AIBU to rip out a beautiful garden in potential house?

[Mum2HC]

Looking at new house - only one we like. Owner is an older couple who have spent years creating a garden worthy of an National Trust property!! The issue is we do not enjoy gardening and do not want to have to pay a gardener to keep all the flowers in check. Would it be awful to take out half the gardens flowers and replace with grass? It is 0.8 acre so a very big garden and our children would much prefer all turf to play football etc. It would feel almost criminal to do it but we don't want the upkeep - they also have a large rose garden which we would rather take out and have a vegetable garden. Is this all just too much?! It is the only house we like in our ideal location. It must be a full time job to look after it!!

If you can’t look after roses, why would you consider creating a veg garden? Have you ever had one before? They require a lot of care.

Have you also considered the wildlife living in that garden whose lives you would also destroy?

Personally, if I thought somebody had ripped out my well curated roses, that have taken me years to grow, I would haunt them.

Please, please, please do not buy this property, allow somebody to buy it who will appreciate it and the much loved flora and fauna that live in it. If you want plastic grass/turf monoculture , I would have a look at some local new builds and leave the beautiful British countryside to somebody who appreciates it

As a garden lover, your thread has made me need to have a lie down in a dark room and cry for the state of our future.

If the house is perfect, buy it. I agree don't tell the owners your plans until you have exchanged, but do offer them the chance to remove some plants before completion.
Contact the local gardening club and you'll have the place swarming with keen gardeners with spades to do half the work for you!
My previous neighbour was a keen gardener and did a lot of landscaping and planting. The new owners aren't and turfed over a couple of flowerbeds

My garden is similar on a much smaller scale. I know full well that as a family home the people coming in will take it back to grass. I also know I can create a new garden wherever I go, same as I did this one. I would be happier to sell to someone who wanted to keep the garden but I’m realistic.

You'll own it so it's up to you, but it would be a shame. Someone locally did this, flattened a lovely garden and made the whole garden into lawn. They're both hospital doctors so I guess they didn't have time to look after it.

At least they didn't pave over it or use plastic grass so it could have been worse.

I would. When you sell your house, you no longer have a say on what happens to it and that includes the garden. I’m like you in that we simply do not have the time or inclination to maintain a beautiful garden so we need something low maintenance. Not astroturf and fake plants but something very minimal effort.

My PIL are moving and taking some of their prized plants with them so they may take some anyway.

Roses are much easier than vegetables

And football in the garden won’t go on that long: they become too strong or lose interest

I’d buy it and bide your time to see how it all works for you, no rush to rip it all up

Truly just don’t do it. Actually the thought of it is heartbreaking. Not just the emotional devastation to the present owners off they ever found out, but the effect on the habitat, the environmental impact. And also, I suspect any neighbours will really dislike you.

Just think, you will find an alternative house eventually. The effect your actions would have on this little oasis of green will be permanent.

This, absolutely not the house for you!

Unbelievably sad.

Where have I said that we would be replacing with plastic grass?! We would not be doing that.

We have 3 young children who all play a lot of sports, we both work full time and unfortunately do not enjoy gardening at this time in our lives. We have been waiting years for a house to come up near a school we like and this is the only one available. If something came up with a smaller garden we would be thrilled but that is just not happening. This house has been on the market nearly a year. Maybe the huge amount of work required in the garden is putting people off!!

I don't think this is the house for you. It would be criminal to destroy this garden. But you know that.

If you bought the house you could do what you want with it, but it would be a shame. If you can't resist the house, tell the owners to take what plants they like and offer for others to come and get plants they want after? I'd jump at the chance of coming to get some nice plants if someone was offering!

It’s a long to maintain a garden of that size even lawn and vegetables (which are hard work) I had 1/4 acre which was plenty for lawn plus vegetables and fruit trees.

OP I felt the same way when I moved into my house with a beautifully tended garden, except much smaller. I felt it would be wrong to take out established, healthy plants. After two years of trying to keep on top of the bloody garden along with everything else, my feelings have changed and I am having it redone to be much lower maintenance. I love having a garden but it has to work for me, life is too short. If you buy the house it's yours, do whatever you like with the garden.

As a keen gardener - yes, reassess this!

Also as a keen gardener - turf it, its your house and your kids wana play!

Sorry by vegetable garden I mean a couple of raised beds for my kids to grow carrots and berries, nothing more!! We had this at our old house.

Our friends bought a house with three acres some of it was like this. They had a gardener two days a week. Friends have simplified with shrubs in the borders.

I sold a huge pampas grass for an elderly lady on marketplace they came out and dug out carefully. So try to do this. There's an app that identifies plants for you.

We had roses scattered around the garden replanted them against one fence under neighbours leylandi hedge much simpler to look after.

I would take your time though

Could you compromise and lawn some of it but keep the rest and just let it run a bit wild, so a lot less manicured than currently? It would be a lovely haven for bees and butterflies and other bugs and great for the kids too. My two love being deep in undergrowth finding creepy crawlies and making bug hotels etc.

You can do whatever you want to a house you own, but I think it's a shame. If you don't have time for a garden, you don't have time for a vege garden either. They are a lot of work and the yield often isn't worth it for what you put in (though the taste sure is). It does need a lot of soil building and maintaining the soil to make sure you have thriving veges. And watering the garden is no small task. Trees, shrubs and flowers are a bit hardier in that regard.

lol I can tell you are not a gardener.

Perenials and natural shaped shrubs like roses - cut once a year

Grass - cut once or twice a week

Vegetable garden - EVERY day job.

So whilst it’s your garden - do as you please. Please attempt to learn a bit before you destroy something perfectly good and likely looking after itself whilst making yourself more work.

This house isn’t right for you. Find another.

Roses are so easy to maintain though. I have 12 and they just look after themselves.

There are so many Instagram accounts with useful hints and tips for gardening, you don't need to spend a full day a week on a mature garden.

My grandparents lived in the village next to mine and my grandad adored his garden and it sounds as though it is on a similar level to the one you describe.

When they died a couple from the city bought it and ripped out all the rose bushes, cut down a stunning camellia tree and did away with all the beautiful borders and put down a patio and hot tub. They also weather boarded the lovely red bricked bungalow and it's now black with black windows.

Ironically, the guy gave up his city job and started up as a gardener!

It's heartbreaking to see changes to properties at times but if you purchase that house it will be yours to do whatever you want to do with it.

Having a big lawn would also be quite a bit of maintenance. My Mum has a similar sized garden and turfed over her veg patch a few years back as it was getting a bit much for her. She says she doesn't spend that much less time now when she factors in mowing it and doing weed and feed etc. It gets a lot of moss which then dies off in the hot weather, so she has to rake, scarify and reseed. She's not fussy about having a perfect lawn, but that's what it needs to not have bare patches of soil all over.

If the borders have a lot of groundcover plants, you may find there's not too much weeding needs doing. You could get someone in to cut the hedges once or twice a year.

At the end of the day, if you buy the house of course you can do what you like. Agree with the pps who have said to offer the plants to the current owners and community groups etc and not just rip out and dump. I had luck getting rid of a young apple tree on freecycle, I didn't have the heart to bin it and the man was chuffed to have it for his allotment, he even emailed me a few weeks later to let me know it had survived the move.

I am torn on this, we redecorate houses and change floor-plans and extend all the time to suit needs and stlye preferences. The garden will be yours and it's absolutely up to you what you do with it - it's a question of taste and functionality. And also you could equally hate the style of the garden and want to do something else planting or design-wise. Also it's very hard gauge the garden people are defending to be kept without seeing it. It might be horribly naff to some! I love to garden and am constantly extending the flower beds and hate lawn (it has done its time though fir the kids), but I am well aware others might hate my large shady trees and ferns. (I would hate to have to maintain a rose garden for example).

But what comes through more as an issue is the size of it. Can you actually afford/manage any style of garden at that size? Even if you lay lawn across the whole thing that would require significant cost and then maintenance? Removing a well established garden is a lot of work. And while the space seems nice there is a lot to be said for "manageable" in a garden.