Small garden

[housebuyingnovice]

I think we're going to offer on a house we absolutely love. Great size, fab location. The one big query I have is the size of the garden. It's much smaller than we wanted. We have a 3 and 5 year old. Both boys. And I feel a bit sad that they don't be able to run about in it.

It's big enough for a table and chairs and a trampoline. And it's not overlooked. (The houses at the back have massive gardens).

A couple of friends have said that their kids don't really use the garden. Is this true? Are they just saying this to make me feel better?

Just wondering whether I'll always regret this. Or whether actually a small garden is all we might need.

Interested to hear your thoughts...

Really depends on how much you all like being outside. Our personal preference was big garden over the house, the way we see it is we can change the house but not the location or size of garden, we ended up buying a run down bungalow but it's on an acre and detached. The other side of it is a smaller garden is a lot easier to maintain and there's always the park for the kids to run and cycle around etc 👍

Is there a park nearby? Or a cul de sac of houses with friends? Really depends! Also look at the big gardens at the back, that back onto yours...any chance there's one unkempt in need of TLC that's got too big for the elderly homeowners who could do with a more manageable garden? Could you offer to buy a bit more? One of my daughters friends garden was L shaped, & went behind two of the next door houses .

My boys are the same age and it is definitely a bonus to let them run outside in the garden rather than having to pack everything up for an expedition out. It does depend what’s around you though.

We did end up buying a smaller garden than we wanted though as realistically the garden doesn’t get used much over the winter so we went for a larger house relative to garden. Again, depends on circumstances though as we weren’t in a position to do loads of work (ie big extension) at the prices we were looking at

We moved into our house when mine were 4 and 18 months and I was disappointed with the garden which sounds a similar size to yours.

The house was however located off the road down a private drive. My DC rarely played in the garden for several reasons:

1. We live 5 minutes from the park.
2. Their school was situated at the top of the park so you had to walk through the park to get home and every evening they played for half an hour on the park and whenever they wanted on a weekend.
3. As the house is off the road, they also had the freedom to ride bikes/roller blade, kick a ball on the drive safely too.
4. After school activities such as rugby, swimming, taekwondo & horse riding meat there was little inclination or energy left to play in the garden anyway.

My neighbours all have bigger gardens. I rarely if ever see their DC in their gardens either, but that could be down to the location of the park.

At 3 and 5 your garden is big enough, when it gets too small they will be off with their friends or doing activities anyway.

20 years later we are still in the same house and my (adult) DC use it far more now having BBQs and sharing a bottle of wine in the summer.

We have a pretty small garden and similar age dc. Dh wanted a football pitch sized garden but now he has to mow it, he is glad its pretty small.

We have a trampoline, table and chairs and a small lawn. Its plenty big enough, they adjust to the space they have. We have a climbing frame and pop up pool that are well used and take up all the lawn. We also live just around the corner from a park.

The garden isn't used for most of the winter so it made sense to prioritise the house.

Thanks. This is all helpful. We are 5 minutes walk from a great park, so hopefully that will be enough. I had dreams of football games and veg patches but I think the reality would have been quite different!

I’ve got a large house squeezed into a relatively small plot, it was a compromise as we definitely wouldn’t have been able to afford it I’d the garden had been big. I’ve now got the garden how I want it and really like it because it’s easy to keep tidy. When the dcs were little a small garden was adequate for paddling pool, sand pit etc and when they got a bit older they went to the local park to see friends. As teens they rarely bother with the garden anyway. I’m so glad we opted for a bigger house, smaller garden rather than the other way round as 90% if the time we’re indoors anyway, and looking out onto a large untidy garden would stress me out.

Is there an allotment association nearby? Then you get the best of both worlds.

I compromised on garden size when we moved here. I wanted a really big one, but we got medium sized. The upside of not having too big an area is its easy to keep it looking really nice and colourful in the summer without being a slave to it. I have friends who moan about time spent tending to larger plots, and working for hours with little to show for it. If you have got areas nearby to play it should be fine.

Small garden is fine
Much easier to maintain
Kids often only use when little or good weather

A couple of friends have said that their kids don't really use the garden. Is this true

We don't know your friends so can't comment. 😁

Seriously everyone will be different, did we use ours, yes, my husband and daughter used to play ball in the garden when she was little in the summer. She had a swing set etc and a trampoline. However if you do t have it, then you just need to make different arrangements.

We have a small garden but are also less than 5 mins away from at least 3 parks and a massive one just over 5 mins away. We also have a medium sized dog and have a green less than 2 minutes away.

Because we are not spending loads of time maintaining the garden (grass and tile) we have more fun in the garden. If we had a veggie patch my DD (3) would destroy it and the dog would dog it up. (But we will be getting a plastic stand up greenhouse) We also built a sand table and put a bike shed in (doubles up as a Wendy house and you store) the only gripe I have with our garden now is the grass as in the dog as destroyed it (but dogs wreck big gardens too) so we are looking at putting in artificial grass

3 children here. Decent sized garden. 1 boy, 2 girls. I wouldn't have compromised to the extent that they couldn't play football / do cartwheels and shows after shows in the garden. They're in it every day over the spring / summer for hours on end. We also have a park close by but that would have involved several years of me having to go with them until they were old enough to go alone, rather than minimal supervision from say kitchen window / back door.

We always go for the biggest garden we can find. I love seeing the kids outside. We definitely get out a lot more than if we had a smaller garden. They have football goals, swings, slide, trampoline, scooters, bikes etc... It's so easy to be outside.

Compromise here was the garden as I like gardening, but the house was perfect in every way. Our neighbours all have acres! I call their gardens labours of love, DH calls them labour!
However it suits us as we go out all the time especially when the weather is nice and park, woods, fields, walks two minutes away. DD is 18 now, she loves her huge bedroom, own living room, used to love her playroom (now an office) and mostly own bathroom- never mentioned the garden.
Ours is private and sunny more important than size imo.

We've found its ages / stages with use of our garden. As toddlers they defo were out every day in the garden that weather permitted- pottering about, gardening, playing. Then it was all about the swing & slide, then not interested unless it's summer with the paddling pool; now as they are older, they might sit outside but they don't really play- much prefer meeting mates at the local green for a kick about.
If you have enough space for a trampoline, I'd have thought you'd be absolutely fine.