DIY Landscaping

Hi,

I just wanted to start a thread for those who have attempted or considered their own landscaping.

How many people here have attempted there own landscaping? either parts of, or the whole garden.
What elements did you find the most challenging or daunting?
Did you design the garden yourself? If yes, were you fully satisfied with the results?
How much money did you save by doing your own landscaping?
Was it a satisfying process?
What would you do differently if you had the chance again?

Thanks
Dave

I've done all my own landscaping, with the help of my Dad on the bigger jobs. My house already had quite good hardscaping (retaining walls and garden edges) and a lot of nice established plants when I moved in, but I've re done a few garden beds and changed and added a lot of plants, and weeded and re sewn the front lawn which was quite tedious by myself. And my dad and I also built a long bamboo fence/screen along one side of the house for privacy and to hide the plain colorbond fence which was probably the biggest job we've done but its turned out great and really transformed that side of the house. The things I've found most challenging are the labor and my lack of knowledge on the ways to do certain things, but my dads quite knowledgeable with tools and everything so that's helped a lot. I've been very satisfied with all the things I've done to my gardens, although there are some things I wish I had known at the time of certain projects to save me trouble re doing them or fixing them later on. I've learnt that you should do things properly the first time and really research what you are doing because it will save you in the long run, and that you should be willing to spend a bit to get something right, even though the initial cost might be a bit big. I think if you enjoy projects and gardening and spend time researching how to do things (this forum is very helpful) then doing your own landscaping can be very rewarding and enjoyable, and save you a lot of money, and if you get professionals to do any major work that you might not be qualified to do (electrics, plumbing and building) but do the smaller stuff yourself, you will save money and it will be more rewarding