my olive thumb

No longer a brown thumb, but not yet a green thumb. I'm describing myself as an olive thumb - according to wikepedia, olive is a kind of muddy green color. I'm learning to be a better gardener and thoroughly enjoying the process. I've lost my share of plants and there is sure to be more fatalities, but on the flip side, I can see some of my hard work thriving. Yay. I'm really appreciating spring from a new perspective and getting excited by the growth. I'm discovering that gardening is not for the impatient (unless you have loads of $$ to buy mature plants and trees) and also realising that I probably wouldn't want to do it that way even if I had the cash, as it has been rewarding watching it come together slowly. It's like a painting - evolving over time - responding to my moods and colour choices on different days. Several plants have already been moved or removed because they grow into the wrong shape, are too big, too small, or the wrong colour, or don't like the wind or not enough sun, or too much sun. Man! There is so much to think of! Ah.....so many wonderful things to learn.

Here's a pictorial journey of one of our projects in the south east corner of our yard. Our house sits smack bang in the middle of the plot so we have four distinct corners to landscape. We are slowly working our way around :)

february 2009 - looking back up at the house from the
south east corner of the yard

january 2009 - south east back corner of our yard

april 2009 - demolished the old shed and wall

july 2009 - new fences (not my favourite style but
to match existing)

may 2010 - new paving, retaining walls and turf

october 2010 - planting begins

september 2011 - planting continues

progress in the garden (Project 1)

I've been promising to share with you the progress we have been making in our garden. Inspired by this post by Anna over at Door Sixteen, I decided it was high time I put together a little photo journey of our work in progress.

We've owned the house now for almost 3 years and spent the first couple of those years concentrating on the original interiors which needed our TLC.

So about a year ago we started on our exterior makeover with the demolition of an old farm shed that sat at a 45 degree angle across the corner of our rear yard. We had no fences and the billy goat next door frequently popped in for a visit - much to my initial shock - in true city girl style.

While I'm writing this I'm thinking it is going to be an essay of a post as we literally have 4-5 outside projects on the go at the same time. I think the better way to do this is to tell you about one of the projects, the most finished one. Note I say MOST finished as I question whether any of the projects will actually ever be truly finished. I love to read Studio G - garden design blog - and recall an article featuring a most amazing garden which was owned by a landscape designer himself. Anyway, he admitted that it had taken 10 years to create which has stuck in my mind as an OK target to have for our time management. What do you think???

Enough of the blurb, here's the pictorial journey of our now private front yard. It is where the kids spend most of their time, directly accessed from a downstairs playroom (the sliding doors), visible for me from the kitchen upstairs and a great place to ride their bikes!

In it's sad and sorry state pre-makeover

no more escapees of the 2 or 4 legged kind - all fenced in

as all good renos go - while removing the concrete we broke the gas line

then a blank canvas

pavers go down and get a couple of sealer coats
(I cop some fairy major sunburn on the back of my neck...ouch)

garden bed walls are built

the sandpit gets filled, garden walls are painted black
and the family moves in!
oh..and we also lined the metal fence with a willow screen

planting has started - the unfinished brick walls in the centre are for
storage and will eventually have hinged timber slat seats with big 'ole
comfy cushions for sipping G&T in the sun

As with all projects there are still unfinished jobs. The seat being one and a pergola the other. This area gets hit with the sun quite severely in the Summer so we are hoping to build a shade structure before then so we can truly enjoy our new outdoor space.

The most recent edition is the Magnolia tree (Little Gem variety) which we planted on the weekend in the large box. On the other side we have combined Kangaroo Paws and Cordylines (Coffee & Cream). The lowest planter is filled with kitchen herbs and colourful flowers. So far the garden seems to be thriving but the true test will be the months around the corner. 

(sorry about the images being all out of alignment... I'm afraid it's in the too hard basket tonight.... might try to look at it tomorrow)

my lovely bluestone

I've been planning and dreaming about this wall for about a year now. Today it came to life & I'm totally smitten. It's just a stone wall you may say - but to me it is a work of art. I suspect I may be having a love affair with it for quite some time.

Renovating can be trying at times when you don't have the right people on board, but when you get lucky it can be an utter joy. We are thankful to have found the diversely skilled Neil - a trusty man of many trades. He has almost been a permanent fixture here over the last 6 months, doing everything from building brick walls to paving and now the stone book leaf walling, followed by laying irrigation & turf.

The curved wall will step down into a grassed lawn area. It will be so nice to see some life and greenery in our dry dusty back yard. Given we are using roll out cut turf it will be instant colour. Another week and a bit to wait but it's all action and great to see so much production happening outside. With a 4 day weekend ahead of us for Easter it should mean lots of time spent in the great outdoors.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter and enjoy lots & lots of yummy chocolate. I know I will!

studio G is for me

Oooh I just have to share with you this "new to me" blog I found while searching Google Images for some garden inspiration. I'm in love. I just want to sit here all night reading through the archive of posts on landscape ideas, products and designs. The author is Rochelle Greayer, a landscape designer who runs her own boutique design firm in Harvard, Massachusetts in the US.

She does a series of posts titled "can you make this into a garden?" one of which features this fashion sketch.

I think her concepts are clever and this "Chartreuse Garden Party" in particular is doing it for me - yes it's my favourite colour!!

Click here to read the article.

You know I'm quite new to this whole garden thing but I'm very excited to learn as much as I can and get my hands dirty as soon as our hard landscaping is finished (I'll show you some progress pics soon). I'm not sure at what stage I will be certified as a real gardener, but when I am I think I shall reward myself with one of these little beauties.

Growing Jewellery - a mini garden for your finger!

Now I'm just going to show you this table, designed by young designer Fredrik Paulsen, because it is soooooo groovy..... and I want one! I'm dreaming. There's no harm in that. I can imagine it at bar height out in the garden amongst the trees. Something to lean on while enjoying a cold beer in the summer heat. Yep, definitely dreaming.

So anyway, if you enjoy a little outdoor style then go check out Studio G.