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Hey Owlets,
In case you missed it, late last year we bought our first home. It was decorated at the time it was built (in the late 90s) and never touched again. We had a small renovation budget so spent three months doing most of it ourselves, having never done anything more than paint a wall.
Now that summer is here, we’re filled with an undeserved confidence in our DIY capability and are determined to renovate the garden on our own - our budget is pretty much 0 so the plan is to use Facebook Marketplace as much as possible (we do anyway, but I’ll specifically looking at the free section this time). The garden hasn’t been touched for years - the previous owner has left us with about 8ft deep (sorry, I don’t do metric!) of brambles, dead grass and wobbly paving slabs, which means we have to start from square 1!!
As part of the garden renovation we also need to tackle the front garden. Currently we have four lonely patio slabs leading up to the front garden, surrounded by what can only be described as a swamp. We’ve trimmed the hedge back, but the tree at the end of our front garden desperately needs some attention. Basically our house lacks any curb appeal from all sides and that needs to change ASAP.
The Vision -
We don’t intend to be in our house long term, so we don’t want to invest huge amounts of time and effort into the gardens. With this in mind we intend to keep the garden layout fairly similar in both the front and back, but tidy things up a little.
Keeping the layout of the garden similar to the original doesn’t mean that it has to be boring. My plan is to introduce colours, textures and lighting into both gardens, but mainly the back garden, in order to make it feel more styled without making huge changes. One big thing to consider is that we have a lot of wildlife in the back garden - we've seen everything from birds to frogs and hedgehogs, and we really don't want to disturb them with anything we do!
Plans for the Front Garden -
One of the reasons that we’re so frustrated with our house is that people constantly walk over our front garden as a shortcut or even park on it - everyone doing this over winter when we had a lot of rain has led to the grass being badly damaged, so the first order of business is to install some kind of fence to deter this. We don’t want to install a full size fence because of budget and time constraints (aka we’re broke and can’t be bothered with the work of a full fence!). Instead, we plan to put lawn edging around the front garden perimeter - this hides the damaged grass and stops people opening their doors onto our garden, which solves one issue on a budget. In front of the lawn edging we plan to have some plant pots, both to add curb appeal and stop people taking a shortcut over our garden. The plan for the hedge and tree is simple - just cut them back and try to make it look tidy.
The real work comes in around the front door. First of all, the four patio slabs are wonky and definitely a trip hazard. The slabs are surrounded by dead grass and (currently dried and cracked) mud from where the bins have been stored. The plan here is to take up the paving slabs and replace them, as well as extending the pavement to cover everywhere that gets muddy in winter. Ideally I’d like to do this with driveway blocks to create a neat path and tidy bin storage area, but I think I’d have to get really lucky to find these on Facebook! The alternative are irregular-shaped paving stones (I’ve seen some hexagon stones that I liked, and they’re FREE!), which would make it easier to lean into having an imperfect line, rather than it just looking like we’ve done a shoddy DIY job!
To further tidy the area around the front door I’m planning to buy (or more likely build) a bin store, and the front door is still a patchy yellow so I need to do a final coat. After that it’s final touches - I’d like to add some lights around the door that have more character than the plain wall light, and maybe some more planters. We don’t live in an area where we feel comfortable leaving things in the front garden, so I’m planning to keep it quite simple.
The Back Garden Plan -
The back garden is where I really get excited and have to reign myself in; I could easily go all out, but it’s not worth it for a short-term home. Instead, I want to make the best of what we’ve already got.
The patio is small, wonky and broken, so I want to replace this. Patio slabs are surprisingly expensive, even on Facebook Marketplace, so I think we’ll end up getting the same tiles that we’ve got already because everyone is getting rid of them. This will allow me to replace the broken ones and extend the patio to be in line with the drain so it blends in. I’m not wild on the plain concrete slabs, but I’ve seen loads of people painting them on TikTok and everyone says the paint holds up well so I’ll give it a go.
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| I've got these lights from Lights4Fun to attach to the pergola. Photo credit - Lights4Fun and Oliver Perrott |
Once the patio is laid and painted, I want to build some kind of shelter so we can still sit outside if it’s raining. I had a look online but flatpack pergolas start at around £300 so I’ve found some free timber on Facebook and I’ll give building my own a go - it might be wonky but hopefully it’ll get the job done! I want the pergola to be the focal point of the garden, so I’m planning to screw hooks into it and hang multicoloured festoon lights from the roof to create a warm and colourful feel.
Moving down the garden, I’m planning to add more lights along the wall and fence - this time white, just to light the space a little. I might paint the fence, and if I do then I’d like to use a duck egg blue colour, but I haven’t decided yet. I think it’ll be a case of making that decision once I’ve seen the rest of the garden finished. The edges of the grass in our garden refuse to grow and the previous owner has thrown gravel down, but I’m planning to cover this by running planters against the wall and fence on each side.
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| I also chose these festoon lights from Lights4Fun to string along the wall for extra light. Photo credit - Lights4Fun and Oliver Perrott |
The bottom of the garden is where things get really difficult. Currently we have no idea what the bottom of the garden looks like, or the size of the garden as a whole, thanks to a dense collection of brambles, but we know that the garden is on a slope so we’ll need to address that. Once they’ve finished fruiting we’re going to remove them, and I’ll be looking for soil (which I see offered for free all the time) to slightly lessen the slope.
We’re not really sure what to do with the bottom of the garden yet, but I think we’ll replace the brambles with a hedge to block noise from the road, and maybe a trellis to block the view.
A Note on Longevity -
One of the things that I'm really conscious of is keeping our house looking nice once we've done up the outside. It's understandable that the weather is going to take a toll on anything left outside - patio slabs will change colour and get darker over time, and patio furniture begins to degrade and look tired. Metal and glass tables can last longer (although you'll likely need to repaint the metal every year). From what I've seen of other gardens, rattan-style furniture is the worst for surviving the winter, but it looks great when it's new. If you want to go for rattan I'd suggest getting a patio table cover - you can also get covers for chairs and barbecues to help them last longer too!
Costs -
As much as we’d ideally get everything on Facebook, there are going to be some costs associated with the project. We’ll need to buy paint, stainless steel screws and other materials, I think we’d be very lucky to find cement on Facebook, and smaller touches like lighting and ornaments are something we might find on Facebook after a lot of searching. Ultimately I think £200 is realistic for the project, having already researched and found a lot of what we need.
So, what now? I’ll be relaunching @theowlethome in the near future, and I’ll be relaunching with reels about renovating our garden, so make sure you follow my home Instagram account for updates before the final reveal on my blog.
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