Encouragement or a reality check

Thank you! I’ll have a read!

Thank you! I’m really hoping for lovely brick under the render - though just painting the mason blocks if not, hadn’t occurred to me! It’s not as though the render itself was a particularly fancy surface - I don’t know if the texture of mason blocks would make a huge difference.

I think in reality, I can’t afford very much in one go, but if I commit to doing it over months, or even several years, I can eventually get it how I’d like in increments! I have no plans to sell up or move, so it’s absolutely fine for me to move at total snail’s pace (though, inevitably, I’ll do large chunks very rapidly, then vegetate (pun intended) for months and months before doing another large chunk very quickly. That’s how I tend to work.

Great to get some advice on the order to do things in, too, as I’d have no idea! Though it makes sense. Hard stuff first. Got it!

Absolutely! My real life friend immediately said, “eugh, just pay someone to clear it top to bottom - you don’t want to deal with that!” Which I may consider, depending on cost, but actually, I do want to at least try to deal with the decking first because I genuinely get enjoyment out of things like that. He doesn’t, which is also fine - I hate painting walls and things, we’re all different! (I think I can get my Dad to paint any wall edges and corners for me as a birthday present anyway, so I can just do the middle bits. He’s neat.)

The same with how much faff it will be to get rubble cleared away. I have no idea how hard that might be but it sounds like something I might find quite satisfying.

All the opinions are helpful though! The reality is, I won’t fully know all the challenges of each step until I start, and I know myself well enough to know I’ll make some decisions by just going, “Eugh, this is an awful job! What can I do to avoid it?!”. But until I’ve learned by experience, I won’t have any idea which jobs those are!

Absolutely! Staged projects are my favourite kind anyway. If I think of everything too far in advance, I’ll get overwhelmed and it will paralyse me. It’s one thing to have a dream vision in my mind, but actually planning to put that vision into action… No.

First of all, I’ll clear the decking, or have it cleared if it turns out too hard for me. After that, I can plan a little further forward to shape the concrete, if I do keep some, and move on from there!

The Beautiful South are amazing. As is Manchester! I love my tiny terrace.

 

Hello @Lucy Davies I don't think you should let anyone discourage your ambition but you do need to cut your clothes according to your cloth.

That means you need to break down each individual task and get it costed so you can see how much you can afford to get done and how much you need to learn to do yourself. You may well find that your Victorian terrace began life with a paved or concreted yard so any soil you may find below will be lifeless and require a great deal of amelioration.

Opting for raised beds with a new terrace and/or decking is a practical approach. Having a lawn in that space is going to be very hard to achieve and maintain and lawns are a particularly poor resource for wildlife. Better to go for plants you can grow in pots and raised beds and that will give you perfume, colour, texture, seasonal interest all year and attract wildlife such as birds and insects.

If your decking is just slippery when wet but otherwise OK you could try cleaning it then oiling or staining and finally stretching and stapling chicken wire across the main path route to give you grip. It will show at first but soon weather in and become unobtrusive.

Removing the render will be a big job, as will re-doing it, but you may well find evening classes where you can learn things like rendering, brick laying and so on.

Making a garden out of rubble and "found objects" is a good idea and could work very well but not if you need more formal shapes and patterns in your living and play spaces. The key for you is to research different styles and then decide what you like and list what you need to achieve it so you can cost it stage by stage and allocate the time and energy needed.

Remember too that no garden is built overnight. The best evolve over time and have a vision at the start. That vision may change as circumstances, budgets and changes in taste change so have a plan but be prepared to be flexible and innovative.

 

Yes! This is so my style of project. I like to dream huge, and then come down to realism as I go along and really learn about the difficulties and costs for myself. (People can tell me, and even though I trust that they’re right, things don’t always feel real to me until I’ve tested them!) So, I’ll keep dreaming big with the secret expectation that reality will be quite small.

Ultimately, this isn’t really a project so much as a lot of projects strung together. Which is also fun!

 

Hi, Welcome to the site. I love your enthusiasm. You will go far with your garden. You sound as if you have a good selection of tools to get started.
Project 1.
I would begin by stripping the walls back to brick to avoid too much dust and bits going onto what soil you may eventually find under the decking eventually. It would be a good idea to lay sheet plastic over the decking for the rubble to fall onto and prevent you from slipping on the decking. If you have a car it will mean numerous trips to the waste disposal centre with bags of rubble and dust, otherwise I think you can hire dumper bags to be delivered and collected which could be cheaper than skips.
Project 2.
It sounds as if your garden faces South so will be very warm and sheltered. As you want to have a garden you will need a shed to keep equipment and tools in, especially if you have a lawn, which could mean a mower/strimmer of some kind, rather than in the house. The back far right hand corner would probably be good. You could begin removing the decking in that corner first to see what is underneath.
Project 3
You will need a solid base for the shed.
Project 3.
Remove the decking if there is soil underneath or concrete. More rubbish disposal.
Project 4.
Soil preparation. This will be a big job to be done in stages.
(a)Remove any debris, stones etc. another disposal project (b)Possibly pay someone to rotovate the whole garden, (c)map out where the path is going.(d)mark out where the flower beds and lawn are going.
Keep coming back to this forum for support, advice and encouragement!
Even if your area is small, try to get away from the idea of a path straight from the house to the back gate, think of having a flower border across half way down the garden to create a room effect, meaning divide the garden into two sections, one can be bigger than the other, and the path wind/zigzag rather than straight. The "wall" between the sections could be wafty herbaceous plants, not necessarily shrubs or trees. It actually makes the garden look bigger.
Because the soil has been under decking it is likely to be compacted, there may be, hopefully,weed suppressant underneath which would be a big bonus. The ground will need to be broken up to allow light and air in before any planting ought to be done.

If nothing else, gardening teaches us to be patient, take one step at a time and pace yourself. Trying to get everything done yesterday will frustrate and disappoint you.
Have you tried writing down the list of things that will need to be done before you have your patch of heaven. Use an A4 pad, I can fill a double column on 2 pages of things I think I need to do, then I cross off each one as I do it, reminding myself I can only do one job at a time. I cannot do jobs in the house when I am doing a job in the garden and visa versus. It is a method of getting multiple ideas out of our heads, I used to sometimes feel like a headless chicken running around in circles I had so many ideas buzzing around in my head, until I tried this technique.
Good luck, and enjoy.

 

I'm looking forward to watching your progress. It's really uplifting to see someone with such energy and enthusiasm.

 

Yes! I was actually rethinking the path, thinking, if I want part of it to be paved, why not a patio that goes diagonally in a wave, to wider near the back of the garden, where the gate is? No need for a path, then, and it would look pretty, and make it look bigger. Then I could have a teeny tiny patch of lawn (honestly, even just big enough for the dog. Right now she has a patch of grass that I grew from seed in my rabbits’ old litter tray!) in the wider bit on the other side away from my door, near the house - and maybe flower beds along the wall running down to where the shed will be. (Just reread your suggestion of flower beds running down the middle. Much better!) My neighbours have a tiny shed that is about the size of an old-fashioned outside toilet - so I could have a little tiny one like that, just to put tools in.

I have wanted to build a shed for ages! I know how sad that sounds but my last hobby was DIY, and I just thought those packs you get them in would be like, the ultimate Ikea flatpack experience. Speaking of sad, I actually feel like breaking up really hard earth might be quite fun too (if I’m actually capable - I’m not especially strong). But, satisfying in the way digging up potatoes used to be in my Mum’s garden when I was little. I used to do that when I was angry or bored or hyperactive (which was a lot, with adhd), and eventually moved away from the potatoes and just got a “digging spot” like a dog might have, to keep me away from the veggies when they weren’t actually ready.

Thanks! I hope I don’t disappoint! I do tend to go from a stage of immediate, massive enthusiasm, to much slower (but still measurable) progress, as a project goes on. You just can’t keep the hyperfocus up indefinitely.

 

About the presence and depth of (old) concrete - what do the neighbouring gardens look like? It could be worthwhile speaking to neighbours and hear about their gardens/yards and experiences.

 

They’re all different! Next door on my right has a patch of grass on the left, next to my garden, but most of it is paved.

To the left is paved too, but two doors down is just a lawn, as far as I can see. I must admit, no one seems to have any kind of dream, fairy garden. But lots of different styles.

 

That does suggest there are gardens without concrete, or at least large parts of it. As that aspect came up as an unknown quantity (feasibility of removal, amount of work; does care need to be taken for the stability of the walls) in previous posts, it could be worthwhile striking up a chat with some neighbours what they know / think ..

 

Your immediate neighbours on each side "might" remember your garden before it was decked, worth asking.
The idea of an extended patio down the garden to the gate sounds good,with a curved edge sounds fine. Using any broken concrete, if there is any, stones etc would make good hardcore for the shed to stand on. A base helps with drainage and prevents the shed from becoming overly damp. You might even have a chance to mix some concrete. Fun!
Have a snoop around the local area and look in people's gardens to see what is growing, that will give you an idea whether the soil is acidic, azaleas, camellias, rhodedendrons etc will be growing, big rose bushes usually indicate clay soil etc. If there are lots of different plants growing weel it probably means your soil is neutral so will grow anything.
The fences down each side could be used to grow climbers along, needing training wires, another project. Evergreens perhaps to give winter interest and a narrower bed than one to grow more spreading plants.
Do not forget a small sitting space for you to sit and have a cuppa and admire your current handiwork. A small bistro table, a couple of chairs with a parasol for shade, which you could well need in hot weather.
A dog toilet area perhaps next to the shed? Being a dog/cat owner I know they usually find their own approved toilet spot, regardless of where you might think it ought to be.ie as near the house door as possible when the weather is bad. When I open the door for my two when it is raining hard they look at me as if to say "Really? You want me to go out in that!"

"What if we have no time to stand and stare"..

 

If you are going to have a patio and path you may be able to leave a large part of the concrete intact, depending on what you will be using to create the patio and path.

 

Hi all! I drew a plan!! But I have already changed it (with the best will in the world, I can’t divide the sections with garden beds. The space is too small, and they would be too in the way.) Other than moving them back to the side, however, I have a plan.

You probably can’t see/read these but they are very comprehensive for me, frankly.

I should have begun removing the decking first, but I didn’t feel like it, so I went at the render today instead. Lovely red brick underneath, though I didn’t know render had so many layers, or that there would be so many gigantic spiders living between them. I screamed a couple of times, but otherwise I was very brave. I think this stage will take me some time!

I realised halfway through that someone had given me good advice about tarps and easy clean up of the rubble. But oh well! I’ll grab some rubble bags and clean it up tomorrow. I can almost guarantee that I’ll move onto tearing the decking down before this job is halfway done, but they’ll both get done eventually!

(Yes, will leave the concrete under the patio and shed, if it’s in good enough condition. If it’s all cracked and crumbling, it’ll all have to go.)

 

Once the land is cleared to your satisfaction use lengths of garden water hose pipes to mark out boundaries. These can easily be moved if you keep changing your mind.

 

Hi @Lucy Davies , what a wonderful project (or series of projects) you have!

I'm in a sort of similar situation of totally changing the current "garden". Budgeting is a challenge, unless I get that email from National Lottery soon

Not sure if you enjoy Excel, but I find it immensely useful to just list everything in there. I have the main column for wants/ needs, the next for approximate cost (googling and asking for quotes in checkatrade.com ), and next columns for priority and links to my findings. Loads of other columns there as well (ok, can't afford a skip this month, will buy 3 Geranium Azure Skies instead )

I then filter on priority and check what I can afford now and what needs to be scheduled for later.

For peer experiences, do check out Garden Projects and DIY

And Kevin's journey is a delightful read for us neurodivergent gardeners My Garden Progress

Looking forward in following your projects Lucy! Enjoy!

 

I'm wondering if you might use the decking as the wood to build the shed...?
I'm also wondering if you have transport to take the render to your local tip in small amounts, and whether they charge for it or not ..?