Ideas for making this outdoor space low maintenance

[ivanh]

So we have this dog run up the side of the house, where we store the composter and where the gas water heater lives. It's a neglected space that gets overgrown in a matter of months. Once a year we generally pull all the vegetation out, take it back to dirt on a weed mat and then the whole cycle continues.

We want to do something with this space to make it more presentable. It's not really usable as it's not wide enough yet we are keen to do something, even if just to lower the amount of maintenance.

Has anyone else dealt with a similar problem or have any ideas of what we could do? We have toyed with the idea of concreting it all over but it seems to me an expensive and rather sterile solution.

[Politenessman]

depending on your budget and needs, you could consider a slimline water tank or two, you'd want to make sure that you left access to the hot water cylinder to replace/repair/maintain it in future though -

Slimline Water Tanks - Bunnings Australia

[BradN]

Hi @ivanh . You could also put in some paving stones for walking on, with pebbles to keep the weeds down, like in some of these side access projects .

Brad

[EricL]

 Hello @ivanh

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's wonderful to have you join us, and thank you for sharing your question about making your outdoor space low maintenance.

It's great that you've received fantastic suggestions from @Politenessman and @BradN. I've just the thing for you. One of our members has recently decided to finally do a permanent fix to his space at the side. I suggest reading this post - Fixing up the side path by @Nham. Aside from finally doing away with all the line trimming and weeding, the space now becomes easy to access and is the perfect area for a vertical garden.

However, there are other options such as putting down weed mat, placing gravel, and pavers to make it look presentable. But if you're after a flat surface with very low maintenance then cementing the area is my suggestion.

Please keep us updated with your progress, we look forward to seeing your outdoor space transformed. 

Here are some amazing side yard projects our Workshop members have shared: 

• Side yard paving and bike shelter by @weekenddiyer

• Side access paving job by @Yorky88

• Side yard - Landscaping project by @diy_hausdesigns

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[Jason]

Hi @ivanh,

Let me also extend a very warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. As you can see, we have loads of helpful members on the site sharing advice and inspiration every day.

Side areas can be notoriously difficult, but I agree with the other posts that some weed matting and pebbles with the odd paver as a stepping stone would look great and provide a very low-maintenance option without much expense or impacting drainage. 

The excellent guide How to plan a garden makeover by experienced member @Adam_W should provide guidance on the importance of coming up with a plan. You should also check out Ideas to revamp your side yard as it contains plenty of inspiration with projects similar to yours. 

Hope that helps.

Jason

[ivanh]

Thanks Jason,

I appreciate all the links. Many options to choose here and the pebbles / paver approach does look nice.

Thanks again,

Ivan

[ivanh]

Thanks for this Eric,

The concreting option does look the most neat and tidy and with a vertical garden, that would take away my concerns about it being sterile.

Thanks again,

Ivan

[ivanh]

@Politenessman , I was thinking about the water tank option, I think if we had more garden space this would be on the top of my list.

Thanks again

[ivanh]

@BradN ,

I think this is the most straightforward option and it does look good.

Tossing up between this and concreting the area, 

With concreting, obviously, drainage is an issue. With the pebbles approach, is this no longer an issue or do people add some sort of drainage channel anyway?

Thanks again,

Ivan

[Jason]

As long as you don't have any drainage issues at the moment, if you are just adding weed mat and pebbles you shouldn't need to add anything else. 

Jason