AFTER being left gobsmacked at being quoted a massive fee of £6,000 to give his garden a complete makeover, one man decided to do it himself.
Kenroy and Sapphire moved out to the countryside from London two years ago and have been documenting their journey through their YouTube channel ever since.
After moving to Worcestershire and getting settled in, they made the decision to tackle their overrun garden, which looked more like a “forest”.
But a professional company quoted them over £6,000, leaving them baffled at how much money it would cost to get it all done.
In a bid to save, the pair put on their DIY hats and got to work.
A clip posted online, he first showed what the garden looked like at the start of the process, where viewers could see the fence breaking down in several spots.
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The grass appeared overgrown with weeds everywhere, the trees appeared out of control and the pathway was not only cracked but had moss all over it, too.
“It doesn’t matter what your garden looks like, you can actually turn things around and end up taking a garden that looked like a forest and making it into something that looks more like paradise,” he said before showing a peek at the makeover.
The first task they had to tackle was the trees that took over the garden edges.
And luckily, his neighbour, who is a landscape gardener, came to help him out with this part of the job.
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Admitting that he was a “complete novice”, he said he used a great deal of tips from his neighbour as well as hacks he found from YouTube and online articles.
He then shared: “Now the initial quotes I got to renovate this garden was around £6,000, which obviously is a huge amount of money.
“That included materials, clearing all of the rubbish and of course the landscaping. There was no way I was going to spend all of this money, especially after just buying this house.”
Scenes of himself, his neighbour and his wife, Sapphire, working in the garden played behind his voiceover.
Viewers could see how they worked with shovels and other tools to clear the garden of bushes, roots, and rubble.
Kenroy admitted he “bit off more than I could chew”, but still managed to get it all done – despite the garden being left to be a “wasteland” by the previous homeowners.
After finishing work, his brother would also come to give him a hand in the garden, which he said he was “so grateful for”.
Kenroy’s DIY cost
Compactor: Free
1 ton bags x3: Free
Chainsaw: £50
Wood chipper: £120
Sand & stone: £70
Grass turf: £230
Paving slabs: £82
Cement bags: £20
Concrete posts: £90
Fence panels: £70
Gravel boards: £100
Decking boards: £40
Water hose: £45
Weed membrane: £15
Other: £65
TOTAL: £997
Once all the trees were cleared away, they rented a wood chipper to get rid of all the branches they had collected.
He also had a great deal of rubble and bricks in the garden, which he thought would be too taxing for him to take to the recycling with his car.
So he dug up a trench at the back of his garden and buried it all in there, over which he planned to build a raised bed for vegetables.
Once this part was done, they used some of the wood chips as a top layer on the lawn before adding soil on top and levelling the garden.
They then left it for a few weeks before returning to build a patio area. They used some of the bricks and rubble as a base for the area.
He then lined the tiles up, which he managed to get for £82 from someone who had ordered a surplus of them from when they did up their own yard. It means he made a saving of £208.
He and his partner then laid out the turf across the garden, which he said they were “really excited” about.
“Within a week or two I was able to give it its first cut,” he went on. “All we needed to do was make sure we watered in the morning and in the evening and I was really happy with the way it came out.”
They initially had some tree roots that separated them from their neighbours, so after taking a chainsaw to the roots, he then set about getting a fence up.
Once the fence was put up, it started feeling like their own “little private paradise”.
The walkway to the garden was one of the final things he tackled, which he did by putting up a frame and filling it with pebbles.
“I also made a raised bed with some concrete posts,” he continued. “This is what I always wanted to do over that area, which we had put all that rubble, so that we could plant our vegetables.”
The entire makeover cost them £997 in total, which included everything from the chainsaw and wood chipper to the fence panels and even the water hose.
Showing off the after pictures of the garden, viewers could see they put an outdoor dining area on the patio, the raised garden was thriving and there was even a trampoline.
People flocked to the comments section to share their thoughts as one person wrote: “I love seeing this, when people put in the elbow grease and turn chaos into harmony.
I’m at the start of that process myself with my own garden, so videos like these act as an inspiration. Great job guys.”
Another said: “This is absolutely amazing and so inspiring. Well done for doing all that yourselves, that is some back breaking work!”
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A third shared: “What a remarkable transformation! So much work, but so worth it. Your family will get years of enjoyment from it”.
While a fourth added: “What a fabulous transformation! Beautiful yard. Well done!”
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