Sekisui | Burbank - Cedarwood1828

You also have a deck. Did you build it yourself?

Build Thread : viewtopic.php?=31&t=81624

Haha no way, couldn’t trust myself to try it. We chose a composite to minimise maintenance but apparently the cons are that it could scratch, and I reckon probably fade over time

There’s something really satisfying about buying plants

I’ll probably kill them so I better post the pics before they go in

Nice plants ...are you going to plant out by this weekend.
Plants behind bird's of paradise what are they?

very nice plant choices!! What are those lime green star looking plants (that you've photographed with the red ones).

Your yard will look incredible. Lots of water and give them a seasol once in to help with the crazy weather/root shock (I think. Shaz should confirm)

Yes seasol is great product but many times I have over apply seasol solution, burned roots and ended up with dead plants. Some one has adviced to me to use only half strength of recommendation to be safe.

Build Thread : viewtopic.php?=31&t=81624

Thanks for the tips guys!! Planted most of them, lol not looking the best. Trying to stick to the nursery’s advice on matured size so everything looks a little small and empty at the moment. I was hesitant to water them in too much because the rain has made the garden mix soil super super wet. Will seasol in a few days

Plants behind birds of paradise is Murraya paniculata - used them for a hedge along the front.
The green star plant is blechnum silver lady. Plan was to get them in a little shade under the birds of paradise but ahhh there isn’t much shade as yet.

I'd love to try this out. Thanks for the tips!

Still waiting for more photos of your landscape...

Build Thread : viewtopic.php?=31&t=81624
Landscape Thread : viewtopic.php?f=19&t=86133

How are the plant babies going in this crazy heat?

Ohh yeah no pics how rude of me...

Umm I have soil problems!!! Nothing in the Vege beds were thriving, some kept dying and I do have some experience in growing things to eat.. so one day I took a sample to flower power to have a second opinion.. turns out the soil had a pH of 8.5!

Doing all sorts of stuff to acidify it.. crap loads of organic compost, sulfur power, liquid aluminium sulfate as emergency ph lowering. Switching to alkaline tolerant veges now but the other garden beds... just crossing my fingers. Things aren’t doing too good to be honest and I don’t know if the recent heat had an effect or not.

But I’m happy with the little succulent mound and bamboo wall though I can picture how it with grow

WOW!! love love love your courtyard garden, this is one great example of small garden with great impact. Just imagine once greenery bamboo covered up the back fence and provide shades in hot summer....later on you can add more tropical plants and shade loving plants as bamboo provide nice shades.

ehhc you have done so well for your garden.

Build Thread : viewtopic.php?=31&t=81624
Landscape Thread : viewtopic.php?f=19&t=86133

Thanks shazza if I can’t fix this soil problem I may need to call upon the plant doctor (you) haha. The problem soil is isolated to the ‘premium garden mix’ purchased in bulk. The others are mix of existing and coco peat and compost. -those are ok.

Next on the list are:
-Vertical garden. maybe with drip irrigation
-bromeliad wall outside laundry (copy you hehe)
-tile area outside kitchen. Will get a tiler.
-finish stepping pavers
-pebbles between steppers
-finish front area planting

Oh and we also got the roof done just before Xmas. Finally no more hot concrete! Ages ago we were considering a hardwood open pergola. We wanted a cover with good heat blocking, some airflow and good light transmission. After feedback from here and checking around for options we went for a Sunpal 10mm multiwall in solar control grey. Think it ticks all the boxes for us! And it survived the big hail storm no issues too.

We bought a fan but can’t decide on the lights for this. Have cables fed through the beams at the 2 outter sides for light and in the middle for fan.

Love your garden, very colourful and thoughtfully laid out. The mix of surfaces with use of grass, decking, pavers, also looks great and adds interest. You must be really pleased with the result.
You said your decking was a composite. Is it Hardieplank? We’re also looking at decking for our place, was it expensive to have installed,

thank you! Yes pretty happy. Just hoping they will survive for the next few months through this heat and while the soil takes time to improve. The decking material is Newtech wood. American company but made in China. I think for a small space (our is tiny, only 12sqm) the extra cost isn’t too big. We paid $3k for a licensed carpenter to supply and install. Steel posts, H4 pine support, and weed matting under.

The raw materials from memory, 5.4m lengths of 90mm wide merbau was around $30-40 whereas the newtech wood composite in 140mm wide was more like $100. So it may blow out if you have a big area. The other positive is the fasteners are all hidden using clip down system between the planks.

Thank you that’s really helpful 😀

Oh I do like your roof very much.
Please pm with details of your roof supplier plus cost $. We are also looking into similar kind of roof to go on top of deck near our loungroom. Our loungeroom get too hot in the morning now. Thank you.

Build Thread : viewtopic.php?=31&t=81624
Landscape Thread : viewtopic.php?f=19&t=86133

Hi.
I have just found your house while searching for information on Decks that are built very close to the ground.
Did you take any pictures as your trady was building your deck? If you did could you post them. We need ideas on how to construct a deck so close to the ground. Thanks

I recently put a small deck at the side of our house. It was only just off the existing ground level, so instead of putting posts down and then attaching the bearers to those, I just put the bearers directly on the ground.
I had 200mm high (200 x 75 x 2.4m sleepers) bearers and scraped about 50mm from the ground as a small trench for each one (from about 80mm to zero depending on the ground level). The bearers sat in this trench and I poured concrete under and around the sides to keep them located. I then put joists (70x35 treated pine) across the bearers and then laid the decking boards (90x19 merbau) on the joists.
The whole thing was about 250mm above the existing ground level.

If you wanted it even closer, you could skip the joists and use a lower height sleeper (150mm high for example) and just lay the sleepers closer together so they effectively become the joists - upon which you lay your decking boards.