3 Clever Yard Upgrades For Any Budget | Great Home Ideas

In this episode, discover not one but three front yard makeovers — each tailored to a different budget range.

Charlie shows what’s possible at every level, from low-cost landscaping upgrades under a few hundred dollars, to mid-range revamps of driveways, patios and garden paths, all the way to a high-end, full-scale garden transformation. Whether you’re after affordable garden refresh or a premium outdoor upgrade, there’s inspiration for every budget.

00:00 Budget-Friendly Garden Makeover
04:12 Mid-Range Outdoor Upgrade
10:00 Luxury Garden Transformation

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Over the next 3 weeks, we’re transforming this front garden, but in a way that will show you exactly what you get for what you spend. Think multiple choice. Three different options for three different budgets. Dominique, Tony, how are you? How are you? Thank you for having us. This is our project. Hey. Yes. So, we’re splitting this into three makeovers. Yes. The first one we’re going to go super cheap, guys. Shovel each. Thank you. So, because we’ve got limited budget on this first one, we’re going to focus it all on the front of the house, right? And then as the budget increases, we’ll work out from the house. This garden bed needs clearing out. We’re going to get rid of all the plants. I’ll go with the other side. [Music] In the spirit of our minimalist budget, I’m going to salvage these agave. And they transplant really, really easily. All you need to do is make sure you maintain a bit of trunk. Now, don’t go and put that straight in the ground. You want to leave it out in the sun so you get a scab over the cut edge. And then put it into some sandy mix and you’ll get some roots and a brand new plant. [Music] is a far away. [Music] All right, tie that off. Right, so I need a volunteer now for painting and one for gardening. I’ll paint. That was quick. I’m gardening. How many people think painting that quickly? Right, Tony, can you start digging this out? [Music] So, Dom, we did have the option of perhaps rendering the house. Mhm. But it is really expensive and for me with a house with windows like this, I think it would just look too plain and you wouldn’t get much benefit for the amount of money it would cost. Yeah. So, instead, we’re going to go paint. And the most cost effective way to go is just to paint the trims. And with this, I think the whole thing is going to be white. So, it’s a big contrast. And we’re going to bring that white down to the bottom here just to freshen it up. that to change the green. I’d like to do that in a color called monument, which is quite a dark charcoal. Now, with anything that’s metal like this or the gutters, you got to give them a bit of a sand first to scratch it up. That way, the new paint can key to it. Stuff like this, we just clean [Music] off. The shoes are changing color. Yeah, good work. This is looking great. [Music] Thank you. So, the idea behind this edging is we could have just done a spade edge, but I don’t want all this grass to grow into the garden bed. So, for 50 bucks, this simple aluminium edge nailed in with these, it’s much better option. Perfect. We get right with our hole finally finessed to the right depth. Thank you, Tony. I’m going to put this planter. This is a type of magnolia called Princess Cinderella. It will get to about 2 m by 2 m, but you can keep it pruned pretty much to any size you like. And so, it’s going to be lovely by the front door. And when it gets up, it’ll just break up this brick. The last thing to go in the ground are the agave that we saved. And you’ll notice I’ve just taken off the damaged leaves around the base to tidy them up. With the hole, you need to go quite deep because you simply pop the trunk in there and you need it to stand up nice and straight. I’ll firm around that and that will shoot roots out and that’ll be absolutely fine. Another plant that we’ve put in the ground just to fill in the gaps is this lovely lamandra verde. It’s got a really rich deep green leaf. So guys, we spent oh 5 700 bucks on plants. What do you think? It’s amazing. Amazing. Yeah, it looks good, doesn’t it? I mean, if you had less budget, you could spread your plants out. You could even use more of the fillers cuz they cost less. All we need to do now is put some mulch down. And I have one other thing to do. That light. Oh, yes, of course. When you’re working with electricity, you need to have a licensed electrician to do the work. And it’s small touches like this that really lift an area. And it’s made this whole space feel like it’s got a sense of quality. So guys, 1,500 bucks. We made a big impression to the front. Do you like it? Looks amazing. Looks great. Yep. Well, I really want to up the ante now. So I want to make some big changes. I’m thinking your driveway is looking a little bit tired and obviously doesn’t fit the color scheme. So that’s the color I would like to make it. Nice. I would like to take your front porch. Although the tiles are of the era, should we say, I’m thinking we could update them with something like this. Again, goes with the color scheme. Nice. Then, excuse me as I explode. I’d like to do a front path from your patio out to the street using these. Lovely. Happy. Yeah, definitely. So, we’re looking at maybe another $3 $4,000, but I’ll help out. Deal. Deal. Okay, I’m just going to put this down quickly. Tony, time to cover up the giraffe prints driveway. Yeah. And as I mentioned, we’re using a really complimentary color to the new color scheme, right? It’s a heavy duty paint, so it can go on the driveway. It will wear really well. You can use it for things like insides of sheds and stuff like that as well. Um, but what we need to do, we’re going to roll the driveway cuz it’s so big, but we need to cut in all the edges so it doesn’t go everywhere. Pretty much. Yeah, sure. How are you at cutting in? Um, I’ll try my best. We’ll try our best. Okay. turning my world out and try to get. So Dom, I got Tony painting your driveway and get you to paint this porch. So your tiles here are actually in really good nick. You can tell they’re not drummy at all. There’s none flaking off. It’s in good nick, which means we can tile over the top. But we need to put a primer down so the tiles stick cuz you don’t want them to move around in time. So with this, you need nice wide brush strokes. That’s why I’ve got a big wide brush. You’re just going to cut in around the edge and then paint over the whole lot. Making sure you work on a wet edge cuz this dries in about half an hour. So, you want to keep working the bit that isn’t dry. Start up at the door and work your way out. I have learned the hard way cuz I have done it the other way and been stuck before. Okay. We don’t want that. Learn learn from me. There you go. Sounds good. Okay. I’m going to uh dig out this pathway cuz I’ve seen how you and Tony both dig. Uh and I’ll have a race with you. See if I can get this done before you get that done. All righty. [Music] Now, you may remember last week that on Tony’s wish list was a front path cuz he didn’t want to walk around the driveway to get the front door. So, his wish is my command and I’m putting in a path for him. Now, we do have a garden bed here that we put in last week as well. Those plants will easily lift up and move into the remainder of the garden bed. I’m just doing a stepping stone path, and I’m making the construction super simple. Just laying them on the dirt on some mud to keep them nice and stable. But the first step is to dig it out. [Music] Oh, it’s getting close, Tom. Who’s going to win? I think it might be you, Charlie. Yeah. Oh, muscle. Oh, [Music] [Applause] muscle. I’m actually putting in a stepping stone path, but for the entryway and the exit, I’m using a pad of four cuz it feels more comfortable when you first come into the garden and when you step up onto the patio. [Music] Tony, I was coming in to give you a lesson on how to use a roller, but you’re smashing. It seems pretty good, eh? You lose all that Flintston’s look and starts to look pretty smart. Yeah, very nice. So, Dom, you’ve done a fantastic job on priming the porch. Thank you. But to keep the quality theme going, we’ve got a tiler in to finish it off. Sounds good. I mean, you could do it yourself, but if your tiling is anything like my tiling, you definitely want to get a professional in. He’s doing a good job. Thank you. No, he is. [Music] Sorry. And notice I’ve laid the path nice and level so when you walk along it, it’s comfortable. But what that’s done is left us some divots either side because of the slope of our land. Now, you could fill these with a turf underlay, but I’m just using a coarse river sand cuz you can get it in smaller quantities. This stuff that’s really good because when you pack it down, it stays nice and hard, but it remains free draining, which is perfect for [Music] [Applause] [Music] grass. Right. Finish off. We’ll just put some grass around it. And how much better does the path look? Looks amazing. You happy with it? Yeah. Very nice. The moment of truth, John. Have a look at these tiles. They look amazing. They look great, don’t they? They made such a difference. Yeah. I spent a little bit more on these. I think it’s worthwhile. You know, it’s a hight traffic area. You’re going to see it a lot. And it’s just makes a massive impact, doesn’t it? Yeah, it does. Beautiful. Yeah. Lovely. All right. Well, you grab this one. Thank you. I’ll start pulling this one up. [Music] I’m [Music] always just to finish off our medium range makeover. Spent about 500 bucks on plants, but it ties in nicely with what we did last week. It’s looking pretty smart. It’s amazing. Looking good, guys. You like it? Yeah. Very nice. How do you think the driveway is looking, Charlie? Well, there’s no more giraffe print. I think we’ve done a pretty good job. Thank you. This week, we’re really going to up the ante. So, we’re going to go new fence at the front. Matching screens on the carport. Lots of planting and then we’re going to rip up all these weeds and put down a nice lawn for you. Yeah, sounds good. We’re basically taking a patch of weeds. We’re going to turn it into a lovely green lawn. Now, to remove the old weeds, you need to get yourself a Graham. Gra’s generally attached to a turf cutter and it’s taking what will take a full day and turning it into about half an hour’s worth of work. So Tony, you were the one who asked for a path to the front door, but I think having a fence really finishes it off. Are you a fan? Yeah, definitely. It’ll give us a bit of privacy and it’ll complete the Australian dream of owning a own home. And absolutely the Australian dream. I love it. The white picket fence. All right. Let’s get some concrete in these. All right. Let’s get some water in this hole. I get you to uh give it a bit of a mix. Poke around. Right with the post done. We’re going to move on to the rails. [Music] So, Dom, you did such a good job painting in week one that I’m going to make you paint this fence. Okay, sounds good. Yeah. So, because picket fences are all fiddly, it’s much easier to paint these long sticks before you cut them up. So, leave you with a roller, some paint, and I’ll go help Sean out the front. Thank you. [Music] So Tony, you might think if you’re building a fence, you need a carpenter. And if you’ve got no skills at all, I’d recommend it. However, I sort of designed this in a different way that even goobers like myself can build it. So that I put a bracket on. I’m going to skew that in. You have the bottom rail, which you can see has a bit of a groove in it. We’ll do exactly the same through the bottom like that. Get nice and level. And then our pickets will go up and then we can shoot them off. So it’s really nice and [Music] [Music] simple. Only another 6,422 to go. Boring. I might leave this to uh Sean. I think I got some edging to do. You all right with that? All good. At least I know it’ll be done properly. Hey, I’ll go make us a cup of tea. You’re not wrong. He’s He’s not [Music] wrong. Big budget gardens are all about lots of plants. So, I’m creating some really generous garden beds that are going to sweep around with our cost-effective aluminium edging. Getting the ground ready for turf is really important so it’ll be healthy for years to come. And that means turf underlay, which is a mix of sand and soil. This makes it easy for the roots to penetrate through. Reaching for heaven and everything I do from above. Too good to be true. Tony, I reckon we did a pretty good job on this fence. It looks pretty good. Painting wasn’t too bad either. Thank you. Well done. I also asked Sean to knock up this screen at the back so it sort of ties the carport with the garden so it all sort of feels like it was done at once and not not separately. There was a part of me that always had a getaway, but now I’m thinking that I’m not. This old metal work really does date the house. And to replace it, well, I’d want to talk to an engineer cuz we got a concrete roof here and it’s connected right through. So, instead, I’m going for a much easier option. You’re simply cladding over the top of it with these decking boards. It ties in with the front door perfectly. Hey, that’s a nice pose, Charlie. It looks good, doesn’t it? Yeah, it looks really good. But now I’m going to banish you inside. Okay, so we got plants, we got grass. There’s going to be big impact. It’s going to happen really quickly, and I want to surprise you guys. Okay. Oh, we’re excited. Go on back inside then. Keep the blinds closed as well. Now, I know I have been banging on about this being a big budget makeover, and for me, that is all about the plants. So, I have rammed these garden beds full of planting. And we’ve got a mixture of texture, color, different heights, different shapes. I’m using this incredible pectranthus called Velvet Diva. Have a look at those flowers. They’re absolutely amazing. If you don’t like this, well, I’m terribly sorry, but we can’t be friends anymore. To bring in an architectural element to our planting, I’m using this. This is the Brashenora or Mexican lily. You can’t deny that our front fence looks pretty special, but I think it looks even better with plants around it. On the inside, we’ve got this princess magnolia which we used in the first week, as well as this rounded listing and the verde of the lamandra, but I’m adding in some flowers. This is a little native called Brachic. The variety is breaka day, and it’s got these great little flowers on it. It’s just going to add a sense of softness to the front of the bed. To finish off our big budget garden, I’m giving it the boost it deserves with some Sir Walter Buffalo lawn. We’re just going to do the curves and the edges first, then we fill in the gaps. It really is as easy as that. Right, let’s go get him. You guys ready? Yes, we are. Yes, we are. Come have a look. All right. Do we hope they like it? Wow. Oh, wow. What a difference. Looks amazing. It looks awesome. You like it? Yeah. Beautiful. Incredible. What a difference. You remember what it looked like when we started? I mean, we did the the first makeover, which was a clear out some paint and a few plants. We then upped it. We did the driveway. You got your path and the tiling. And now this to finish it off. Yeah. Wow. Amazing. How good does the path look with the green and the tippuccas next to the white fence? Look at you busting out the tippuccinos. Learn a few things off you. Yeah. Learn how to dig a hole in those white shoes, which is very impressive. They’ve stayed quite clean. I know. Amazing. So, Dom, what’s your favorite part of the front garden? Uh, it’s hard to choose, but I must say it might be the white fence. Such a nice addition. Really ties everything in really nicely and makes it feel like a home. It’s beautiful. We threw quite a bit of cash at this one. Almost 10 grand all up. But we’ve totally transformed the front of this house. Yeah, we have done a lot here and we have really pushed the boat out on this front garden. If you guys at home think this is too much, hopefully you can get some inspiration from the things we’ve done in the other makeovers and then you can go from there. Sounds good. Keys are being handed over to you now. You got to look after it. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. You make my last. Got to get it. Get it. Get it. Get it. Get it.