Landscaping Garden, best tips

Costs more than you cost it, takes longer than you think (if you're doing it yourself) and is worth it. I love getting my hands dirty and seeing a completed task. Took me a full season to complete mine (only me working on it part time) - smallish garden. Was a jungle of a hill from house down to a low level. Created a 3 tier garden (1st for shed - enclosed into a corner of the house, 2nd a patio area and flower beds (brick walls, plastered so I could create colours around the garden) and the lower tier largely artificial grass). Around it went a fence, outside walls rendered and painted and further top tier on house exit was tiled for BBQ area.

Got to design it first and your costs can be got close enough by pricing materials and measuring accurately. Build in a contingency percentage 10-20% and you should be fine. You tube videos was my guide, ideas, teacher, problem solver etc. I did start of with decent building knowledge and experience

Its fun and enjoy every step and the finished job is a pleasure to look at

I've just moved into a house with a massive garden and I'm loving the challenge. It is well worth shopping around for materials, as prices vary hugely. Sleepers cost about £50 each at a garden centre, but I paid £21.95 from a local builder's merchant. Same is true with gravel if you need a lot. Recycle whatever you can too. I'm making raised beds for my veggies out of the decking I took up. I'm just trying to work out how to make the rest of it into a fence.
If you're looking at plants, make sure you have interest all year round. It is very tempting to go to the garden centre and buy everything in bloom, but remember there are another eleven months in the year you'll be looking out at your handiwork.
If you get a professional in, it will be expensive. If you do it yourself, it will take a lot longer and kill your muscles, but it is so worth it.

I did my own garden, I’m a joiner so picked up and understood things quickly, mainly thanks to watching loads of YouTube videos. Hardest parts were sorting the drainage and finding all the correct/compatible fittings and materials. Learnt so much whilst doing it, for example I quickly learnt what chemical burns were Cost wise I did a job I was quoted 9k for 3k and that included extending my patio more than originally planned/quoted for. Good luck

Hideous decking in my garden
Phase one of the removal
What was underneath
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