When we first built our garden, we used a number of old rail sleepers to
fill the gaps under the fence, gaps that were just large enough for a sleek feline to slip through.
Because our area has a strong reputation for
infestations of of termites and white ants, we thought the first step should be to remove these
now old and fairly rotted sleepers and replace them with thin concrete blocks. A huge thank you to my husband
and son who provided the muscle.
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| All pruned and looking very bare |
The sleeper clean up done, it was now time to assess the current vegetation to establish what needed to be removed/pruned.
To be removed was an old Hakea (which I could not remember ever having flowered), a random native ground cover that had turned feral and a very nasty patch of onion weed.
To be pruned were two Lilac (
Syringa) trees, two Geisha Girls (Durantas) and a small apple tree which had been bought as a triple grafted variety (Granny Smith, Delicious and Jonathon) and has now, I think reverted back to just a Granny Smith, a number of Chinese Lanterns that had multiplied from the original bush and were looking quite leggy. Post pruning it all looked so very bare and I felt a very long way away from my goal of making the fences disappear.
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| Geisha Girl (Duranta) |
The Geisha Girls (left) were both pruned heavily, back to fence height and the Lilacs have been substantially tidied up. The Chinese Lanterns have been reduced back to two strong plants and all dead branches have been removed.
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| Magnolia - The Fairy |
In the middle is a small Magnolia, The Fairy, which is
possibly the only plant that required no attention at all. It had been planted
in recent years and showed quite an exquisite form with its delicate foliage
and graceful pink flowers.
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| Magnolia - The Fairy |
I decided to increase the size of the garden by moving the sandstone rocks that form the garden border further out and removing grass as required.
Now the garden is ready for some new additions.
At either end of this garden I have planted a white
Strelitzia, (more
commonly known as Bird of Paradise), two plants I have placed towards the back
of the garden, to give them plenty of room, as they will in time grow to a height
of around 6 to 10 metres, a lesson I learned from my Brown Laurel and Japanese
Maple trees which almost seem to hug each other in the "Cubby" (eastern) corner of this garden bed.
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| My Northern Garden, after 4 months |
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| The first flower on my Persian Silk Tree |
With the northern garden enlarged there was now room for many more small to
medium sized shrubs and I've added a Persian Silk Tree (
Albizia),
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| Buddleja Pink Profusion |
A couple
of Buddlejas (
Buddleja Joan & Buddleja Pink Profusion), a couple of medium sized Gardenias
(Gardenia Magnifica), a tall growing Pelargonium,
(Pelargonium cucullatum)
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| Buddleja Joan |
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| Deutzia Magicien |
A
Deutzia Magicien (left), and a couple of Hebes.
Most of
the flowers are in purple or white tones with the occasional splash of pink.
I'd like to say I planned it that way, but the reality is I've just planted things
I liked, that I hoped would do well in this garden. Despite having added
copious amounts of compost, manure and other organic matter, the soil quality
in this garden remains quite poor and I have planted each new addition in a
large pocket of commercial garden soil. When planting I've created a kind of moat around each plant to compensate for the slight slope of the garden and assist with water retention. I've tried to plant shrubs that will be relatively drought tolerant but I will need to ensure they receive adequate moisture until they have become established.
A thick coating of mulch has been added and for now, after 6 months, this garden is complete. We've received a fair amount of rain over the past couple of weeks and the sad brown grass has greened up significantly. Although many of the new plants have grown a lot in this time, I still feel that I am looking at the "before" photos!
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| The recent rain has encouraged the Murraya bushes to flower and they're almost covered in fragrant blossoms. |
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