DIY Landscaping...

[V8]

Hey everyone

Well just wondering how many people did their own landscaping and if you think you have saved more money doing it yourself. We have a very bland front and back yard and i'd love to do something with it, and am a total novice, it would be easy to just get someone to do it, but the cost is way out of our reach.

Has anyone done it themselves and did you do it in stages or pretty much all at once?

Roughly how much did you spend?

Ta!

[TheMamma]

Hi!

When we purchased our house - the back yard was a total mess. It was grass/weeds everywhere and a few garden beds with horrible rotting edges as well as an old 70s style concrete patio/stairs with horrible iron bars. All in all - nothing nice.

Firstly, we grinded off the metal bars and then built a large deck over the top of the stairs. This was a pain in the butt as we had to get it all approved by council. That cost us about $1500 and its a big deck. So we saved a lot by doing it ourselves. We then ripped out a lot of the plants (things like Diosma - sp??). Over time we redesigned all the beds and laid the brick edging, laid a path way with brick edging, pavers and rocks, replanted the whole garden with drought tolerant plants, built are vege patch and moved the clothes line. Oh, we pulled down a dead tree and built a shed. That was over two years.

We are now in the process of building another deck under/around a big tree - as no grass is growing there any more and its looking terrible.

Yes - we have saved a lot by doing it ourselves. But we have done it over time. We purchased all our plants from markets which saved so much money. The plants that you would pay $5 for at Bunnings, you can buy as a local market for $1.

[V8]

Thanks Lejay

Sounds like you guys have done a huge amount of work. The things you did sounds like a few things we want to do, but just have no idea where to start! Thankfully we don't have to tear anything down, the yard has nothing in it at all. Ideally i'd love a shed, some vegie gardens, deck the patio area and extend it a little bit and maybe put a new roof extension too. The front is really sloped so wanted to make some steps some how and maybe a retaining wall. But yeah, again have no clue and know it will cost a bit for a landscaper to do.

Also went to Bunnings yesterday and i thought the plants were quite dear, didn't see any plants for under $9.00 and most plants we liked were at least $20, so for 5 plants that's already $100 bucks gone, that's before we get soil or garden edging done. So yeah definately need some more advice in order to get it done as cheap as possible, even it takes stages i'm not too fussed.

[TheMamma]

When I have a bit more time (most likely tomorrow) I'll PM you a whole bunch of websites that were invaluable to us....

[V8]

Thanks Lejay i am googling to try and get an idea of what designs look good and maybe try and copy them. Some other websites would be great. :D

[MountainGirl]

My DH is a garden stylist, and when we moved into our house we had to rip up our entire garden,.. he got most of the materials for cost which was a help,.....but I had him on a strict timeframe, so we had to get additional labour in,... He designed a balinese garden for us with some established plants, some young plants, grass and paved areas (we already had a deck) and it cost $15,000.

[V8]

That sounds really lovelty scarlett jasper, i love oriental style gardens. Think we'll have to do it in small parts though over a while cause don't think we could afford $15000 straight up.

[MountainGirl]

yeah,...it was a bit $$$$,... DH had to sell his vintage sports car so that the kids could have a lovely backyardValentine

[V8]

Just bumping to try and get some more ideas. Feeling really like we need to do something with our gardens right now. :)