Is a 3,000 sqm plot sensible?

My parents have 3500 sqm at their disposal - and do not live in the farming community, but in a newly developed urban district (well, no longer new, that was the end of the 80s).

We have a swimming pond with a pavilion and terrace, a large embankment with pathways, a garden shed, a greenhouse, a horse stable, and a small paddock. The latter two things are no longer used for their original purpose ;).

Of course, this is not a perfectly designed ornamental garden, but ultra-cozy, super-beautiful, and very natural.

A lot of work? Sure - but not every day. But you are often in the garden - it is then also a real hobby. But not exclusively and certainly no must.

I also always thought I needed at least 1000 sqm - but meanwhile, I see it differently. We have just under 520 sqm, live in a rural village, and have enough nature around us.

To visualize it, 3000 m² is half a soccer field. Whoever manages to mow that in half an hour must have a tractor with a mower attached. Our community, with its lawn truck, takes almost 2 hours to mow the soccer field. And that is completely rectangular, flat, and without obstacles. Of our nearly 1000 m², the house, garage, garden shed, paths, terrace, and slope beds (designed to be very low-maintenance) take up about 350 m². That leaves "only" a good 600 m² to maintain. If the property were 500 m² larger, it would be almost double the area. That means, conversely, that with a 3000 m² property you roughly have to maintain 10 times the garden area as with a 500 m² property. 500-600 m² would be the minimum for me to at least have a little garden and distance from the neighbor. From 1000 m² onward, maintenance usually becomes intensive. Here, you should already have some fun with gardening. From 1500 m², you definitely have to really enjoy spending time on garden maintenance. Anything beyond that, in my opinion, should be well considered. I have left animal keeping aside for now. Having a dog is usually irrelevant whether the property is 500 or 1000 m²; the dog wants more and must be walked accordingly. Also, I haven’t heard anything about animal keeping here, and usually you buy a large property because you want to keep animals, not the other way around. I prefer to have a bit less but with manageable effort and so that I like it. I don’t like it either when I can look onto my neighbor’s plate; still, there are several intermediate stages between that and the property mentioned here. Moreover, I find a good neighborhood quite positive and not a burden.

Since you don’t yet know what you want/can do with the property, I clearly lean towards no, especially since your husband is already of that opinion. A vegetable bed and two fruit trees basically fit on any property, and how much more do you really need? To me, this sounds a little like: I’m actually looking for a Golf, but the 7.5-tonner here costs just as much. Then I’ll take that, maybe I want to move one day or convert it into a motorhome.

To visualize it, 3000m² is half a football field. Anyone who manages to mow that in half an hour must have a tractor with a mower attached. Our municipality with their lawn truck takes almost 2 hours to mow the football field.

We will first take an intensive look at the topic of robotic lawn mowers. ;)

I'm currently working on that too. Unfortunately, the things aren't exactly cheap. My problem, however, is more that I only have fairly narrow driveways on both sides of the house (1m and 1.5m) and I'm not sure that it will pass in front of and behind the house often enough. I had already considered buying 2 small ones (the price difference is hardly noticeable), but the two passageways also need to be mowed. You still have to trim the edges and around the trees. Unless you design the outdoor area specifically for the robot's needs.

There are models that handle 1m very well. Actually, all of them should manage that. The models from Worx, for example, are said to handle especially narrow spots under 50cm very well. You can set up the lawn in two zones and program the Roboti to start mowing 50% at the front and 50% at the back. Then both areas will be mowed equally well.

I have to make a case for larger plots of land. We currently have a plot of about 2400sqm. For me, it could even be bigger. We have deliberately designed it to be very low maintenance because we are both working, and children and the dog also need a bit of attention. :) Lots of lawn (no meadow!), all flower beds protected from weeds with bark mulch, many perennials, some ornamental shrubs. So, more of a park-like character. Twice a year everything is trimmed according to the season. In spring, the beds are covered with 1-2 pallets of bark mulch anew. I mow the lawn about every 5 days. If I feel like it, even 3 times a week. However, I also have a small municipal mower with a 2m cutting width. It takes me 25 minutes. My wife is responsible for the beds. If she wants them neat, she invests max 1-2 hours per week. Otherwise, an afternoon every few weeks. So, all manageable. In our eyes, the advantages of a larger plot clearly outweigh the disadvantages – peace from neighbors, undisturbed view of nature, lots of space for children and the dog. So my conclusion: Make it low maintenance and enjoy your own domain!