ukecadet

I'll give it another go

HelenTD

Scam alert. Get some new quotes and don't tell them your budget.

spottydog

Decking is expensive, check the price at bunnings for an idea of the material costs. The turf quote sounds very pricey though, we got 30m2 of turf delivered and laid for around $350 last year. Soil can be quite cheap of you buy by the ton rather than the bag so check with a local supplier. For plants I'd probably plant myself slowly to see how each one gets on (says someone who seems to either kill or grow monster plants)

Siren & Brian

Decking using CCA treated pine for the structure and say Kapur or Batu decking about $250m2 supplied and laid.

One day I will get my lazy butt into gear and produce a website with my works. One day.

koalakim

We've got the same garden dilemma...built a new house and garden was going to be the first task, it's now 9 months later and all we've managed to acheive is shifting some earth around. The garden has been de-weeded several times but we then get busy at work and the little beggars all grow back again.

One house down the road had an "instant" front garden, so our neighbour got a quote for her garden and OMG!!!!! All she wanted was small block retaining wall (the ones that just stack), some grass seed put down and then laid out using that wooden strip stuff, no plants, mulch or stones and she was quoted $11k! We need lots more than that to do so I reckon ours (we've designed it so just need muscle!) would be around $40k..mmmm. So looks like we'll have to get out there with the fork and shovel and DIY it.

It's so hard as it keeps raining down here when we've got time off and then works comes up when it's nice so means garden isn't getting done, plus we're that bit older now and haven't quite got the enthusasim we had a few years ago for that type of tasks!

Wish Alan Titchmarsh and the Ground Force crew could pay me a visit!

JackTheLad

What's included in 'planting'? Do you mean cost of trees, shrubs, some feature plants, and labour to stick them in the soil? When I was at the farmers' market on the weekend, I had a look at prices of all the plants, many of them quite mature already), and thought it wouldn't cost much to fill a small yard. You get better quality stuff at garden centres or Bunnings, but if you choose carefully you can get some great bargains at the markets.

Getting 2-3 cubic metres of good quality compost and 1 cubic metre of cypress mulch from the landscape will cost you about $300 including delivery. It'll be hard to spend over $1000 on plants at the market.

You'll suffer a bit of back pain, but Panadol for Back and Neck pain is only a few dollars a packet!

Just some thoughts.

Mrs JTL