What is a small/adequate/decent garden?

[OUB1974]

We've looked around 8 houses so far, and the sticking point is always the garden. I grew up with a huge garden (about 50 m long) and I always wanted my boys to have the same. Our last house was around 14 x 12 metres, which was big enough to play in. I keep getting disappointed by the gardens though when we look around. What sort of size would you consider enough, and what would you like? What is too small?

There is one road that I have my eye on in our new town with big gardens. There might be compromises though - some back onto a railway line and others onto a tyre plant. Would you prefer a smaller nice garden, or a big one near a railway/busy road/factory?

Just wondering what others think. I didn't realise it was so important to me until we started looking.

This is going to be so personal.

Depends on your life stage (age of dc ?)
Depends where you live - getting any garden in some areas of some Cites would be a real bonus, but a much larger garden would be 'standard' elsewhere.

Now, I'm put off houses at the thought of a large garden to maintain.

How old are your dc? When mine were small we had a small garden, about 40 ft x 30 ft. We bought a really big TP climbing frame with slide, tent etc which they loved. But it was limiting - no football or trampoline.

We moved when they were 7 and 9 to a house with a much bigger garden, but within a couple of years they were old enough to play in the park unsupervised so they tended to go there instead.

Don't discount width... my garden is about 50m long, which is similar to the one at my previous house. But it's about 35 feet wide, when my previous garden was 15 feet wide. So new garden is twice as big even though it's the same length.

I'd say 20 meters is an ok size for kids to play?

50 feet long rather. Not 50 metres.

Oh ok.

This is personally really. Ideally I would have loved to have had a huge garden, but I moved to an excellent area with outstanding schools and over here the gardens aren’t big (a lot of nearby parks,woodland and fields which the planners have protected, so there isn’t a need - even new builds don’t get much garden space). And I wouldn’t have been able to find what I wanted even if I spent double in my area. And there is no way I’d ever compromise by living backing onto railway tracks or a tyre shop - dad worked in the railways and growing up we had lots of horror stories of kids jumping their garden fences to get balls etc.

We’re extending so the garden’s going to get even smaller - but it’s ok as it’s still big enough for a kickabout and anything beyond that we’d just take him to the park.

Really interesting to hear everyone's views. I dont think I'd live on a busy road. However the railway line wouldn't bother me if it was a bit enough garden (I grew up with this and quite like it). Not so sure about the factory though.

There is a huge estate we're looking on. There are 2 roads with massive gardens - I'd say 3 or 4 a year come up on these. Many surrounding roads are newer houses with tiny gardens. I've maybe ben a bit spoilt with gardens and have slightly unrealistic expectations. Mine are 3 and 5 so are years of playing yet.

It's a very personal thing and also varies by location. By old house a big garden was £100k more which wasn't worth it to us, but now we are rural its much more common to have a good sized garden and costs much less.

Just think about how much you would use it and what for and what you are prepared to compromise for it. I'ld much prefer a nice house on a nice street to a big garden. I wouldn't consider houses on an estate, by a factory, by a train line (unless steam train), and would be put off by a main road. But people have different preferences. It also depends what is available in your area, how much of the year would you use it and what for and have you got time to keep it looking good or pay someone else to. What size of garden is standard for the area so wouldn't be a resale issue.