Huge garden in disaster !

[Inliverpool1]

I’ve come back to my house after renting it out for 7 years and it’s a jungle. Taken 2 men 2 days and £600 just to partially clear it.
This is what I’m left with.
So landscaping, absolute ball park. Any idea what fencing all the way down and paving would cost ?
Thank you so much

What, ultimately, do you want from your garden? You could fence it but actually you seem to have pretty good hedges. Do you want any bare soil or are you thinking of paving the whole garden?

The grass gets so boggy it’s useless I was thinking of paving most of it with some artificial grass maybe ?

Will you carry on renting? Or live there?

What way does it face?

Is it boggy all year or just winter?

Boggy ground won't be any good for artificial grass. Keep the hedges and maybe have a patio or gravel garden?
Also depends which way it's facing. If in sunshine then gravel garden will be best.
Otherwise, patio and gravel will end up all green and slimy.

"Any idea what fencing all the way down and paving would cost ?"

We had a 100ft garden fenced on one side (you should only have responsibility for one side) with concrete posts, concrete gravel boards and 6ft panels, cost about £2,000 about 3-4 years ago. Yours looks quite a bit longer. definitely get at least 3 quotes, prices vary wildly. If you get a one-man show he probably won't be VAT registered which will keep the cost down. If you had an agent, they usually have good contacts with less expensive workers for this kind of thing.

I'm a bit perplexed - you seem surprised that the garden is a mess after 7 years renting. Even if you didn't go there yourself, an agent should have kept you informed and taken photos on regular 3-monthly visits. Also the tenants should have been made responsible for the garden in the lease, so clearing a jungle could have come out of the deposit if they hadn't done it themselves.

It came out of the deposit alright, unfortunately as is often the case the deposit didn’t touch the sides vs damage done. We are living there now though. This is forever so I don’t mind spending the money to make it nice.

The grass has always been a disaster tbh

Would trees help with boggy ground? Or do the roots rot?

Perhaps you could speak to a garden landscape contractor about the possibility of putting a soakaway in, which will help with the boggy ground.
That might solve the issue with it being too wet for a lawn once and for all. Anything other than grass in that size of garden would cost a fortune.

That’s a good idea, thank you both

We have clay which means the grass does get boggy but it’s only a problem if we walk all over it loads in wet weather. Best thing to do is put stepping stones in so you can cross the lawn without chewing it up. Then use the lawn in the summer when it’s drier.

What do your neighbour do?

Saw a boggy garden that had been embraced- raised decking and bog garden planting underneath. Looked lovely- although decking was pricey. Do you want to sit in that bit or could you give it over to things like gunnera and pond edge plants - or even an actual pond?

You could absolutely embrace boggy ground with planting schemes and raised decking. Is the whole lot boggy or just the bit in the foreground of the photo?

Speak to the Landscaper about putting different levels in. I have a tiny paved garden but it has three shallow steps. The soakaway is on the Lower level. I have planted Robinia and Alemanchier trees which are beautiful and love the wet.

I got my fences from Jackson Trellis

Brilliant suggestions thank you, neighbors have the stepping stones never noticed before but that’s the problem it’s been walked on

Regardless of what you do design wise, I think that first it's worth spending a bit more on those two guys to clear all that ground ivy. It ruins the soul and spreads.

I’m with you there too, it’s all over the property, jinxing it

Please don't put in artificial grass, it's terrible for the environment (and never looks real).

We have boggy grass in winter but bone dry in summer (south-facing garden with a lot of tree cover). What way does your garden face? If you're the forever I would suggest waiting until after this autumn so you can see where the sun falls, what grows, and plan around that. There might be one lovely spot halfway down that's perfect for a patio.

We had a soak away put in our garden at great expense and it's great. My kids are out in the (north facing) garden already whilst neighbours complain theirs are waterlogged still. We had it levelled and had raised boarders put in at the same time, it sloped up towards each fence by as much as 3 foot, making the water logging worse. Soak aways are brilliant.

A soakaway sounds great, mentioned it to one guy today and he pulled a face but I’ve learnt the hard way not to take any notice

He pulled a face because it is a lot of back-breaking hard work for them

Awww I see no wonder he wasn’t keen then. Bloody typical, didn’t have any alternative solutions though

I found my landscaper through the Marshall’s stone catalogue. You do not have to use Marshall’s stone but if you put your post code in, there is a list. I went out of area as my local ones where not quite what I wanted. I waited 7 months before he could start but he was fantastic

We put down sand as well to help with the boggy ground then returfed (Homebase turf was better than b&q btw). Find a local landscaper company if you aren't up for a lot of digging, it was backbreaking

I was going to suggest a willow. As long as there are no drains nearby.