After doing very little to our garden last year we decided to give it a bit more TLC this year. We want to use the space more (when the weather allows), and it’s a project that my dad is kindly helping with. We have a good-sized front garden which we did do some planting in last summer. And then a good-sized back garden but it was a bit of a mess really. I had no idea how much work went into a garden renovation, it always seemed pretty straightforward to me. But I’ve learnt very quickly that it can time-intensive, and expensive!
What we’ve done with our back garden so far
Due to finances, we decided to just give the back garden some TLC and a bit of a glow up. And then save money to re-do it properly either next year or the year after.
Here’s what we’ve done on our mini garden renovation so far:
Bricked up an existing side gate
This side gate was a complete waste because it came out right in the middle of our front garden and it sat right next to some huge gates that we used to move from the front to back garden. So we decided to get this bricked up and it looks so much neater now.
Took down a massive shed
The previous owners of our house were shed hoarders and they had four sheds! There was a huge one that sat on the decking and it took up a lot of space so we decided to take it down. It’s opened up the decking so much more and we’re so happy we decided to do it.
Cleaned and stained our decking
The decking isn’t awful but it needed some TLC so out came the pressure washer. After giving it a good clean we stained the decking to give it a fresh look. At the point of publishing this post, we’ve not done the second coat as the weather has been too bad to do so. But it already looks cleaner and fresher.
Blocked up the pond
Alongside being shed hoarders the previous owners had a lot of pets, so there was a large deep pond in the corner of the decking. It was empty, pretty dangerous, and we have no plans to get fish so we decided to fill it in. For this, we needed A LOT of hardcore, topsoil and sand but it’s worth the effort. We’ve just bought some basic paving slabs to put over the top, but eventually, when we do the decking we’ll extend the decking over this area.
Replaced some of the fence panels
As we’ve focused more on the decking and top area of our garden we decided to replace the fence panels in this area. We’re upgrading to 6-foot panels for a bit more privacy and we’ve painted them a nice red cedar colour. We’ve not quite fit them in (that’s a job for this week), but I know as soon as they’re in we’ll want to do all of the rest.
Tidied up the grass and flower beds
Then the final part of our garden renovation glow up was to give the grass a cut (as it hadn’t been done in over a year). And just tidy up everything growing. Cutting the grass made such a difference and means we can pop down some grass seed to fill in the holes we have.
This summers plans for the garden renovation
The main plans for this summer are the front garden renovation where we’re planning on digging up everything currently there so we can start from scratch. We’ll be returfing some areas and then creating a small flower/ plant patch. This will give us some nice colour but it will still be easy to maintain. We’re also planning on getting rid of the little stones around the front door and paving it all over.
In terms of the back garden renovation I don’t expect we’ll do much else other than buying a small garden shed to hold all of our gardening bits, They’re currently scattered around the garage and I struggle to find anything.
Garden renovation end plans
Garden renovations are expensive so we know we need to save a lot more money before we can do everything we want to do. But our eventual goals are:
- Replace the decking with composite decking and change the sizing slightly
- Returf the whole garden or use lawn feed on what we have, and remove the small flower beds down the side
- Put a new paved walkway in
- Get some railway sleeper raised beds for the side of the garden
- Replace all of the rest of the fences in the garden
- Get a log cabin to act as Luke’s workshop
- Repave the driveway at the back of our house so it’s a nicer space to park on