People are quite often very surprised at the cost of putting in an outdoor living space and garden. Generally to create a patio, planting areas around it and paths to access it, you might be looking at paying the same as if you were doing small kitchen renovation. It makes sense since you really are creating another room on your house but it also makes sense to go the DIY path in the garden....
As a hard core garden builder myself, Erin, the Impatient Gardener, has not only earned my respect but the serious stripes as a DIY superstar and the buff forearms to prove it. Generally when it comes to building paths and walls in the garden, a rough estimate for what a contractor will charge to do the work is double the amount of the required materials. So, by doing it yourself, you stand to save about 50%.
Erin's project, which you can read more about on her blog, Impatient Gardener, includes a deck with a pergola (and some pretty sleek cable railings), a patio, paths, a stone retaining wall and planting. All done in nine months by Erin herself. Impressive, and I can't wait to see what it looks like this year when the plants are more settled in and have started to grow together.
(Images: The Impatient Gardener.)
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Comments (15)
Haha I was thinking "wow, those changes make the whole house look so different!" when I noticed that the house is different -- new roof angle, new windows, new door on the far left.
Wow--that's amazing! Not exactly my style but still amazing.
It is indeed very expensive. We could have bought a car for what we paid for phase 1 of our yard re-do. We've decided to do the rest ourselves to save money and since the hard stuff was in phase one (removing a huge broken concrete patio, re-grading the ground, french drains), I think we'll be fine.
I'm confused though--did the house get re-done as well or is that picture taken from the other side?
Same angle, the home has some pretty large geometry changes in the roof. Garden looks great, in fact the shape of the house after it's roof redo also looks much improved.
Gorgeous, I love the meandering flagstone paths and the deck is lovely, as is the rock wall in front of it. I would love a home and garden like that.
Oh my goodness, the additions are great! I love the little blue door on the left sooo much!
Of course, the garden is great too. :)
The whole thing is very nice. I like the path and the garden. I think the house was greatly improved with the addition.
wow nice!
This is not a gardening venture as it a renovation or addition project. Well done on such an involved undertaking.
the house was made slightly diff, diff windows, slopping roof etc... not entirely a fair before after if you ask me. but hey. who's counting - not i! i think the change is great and i agree about waiting for the plants to grow in tog and being even more visually captivating.
They added dormer windows to the second floor which added a little bit of a roof over the new deck. The windows/door on the first floor look the same though. It looks great.
Thanks for the nice comments on the changes. There are really two separate projects shown in the photos above. First we did a fairly extensive remodel of our 1938 cottage (we essentially pulled off the top and put it back on higher to get more useable space) and added the deck. After that, I completely redid that side of the yard, which had obviously sustained a good deal of damage in the renovation. Prior to the renovation there was garden that just wrapped around the patio (you can see it in the first picture, the orange snow fencing was protecting a Japanese maple). I added the path to the detached garage (before we just wore a hole through the grass walking out there), tiered beds with stacked stone walls on either side as well as gardens along the path.
Wow. What a great transformation.
fabulous after garden - sooo much work involved in creating these great results!
This is great. I wish we have houses like this in the big cities. I came across this website and if you are planning something for your front or backyard, aside from creating a sense of freshness, you may want to add some color and light to it. They offer outside furniture that comes in chill white (if you want something simple and clean) and vibrant color swatches if you want to create a drama to it. They also have cool planters available in different sizes and they are made of recyclable materials. To add light to your garden, you may want to throw some cordless led lighting - I've done this in my small place and it's now my favorite spot - very relaxing and comforting. Oh here is the website - https://www.metropolitandecor.com/Outdoor-Living.html.