What can I do with this garden??

[SleepForTheWeak]

We are in the process of buying a new property why buy is absolutely perfect but the garden is a complete riot 🙈. It almost put me off the property but I looked past it to TRY and see the potential. I have attached some photos (only let me attach 3, will include more in the comments) but it's hard to get a true idea of it.

Basically there's a steep verge as soon as you go out the back door into the garden, prob 6ft night, and currently there's a set of steps up to the main garden area. Once up there it is completely overgrown and the ground is very uneven and quite difficult to walk on.

We are wanting to make the most of the space (there's actually a decent amount if you look past the debris 🙈) while keeping it easy to maintain and safe and secure as we have 2 young children and a dog.

What would you do?

We have a budget of around £10,000

A couple more photos.

Ideally we would want a decking area and maybe even a play area for the kids (woodchip/trance for a jungle gym eg)

The garden gets the sun all day

It looks wonderful, how much time do you think you'll spend on maintaining it? Would you employ a gardener for a few hours a week or do it yourself?

I remember years ago hearing someone who wanted a super easy to maintain garden being told 'if there's no gardener, there's no garden' so if you are only going to do the absolute minimum you need to choose a design that won't require much input to stay nice.

You could have some great play equipment.

Have you seen any gardens in your house hunting tgat had features you really liked?

Think I'd have a slide down to back door 😀

Though on a serious note would you put a fence along top of slope with gate to keep little ones away from stairs? Then some sort of flower bed up slope.

On the slope down to the back door you could have a curved slide embedded so no danger pf them falling from a height.

Slide in the hill, or embankment slide are the type of thing I mean. You might ned a thick rubber mat at the bottom.

I'd keep the trees, are they fruit trees?

What sort of ground is it? can you get a mini-digger round into the garden?

I would try to dig out/ retaining wall a bigger area for a small patio immediately outside the back door and then find a way, through teiring the garden a bit, to have a more gradual set of steps up to the main garden.

I love the mature trees. Some kind of tree house to incorporate the trees would be great.

I agree - get a digger to make a patio and to put terracing in the slope if you can. at the same time, level the grass at the top for a kids play area. And a slide down the slope would be great.

put a wide flower bed at the top of the slope to stop people accidentally falling down it.

keep the trees too.

Thank you - LOVE the slide down the slope idea!

I am wanting super easy to maintain - so turf (which we would get someone else to cut 😂) and maybe a couple flower pots.

Thought maybe decking too (where the fruit trees are) and on the opposite side of the garden (can really see in pics but it's covered in branches at mo) make it into a play area, and if we are really pushing the boat out, with some type of jungle gym.

Definitely need a wall/fence at top of slope - youngest (1.10) fancies herself as some kind of action woman 😂

Don't know if it's too much though. Would also love a bigger patio.

And for all I know that could cost well in excess of £10,000 so maybe I'm being unrealistic but my girls spend a lot of time in the garden and we are moving late along so would be great to have a nice area for them for the summer

I'd keep it simple while the children are small, a grassy play area would be fab, then as they get bigger and less interested in playing in the garden, you could alter the shape of the lawn to introduce some curves, and flower beds.

Some paths through the lawn (with a curve to them if possible) would break up the flat shape a bit. A path leading to a sunny bench with some lavender in a couple of pots near it for instance.

You could add some hight and colour with climbers up the stone wall, clematis, roses for instance. If that's a cut down conifer hedge on the other side, they can be a bit boring, so you could use climbers there too, that would just ramble through the old conifers, honeysuckles might be nice.

You would have space for the children to have their own garden, a flowerbed to grow sunflowers and cottage garden mixed flowers, maybe lettuce or green beans too.

What fun you are all going to have!

I'm loving these ideas so much - thank you!

Think a wavy path or evening stepping stones (?!) to split the grass up would be nice

Going to see it again on Saturday so will try get better pics and some dimensions

*even!