I just asked for some advice about prepping for winter and people seemed to like it so thought I'd show some before and afters and a breakdown of what it cost.
I'm a first time gardener and my inspiration was a national trust flower garden.
I honestly didn't know what I was doing so in hindsight it can be broken down into:
Design. Just thought about what might look nice and elongate it so focused it around a curving path and wanting a small grass patch.
Time. I Spent a lot of evenings and weekends doing it which I had the luxury to afford and not everyone can.
Research. I knew I wanted a National Trust feeling garden so looked up how they do it, checked out the colour of their paths etc. to match it.
Reddit – looking at previous posts here!
People – I have a lovely small independent garden centre nearby and took a sketch of my planned layout, and the owner spent about an hour with me suggesting plants to go in certain places and how to lay it out. Then I met a lovely lady on Facebook marketplace who sold plants and gave me lots of advice about planting and heights and seasons etc.
Costs Breakdown –
The decking was rotten so I spent about £100 on that from a local timber yard.
I fixed the shed for free and gave it a lick of paint – £30
Dug up the whole garden by hand – Free
The log borders for the path (more than I wanted or expected) but about £120 – £4 per 1.2 metre roll, about a 12 metre long garden
Weed mat for path – £8
Gravel for path – about 25 bags of golden gravel from my local garden centre 3 for £11 – £90
Elderflower Tree – £11
Plants – £200 or so. I avoided b&q and homebase etc. and found people selling stuff on Facebook marketplace, car boot sales, my independent local super cheap garden centre
Compost and Bark Chips – £50
In total about £800! I could have done it cheaper if i'd wanted i.e. using a cheaper path border, bulk buying gravel, getting things secondhand, buying smaller plants or growing them from seed and having it take more time to look like this.
Hopefully this inspires some people that it can be done by yourself and for a reasonable budget.
by fofizzleshizzle
41 Comments
That’s brilliant. Well done!
Done well for that price
I think £800 is an amazing price for that transformation. Well done, it looks brilliant.
Excellent work.
Coming up to 10 months with my first garden. Not really planned just some random stuff to see what grows and what doesn’t.
Looks like I’ll be growing chillies and sunflowers next year as they took off brilliantly.
Nice work. You now need a bigger garden to do all the things you couldn’t find the space for here. The gardeners curse. 😢👊
This is fantastic. Am planning on redoing my garden similarly in 2026, so nice to see all the steps and the result. Incredible work!
inspiring!
Looks great!
Great job
Feel like you deserve the gardening equivalent of a Paul Hollywood Handshake.
…a Monty Don Nod?
Oh this is wonderful op!!
Absolutely amazing!
Fantastic! This looks fabulous op. Great work.
Love the colours in the beds and the sheer abundance of plants! That kind of cottage garden feel always brings me joy.
That’s amazing! Great job!
What did you paint your shed with?
Fuck me
Come do mine!
https://preview.redd.it/4xhhzd2bu4wf1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=385d49ee7c47e876664a6afa99500ddf13b1a4e8
Absolutely amazing
Fantastic work OP! Looks great
Can you share any tips you’ve learnt along the way? Any regrets or things youd have done different? What kinda breakdown of costs were involved (i.e. how’d you get it done so cheap lol)
Blimey that’s amazing! What aspect and soil type do you have? Do you have a list of plants you could share? Congrats again. Looks incredible!
Great job, you gotta be proud of that. I like the bent path, leads the eye and gives visual interest.
Lovely job!!!
This is beautiful transformation, I love National Trust gardens, so your pictures & ideas are truly inspiring.
(Now, if only I could speed up that house buying process!
Inspirational!!!!
Looks so much better and will continue to evolve and mature. You will probably find that your beds quickly get overcrowded as the planting is very close.
Really cool.
I would love a list of the plants you put in
How did you construct the path ?
Looks great. No mean feat all that digging!!
I love that you put a wildlife pond in there. Every garden should have one. You may have done this already, but where possible, make sure you have creature highways, either 13cm x 13cm holes in fences (you own) or underneath. We have all sorts visiting, hedgehogs, newts, frogs, toads, etc. Great job!
Absolutely beautiful!
Well done
That’s terrific💥💥💥
This is amazing!!! Hopefully inspires others to do the same! If it is a mild winter there is no reason to start now! It gives plants time to establish over winter.
Looks fantastic. The only thing I’d add is 3 irregular shaped slate stepping stones in front of that bench.
Nice now just look after it…2 weekends a month spend a hour on it!
This is lovely. Well done you! I love the pond area.
This is awesome for £800! Well done!
Please will you come do mine???
This looks quite charming—great job! Have you caught the gardening bug?
Out of curiosity how tall are your fences? Does the garden feel private enough?