Is this garden very high maintenance? How could we make it less so?

[scaredofthegarden]

Toying with buying this house but garedn whilst beautiful is putting us off. worried it will take all of our spare time. Have to make a decision today since someone else has put in an offer (but we are in a better buying position so estate agent has come back to us first). Is it very high maintenance?

would help if I added the link

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25655153.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E1019&maxBed rooms=4&minPrice=700000&maxPrice=800000&pageNumber=1&backToListURL=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Ffind.html% 3FsearchType%3DSALE%26locationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E1019%26radius%3D0.0%26displayPropertyType%3D%2 6minBedrooms%3D%26maxBedrooms%3D4%26minPrice%3D700000%26maxPrice%3D800000%26maxDaysSinceAdded%3D%26r etirement%3D%26partBuyPartRent%3Dfalse%26_includeSSTC%3Don%26sortByPriceDescending%3D%26primaryDispl ayPropertyType%3D%26secondaryDisplayPropertyType%3D%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3D%26oldPrimaryDisplayP ropertyType%3D%26oldSecondaryDisplayPropertyType%3D%26newHome%3D%26auction%3Dfalse%26x%3D59%26y%3D16

I don't know but it's looooverly !

God I'm so crap. Does anyone know how I remove that since it has all my personal details on it!

It looks a lot of shrubbery/trees which i imagine should more or less look after themselves other than routine cut back.

I agree it is lovely.

It doesn't have your details on

That's the problem though Worzsel, worried it wouldn't stay lovely for long with our lack of gardening skills!

If you let me come and live there with you, I'LL look after the garden! The lawn will take some mowing!

It is certainly something to think about when buyng a house. A garden can be a wonderful thing if you have time and inclination but just a chore if you don't.

The garden in that house looks quite low maintenece though with grass and srubs. You could have a twice a year contract gardner to come and do pruning/hedging if you wanted and then get a ride on mower for the lawn.

Nice house.

Oh phew. Must only bring up my details when it recognises my computer!

I thought that about the shrubs but DH isn't convinced.

Any big garden is a tie. This one doesn't look as bad as some because it is mostly green. There are no flower beds to weed, deadheading to be done, as far as I can see?

I think it will be more of a 'tidying' job to keep those hedges neat and the trees topped off (which you could get someone in to do anyway wrt the trees.)

You will need to keep on top of the lawn because if that starts to go patchy it will change the whole look of the garden and will look horrid. But regular cutting and a yearly feed should be OK.

Lovely house!

Speak to the vendors they should give you an idea of maintenance

Doesn't look too bad at all to me. Shrubs are much easier than flower borders.

Its been empty for 18 months. Didn't sell because it was dump but has now been done up and price reduced. The vendors have never lived there so can't really give us an idea of maintenance. I think they've just gone in and straightened it up.

Its a nice house and its in a very good location but its been done up cheaply and a lot of what has been done to sell it we would want to change. This has added to our hesitation in putting in an offer.

We do however have a tractor mower already since we had a large garden in our last house but that was literally all lawn and so wasn't too bad to keep on top of.

I'm more of a sitting in the garden with a glass of wine type rather than a do the garden type but if shrubs really are low maintenance then maybe its worth going for it.

Aaagh - hate having to make these decisions!

One of the trees is dead. Its taller than the house. Will it cost a fortune to remove it?

Looks lovely - am very !

If you're used to a large lawn then the only extra you have are hte shrubs which as others have said won't take up that much time at all. Maybe spend one afternoon every three weeks in the spring and summer ttrimming them. Or get someone round once a month to do it.

Not high maintnance at all. Go for it!

The grass will take a while to cut but otherwise I would say it is a low maintenance garden.

Get a gardener. We pay £20 a fortnight for someone to mow the lawn, weed, hoe, keep the shrubs trimmed and generally keep things tidy.

(Our garden is nowhere near as big as that one though).

Worth every penny to me as I am also a sit-in-the-garden-and-admire-it person rather than wanting to spend my spare time doing it...

Drool!!! Looks very low maintenance to me - the big thing is the mowing (get a big mower or a man in. Or both). Shrubs - v little, occasional hack back in autumn I reckon. Very little else. Swap it for my 'patio garden'!!! Go for it and enjoy!

Big dead trees cost a lot to shift - over £1000. Even more of access is tricky or if stands next to a neighbouring property.

If not removed, it may become a major issue with your insurance as it would constitute a pre-existing risk so it may not be covered when you transfer your household insurance to the property. You would need to specificly mention it to your insurance company in writing with a photograph to be on the safe side and even better I would ask the vendor to shift it as a condition of sale.

Thanks ABetaDad, that's really helpful - and a great idea to get it sorted prior to purchase.

Any other helpful hints or thoughts?!

Has anyone looked at the floorplan? We think they've made a mistake in not knocking through the kitchen to the utilty and store area to make a big living kitchen. I'm guestimating 20k to sort it out (the utility /store area is on a lower level and we'd want some roof lights too). Any views?

That looks a really low maintenance garden
I think you'll just need a mower and hedge strimmer there - every few weeks in the warmer months.
The bigger trees I can see around in the pics look evergreen too....so not even that much leaf sweeping

Looks lovely. Those lovely big windows in that 3rd pic!

oooo very nice.
Looks like mostly shrubs to me, so other than the huge amount of mowing, probably not that bad.

We've got a similar garden - it's pretty low maintenance because it's all shrubs/lawn and very little flower beds.

We mulch when we mow - i.e. don't collect the grass. Massive time saver and we don't spend long gardening. Mind you, we are pretty relaxed about it not looking picture perfect.