My top tips for a big garden renovation
We recently had a big garden renovation and now I absolutely love our garden. Previously it was very uneven, had poor quality grass and really wasn’t somewhere we enjoyed spending time.
This summer we decided it was time to put some money into getting it done. It also has made it a very child-friendly garden for if we have friends around with youngsters, or Ben gets off his games long enough to go in the garden!
Get the right professionals in
Some aspects of your garden renovation you can do yourself but others really need someone with experience. We painted our own fences, gravel boards and fence posts.
It is an easy enough job (especially when using a spray gun!) and so rewarding when you see how good it looks afterwards.
Our garden was so uneven and the soil quality poor that we knew we needed a mini digger to remove the soil which was filled with rocks, bricks and all sorts from when they built the house!
Whilst we could probably have managed ourselves of course you worry that you will take out too much or not enough.
We hired a mini digger from a lovely local mini digger hire company and paid someone to do all of that for us.
By getting a professional you also know how much of all the aggregates to buy and don’t end up with the wrong amounts of stone, sand etc!
The cost of these things soon adds up so shop around for the best prices you can. We found the best prices from Buildabase.
Consider practicality
Thinking about how you will use your garden is important. We made sure we considered where the wheelie bins would go and of course the washing line.
I bought a washing line that could easily hold lots of washing but that would also be easy to remove when we are enjoying the garden.
The one we chose has a metal spike with a cap to keep it tidy when we are not using the line. The ground spike means it is at ground level and is hardly noticeable when the line is not in place.
We chose to have artificial grass as Ben has severe allergies so we knew this would help and also means I don’t have to keep cutting it!
Instead, I get to go out with my cordless hoover and hoover the grass! Choosing artificial grass need not be hard as many companies send samples on request.
We bought ours from Grass Warehouse and went for 40mm long grass for the most realistic look but also comfortable to walk or even sit on. The lines visible on the grass in my pictures is just because it was newly laid and they quickly disappeared.
Whilst I quite like the idea of a hammock it just didn’t work with our garden.
Outdoor living and making it look nice
We chose our garden furniture and parasol from B&Q because that was easy as we have a store locally. In hindsight don’t leave it until too late in the summer to order it as if there are any problems with it (like we had!) they may not be able to replace them!
We had an outdoor rug (which is also suitable for indoors) from The Rug Seller. We were sent it to review and honestly, I can’t fault it at all.
I am sure you will agree to look at the photos of how well it goes in our garden and how it really completes the look. We got the Florence Alfresco Trieste rug in pink which I personally think is stunning.
The rug was £66 and 160cmx230cm but they also do a smaller one if you prefer for £33. It arrived well packaged and is very well made.
Unfortunately, I didn’t realise they also did artificial grass until after we had ordered some so wasn’t able to consider them for that at the same time.
Overall we budgeted well and did not spend extra on any unexpected costs. This was partly due to using someone experienced to do it for us.
I dread to think how it would have looked if we did it ourselves! Not to mention what it would have then cost to put it all right!
Do you have any renovation plans for your garden? Next summer we are hoping to do our front garden but that is on a slope so we are not too sure how we will have that yet!