Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 23, 2010 1:23 pm Are you talking about front or back yard? I'd say doing something with your front yars ASAP is important. Even if it doesn't bother you, it'll probably *** your neighbours off... As for the back yard, there are a few issues. 1. Dust - and no, not just when the windows and doors are open, it blows in under and around doors, comes in on people's feet and drive you nuts. 2. Mud. When it rains, you can't get to anything outside that doesn't have paving, and again, mess in the house.... 3. Weeds. You'll have a hard time getting rid of them once they take hold and your neighbours won't thank you when the seeds or runners spread into their gardens. 4. Trees add value to a property, and also add to your comfort level, providing shade, windbreaks and something nice to look at. They take years to grow to any decent size, so the sooner you plant them, the better. 5. Having no garden is depressing. Looking out at the ugly bare soil and weeds every days really gets you down. Besides, your house looks and feels unfinished. It can niggle at you.... It doesn't cost much to do a very basic job - for instance throw down some grass seed and/or spread some thick mulch - and then you can easily keep grass mown and weeds under control. And if you have an idea where you want future trees (or tallish shrubs if you don't have much room) to be, get them in the ground as soon as you can. Re: Consequences of Not Landscaping your house straight away 2Jan 23, 2010 2:19 pm Well, yes, as kek said, obviously dust when its dry, mud when its wet - drove me mad for 6 months when I didnt have a back garden here (because we were waiting for shed and pergola to be down first) But I enjoy gardens and I have a relatively large block. I suggest you pave some of it but not all -as paveing can make the house hot. I suggest you get some top soil put down and then some mulch or pebbles and then plant some hardy shrubs - things like grevillia that are low maitenance - seek advice from your nursery if you are not sure what to plant. In our estate, it was part of the estate guidelines that we had to have front yard landscaped within 6 months of moveing in - admittedly it is not policed very thoroughly and there is no specification of what they mean by landscaping but theoretically some-one could complain to the council if it were not done. You could throw down some large pebbles and put a feature plant in the centre - or even a statue -and volia - landscaped! Brings me to my next point - if you do nothing it will downgrade the value of your house - even if you are not into gardens just have a look at real estate ads and see how often the words "established gardens" feature. Your front garden especially is the first impression of your house Re: Consequences of Not Landscaping your house straight away 3Jan 23, 2010 3:05 pm Why don't you just pave where you will walk, like around clothes line and the path back to the door or pave the whole yard seeing it's not big and you hate gardening. You could have a water feature or even a small garden in the middle Building with Homebuyers Centre El Questro! My building thread..viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19421 Brickies started 5/10 Re: Consequences of Not Landscaping your house straight away 4Jan 23, 2010 11:06 pm I completely agree with everything Kek has said, except that I don't care what my neighbours think! It's a real pain having dirt and dust constantly find it's way in, but if you've got other priorities, deal with them first. Life is too short to worry about what the neighbours might be talking about. On the plus side, it has taken us so long to decide what to do with both front and back yards, that we've finally come up with a really nice plan. We've also got a good feel for the house and where we really need extra shade etc. We're really not gardeners either, so we've personally found that delay beneficial in helping us get an idea of what we need and where it needs to go. Re: Consequences of Not Landscaping your house straight away 5Jan 24, 2010 12:34 am Is the landscaping not done or interest you because you don't know plants, or aren't sure on where to start or what to do? Re: Consequences of Not Landscaping your house straight away 6Jan 24, 2010 11:38 pm Hi When we built our first house we left the rear garden for about 6 months as we just could not afford it at the time we moved in. This time around we will be doing it asap, we are installing a pool straight after hand over and then will lay turf, pave and plant. Our main reason for doing it straight away is the dirt, dust that people have previously mentioned. It pretty much destroyed our window treatments the first time around and I don't want that to happen again! Building with Gemmill Homes (mod Greenhaven) PPA Apr 09' Contracts Jul 09' Prestart Aug 09' Final Plans Oct 09' Slab Nov 09' Lock up mid Feb 10' Re: Consequences of Not Landscaping your house straight away 7Jan 25, 2010 1:46 am Desmondp Fu Manchu, a bit of both mate what about artifical lawn ? is that a good or bad idea ? Don't get Fu started on artificial turf This topic has been discussed many times in the Landscape & Garden Design forum. Try doing a search for "artificial turf" or "synthetic turf" and see what you come up with (there's heaps!). My tac-home-ter: Been in 8 months! Re: Consequences of Not Landscaping your house straight away 8Jan 25, 2010 1:33 pm Hello - Little idea for keeping the dust down if you have not the time or money to do the backyard or you have just put a pool in and want to let the sand "settle" before you pave to stop paving from moving. We used carpet to keep the dust down but still allow the water to drain. If you go to your local carpet place you will find they have TONS of offcuts, only small little peices maybe 2m by 2m that you can use for free. I found it awesome for being able to walk outside but not bring the beach back inside. We found this especially good for compacting the sand around the pool because the water was still let down but the rain didnt splash sand all through the pool. We left the carpet there for about 4 months over winter and my paving hasnt moved at all. defiantely worth while and alot better in my opinion than seeding with lawn then having to try and rip it all up when you want to landscape properly. Just a though. THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE IS 495 SQM OF BEACH SAND AND WEEDS! http://missvintageshouseofpain.blogspot.com/ Re: Consequences of Not Landscaping your house straight away 9Jun 11, 2010 11:08 am Front yard: "Even if it doesn't bother you, it'll probably *** your neighbours off." Quite a valid point. These days it's difficult enough to fit into a new community. Having butt-ugly street appeal is a sure fire way of making yourself unpopular with the neighbours. I once had a friend that bought into a new estate and lost his job shortly after. Budget for landscaping went out the window. I told him to go talk with his neighburs to find out what worked for them landscaping wise. This is important as he was letting his neighbours know that he planned to lift the appearence of his home AND that he valued his neighbours' opinions. From his conversations with the neighbours, he scored 10m2 of excess pavers and a personal introduction to the local nursery owner. When he got another job and a budget to landscape, all of his neighbours took a keen interest. Food for thought... I've got a challenge here. Background is the builder has cut too deep for the slab and the slab is now below the very substantial retaining wall. It's failed occupancy… 0 18374 Hmmm, I have checked your past posts and it seems that you are in NSW, not WA as I had thought. It pays to show your State in your avatar. Retaining wall regulations… 5 7845 Hi, you've probably already resolved this, however, Commbank will probably pay the funds to you after you send evidence the work is done regardless the change in the quotes. 1 35305 |