That's why you have pavers. Or shoes.
My husband's ambition is to be able walk all around the perimeter of our house in his socks.....
Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: No grass backyards 21Apr 03, 2009 9:22 pm That's why you have pavers. Or shoes. My husband's ambition is to be able walk all around the perimeter of our house in his socks..... Re: No grass backyards 22Apr 03, 2009 9:27 pm kek That's why you have pavers. Or shoes. My husband's ambition is to be able walk all around the perimeter of our house in his socks..... I must say, I do like that ambition but I generally wear slippers instead of socks, so it's ok But I'm more so thinking for the warmer weather too - what about sawdust? Or will that be the same as lucern? 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: No grass backyards 23Apr 03, 2009 9:38 pm Sawdust would break down pretty quickly too. I think ideally, you want something more or less permanent, so gravel or toppings would be best. Or pebbles, but they might be a bit hard to walk on in bare feet. Otherwise, pave or concrete the whole area - of course, that's more expensive. Toppings were quite reasonable price-wise. I think they were about $60-70 per m3. Can't really remember now. Check out Aumann's on Plenty Rd (almost opposite Bunnings) next time you're in the area. They have a display of mulches, pebbles and gravels with prices - or just ask the guys there. Re: No grass backyards 24Apr 03, 2009 10:19 pm Beautiful photos Kek. I love the place you provided a link to. It just goes to show gardens can look beautiful and lush without lawn. I have relatives with a small backyard with no lawn. There's a large paved area with a pergola and the rest is garden beds. It looks okay but it could look better with a better choice of plants. Last year we visited an Open Garden Scheme garden where the lawn had been removed. The backyard had been paved closest to the house, with a lovely shade tree in the middle, and the furtherest half was a garden bed with a path meandering through it. I think this garden worked better because there were more definite patterns created with swathes and borders and groupings and repetitions of the same plant. I hope that makes sense. Re: No grass backyards 25Apr 04, 2009 7:53 am kek Sawdust would break down pretty quickly too. I think ideally, you want something more or less permanent, so gravel or toppings would be best. Or pebbles, but they might be a bit hard to walk on in bare feet. Otherwise, pave or concrete the whole area - of course, that's more expensive. Toppings were quite reasonable price-wise. I think they were about $60-70 per m3. Can't really remember now. Check out Aumann's on Plenty Rd (almost opposite Bunnings) next time you're in the area. They have a display of mulches, pebbles and gravels with prices - or just ask the guys there. We've used Tuscan toppings (like lilydale, just a different colour!) on our paths between the vegetable garden beds and within a few weeks they're fine to walk on bare feet. Still get the occasional sharp bit needing to flatten out, but we haven't done anything other than just walk on them to compact them. We got them from Bulleen Art and Garden, about the same price as above from memory. The toppings also drain really well - they're only narrow paths so I assume the plants either side will be benefiting from any rain hitting them. ali Re: No grass backyards 26Apr 04, 2009 9:16 am kek Toppings were quite reasonable price-wise. I think they were about $60-70 per m3. Whats the easiest way to work our how far a m3 will stretch? As in.. how many meters squared will a m3 cover? I'm not really good at maths.. It's hard to work out how much i'll actually need to cover certain areas. Building with PD - Regent 23 Cascades on Clyde Estate HomeOne Building Thread - PCI Completed - 28th August. Handover - 11th September. Re: No grass backyards 27Apr 04, 2009 10:20 am All you have to do is work out how deep you want the material to be - 50mm, 100mm....whatever. If you assume you want 100mm coverage, then a cubic metre equals 10 x 1 square metre (i.e. 10m2). If you want 200mm coverage, you'd get 5m2 covered out of 1m3. If you only want 50mm, you'd get 20m2 And so it goes. Just remember that a cubic metre is 1m wide x 1m high x 1m deep. So if you imagine a big cube, 1m x 1m, you can take slices off it of X thickness and just multiply that out by the number of slices you'd get. 10 slices, 1 metre square and 100mm thick, covers 10 square meters. So that will do a one metre by 10 metre area, or a 2 x 5 etc. Does that even make sense? I'm a visual person; that's what works for me.... Re: No grass backyards 28Apr 04, 2009 10:22 am OR...you can just get out your tape measure, and then use this calculator: http://www.baag.com.au/yardcalc.html Re: No grass backyards 29Apr 04, 2009 10:23 am kek All you have to do is work out how deep you want the material to be - 50mm, 100mm....whatever. If you assume you want 100mm coverage, then a cubic metre equals 10 x 1 square metre (i.e. 10m2). If you want 200mm coverage, you'd get 5m2 covered out of 1m3. If you only want 50mm, you'd get 20m2 And so it goes. Just remember that a cubic metre is 1m wide x 1m high x 1m deep. So if you imagine a big cube, 1m x 1m, you can take slices off it of X thickness and just multiply that out by the number of slices you'd get. 10 slices, 1 metre square and 100mm thick, covers 10 square meters. So that will do a one metre by 10 metre area, or a 2 x 5 etc. Does that even make sense? I'm a visual person; that's what works for me.... Makes perfect sense, thank you! I'm just imagining sliced cheese in blocks and peeling back layers of the cheese Mmmmm.. cheese. Sorry lisanne, i always seem to hijak your threads, but is there a good depth for things like mulch, ect? Obviously when we go to buy these things, will the people selling us be able to give us a good idea of what the depth should be for various things? ie. 100mm, ect. Building with PD - Regent 23 Cascades on Clyde Estate HomeOne Building Thread - PCI Completed - 28th August. Handover - 11th September. Re: No grass backyards 30Apr 06, 2009 2:59 pm I am also planning for a gravel/steppers path and still deciding what gravel to use. I am interested in the toppings you guys mentioned, need to do a bit more research though before knowing what they are What about decomposed granite? I was told they compact quite hard. Building Clarendon Brighton - Done and moved in Sept 2009 Re: No grass backyards 31Apr 06, 2009 4:50 pm I think it's a matter of personal preference.... this site has pics of the different products available: http://www.supersoil.com.au/pages/default.cfm?page_id=24730 Lilydale/Coldstream/Tuscan toppings, granitic gravel or scoria (I think Tuscan toppings are the same as the sunset toppings we used, just a different name). They all compact down nice and firm, except the scoria, but some products are finer than others. The price might differ a bit too, and that can be a deciding factor when you have a large area to cover. I read somewhere that 75mm was the recommended depth for granitic gravel or toppings. No idea if that's just for footpaths - perhaps a thicker layer is needed for driveways? Re: No grass backyards 32Apr 27, 2009 8:53 am Hrmmm I've been considering having some grass now... I don't know what to do! I love the smell of freshly cut grass. At least I have plenty of time to decide, and I think once my slab is down and I can physically see the amount of space that will help too 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: No grass backyards 36Apr 28, 2009 7:59 am 9finances hi Kek, Those are absolutely beautiful! How I wish I have enough money to afford those. Our back garden will be a work in progress for exactly that reason...doing it all in one go would break the bank. Draw up a design that you love and then work on it a section at a time. You can always put down some temporary mulch or something to neaten areas that you're not cashed-up enough to do just yet. We've done the front yard, the narrow side, and I hope to get the back section done ths coming weekend. Then we'll divide the remaining larger side yard up into three sections and do those one at a time. I've calculated that it'll only cost about $500 for materials to do our 19m x 2m section at the back of the house. That doesn't include plants, but I already have some of those. But it does include toppings, concrete pavers, paving sand, some jarrah edging strips and mulch. Might need to hire a whacker too.... Re: No grass backyards 38Apr 28, 2009 8:14 am clath Ive got a small section of yard to finish off and im thinking of grass too just think ****** on grass in the warm weather havent done that in a longgg time Oh Clath you aren't helping! Or maybe you are! Mmmmmmm 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: No grass backyards 39Apr 28, 2009 1:19 pm Obscene (grassless backyard)! I was once anti-lawn, I sheepishly admit, and then one day (at a former house) I wondered why my backyard had lost its magical, ethereal feeling (yes, I'm exaggerating slightly). And it was because we had overplanted our yard at the expense of the lawn. The garden had lost perspective. Tree trunks were no longer highlighted by their solitary stand and instead were swept up in a jumbled tide of greedy small fry!Lawns give space and space in this overcrowded age is a real luxury! Most gardens, even the great gardens of the world as shown in the recent (ABC(?) series suffer from overplanting (in my opinion). A parkland effect is what the gifted gardener strives to achieve! DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair Please help me to answer this question , it will help me a lot as i can go to buy confidently with your recommendation: I want to put synthetic turf in our backyard for… 0 5539 |