Yard Size - Front & Back

[silvercrayon]

We are building our first new construction home.  We have a 3 acre wooded lot.  We are older and our current home has a massive yard.  We do not want a super big yard to maintain at the new house.  What would be a good yard size in the front and back for most people? We do want some pretty grass in the front and back, but just not something that will take tons of time to maintain. We are stumped on what to ask for.  The remaining property will be left natural. If you can recommend any great resources that would be great too! TIA

UPDATED TO ADD: We have no small children or dogs that would "need" yard space.

[Susie]

Our last house was on 0.25 acre, split pretty evenly front to back, all cleared but for some mature trees that we landscaped around.  I think if I didn't have dogs/kids, it would've been fine.  I had nice garden beds, and could cut all the grass with a push mower in about an hour.  With dogs/kids and a gardening hobby (both flowers and produce), I wanted a little more space with this current house.  Right now we have about 2/3 acre, and I'd say about 0.5 acre is cleared.

Factors for me?
* Dogs/kids, which you've covered
* Do you need to deal with snow removal?  If yes, a shorter driveway/shallower front yard may be easier to maintain in winter.
* Do you enjoy gardening?  Flowers, veggies, fruit, etc.  If so, you'll need a large enough cleared area that your garden(s) get good sun, and aren't in the shade of either the woods or the house for much of the day.

[silvercrayon]

Thank you Susie!

No, we only get snow every couple of years.
I usually only have 1 raised flower garden every year. I will probably have a couple at the new house. I had not even thought about that!

[penguingrrl]

My house is on 0.17 acres and I wouldn’t want any more than that. It’s affordable to get lawn care (we don’t do it ourselves) and plenty of room for a patio and grill without feeling like we’re secluded. However, I feel like appropriate cleared area may depend on the overall size of the lot. The amount I have might look silly on a larger lot.

[icedcoffee]

We're on about 0.31 of an acre and it's a little too much sometimes. If I was older I'd want about half of that.

Things I'd want to be sure to include are surfaces that don't promote weeds like gravel paths, bushes that don't grow and need a lot of pruning. IMO grass and trees are easiest. You can pay a neighbor kid $25 a mow twice a month, but weeding and pruning services are sooooo expensive.

[Deleted]

We have just under 1/2 acre, and without kids and dogs, I'd say that is just right bordering on too much. Of the .5acre, we have our house, our driveway with is 3 cars wide and 2 cars deep, a 10x20 shed, a 28' above ground pool, plus several smallish gardens. It still takes my H about an hour using the riding mower to cut, edge, and blow. I think I would like it a bit better if our house was set back a bit further from the street, I'd probably want at least 50' set back in the front, and then always enough room to throw up a few party tents in the back yard

[archiethedragon]

We have 0.22 of an acre lot with 3 kids and a dog. We have a deck and small patio in the back, plus a large tree surrounded by pachysandra and a mulched are with a playscape. It is good for us. It takes my daughter about 30-40 minutes to mow with a push mower.

[maudefindlay]

How far back do you want to be from the road? How much privacy and space do you want between yourself and neighbors both beside you and if anything is behind you? I don't want to live on top of my neighbors and it would be worth it to me to hire out lawn care to use the 3 acres you are buying.

[purplepenguin7]

We have 1/3 of an acre. Moved here from city/condo living so never has a yard to maintain before and didn’t want something massive. I’d say about .1 is in the front with .2 in the back if I was estimating. This seems perfect for us so far. The previous owner was very into gardening and there are several gardens around the backyard. We still have plenty of space for my kid and dog to run around (I know not applicable) and to have parties. We didn’t want to have to maintain (or pay to maintain) anything much larger than this so it’s enough for us.

[lightbulbsun]

We have 0.77 acres, and probably about half of that is lawn at the moment. We hire a lawn service which costs $45/visit in our HCOL area. Our house is set back about 70' from the street, which is a little more than the neighbors, and makes it feel a little more private. I really like to garden so I have big plans to add native plant gardens and reduce the lawn area.

If you're looking for a very low maintenance lawn, maybe consider planting sedge or another native groundcover that you don't need to mow. Also, it would be good to know if you have a lot of deer pressure, or if there are any other animals that might snack on your plants.

[lessel]

We have .4 of an acre and most of it is front yard/green lawn. Our yard is kind of pie-shaped and the front yard is the wide part of the pie. I don't love it. I want to do something with the front lawn that is less turf and add some mulch areas w/trees or bushes or something other than turf that needs to be maintained. It's a slight hill too, so it's not even super useful space for the kids to play soccer on or what not. Our backyard is flat, but narrow.

I would think about privacy issues in terms of setting the house back from the road, but also consider how you landscape that larger front yard so you don't just have a ton of grass to have to mow/fertilize/maintain.