Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jun 22, 2009 3:11 pm We are currently building a new house in Adelaide and I was looking for some ideas re garden design. I will try and describe what we are working with, and what ideas we already have. Ours is a subdivided block hammer-head or battle-axe style so it has no street frontage, just a driveway, and we are surrounded by mismatched colourbond fences. We have a 33m long driveway that is currently flanked by colourbond fence of different colours. P6211069-1.JPG So I need something economical to cover up the long stretches of fencing and make a nice entrance. This leads down to the double garage and front door and probably a masonry fence. We will have an enclosed front yard for a 6 or 7m swimming pool. P6211063-1.JPG This area is approx 10m x 6m rectangle plus a small area for a BBQ. We would like a small covered patio area here too. We then have 3 small triangular areas at the back which make up our rear yard. They are approx 6m x 3m x 7m along fence at the rear of the garage (northern aspect), P4281006-1.JPG 10m x 4.5m x 9m along the fence at the rear of the rumpus room (northern aspect), P4281008-1.JPG and 5m x 3.5m x 5m along the fence at the rear of the laundry (eastern aspect). P4281011-1.JPG We plan to have a salt chlorinated pool with a water feature and are looking at having the following plants: Star Jasmine creeping over the colourbond fence, some kind of Palm trees, Cordylines, Mondo grass, Yucca, Cuphea Hyssopifolia and a Frangipani. We also have inherited some potted orchids in different colours. We are wondering about some dwarf multi-grafted fruit trees for the backyard, not sure how much room they would need. We prefer not to have any lawn. There would be a pool gate on one side of the house (in addition to the masonry wall) as the house itself is the barrier to the pool. Not sure what to put down the loooong driveway - coloured concrete? pavers? something else? We would need to have a couple of nice pots by the front door as no garden is really visible there. Any suggestions for the masonry wall are most welcome. The house is red brick with rounded sandstone blocks. This wall will front right onto the pool. 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 ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 3Jul 12, 2009 12:45 am Bring up your plan on the screen, the hit the Print screen (prt sc) button. Open microsoft paint or similar programme and go to edit, then select paste and save as. Then upload that pic to a photo sharing website like flickr or photobucket. link the image location to your post and we can all see it Sounds a lot but it isn't. Then you can share all your photos as your build progresses http://photobucket.com/ ...just make sure you don't have any embarrassing files open or files you want private. There have been some epic mistakes made on the net over the years. I recall a screensaver one involving a saturn desktop picture and a folder title that was noticed and was pretty wrong Just a heads up Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 4Jul 12, 2009 2:12 am Here's what I've got so far - but I need ideas for plants etc. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hope that does it! The top corner with mondo grass, stepping stones, and butterfly grass is with the trampoline in mind. Not 100% sure we'll keep it. Not sure what room there is for fruit trees etc. Pool is approx 7m x 3.8m for size reference so yard/s are small! The frangipani by the pool in the pot is theoretically in a wine barrel Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 5Jul 12, 2009 10:58 am Why not a nice row of ballerina apples or maypole apples. They grow in a nice column I might have a good pic somewhere, I took one of a ballerina apple in SA a few years ago. Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 6Jul 14, 2009 9:24 am Thanks, Fu. I am encouraged that we have enough space to have some fruit trees. I understand that we may need more than one apple for pollination, is that right? What about those multigrafted trees? A friend of mine has 3 swarf multigraft trees and gets 9 different varieties of fruit from them in a relatively small space.. Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 7Jul 14, 2009 1:08 pm Yeah they can be good. They stopped growing them in WA because the growers were finding that one variety would become the dominant graft. The other buds/grafts would wither away. Mainly on citrus with those fruit salad trees everyone is into (But WA was doing them in a big way 15-20 years ago). Then again disregard that and have a go anyway The double graft stone fruits are a little different. When Toparious nuts out the forum and how it works he can hopefully post up how to make your own fruit salad plants. Very easy No need to pay a fortune for your own ready made ones Yeah most apples need a pollinator to get good fruiting. The ballerinas are pretty good. If you have one they pollinate to give some fruit. If you have two or more, expect more fruit and if you have, say, a crab apple or other pollinator nearby expect to set up a stand on the nature strip selling apple pies Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 9Jul 22, 2009 6:05 pm Great idea on the Ballerina range of apples - they have a whole range from greener and more tart flavour to redder sweeter fruit, I haven't tasted one yet but I've heard they're quite nice. Fu - I haven't been able to find much on the climates they're best suited to but I assume adelaide should be OK? Another type of small fruit tree that I'm considering for my courtyard (when it is built!) is the trixzie range of fruit trees (about 1.5m x 1.5m) you can get nectarines, peaches, apples and grafted nectarine and peaches. You can always have some potted citrus' - lemons, cumquat, limes and kaffir limes are great, the leaves are amazing in Thai food. I'm very keen on having as many foody plants in my limited yard as possible so researching it quite alot! Almost finished building the Ambrose + study villa with McCracken homes in Park Holme, SA. Only painting, stormwater, paving & flooring left then moving in. Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 11Jul 23, 2009 1:11 am That photo was taken in Wilunga Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 12Jul 23, 2009 8:11 am Fu - good to hear! Yellyak - My backyard will be quite small, I think total 130m2 with an L shape from back around side to meet the back of the garage - not as complicated as yours though! For a new gardener like me, it will probably make it easier to maintain starting out, however, getting a small backyard nice in the first place seems quite difficult! Almost finished building the Ambrose + study villa with McCracken homes in Park Holme, SA. Only painting, stormwater, paving & flooring left then moving in. Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 13Jul 23, 2009 10:33 pm I went today to my local nursery to have a chat with the horticulturist about my garden plan. He said a lot and showed me a lot of plants in a whirlwind tour but I don't know how much I can remember. His main suggestions were: pave around the house first so we know what level we need to build the garden up to, and replace any fences that need replacing (working on that) add soil, gypsum and cow manure needed and back hoe it don't pave driveway until after any soil etc is delivered focus on back yard until we have decided timing of pool, maybe even a cheap lawn or mulch to the front if needing to tidy it up in the meantime don't have too many different plants all over the place, go for group plantings etc. he agreed that chinese star jasmine might work well down the driveway, suggested 1-2 every three metres suggested cocos palms, bangalow palms, together with cordylines, frangipani, and chinese star jasmine climber around the pool. Even potted citrus around the pool! he agreed that the ballerina apple would work but thinks they are a bit floury. Was keener on espalier multigrafted fuji/gala/pink lady apple, pear and perhaps a cherry in the corner. He said having several of the same multigraft works well but not an apple multigraft, a stone multigraft and a citrus multigraft together. We also talked about the Nectzee and Pixzee dwarfs and I think I might prefer these as I love to eat stone fruit. Perhaps a passionfruit vine over the back fence at this point. So I am currently thinking passionfruit vine with a cherry in the corner and dwarf nectarine and dwarf peach. He suggested I could underplant the fruit trees with ferns or herbs. I would probably like herbs nearer the kitchen, near the washing line. we didn't really get to talking about the other 2 areas at the back at all suggested green cordylines in pots for the front door/garage area. I wonder if I should find something more dramatic? the rest of the names he suggested were new to me and I can't remember any of them Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 14Jul 24, 2009 1:36 am I would use a certified organic soil rather than the cow poo. Why? Because moo poo breaks down so fast and in a few months, well you may as well have not done it. Some very good suggestions there that's for sure. For more ideas go to the Victorian landscape association web page, the NSW one, the SA one and the WA one and browse the galleries for ideas. Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 15Jul 06, 2010 11:33 pm DH has done a great job laying a paved path around the back and sides of the house so now it's over to me to get the back garden going. We have clay bisque soil so I understand I need to mix in some gypsum (1kg per m2) to break up the clay. We have some rubble and sand left over from paving, not sure if I should use any of that, too, for drainage purposes? I am planning on getting some Jeffries certified organic compost to fork in. Don't think I have room for a back hoe, so will have to do it manually. Then off to Perry's Fruit and Nut Nursery to get some dwarf fruit trees. And finish off with some nice organic mulch. Think I will grow herbs in a large container by the clothes' line so the (future) dog doesn't poop there. Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 17Aug 31, 2010 12:40 am Thought I'd update this post. Last weekend we began planting our mini-orchard. We have 3 Ballerina apples - Waltz, Maypole and Flamenco, a Wurtz avocado, a Sunset peach, a Sunset nectarine, Thomuscat grape, a potted dwarf Lemonade, and a potted dwarf Eureka Lemon. We are planning to also include a dward Red Shahtoot Mulberry, passionfruit and kiwis soon. I tried uploading pics but got the message, "Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached." Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 18Aug 31, 2010 1:01 am Oh and have a squiz at the WA Garden week thread. I have posted some pics of gardens for small spaces Re: Garden design ideas needed small courtyard new house 19Aug 31, 2010 1:32 am Quote: Oh and have a squiz at the WA Garden week thread. I have posted some pics of gardens for small spaces Oh and have a squiz at the WA Garden week thread. I have posted some pics of gardens for small spaces Sorry, Fu, can't find it. Can you please post the link? Thanks Now, I just have to work out how to keep my plants happy and the about-to-arrive puppy from remodelling the garden I have surrounded all the trees w a wire fence a metre tall to offer some protection and the avocado has shadecloth around it to protect it from full sun. Our Bondi Greenwall was impressive from day one with advanced lush plants to provide a wow factor to this recently renovated living area. The boundary was less than 1… 0 517 Hey, I am wanting to add a second toilet to my house, bit we have limited room. There is a hallway/entry that is never used, so was thinking this could be an option. Only… 0 3000 Thankyou for your advice. We do have Caesar coming out and hopefully resolve the issue for us. 4 16008 |