My Wonderland!

Lush grass - thats due for a cut!

Looking beyond the patio and the good old Aussie bbq, my backyard is nothing more than a lush green grassy haven of Lolium perenne (perennial ryegrass), which is home to a few wild pigeons. Pigeons that like to eat the newly planted grass seed making the lawn patchy in some spots. You may also see a glimpse of some raphanus raphanistrum inundated within the tall thick grass. Then if I look beyond that, I can see plants of potatoes, potatoes and more potatoes, and then the picturesque hills in the distance. 

A lot of mud - and less cars than normal!

As I imagine some people would think that is quite boring –then the area out the front isn’t a great deal better. It is renowned for being the family carpark so unfortunately it’s a very gloomy entrance to our new house. Beneath the puddles of mud lay a lot of compressed soil/sand mixture certainly not fit for a thriving landscape. There is definitely quite a bit of work ahead to say the least. 

Below is a diagram of what we plan to turn this so called ‘carpark’ into. I would love to use some classic plants such as the box hedge, roses and a grass (Ophiopogan japonica) with a stunning water feature in the middle. Around the border use a large paver, and lastly fill the surrounding area around the garden bed with more perennial rye grass. 

 

Wondering why so many driveways (in the pic on the right) - the driveway on the left is more of a track to access our property, the centre one for all our visitors to use and the one on the right is to drive up to the garage. Lots of lawn and a few trees to the right are in store!

Neglected orchard.

There is another element to our garden and that is the very old and neglected orchard (yes our yard is quite large approx 2 acres). Behind the long grass the orchard has a mulberry tree, a lemon tree, apple tree, quince tree, orange tree and an old grape vine. There is also a very sad looking outdoor bbq (brick structure) and a fallen down hills hoist! 

Site of the vegi garden to be.

The proposed site for the vegetable garden also lies within the perimeters of the orchard. The area is 12m x 15m and together with my brother we are going to (hopefully) grow everything from asparagus to watermelons! obviously expanding as we go. 

Main entrance.

 To brighten up the main entrance into our property, we are going to plant some fraxinus ornus.

As you can see there is a huge challenge ahead of us to make our boring landscape into something spectacular but one I am looking forward to with my mums help and my dads money!