Garden query

[lynnslittleuns]

May not be in the right place but ive recently had my garden completely gutted so that i can start afresh. It needed it believe me.
I was wondering, what you all use in your gardens. Do you turf, deck, artificial grass or what?
3 considerations : cheapest.
: child friendly (obviously)
: easy to clean (i have a Labrador)

Not much to ask i know !!!! Opinions and ideas please.

Thanks.
Lynn xx

[blue bear]

I have a paved patio area and grass. I'm south facing and good draining so don't have a big mud problem in the winter.

[lynnslittleuns]

Thanks Bluebear, might look into paving.
Looks really lovely when its done well.

Lynn xx

[new to all this]

We have done the same to ours. Our garden, i kid you not, had a tarmac drive in the middle of it (it's only tiny so took up most of it) and an outhouse that had been extended to the length of the garden with just about anything and swayed in the wind
Anyway because the garden is on 2 levels we have paving at the top and woodchip on the bottom bit where the childrens playhouse/toys are then gravel on the other side. It's quite a lot in a small garden but it looks lovely and i'm so proud of it PLUS it's the lowest maintainance garden you can get which with a dog and 2 ducks we needed

[lynnslittleuns]

Sounds great, new to all this and maintenance free would be ideal.
Is the woodchip soft enough for the children if they fall on it?

Lynn xx

[new to all this]

Not at the moment but it will be once it's been walked on a lot more. With the lack of summer it's not been used all that much yet

[scoobydoo1]

I have patio area, then grass and at the bottom I have shingle, I would like wood chip but my dog is 1 1/2 and still chews is into plastic and wood. At the bottom of the garden is fenced off from dog so that I can grow vegetables, still work in progress but getting there

[gegele]

i can't advise you on what to do as my garden is a shamble at the minute but i can advice you on what NOT to do

my big tip is if you have gras DO NOT have an area with pea shingle!!!!!!

i had an extension and had spare shingle that i put alone extension where it got muddy... now i can't mow the grass without the fear of stones flying everywhere, i can't walk bare feet in grass as it hurts

[Monkey26]

Our back garden is 1/3 grass, 1/3 veggie patch and 1/3 paved.

Our front garden is totally paved.

Both areas are totally enclosed so kids can use whichever depending on the weather - ie on damp, wet days or the day after rain I use the front so as to give my poor grass a chance!! Xx

[chockywockydoda]

I'm in the process of registering and im worried Mrs O may decided my paving is unsafe because some bits are slightly uneven. Will it be enough to risk assess and buy some of those foam squares to lay over the patio or should I get the other half to level it out? I dont want to get to my pre-reg and be told I cant register the garden!
Thanks

[mushpea]

we block paved all of ours, I was fed up with the mud in the winter and we couldnt use the garden in all weathers as it became a mud pit . Now we can use it whenever we want plus the dog is easy to clean up after and the rabbits cant dig!
the only downside is I wont allow things likes climbing frames and slides or rockers because of the hard surface but we go to the park for those .
The best is that you can race around on the ride on cars, chalk on the floor make all sorts of pictures like bean bag targets, road ways etc, we also have a patio area stepped up from the garden area which as the mud pie kitchen on and tuff spott

[LauraS]

We have roughly half of the garden turfed, and have a big wooden climbing/swinging treehouse thing on that. We have about a third paved with raised beds surrounded by pea shingle for the kids veg growing and digging.

The remaining bit is an enclosed deck, which is the best thing in the garden when the weather is changeable - it dries in the rain in about ten minutes, and there is a lot of scope for dangling things off the balustrade like artwork, drainpipes, sensory stuff, mirrors etc. We keep all the sand pit/ride ons etc on there. It didn't actually cost that much, we bought the boards in BandQs sale for £2.50 each and we worked out that a patio with decent (not the grey concrete type) slabs would have cost more. It's smooth enough to go out on in just bare feet or crawl on, and its also good to be able to shut the deck off and restrict access to the rest of the garden when needed.

[Tazmin68]

I have a patio area at the top and have an electric awning which can put out so we are under cover, then the grass area which is artificail turf it is like walkin on carpet. The bottom has a small paved area so hubby can barbicue which you cannot do on the turf and a gravel area where the dof is trained to do her business.

[lisa1968]

I got rid of all the grass in our garden in the end.We have clay soil and it never dried out,even in summer. Hubby built some raised beds for me to plant out,and the rest is all slabbed.It means we can use the garden all year round without worrying about wet and muddy grass.
Years ago we had artificial grass which was fab-it wore out in the end!

[hectors house]

i can't advise you on what to do as my garden is a shamble at the minute but i can advice you on what NOT to do

my big tip is if you have gras DO NOT have an area with pea shingle!!!!!!

i had an extension and had spare shingle that i put alone extension where it got muddy... now i can't mow the grass without the fear of stones flying everywhere, i can't walk bare feet in grass as it hurts

I am in process of taking up gravel next to grass - kids love digging in gravel and putting it on grass - I now have several chips in kitchen window where mover has spun gravel as such force at it. I ask the children to not put gravel on lawn, I tell them, even resorted last week to sitting a 4 year old on the step for not listening - but wasting my breath, so gravel coming up - going to just put down bark same as other side of garden for now and then block pave next spring. Going to put some of gravel in spare sandpit, on patio, away from grass as they do like driving toy cars in it.

Considering covering grass up each day during winter with a tarpaulin as it gets so muddy - will it kill the grass?