herrchook

The yard in our rental is a mess. Just some cut weeds and concrete. Whilst we don't want to spend a lot of money on someone elses garden, we don't want to spend the next year looking at a mess.

Anyone got any recommendatins for how we could cheaply make it look nicer and be a better place for the kids to play?

cheers

Gill

Geelong Gent

Potted plants can be taken with you.....and replanted in your own garden.

Sometimes even if it is someone elses place you need to spend money to enjoy your own life.

herrchook

Yeah, we were thinking we were gonna have to spend some $s on it. Don't really want the girls running around on it the way it is. Mike's thinking of hiring a rotavator to level some of it and then maybe barking it a bit..

Looking forward to meeting little bear this afternoon

Gill

Pollyana

WAtch what it says in the lease. Some landlords/agents get very funny if you do anything other than maintaining it as it is, so before you do anything drastic make sure you're OK

herrchook

Will do Polly. Thanks for the tip

gobbyjock

WE`ve put pots around our place, sprayed loads of weedkiller, pulled up all the weeds, dug over the plant beds, then put a mulch over the beds and around plants in them. Looks loads better, if you look out for garage sales & stuff you can usually pick up plants pretty cheap, or check in the local paper, usually people advertise if they want to get rid of any plants. We`ve also picked up some herbs from Bunnings which I planted in pots & hanging baskets. Seeds are probably cheaper but this way you get instant cover/colour and brightens the place up a lot.

ACE

Whatever you want to do make sure you get permission from the owner through the agent. We put a large Intex swimming pool in the garden over the grass and we are installing foxtel but we got permission first. We made the request in writing and included in the letter was our assurance that we would re-turf the garden and carry-out any repairs needed before we vacate the property and the owner was more than happy to give his consent. As for general garden maintenence the owner pays for a gardener to come round twice a month and he pays half of the water usage so we are pretty lucky really.

ACE

ljj

Make sure the state of the garden is on the condition report and take photo's and send to agent (with date). We paid an extra $5 a week on top of the rent for full garden maintenance that way we could not lose our bond at the end of our lease as other friends were charged hundreds for dead plants and grass.....we had a drought!

LJJ

Dorothy

Our agent in Adelaide tried to charge us to replace the grass in both the front and back gardens when we moved out because it died over the summer but we told her to cram her bill we weren't paying. When she tried to get nasty we sent a copy of the letter our local council sent around with the watering restriction guidelines and photos of some of the other lawns on our street to the state body that holds the bond and they agreed with us. They said due to drought, extreme heat and water restrictions we could not possibly have been expected to keep grass alive.