Help me make my garden better, please

[Fixmygarden]

So my garden is smallish but pretty, dominated by the hugest garage/workshop ever (7m by 5m). Its currently just filled with crap which definitely does not need to be in there. There's a small bit of fake grass.

The previous owners were amazing gardeners, we definitely are not. Me and DH spent hours out there over the Easter holidays and it still looks like a weed pile. I've attached in a very beautifully done picture (clearly by an amazing artist) of the layout.

I want it to be kid friendly, we have a 7 year old DS and a 1 year old DD who never go out there because there's nothing to do. It's east west facing so sun etc is fine. I'm thinking of knocking down the garage and replacing that whole area with a section of gear which we could put kids fun stuff on, but is that crazy?

Why not turn the huge garage into a play room? It could be a godsend given our weather, kids could run around, ride bikes, make a mess without being under your feet even when it's cold and wet.

Oooooh. Now that's interesting! I'd never thought of that. Maybe open up one side so it can be really open or closed..! I love that idea

Here is a weird photo (excuse the rubbish everywhere, I'm trying to clear the garage a bit).

I think that's a lovely garden. Opening up that garage to make it more of an outdoor room would be great! But you might want some kind of foldback doors so you can close it off? A woodburner and some adult seating at one end, kids stuff at the other would make it a perfect sheltered play or party spot...

I'd kill for a building like that now we have teenagers. An escape pod for us at one end when they and their large smelly mates are filling up all the sofas, and/or an escape pod for them with a table tennis table etc would be brilliant.

Yours won't be little for ever. If it had a hard floor it could be great for burning off steam on mini bikes, even while chucking it down.

I know bigger all about plants but done more judiciously placed low maintenance flowers, pots, herbs as ground cover would look lovely in your courtyard bit.

And if the artificial grass bit is dark, could you plant a moss lawn instead?

Yeah the original plan was to make it into an actual extra room. I'd have loved it when I was a teen (somewhere to "secretly" smoke). I reckon if we make it into a proper space it could work well. Thank you. This is really useful.

Would it be crazy to knock down the garage and have space to possibly extend the house a bit and somewhere for the kids to play out? I have no idea how much any of this would even cost.

I sold a huge concrete garage on eBay buyer collects. There was a concrete base which was then covered with Ikea outdoor tiles. Far easier than I expected. You have a lovely space.

I'd love to be able to do that. I think that it's mega though, it's got an inspection pit etc.

DH is saying if we go to the effort of putting a better roof on it and big doors, we may as well convert it into a proper working room. Or maybe we'll move!