According to Checkatrade, the average garden cost can cost up to £10,000, depending on the size of the garden, which is a huge amount of money.

However, Paving Superstore recently spoke with Alex Lawson about her remarkable garden transformation which cost just under £5,000 altogether.

Alex, 28, lives in London with her partner and works in the renewable energy industry by day and is an avid DIY lover by night.

She started her Tiktok and Instagram back in 2019 when she purchased her first home, and has continued to build a community online by sharing her love of DIY and interiors.

Alex described her style as “modern with a rustic and traditional twist”, also with a love of industrial metals and exposed brickwork.

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Her garden was “a very standard new build garden with a small patio area and path and the rest laid with grass,” when she moved in and decided to change it.

She renovated the garden in seven weeks across 2020 and 2021. Alex explained: “I decided to break it up into chunks to make it more manageable and affordable.

“My gate was originally in the area where I wanted my seating area, so the first step was to have the gate moved to the opposite side of the fence. After I had drawn up the initial design of what I wanted, I decided what parts I would be able to do myself and what parts I would rather get someone else to do.

“I had the majority of the ground work done by an external company as this isn’t the kind of DIY I enjoy. Once I had my decking built and patio laid, I then knew I would be able to do the patio upcycle, fencing and pergola build myself.

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“Growing up my dad would have never paid someone to do something he could do himself. Shortly before I bought my first home, I sadly lost my dad, however I found myself with all of his tools.

“Having grown up around him always having a project on the go, I decided I would give it a go and see how it turned out.”

Alex had the first stage of the garden done in 2020 which took around 10 days and then in 2021 it took around six weeks of weekends, evenings and rain dodging to get the work done.

The DIYer completed the fencing, pergola build, patio stencilling and grass laying all by herself, managing to save lots of money.

The DIYer completed the fencing, pergola build, patio stencilling and grass laying all by herself, managing to save lots of money.

She added: “Think about how you can reuse, recycle and upcycle materials to give you a high-end finish without the price tag.

“I completed my patio stencilling for £80, a fraction of the cost it would have been to have the whole area actually tiled.”

Overall, the labour costs which included the decking, outdoor electrics and decking lights was £1,600, while the cost of the decking, outdoor electrics and decking lights as well as the patio extension was £1,900.

Alex spent £260 on the pergola materials and £660 on the fence cladding before spending four hours laying the artificial lawn for £410.

The DIYer continued: “I highly recommend taking on projects yourself. There are so many easy-to-follow videos and tutorials online, and by doing some of it yourself, you will save a huge amount of money while learning a new skill.

“I also learned how to build a pergola from scratch, which was so rewarding. It can be very tiring work, and when you start to get tired, you can often make mistakes. It was important to take stock of what I’d achieved and be patient with the progress.”

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