fully patio-d yard reversal?

[Riverswims]

Good afternoon
I'm interested in a house which has everything I need except a garden, it's advertised a "low maintenance" it's just all patio with good fences, a shed and a gate, I'm used to a 50ft garden which is part patio with borders and grass which I maintain myself, I see trees out of my kitchen currently, I keep thinking that the patio garden will make me sad, so has anyone reversed a ' garden' like this, and what was the approximate cost? it's also about 50ft x 50ft in the SE
thanks

I have no idea about overall costs, but if the slabs are nice you should be able to give them away which will cut down on things like skip costs which can be quite a lot.

it's not actually slabs it's bricks <snippet of photo> but it seems like an extended patio to me. or driveway? yes I'd try to give to give them away 👍🏽

Tons and tons and tons of big pots, to grow trees and big shrubs in. Bamboo, buddliea, red robin, ceonanthus, eucalyptus,

Low maintenaince but lots of greenery. This is what we have, we put a conservatory on first of all, that hacked off a chunk of the garden, we only have probably about a 30x20 garden at the most, then got rid of the lawn and now we have patio, with a terrace, with raised gravelled beds round the edge. We are completely enclosed by 2 buddlieas, a laurel, ceonanthus, a tree i can never remember the name of, privet, and a bamboo in a pot.

We also then have millions of little pots with other bits and bobs in.

Only takes a sweep now and then. Just been out weeding, took all of 20 mins

Also I know I cant spell most of those plants

You could try taking some of the paving out, relaying the edges or building small walls, making planting pockets which you could dig out and fill with top soil.

It should soften the effect.

Cotoneaster, thats the tree we have in the corner

Yes thats what our raised beds are, just some sleepers we put in and chucked soil in

Dear lord those bricks are vile!

I think just as a matter of principle you should definitely buy this house and rescue the outside . It definitely needs to be turned back I to a real garden. I don't know how people can create such monstrosities!

I don't think lots of pots are low maintenance. They need feeding, top dressing, watering. Not to mention that as the plants get bigger they need repotting into bigger pots. Better to have some of the paving removed - it doesn't have to be around the perimeter, it could be done in a more interesting way still giving you space for table and chairs, etc.

I know 🥺

Get a landscaper in to do it properly. Take up the paving, lay a lawn, create borders and do a proper patio. Maybe 2 grand ish. But It’ll be worth it.

A pond would be a good thing too, and not require taking the whole thing up.

Some designers will come and draw you a plan and give you a list of plants, so that you can diy over time.

You want maximum effect for minimum digging up.

I fed this morning, I water when I remember or they look a bit ropey, never repot into bigger pots, they just stay where they are. Never top dress. They're doing ok, in fact they're all doing far far better than when they were in the direct soil in the garden before we changed it. I have no idea why.

Got a lovely viburnam, lemon verbena, massive persicaria, massive lemon balm, massive eucalyptus tree, some purple tree (not that big, probably because we havent repotted, but thats ok its a small garden), mexican orange blossom and cystus (both these are in the wrong place and do need to be moved to the front garden. The fennel is doing well in some tiny little pot it seeded itself in, so we let it live there now, its taller than me yet the pot is small. It looks very funny.

We have a lot of massive pots, the sort you can barely fit through a doorway, they hold a lot of moisture and goodness

Not all the pots are big, we have 7 tomato plants this year in small pots, they need watering most days now and some are medium sized.

Might not feed again for a while, depends what Im doing

Tomorrow Im sweeping up

I think 2 grand could be found from the same of current home. And some great ideas from others too 🙏🏽

pond also popped into my mind probe coz a nice but unsuitable home had one

*sale

I would be surprised if it was only 2k. We recently had a quote to lay a patio and the overall cost was 10k, circa 2.5k of that was the actual limestone tiles

ah 😳
sounds good tho

Yes, we took up all the paving slabs and sold them (they were awful, no idea why anyone would pay money for them but they did). Then we laid lawn and created borders. Took a few years to look good once everything had grown in.

When I sold the house, the new owner took up the lawn and relaid a patio 🤷🏻‍♀️.

At our current house we have removed huge amounts of gravel to create a lawn. It was fairly easy, just labour intensive.

I was thinking; leave some brick patio nearest the house
there are actually some kind of raised beds and seating along one side so resurrect them if possible
keep a wide path from bricks
remove other bricks for lawn and borders along 2 sides?
I'd take all my pots and get some of the big shrubs advised straight away, that would also give some necessary shade
my current neighbours struggle with the lack of shade in their plant-less garden

my current neighbours struggle with lack of shade in their plantless garden

I give up ⬆️🫣

If you're considering getting someone in, I'd start with that. Talk to them before spending time & effort tarting it up.

i wouldn't think £2,000 will get you very far. Between labour & the horrendous cost of plants & all the other bits... it has all gone up a LOT.

If it be was me and I was doing it on a budget I'd try and save as much of my budget as possible for plants.

I'd probably pay a couple of students to take up the bricks. Then assess what's underneath. If it's ok I'd probably wait until autumn or spring and seed the area for lawn, if not you may have to pay someone to remove whatever the bricks are on top of and add top soil, by which point it probably won't add much to the cost to get them to turf it.

Yes I would be surprised, we had just the lawn taken up, just hardcore put down, the lawn itself was probably around 10 by 20 foot, then paved and concrete paving swapped for the new paving too, very small area, cost 3.5k last year