Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Nov 24, 2008 2:09 pm Note: The following is my account of what has worked for me. i would recommend seeking out professional advise from local council, garden centre and irrigation experts in your local area. PART 1 - The Overview Ok So we build and moved in in December 2006, and have a little bit of work to do. 2 years later, we have have gone from this Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ to this How did we get there? Lots of hard work, digging , digging, concreting, digging, swearing , digging and swearing, and cold Bundy and Coke. The story starts soon......... Adrian B Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 2Nov 24, 2008 2:17 pm First came the deck. You can search for the mother of all deck posts for the details, but here are some shots of it.
[ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ After the deck came the 3m x 2m shed, bolted to the slab by yours truly. Next came the brickwork for the garden bed off the deck. This was done on concrete foundation, and will be capped with 140mm merbau soon. KIDDIES THIS IS WHY YOU KEEP ANY SPARE BRICKS AROUND Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Unfortunately I didnt quite get the mortar color correct, but it is not as bad as this photo shows. Adrian B Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 3Nov 24, 2008 2:39 pm good call Mich
If you hit the quote button then copy and paste the link into a new browser you can see the pics. (Only one that didn't work for me doing it this way was the 2nd last one ) You've done a great job Adrian!!!! I love how you've lined the edge of the deck with a raised garden bed! How long has the turf been down, and was it hard to keep green? Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 5Nov 24, 2008 7:53 pm d@n someone pass him the manual. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ thanks for the help D@n, and thanks to everyone for their help, except Matt of course Adrian B Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 8Nov 24, 2008 7:59 pm Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 9Nov 24, 2008 8:01 pm Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 10Nov 24, 2008 8:03 pm TANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!!!
Before we did any more earthwokrs, we installed 2 x 3000 litre tanks and pumps, with high pressure pluming, and a 500 litre post washing tank with hi pressure plumbing to a brass manifold. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ . Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Without crapping on too much, this allows me to use tank or washing machine water anywhere on the property, including washing windows, decks etc etc if we wanted to. That said. I can BUT DONT !! use mains water when we legally can. It has cost us a bit of money to do all this, but if we are to buy grass, I dont want it gone wihtin a week due to lack of water. Adrian B Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 13Nov 24, 2008 8:13 pm Adrian B donuts Nice tanks. Did you paint your white bits on the end of your downpipes Adrian? Yep you can buy spray paint in colorbond colors. Did I just read that somewhere else?????? Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 14Nov 24, 2008 8:42 pm you did!!
Greeat walls of stuff!!!!!!!!!!!! On the side of the fence we screwed painted Villaboard to protect the fence. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I also started our water feature wall. This is made of besser blocks and will be another 2 courses on top of what you see here. Foundations are concrete, with rio and concrete filling to add strength. The next thing to go in was our retaining walls. We have used Boral Heathstone 400mm l x200mm h x 90mm d. they were about $4 each from Soilworx. Corner stones are also available. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Then came the paving and then the Granetic sand, which sets like concrete one compacted and watered in. we say this on better homes and gardens and like that it saved us about $600 in paving. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Adrian B Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 15Nov 24, 2008 9:01 pm Adrian B The next thing to go in was our retaining walls. We have used Boral Heathstone 400mm l x200mm h x 90mm d. they were about $4 each from Soilworx. Corner stones are also available. Is it difficult to build that retaining wall ? Thinking of doing something similar as planter box ? Is mortar required between them ? Thank you Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 16Nov 24, 2008 9:44 pm hysterical1144 Is it difficult to build that retaining wall ? Thinking of doing something similar as planter box ? Is mortar required between them ? Thank you The retaining wall was not hard to do, provided you think about what you need to do. if your foundations are not level, your retaining wall wont be either. Do the wall in batches to make sure you are not rushing arund. I dug the trench 300 deep by 400mm wide, then I borrowed a laser leveller, and hammeed in peices of timber every 2 metres, making sure they were at the level the foundations would be. This allewed me to screed the concrete using a very long peice of timber (3-4 metres) . Dont forget the rio rods as well. Grab a piece of trench mesh. Half fill the trench with concrete, drop in the mesh, more concrete and screen to level. As mentioned I let this cure for an hour until it could see it would take some weight. I set up a stringline and laid the first course of bricks, using liquid nails between them. I then hammered in RIO rods through the holes n the blocks. This meant the blocks bonde with the concrete, and the rio provides strength for the upper levels. I let this cure (aka I saved up for the next level of blocks) and put them on using landscaping liquid nails. This sucker is not moving I guarantee that. Adrian B Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 18Nov 25, 2008 9:55 am karol Adrian, I really like your built up brick garden beds around the deck - they look great. Awesome job. You've inspired me to keep at it thanks Karol, as mentioned it will have 140 mm merbau to cap the brickwork to make it work with the deck Adrian B Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 19Mar 10, 2009 9:33 pm Adrian B you did!! Greeat walls of stuff!!!!!!!!!!!! On the side of the fence we screwed painted Villaboard to protect the fence. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I also started our water feature wall. This is made of besser blocks and will be another 2 courses on top of what you see here. Foundations are concrete, with rio and concrete filling to add strength. The next thing to go in was our retaining walls. We have used Boral Heathstone 400mm l x200mm h x 90mm d. they were about $4 each from Soilworx. Corner stones are also available. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Then came the paving and then the Granetic sand, which sets like concrete one compacted and watered in. we say this on better homes and gardens and like that it saved us about $600 in paving. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ hi Adrain can you explain abit more about this graetic sand can it be dug up by dog if they run on it I have a post my side yard and not doing so well with my responses because the dogs that I have run though that area like racing dogs so if you can tell me a lot more about this please here is a pictur of my side yard i just dont know what to do Re: How green is my Garden - HELP ME CHOOSE SOME PLANTS!!!!!! 20Mar 13, 2009 9:10 pm Hey Adrian i just discovered your post. Very nice job
I like your washing tank idea. as Ive been wondering how to get the water from the washing machine on to the garden .I have those long hoses that connect to the washing machine pipes. Would love to be able to use the bath and spa water too instead of bucketing . How did you go about connecting it all up/ Hi VK, I am now retired however I have stood beside over 300 owner builders in the past 18 years that have successfully built their own homes. First of all a building… 10 22663 Murraya could be a great option for you. It creates a great tall screening hedge but doesn't drop fruit like lily pilly. The flowers smell divine. 2 10240 Thank you so much for the effort. We will use it to talk with builder. We also had idea of building duplex instead and seeking suggest ions. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=106744 11 13830 |