Low maintenance

[SJ89SJ]

I'm about to move house to a lovely 4 bed as we are upsizing. Everything about the house is ideal but the garden is pitched as "low maintenance" I am a keen gardener (with a 2 year old and working part time) but this garden is so very different to my current one. It's a bit smaller but just all paved. There isn't a plant in it besides a tiny square of grass!
What would you do in the short term to make it feel nicer?
Is lifting paving difficult? Just a bit nervous as this is the downside of the move.

I guess there’s container gardening or raised beds if lifting is a pain. I vaguely remember a Beechgrove episode where they just cleared a square meter of paving to do a veg bed (on the theory a meter squared can feed a family of 4- veg wise) and they said the paving retained the heat and warmed the soil so helped start your veg off well. I would think the issue would be getting decent soil once the pavers are up- you’d need to really improve it - so designing with raised beds may be easier.

I've got a lot of paving and one little patch of lawn too. We lifted paving slabs and they weren't too tricky, we just needed a crowbar and we did that down one side to create a proper flowerbed. The alternative would be to build a raised bed which was our original plan but we were trying to keep costs down.

How tiny is the patch of grass? If it's really small I'd consider having no lawn at all (no mowing which is a bonus) and planting something nice there instead.

Because I have so much paving most of my plants are growing in containers. Everything from wildflower seed bombs to larger shrubs like viburnum and hydrangea go in pots. I grow all of my fruit and veg in pots too and this works really well (courgettes, swiss chard, tomatoes, chillis, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, pumpkins, spring onions, rhubarb, blueberries, dwarf apple tree) etc just to give you an idea.

I’d get rid of as much paving as you can and leave in enough for plants and a patio. You might be able to get someone to take up for free if they want the slabs. It’s not that hard though deep on how it’s been done. Then improve the soil. I do a lot of container gardening, and you could build big raised beds. But it’s cheaper in the ground than big containers, easier to care for, less watering etc etc.

The obvious short term solution is pots while you settle in and think about what you want to do longer term (where the sun hits, what storage you need etc). Maybe keep an eye on facebook/marketplace for cheap or free pots or containers you could use for pots - I’ve always fancied that thing of collecting the empty huge cans they use in catering for tomatoes and growing some veg in them.

Thank you everyone! We have finally exchanged and move in on Thursday. I'm so nervous as I'll be leaving my lush green garden with Dahlias and roses in full bloom for a very low maintenance one! I'm taking some pots of colour and think I'll live with it a bit and try to plan what slabs to lift and where we will sit etc. Exciting garden project on the horizon 😁