herrchook

We have a rectangular back yard which is currently just dirt and rubble. It's fairly flat and a perfect blank canvas.

Were this the UK we'd know exactly what we want to do with it, but this will be the first garden we've created in Australia and we don't know where to start.

Doe anyone know of any really good online resources to help us or have any photos of their own garden to inspire us?

Cheers

Timber Floor Au

Search for Burkes Backyard

Ste

Wol

What sort of soil do you have?

We have been gardening for more years than I care to admit to, but are finding gardening in Oz a bit different - to put it mildly!

Our soil is an inch or so of poor topsoil over hard clay (almost compressed into sandstone) with no drainage at all. And non-wetting - water just runs off.

We wanted, and had to have as part of the development approval, a native garden. Natives: easy, right? Wrong! Grevilleas croak easily in poor drainage, boronias croak anyway. Callistemons are the only natives, and a few banksias, that seem to flourish.

And composting can be a pain. Many natives are full of bacterial inhibitors - think tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil - and these kill the composting bacteria stone dead! So don't use many of the native clippings in the compost heap!

If you have decent soil then go for it! If you don't, be prepared for a fight with nature...

Possums

Hi Gill, well we inherited a orchard/jungle with our new house cannot tell you how much we have cleared away and now i'm starting to put things in.

our soil is coastal, like black soot and so dry yet everthing seems to grow like mad.

I bought a book, Starting out with australian natives, its pretty good as it says what plants grow where state wise. i think one of the things to watch out for is how big they grow!

I also went to a farmers market and got advise from plant sellers, also a lot cheaper to buy from them.

to keep it weed free, I've covered it in newspaper wet it down then covered with mulch, i've used fern mulch as it retains moisture. The locals have advised me on this so time will tell if it works.

We have some scented things like daphne, coastal rosemary but I like to find the weird and wonderful looking ones i've just put in a swan tree it has odd looking cushions that look like swans and a spinning gum!

in another area i've made a rock garden with catus, aloe vera other succulents the Aeonium black rose is really nice.

I've got a little herb garden which smells lovely.

wattles atract birds as do fruit trees, they've eaten all my grapes and nectarines been told to tie plastic bags to them supposed to scare them off. we've got a lemon tree which is lovely nothing seems to have eaten them and I'm after a fig tree

It really depends on your area and what kind of things you like, as you will be able to grow different stuff to us

The Gardening australia website has some good info

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/

northernbird

would be interested to know what book that was, we have the same dilemma as Gill.

yamahaha

Rectangular huh...you mean like a pool?

Joking aside...howabout a pool?

Sandra

Contact your local water department ours just sent through an offer to come out and help plan our garden around water conservation which is a nice offer to help you plan your garden from scratch.

We did not need to take them up on the offer, we have a native Australian Garden which is great as it has been five years and we have never watered it. Just spend hours filling the green bin.

gobbyjock

It all depends on your soil Gill! First thing I would do is like others have said - buy a book, we have just pulled out a load of trees round our side (totally overgrown & waste of space) I got a book called Truly Tiny Gardens by Australian Womans Weekly Garden Guides (although the space isn`t small I want a courtyard style garden eventually) it`s really good full of great ideas & plant guides. The other thing is check what you are planting & how big it will grow and how invasive the root system can be. We have pulled out so many plants in our garden - it was so overgrown -I`ve attached a couple of photos of how it is now. The other thing is if you want cheap plants try garage sales or bring & buy sales (I`ve managed to get loads really cheaply this way and the plus for using garage sales is that you know they will grow in the soil as most come from cuttings in peoples gardens)

fraser

We're getting ours astro turf surrounded by tuscan crushed rock.

You can't have a lawn here in Melbourne it's to dry even to maintain an established one, you'd have no chance with a new one.

gobbyjock

That Astro turf can look quite good once it`s down Fraser, plus you save on retic cost - how about some photos once it`s done? I`d love to see how it all looks!!

fraser

Yeah we've seen a couple that the guy did and it looks ok, it's our only choice really as we've lived in this house nearly two years and the kids have never been able to play on the lawn, because it's either been growing, to dry or as now just like a building site.

Here's the link to the guy who gave us a quote.

http://www.reelgrass.com.au/

Wol

And do you find any problem composting some of the natives? (See my post above.) Or is St Ives better for the stuff <g>?

Buzzy--Bee

We've considered artificial grass. My main concern is that other organic detritus such as leaves, bark etc, doesn't compost down when it lands on it. This gives to me the impression that the artificial grass needs vaccuuming every now and then!

Buzzy

biggy

we had to mix gypsum into our clay soil so that the plants would grow. Bougenvillia grow very well, as do hibiscus and frangipani, none of which require watering which is good

fraser

Not a lot of trees round here so not a big problem,the guy said to use a blower.