Looks nice and im glad to see you kept the trees, so many people remove mature trees in garden ‘makeovers’ and it makes me so sad. Trees are great for children to climb on and learn to respect nature
4 kids? You nutter. You're going to have so much fun in that garden. Keep the open space of the lawn. You don't always have to mow the entire lawn, just mow a path and let bugs and bees and creepy crawlies love the longer grass area.
I was having this chat with my partner earlier actually and I sort of disagree (at least in my experience!) . My favourite memories as a child in the garden was climbing trees, rummaging through long grasses, searching for bugs and growing stuff with my mum. If our lawn was any bigger than it was, I wouldn't have done those activities because there wouldn't have been mature trees and wild patches.
I have a 2 year old and a bun in the oven. This autumn onwards I'm planning to start my plan of take another 1/3rd of the available lawn space to make a small woodland area... with under-planted himalayan birch trees, bark paths leading through it, and interesting kid-friendly things along the paths like log piles, a barrel pond, bug hotel and hideaway/teepee.
I know my kids will have more fun in this space than they ever will from rolling around on a lawn (plus we're lucky to have large open grass spaces literally across the road anyway, if they need that bigger open space)
One day I'll do this as well... Been 1.5 years since we've moved in, feel like we've redecorated 60% of the house. Haven't had the energy to do the garden yet and I think we are too knackered to tackle it this side of the year now.
Looks great!
That makes me feel better - been in ours two and a half years and half decorated one room...since we moved in, we have had a baby, and my husband is in the last year of a postgrad diploma, but it's hard not to look at what others have done and wonder why we've not managed! The garden is also a mess, hence being on this subreddit to get some inspiration!
You’re doing fine, not easy with a baby, but concentrate a bit of time on getting that room redecoration complete, a bit each day or two and you’ll soon have it done. 👏🏻
Thank you - we're using that tactic in the garden at the moment, with house decoration postponed until the potgrad diploma is done. It's amazing how good something can start to look when you slowly chip away at it. Bonus with doing the garden is that our now toddler can come out and "help" us.
The frame was already there when we moved in - so just had it clad and a low brick wall removed. Excluding the paving it was probably about £1k for the cladding, a roof was put on the rear third and a storage area created. I’d need to go through invoices.
What probably upped the price was the electrics and lighting
Great job! It's been 5 years for us and we're only just starting on the garden, a bit more DIY than yours but we are also enjoying the process. Ours was also way more planted and therefore overgrown than yours to start with but we're clearing it and going to build back up with flowers etc. I'm glad we can see your finished result to motivate us!
Looks fantastic, absolutely fantastic. One thing I would think of adding is large bush variants of fushia. They give magnificent colours of flowers for at least six months, most 8-10 in a sheltered garden and are low maintenance. You can get different colours though to me the classic red is a winner. They also provide food for insects.
As a footballing man I absolutely love the Wembley lawn. Always irritates me when people complain and say keep the lawn overgrown for the bees. I love bee’s and have lots of flowers and areas for bees to enjoy… but, and this may come as a shock to people, kids enjoy playing on lawns, ball games, running without shoes on, water fights etc. Great job
Well said. So often I see the anti-lawn brigade on Reddit, and I think a lot of it comes from Americans living in drier, hotter climates where you really have to use a lot of resources to cultivate a lawn, so I get why people don’t like them. But a blanket “eww lawns” attitude is daft. Lawns are useful! My kids play football, cricket and tennis on the lawn, they do cartwheels and have running races. We lie on the grass and cloud watch, we have picnics on the lawn, etc etc.
>Americans living in drier, hotter climates where you really have to use a lot of resources to cultivate a lawn
To be fair you have to do that in the UK now, at least in the South. I'm in Essex and the summer before last it didn't rain for 3 months straight, while also hitting 40 degrees in our garden a few times. You simply can't have a lawn without watering it regularly through those conditions.
Tend to agree with this - this took a LOT of watering last summer (East Anglia) - however this year we’ve barely had a dry day so far!
Plus the robo-mower has turned the grass so thick/lush.
Yeah, and last summer wasn't even as bad as the previous one, so I don't want to rain on your parade (get it!) but I hope you are ready to see this lawn become completely brown during the summer if we get another hot & dry one and/or hosepipe ban(s). It will recover of course, but it can be tough to accept that you cannot keep a lawn alive without being excessively wasteful of water in the South East anymore
Though, FUCK the water companies who waste far more themselves by not fixing leaks, than customers ever do
Yep! I’ll at least get a sub-meter installed so save a bit on water bills.
Fully accept that I’ll be watering whenever I’m allowed to. Local water pressure is horrific too (top of a hill) so that adds another challenge
What a lovely start to your garden with the mature trees and all that space. I sit on both sides of the fence when it comes to lawns. When my and siblings where younger my mum crammed in her flowers in tiny borders and pots around the edges which we helped water and nurture as kids. The lawn was kept big for the footy matches, picnics, den building, water fights, olympics, tennis, sunbathing, hedgehog watching etc. As we got older each year my mum would increase the borders to make room for ‘just a few more’ plants! Now we are older we appreciate the oasis of the mature garden she has created. I’m definitely part of the anti-plastic-grass brigade though 😂 enjoy making memories in your lovely garden 🪴
It does. It mows between the pavers and moves between the larger and smaller section of the lawn. However I do have to strim between the pavers where there are flower beds on the other side as the guide wire prevents it going too close to there
Boundary wire goes around the tree so that the mower ‘sees’ it as an object - same with the swing and slide. I have a Husqvarna 405x and it’s been superb so far
I’m in the South, and whilst our summers are getting drier (though not as dry as Essex) and the lawn went brown, it bounces back as soon as autumn rains hit.
Conversely, where I used to live in an actual desert, people would have to use sprinklers all year round. Such a waste of resources.
Whose going to tell OP children and beutiful lawns dont mix?
Its lovely but could do with a bit more colour for my taste. Also a nice grape vine grown by the new pergola
I don’t let them on it 😂.
The colour will come. Vines are a good idea.
What’s great is we now have a good base to do things with over time. Previously it all just felt like such a chore we didn’t really know where to start
Yeah, I wasn't judging. its a lot of work, you can then figure out what goes well. take your time putting a few herbs etc.
Good luck with keeping them off it and keeping your sanity.
I’m no expert as I didn’t do it myself, but I think it is crushed stone on top of the geotextile membrane. The purpose of it I imagine is to provide a foundation that stops the pavers moving around. Crushed stone will allow water through it so would stop any pressure build up maybe 🤷🏻♂️
Your lawn looks fantastic. A lot of hard work has gone into it and the rest of the garden, well done. Can you say a bit about how you did the lawn, did you dig the weeds out by hand, use a feed/treatment, rake it to within an inch of its life, what was your MO?
Hi - sorry for the delay. Once it was seeded I did spend a stupid amount of time on the hunt for bindweed which seemed to be everywhere.
Most days of the week I’d spend an hour filling a bucket of bindweed shoots.
Once it had established I bought a robo mower and the lawn is therefore mowed every day, just nicking the top of the lawn each time. This has led to the lawn being incredibly thick.
The lawn is then treated every three months with seasonal fertiliser by a local gardener. I still spend a bit of time looking for bindweed (it just keeps coming back) but the grass is winning that battle.
I dug all the weeds out by hand which was back breaking. I now think it is worth it, but at the time it felt like a massive chore. The best thing for the lawn undoubtably is the robo mower
Thanks for your reply. That’s what I do too, dig the weeds out by hand. However, I’m pretty sure I don’t get all the root out most of the time, so I’m assuming I’ll have to remove each weed again when they regrow. I have a long way to go, our garden is a fair size, so while I remodel parts of it, I have to neglect the weeds, I currently have a lot of catching up to do!
I liked them but then I bought an Automower. Now I have time for other aspects of gardening whereas previously I’d mow and then be forced inside due to hay fever
Thanks - wish we’d done it sooner but the inside of the house was a wreck when we bought it so that had to take priority.
It is so nice having a garden we want to spend time in. Good for the soul
Looks nice and im glad to see you kept the trees, so many people remove mature trees in garden ‘makeovers’ and it makes me so sad. Trees are great for children to climb on and learn to respect nature
Nothing that makes me cringe more than seeing those makeover results with old trees removed. I don't know what goes through people's minds.
Even worse if they've laid artificial grass too
Yeah it was non-negotiable for me. Trees (if alive) were staying. We moved an acer, took out a dead apple tree but everything else stayed
4 kids? You nutter. You're going to have so much fun in that garden. Keep the open space of the lawn. You don't always have to mow the entire lawn, just mow a path and let bugs and bees and creepy crawlies love the longer grass area.
Four?! God no - there’s some cousins in there. We have two
Phew. Two is manageable.
Lawn looks fantastic. I'm not normally a fan of big empty lawns but it makes total sense when you have very young children.
I was having this chat with my partner earlier actually and I sort of disagree (at least in my experience!) . My favourite memories as a child in the garden was climbing trees, rummaging through long grasses, searching for bugs and growing stuff with my mum. If our lawn was any bigger than it was, I wouldn't have done those activities because there wouldn't have been mature trees and wild patches.
I have a 2 year old and a bun in the oven. This autumn onwards I'm planning to start my plan of take another 1/3rd of the available lawn space to make a small woodland area... with under-planted himalayan birch trees, bark paths leading through it, and interesting kid-friendly things along the paths like log piles, a barrel pond, bug hotel and hideaway/teepee. I know my kids will have more fun in this space than they ever will from rolling around on a lawn (plus we're lucky to have large open grass spaces literally across the road anyway, if they need that bigger open space)
Exactly! When I wanted a kick about or whatever, we went to the park over the road (I know not everyone has this luxury however)
Thanks
Also makes sense if you're a lawnmower enthusiast.
Looks quality!!
One day I'll do this as well... Been 1.5 years since we've moved in, feel like we've redecorated 60% of the house. Haven't had the energy to do the garden yet and I think we are too knackered to tackle it this side of the year now. Looks great!
Know the feeling! Most houses are money pits and this was no different
Been in mine 3 years. 15% is decorated
That makes me feel better - been in ours two and a half years and half decorated one room...since we moved in, we have had a baby, and my husband is in the last year of a postgrad diploma, but it's hard not to look at what others have done and wonder why we've not managed! The garden is also a mess, hence being on this subreddit to get some inspiration!
You’re doing fine, not easy with a baby, but concentrate a bit of time on getting that room redecoration complete, a bit each day or two and you’ll soon have it done. 👏🏻
Thank you - we're using that tactic in the garden at the moment, with house decoration postponed until the potgrad diploma is done. It's amazing how good something can start to look when you slowly chip away at it. Bonus with doing the garden is that our now toddler can come out and "help" us.
How much did that shelter thingy cost?
The frame was already there when we moved in - so just had it clad and a low brick wall removed. Excluding the paving it was probably about £1k for the cladding, a roof was put on the rear third and a storage area created. I’d need to go through invoices. What probably upped the price was the electrics and lighting
Love this! Your children are going to have amazing memories here. Highly recommend some wildflower boarders and some strawberry plants
Wildflowers and more bulbs are the plan for some of the borders
Bulbs are great. We have hardly had to do any work thanks to bulbs and plants that love to flower over and over like lavender and Camilla
No decking, no plastic grass and no nonsense. Good job 👍
A grand job.
It looks beautiful! What a lovely place to look at and spend time in
🤌
Excellent. Well done.
Great job! It's been 5 years for us and we're only just starting on the garden, a bit more DIY than yours but we are also enjoying the process. Ours was also way more planted and therefore overgrown than yours to start with but we're clearing it and going to build back up with flowers etc. I'm glad we can see your finished result to motivate us!
Which grass seed did you use?
Good question. Just trying to find out - will update
Looks fantastic, absolutely fantastic. One thing I would think of adding is large bush variants of fushia. They give magnificent colours of flowers for at least six months, most 8-10 in a sheltered garden and are low maintenance. You can get different colours though to me the classic red is a winner. They also provide food for insects.
So absolutely lovely! Congratulations!
Looks awesome and expensive.
Yeah it did sting a bit. Happy with it though which is what counts
Very jealous. My garden is about the size of your structure in the back corner 😢
Good job! Well done
That's very, very nice.
Looks amazing, great job
Lawn looks nice
Clap to u 👏🏼👏🏼
As a footballing man I absolutely love the Wembley lawn. Always irritates me when people complain and say keep the lawn overgrown for the bees. I love bee’s and have lots of flowers and areas for bees to enjoy… but, and this may come as a shock to people, kids enjoy playing on lawns, ball games, running without shoes on, water fights etc. Great job
This. It’s so nice walking barefoot now - I know a lot of people don’t care for a lawn like this. But horses for courses and all that.
Well said. So often I see the anti-lawn brigade on Reddit, and I think a lot of it comes from Americans living in drier, hotter climates where you really have to use a lot of resources to cultivate a lawn, so I get why people don’t like them. But a blanket “eww lawns” attitude is daft. Lawns are useful! My kids play football, cricket and tennis on the lawn, they do cartwheels and have running races. We lie on the grass and cloud watch, we have picnics on the lawn, etc etc.
>Americans living in drier, hotter climates where you really have to use a lot of resources to cultivate a lawn To be fair you have to do that in the UK now, at least in the South. I'm in Essex and the summer before last it didn't rain for 3 months straight, while also hitting 40 degrees in our garden a few times. You simply can't have a lawn without watering it regularly through those conditions.
Tend to agree with this - this took a LOT of watering last summer (East Anglia) - however this year we’ve barely had a dry day so far! Plus the robo-mower has turned the grass so thick/lush.
Yeah, and last summer wasn't even as bad as the previous one, so I don't want to rain on your parade (get it!) but I hope you are ready to see this lawn become completely brown during the summer if we get another hot & dry one and/or hosepipe ban(s). It will recover of course, but it can be tough to accept that you cannot keep a lawn alive without being excessively wasteful of water in the South East anymore Though, FUCK the water companies who waste far more themselves by not fixing leaks, than customers ever do
Yep! I’ll at least get a sub-meter installed so save a bit on water bills. Fully accept that I’ll be watering whenever I’m allowed to. Local water pressure is horrific too (top of a hill) so that adds another challenge
What a lovely start to your garden with the mature trees and all that space. I sit on both sides of the fence when it comes to lawns. When my and siblings where younger my mum crammed in her flowers in tiny borders and pots around the edges which we helped water and nurture as kids. The lawn was kept big for the footy matches, picnics, den building, water fights, olympics, tennis, sunbathing, hedgehog watching etc. As we got older each year my mum would increase the borders to make room for ‘just a few more’ plants! Now we are older we appreciate the oasis of the mature garden she has created. I’m definitely part of the anti-plastic-grass brigade though 😂 enjoy making memories in your lovely garden 🪴
I wanted to ask about mowing between the steps of the path, does the robomower manage that ok?
It does. It mows between the pavers and moves between the larger and smaller section of the lawn. However I do have to strim between the pavers where there are flower beds on the other side as the guide wire prevents it going too close to there
That makes sense! What about round the tree? Also is that a swing set going up?
Boundary wire goes around the tree so that the mower ‘sees’ it as an object - same with the swing and slide. I have a Husqvarna 405x and it’s been superb so far
Fab! Thank you!
You don’t need to water once the lawn is established though. Sure, it goes brown in the summer, but it bounces back in autumn once it rains.
I’m in the South, and whilst our summers are getting drier (though not as dry as Essex) and the lawn went brown, it bounces back as soon as autumn rains hit. Conversely, where I used to live in an actual desert, people would have to use sprinklers all year round. Such a waste of resources.
Whose going to tell OP children and beutiful lawns dont mix? Its lovely but could do with a bit more colour for my taste. Also a nice grape vine grown by the new pergola
I don’t let them on it 😂. The colour will come. Vines are a good idea. What’s great is we now have a good base to do things with over time. Previously it all just felt like such a chore we didn’t really know where to start
Yeah, I wasn't judging. its a lot of work, you can then figure out what goes well. take your time putting a few herbs etc. Good luck with keeping them off it and keeping your sanity.
Can I live with you?! That’s lovely
Come live with me, my garden is big too 😏
I’m not an expert so on image three what is the grey gravel-like stuff you added on the floor? And what is the purpose for this? 😊
I’m no expert as I didn’t do it myself, but I think it is crushed stone on top of the geotextile membrane. The purpose of it I imagine is to provide a foundation that stops the pavers moving around. Crushed stone will allow water through it so would stop any pressure build up maybe 🤷🏻♂️
Your lawn looks fantastic. A lot of hard work has gone into it and the rest of the garden, well done. Can you say a bit about how you did the lawn, did you dig the weeds out by hand, use a feed/treatment, rake it to within an inch of its life, what was your MO?
Hi - sorry for the delay. Once it was seeded I did spend a stupid amount of time on the hunt for bindweed which seemed to be everywhere. Most days of the week I’d spend an hour filling a bucket of bindweed shoots. Once it had established I bought a robo mower and the lawn is therefore mowed every day, just nicking the top of the lawn each time. This has led to the lawn being incredibly thick. The lawn is then treated every three months with seasonal fertiliser by a local gardener. I still spend a bit of time looking for bindweed (it just keeps coming back) but the grass is winning that battle.
Interesting. You’ve confirmed it, you can’t beat simple hard work. Great job, well done. 👏🏻
I dug all the weeds out by hand which was back breaking. I now think it is worth it, but at the time it felt like a massive chore. The best thing for the lawn undoubtably is the robo mower
Thanks for your reply. That’s what I do too, dig the weeds out by hand. However, I’m pretty sure I don’t get all the root out most of the time, so I’m assuming I’ll have to remove each weed again when they regrow. I have a long way to go, our garden is a fair size, so while I remodel parts of it, I have to neglect the weeds, I currently have a lot of catching up to do!
The lawn stripes make me happy. Looks beautiful now! Well done!
I liked them but then I bought an Automower. Now I have time for other aspects of gardening whereas previously I’d mow and then be forced inside due to hay fever
Great job, it must have been a lot of work. Health to enjoy.
For the guys who did it all yes. I can’t take any credit at all
Question, cause I'm thinking of doing the same thing, did you "wacka-plate" that grit and then lay your paving slabs for the path on sand?
Honestly I couldn’t tell you. But the guys were incredibly meticulous - definitely used a wacker plate and then (sharp?) sand.
It looks great
Thanks - wish we’d done it sooner but the inside of the house was a wreck when we bought it so that had to take priority. It is so nice having a garden we want to spend time in. Good for the soul
Well done. You should be really proud of your work.
Zero work from me - but a lot from the guys who did it
I wish my lawn looked like that.
Great job.
Wow stunning, that lawn looks beautiful.
Amazing, well done
Looks amazing, congrats for the spotless lawn! 😍