Hi all
I don't know if anyone has any secrets for low-cost improvements to larger blocks. We recently converted the front yard portion of a 1.4 acre dustbowl to something a bit more manageable and attractive to prepare it for sale. It was PPOR stepping stone and for various reasons we decided to sell it.
Anyway, after astronomic quotes based on the size of the area involved, I found (I think) a couple of relatively quick cheap options.
Firstly, I ordered 2 x 12 ton truck loads of "soccer ball sized" boulders from a local quarry. These were to define the boundaries for turf and provide an edge behind which to mulch and plant.
When the boulders arrived I found the quarry guy must have come from the Land of the Giants soccer field because his soccer ball and mine were obviously very different. Enter panic attack when 24 ton of boulders were left in the driveway. I could move roughly 10% of them by hand. I got through the first 4 and gave up
I called a Dingo guy who turned up to move them. I expected 2 days work (better than me conning mates into manual labour). The end bill to move and place the entire lot of huge boulders which at a guess would have been 250 lineal metres across a pretty big area - maybe 1/4 acre - $220 ! It took him 2.5 hours plus a bit of clean up time on other issues.
I've found Dingos a better option than bobcats for small blocks as they usually charge no delivery fee and are happy to get a couple of hours work. To me they seem to be able to complete most jobs just as quickly and effectively.
I then ordered 300 metres of A grade blue couch for around $900. Laid in the "retained" area and it came up looking great for sale, once we banned our 2 boxer dogs from using it as an adventure park (they thought running and coming to a quick stop on the turf pieces was pretty funny, as the grass rolled up in front of them). Finally a yard people could picture their kids kicking a ball in. (we don't have kids so that had not occurred to us!)
Then some mulch from a local guy who dumps a truckload on your footpath for $200. This time I went the black garbage bin option - nowhere near as much fun as watching the Dingo guy doing the work.
Bought $150 worth of natives to get some green amongst the mulch.
So all up to dramatically spruce up a quarter acre around $1,500 and one days manual labour. I realise its easy to make small gardens look a lot better on a small budget too, but I was pretty pleased with the "square metre" cost.
Sorry I have no photos. They are all somewhere, lost in the move, one day I'll get organised and post some.
I noticed the couch hasn't survived all that well (it was laid as per the suppliers advice) ... its seems quite patchy and fussy. At the new place we used some Sir Walter top quality buffalo grass (to spoil ourselves the current PPOR - we only did a small 30 square metre patch in a courtyard area and it cost $300 Much harder wearing and attractive than the couch the though, after a few months - touch wood.
Anyway the point of my post is I'm no longer worried about larger blocks that need some work.
Any other ideas on acreage garden improvements ? The current PPOR is looking a little bare
Cheers
TryHard
I don't know if anyone has any secrets for low-cost improvements to larger blocks. We recently converted the front yard portion of a 1.4 acre dustbowl to something a bit more manageable and attractive to prepare it for sale. It was PPOR stepping stone and for various reasons we decided to sell it.
Anyway, after astronomic quotes based on the size of the area involved, I found (I think) a couple of relatively quick cheap options.
Firstly, I ordered 2 x 12 ton truck loads of "soccer ball sized" boulders from a local quarry. These were to define the boundaries for turf and provide an edge behind which to mulch and plant.
When the boulders arrived I found the quarry guy must have come from the Land of the Giants soccer field because his soccer ball and mine were obviously very different. Enter panic attack when 24 ton of boulders were left in the driveway. I could move roughly 10% of them by hand. I got through the first 4 and gave up
I called a Dingo guy who turned up to move them. I expected 2 days work (better than me conning mates into manual labour). The end bill to move and place the entire lot of huge boulders which at a guess would have been 250 lineal metres across a pretty big area - maybe 1/4 acre - $220 ! It took him 2.5 hours plus a bit of clean up time on other issues.
I've found Dingos a better option than bobcats for small blocks as they usually charge no delivery fee and are happy to get a couple of hours work. To me they seem to be able to complete most jobs just as quickly and effectively.
I then ordered 300 metres of A grade blue couch for around $900. Laid in the "retained" area and it came up looking great for sale, once we banned our 2 boxer dogs from using it as an adventure park (they thought running and coming to a quick stop on the turf pieces was pretty funny, as the grass rolled up in front of them). Finally a yard people could picture their kids kicking a ball in. (we don't have kids so that had not occurred to us!)
Then some mulch from a local guy who dumps a truckload on your footpath for $200. This time I went the black garbage bin option - nowhere near as much fun as watching the Dingo guy doing the work.
Bought $150 worth of natives to get some green amongst the mulch.
So all up to dramatically spruce up a quarter acre around $1,500 and one days manual labour. I realise its easy to make small gardens look a lot better on a small budget too, but I was pretty pleased with the "square metre" cost.
Sorry I have no photos. They are all somewhere, lost in the move, one day I'll get organised and post some.
I noticed the couch hasn't survived all that well (it was laid as per the suppliers advice) ... its seems quite patchy and fussy. At the new place we used some Sir Walter top quality buffalo grass (to spoil ourselves the current PPOR - we only did a small 30 square metre patch in a courtyard area and it cost $300
Much harder wearing and attractive than the couch the though, after a few months - touch wood.Anyway the point of my post is I'm no longer worried about larger blocks that need some work.
Any other ideas on acreage garden improvements ? The current PPOR is looking a little bare
Cheers
TryHard
