Massive garden

[CoxsOrangePippin]

We're house hunting in the London suburbs. One place has a long thin garden maybe nearly a tenth of an acre. I love the outdoors but I'm happy with a couple of growbags and maybe one tree...I don't have the skills or time to keep it nice.

Are there any ways of getting outside space looked after cheaply, e.g. someone else can grow veggies there? I wouldn't want to avoid the house if the UK is actually full of, dunno, gardening students or something like that, just wanting to be set loose...

Why not just get a house with a smaller garden? It will be a lot cheaper and less hassle.

For example, we've got a corner plot. The back of the garden had been sold off and built on decades ago. So we're left with half the original garden. As suburban gardens are massive, even having half of it is plenty. I think ours is about 230m2 so enough room for a number of features and areas without the headache of a mega plot.

Can I ask how long yours takes to maintain? This one isn't much bigger than yours, it's just most places we've looked at have eg a 5m x 5m square.

If it was mainly grass then a once a week mow surely wouldn't take that long?

The amount of maintenance depends on what you're after. If you just have a lawn with a hedge around and a couple of trees, there will be little maintenance. Probably less than 5h/month in summer and barely anything in winter.

It only starts getting more fiddly when you want a range of plants, flowers, a fish pond or a water garden etc.

Our garden is of a formal design with lots of hedges, topiary, parterres, 11 lollipop trees, some fruit trees, potted plants on the terrace etc so there's a bit more to do. But that's a bit of a hobby for me and DH does the lawn.

Having said that, most people in my road have a gardener. Speaking to neighbours, they often have a little section that they look after, e.g. a flower bed or a veg patch but leave all the mundane jobs to the gardener.

Low maintenance landscaping?

Thanks guys it is less daunting than I thought!
My current big tubs of fruit bushes, grow bags etc take a lot of faff for the amount of peppers and go etc that I get off them, but I guess once a tree is well established it mostly does its thing unlike something that keeps drying out in a pot.

A 10th of an acre doesn't sound very big. I can't really picture it, but my garden is a quarter acre and it's not so bad. It's a bugger to mow, but dh has a tractor and we only do it twice a year.

Twice a year mowing and I could call it a meadow scatter some wild flower seeds...

That's literally exactly what we do

You'll grow into it...lol!!...they joy about gardens is that if you do nothing you won't kill them...keep a small section close to the house neat....let the rest grow over if you can't manage...wildlife will love it..

I've 3/4 of an acre....which in some ways is easier to manage than a small garden as I don't expect it to be all perfect all of the time..

You can plant some pretty shrubs and perennials around the edge, with some spring bulbs and it shouldn't need too much maintenance if you can do lawn mowing, occasionally hacking things back and removing any invaders like brambles.

OP, I thought about doing that when I saw a house that was suitable, but with long thin garden that I wouldn't use, like you, I thought of offering it as allotments and just keeping the bit near the house. Surely someone has done this before.

Peaceandlove, I wonder if it's actually quite tricky. Normal allotments can be had quite easily and cheaply (friends pay £40/year). There's a nice sense of community etc. If you're offering the back of the garden, people might be put off by being in your back garden, access times (e.g. If you've got a BBQ and friends over etc).

Yes that's it Jo I just thought the ground would be of use to someone and if they were to throw a few free veggies my way that'd be great. Then I got thinking of needing insurance and a water tap, so talked myself out of it.

Ps Jo I've heard of some popular allotments having waiting lists.

I also would like to add that vegetable gardening and pot gardening demand lot's more work than most gardens. Focuse on no/low maintenace plants.
In the whole summer I spend maybe 8 hours caring for it: a little spring cleanup, weeding the tree seelings, spreading fresh mulsh, dividing the established plants, I don't have much grass left to mow.