented in? Sucks teeth like an ancient gardener, shakes head...
Don't like the sound of that @thewitchery . However, my only advice right now (I'm typing this at the bus stop), is post on the gardening board! Nothing they/we (although I don't post much at the mo) like better than a good old problem garden to opine on. Sure it can be done! 🌱

No. So I don't have a leg to stand on. I've loved the house for a long time. Then I moved elsewhere, then learned it was for sale so I became interested again and in the meantime the tenants had paved over the garden (without the permissions of the owners but that's another tale altogether)!

Thank you! I didn't realise MN had a gardening section. Yes, they're very firmly down with cement. I guess I could borrow a sledgehammer /sarcasm.

I will post there now

I moved into a house with similar.

it’s not just the flags. Underneath in my garden was a load of sand and then a plastic membrane.
I’m doing mine slowly.

A PP informed me about the sand! I am so ignorant to this kind of thing. How are you approaching yours? I'd like to catch a bit of this year's planting season if possible.

Why not start with things in pots while you deal with the flags? That way you can build colour and attract bees etc. you can do so much with pots

I’m doing a mixture of things in pots and I’m trying to make a bit more flowerbed each year. Two years ago I got my son to dig up a small 1m by 1m section and that’s now herbs - I got topsoil delivered and mixed the sand in with it. Last year I started on the end bed which now has winter jasmine a rose and a clematis in. This year I’m going to continue that bed.

Bastards. Hopefully the previous owner took some money out of their rent deposit because of that.

They also stole a large oak dining table, and made a mess of a lot of other things within the house, but I'd be here all day listing them!
I've checked all of the flags and they're very firmly cemented down unfortunately so I think this is going to have to be a professional job of some sort, but I would much rather they went to someone rather than they just got cut up and in a skip.