Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jul 21, 2009 7:00 pm WARNING: Excessive amount of questions!!! Okay.. I need to start this thread now or else I never will. I keep putting it off because in my head the landscaping is in the 'too hard basket'. I've worked out a rough plan for our landscaping and there are 3 things we'll be attempting. Its all a really SIMPLE design... nothing special but we need something other then dirt for the first couple of years until we have a budget that allows us to 'splash' out a little. 1. Front Yard: Mulch and some plants. Something similar to this.. We need to cover about 74m2. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ 2. Gravel Paths: Around the house boundary for areas to be able to walk on without sinking in. We need to cover about 98m2. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ 3. Grass: We want to use seeds (Munns) and cover an area of around 75m2. We may decide later on to extend the lawn for a further 69m2.. once we work out where we want some garden beds out the back and a vegie patch. My Questions: MULCH: I'd prefer a coloring similar to the above picture. What is the best type of mulch to use to combat weeds coming through? Will we need to put topsoil underneath the mulch for when we add plants? What thickness should we have the mulch. ie 5cm? What else do I need to do to establish a good mulch front garden? How much is mulch roughly per m3? GRAVEL PATHS: What's the most ecconomical yet easiest on the eye topping to lay for paths around the house, do I need to lay roadbase first? How do I compact it to make it easy to walk on? What thickness do I need to put down? Any other tips? LAWN SEED: So I know that Munns is the reccomened brand, we'd be putting the lawn seed on the east side of the house, is their a paticular type of Munns lawn seed that will work best for that area with Melbourne temperatures? Whats the best time after mid september to put seeds in? What kind of topsoil will work best for under the seeds? What thickness should the topsoil be? How often should I water it? Will a hose be sufficient to water it or should I get a sprinkler of some kind? (We have recycled water in our estate) I'm sorry for the overload of questions.. Answers to any of the above would be very helpful, i'm trying to work out budgets for everything as well as what i'll need to do to establish a CHEAP yet easy to care for garden.. I'll get to adding the plants later on!! Building with PD - Regent 23 Cascades on Clyde Estate HomeOne Building Thread - PCI Completed - 28th August. Handover - 11th September. Re: Mulch, Grass Seeds and Pathways.. 2Jul 22, 2009 2:47 am wow, you just did my head in can we do this a bit at a time? here I go... WARNING: Excessive amount of answer Todays lesson is Mulch Sorry but I may as well do this in detail so make of it what you will. Some good questions. I'd rather teach something than just answer the question so you get an understanding of it. Mulch! It's not decoration. Please don't treat it like it. This forms a very important role in your garden. I so wish you guys could be privy to the training and eductaion that goes on in the Hort industry. It would blow you away! For those reading this and living in Perth, these info seminars are an absolute must. An absolute must!!!!!!!! They are free and some of the single best info you'll ever get anywhere in Australia. They are not selling anything, just the right things to do to start new gardens. Book now as these will fill up fast http://www.greatgardens.info/events.php http://www.greatgardens.info/main.php Just go to one and it will bring you into the real world about how to make a smashing difference to the sustainability of your garden and the environment. Especially the water resources. Get your garden right the first time. I do lots of work in newer suburbs and the water use and garden techniques make me sick! But they don't know better! http://www.greatgardens.info/video/grea ... videos.php click the mulch video. Presented by John Colwill who is one of Australia's leading experts in water management. A good mulch will often smell wonderful too. Especially if it has citrus, or conifer or eucalypt in it Yes died coloured mulches look pretty but what will they offer your plants? Some die. How long are they going to stay that colour? What are they made of? Normally a wonderful section of forest has been removed so you can have colourful woodchips on your garden Choose a mulch that is going to hurt your feet when you walk on it with no shoes. It must be a mix of particle sizes. large and small irregular sizes. It must not hold much water or be composted (like black mulches) The mulches pictured though are better than nothing at all or a black composted mulch. Get on the phone, ring your local tree lopping mob and start the bribes with a carton. some money for fuel anything. It is cheap even with bribes compared to the stuff you'll buy from your landscape centre. which i might add comes from tree lopping and council supplies. You get them to cut it, they mulch it. Then you pay them to dump it with a council. that council then begin to compost it, then they sell it it to the soil companies. they compost it further and use it for soil conditioner or perhaps bag it for black mulch. then you buy it back again to go on the garden and watch the weeds grow Weeds don't come from underneath the mulch. Don't argue it anyone because they just don't! If weeds grow after you mulched, there is some things going on. 1. seeds will remain dormant for years, sometimes 10 years. Then you stir up the soil, water the new mulch and the seeds get into action. germinate, grow and thrive. That is because you didn't get enough down. 2. It needs to go on 50-100mm thick. Black composted mulches will be ideal environments for anything to grow. they are full of nutrients. They themselves hold water close to the surface and normally the gardener will be paying extra attention to the garden for a while after they have do it up or built it. so 3. use irregular shaped hard mulches. raw mulches. Ever wondered how a forest grows? They sure don't have lush soils. There isn't anyone out there fertilising them either Recently we were down in the Southern forests of WA. Very deep into the old growth, never logged areas of these amazing Karri forests Karris are among the tallest trees in the world. (Vicco has a few too so shut up , you're included you cheeky Mexicans ) I dug into the soil with my boot and you don't have to go far to see that these amazing systems rely on a very shallow layer of mulched litter for sustenance. It is a cycle Using a green mulch from your local tree lopper is going to mean all the nutrients held within that plant are returned to the soil. This means fungi and bacteria (nice ones;)) break the mulch down and release nutrients to your plants at a rate they can use. (and you currently waste money on fertiliser, why? ) or you can get pretty mulches and continue to waste money on fertilisers and pest control Now in a thick layer of mulch that is waterwise, it is going to let water through to the soil in all the gaps of irregular pieces. That means it stays drier too, leaving the moisture to go through deeper in the soil. The top layer of soil underneath may even be dry, but the moisture is deeper and that is where the roots go. away from the heat of summer where they would otherwise need more water to cope with having roots close to or even in the mulch If weeds germinate they can be easily plucked out having loose roots only in the open layers of the waterwise mulch. Don't use weed mat. It isn't for under mulch. people get sucked by its name and some unscrupulous people make a stack of coin from unwitting people buying it. It is for the nursery industry to use as a cheap form of floor covering that prevents weeds. As soon as something goes on it, you get weeds The weed seeds blow in on the wind, settle in the soil or medium built up on the matting and germinate. The roots don't come from deep or under the mat. Here it is used in a nursery to prevent weeds. Green raw mulches don't blow around. They matt together and may only blow around in the first few days. They feed the soils ecology and that is what makes healthy strong waterwise plants. They don't attract white ants. There are many species of white ant in Australia and only one or two are actually destructive to homes. Raw mulches don't provide a solid food source for them. A tree stump would. They can not establish a colony in them very easily if at all. I tend to treat advice that they do, like the garden advice from a taxi driver. I'm no good at driving taxis I might add I might add as well that those using gravel instead of mulch need to apply it at the same thickness of 50-100mm for it to have any effect other than visual on the health and well being of your plants Keep mulches and pebbles away from your plant stems, it may rot the stems and kill the plant. Like it or not but WA is the countries leader in this sort of public information and I also know that there are a few examples where this info has been copied with out permission in other states public water management strategies. (I have permission ) http://www.watercorporation.com.au/W/wa ... 4831#Mulch For those in Perth or SW WA looking for Mulch, http://www.mulchnet.com/index.php http://www.greenlifesoil.com.au/compost.htm (look for recycled tree prunings) or other states ( ) Tree Contractors Association Australia http://www.tcaa.com.au/members.asp?select=1 ring around, it will be a bit fuzzy as to when you get it. but you will get it Also check the local rag in the classifieds for fellas operating from your local area Re: Mulch, Grass Seeds and Pathways.. 3Jul 22, 2009 10:37 am Wow , that was a great lecture. I just loved it . I did not do any horticultural course, apart those Good Gardening seminars , thanks to Fu by the way and it all supports my 25 year experience in gardening. I just wish people did not treat their gardens as a dead surface that they need to furnish with plants and mulch. A garden is a living organism and needs to have its needs meat, otherwise it never looks good (apart from the very first month after it has been put in), plants struggle and die. You should publish it FuMan, it is great info here, I am looking forward to the next chapter Maggie Re: Mulch, Grass Seeds and Pathways.. 4Jul 22, 2009 12:40 pm WOW! Thank you soooo much Fu!!! I really wish we had some of those seminars available in VIC. I was a fan of the dreaded black mulch, but from reading some of the other posts on homeone, realised it's looks can kill. I've found this website http://www.aardvarktrees.com/mulch_request.aspx for all you Melbournian's out there, which has a free mulch service as well as a pay for it service that delivers, awesome!! It also makes the same points you have made regarding the best kind of mulch, weeds, ect. So thankyou for helping point me in the right direction! I'll do a bit more of a look around and see what else is available in my area also. I agree with you maggie.. I do acknowledge that my garden is not dead, it's infact alive.. and that's what scares me most.. the fact that I could kill things!! But I also want it to be somewhat pretty and interesting to look at. After people spend so much time and effort with their houses, they want to extend that into their gardens, but just like me, some people have NO idea about anything garden related and just go for something that will look good. I'm just lucky I have the help here to make sure I have something that's good for the enviroment and sustainable and not just something thats pretty to look at. I'm also trying to stick to a really SMALL budget.. I would have liked something larger.. but all the issues with our finance have reduced the budget dramatically!! I am not afraid to get my hands dirty.. i just can't afford any luxuries. Building with PD - Regent 23 Cascades on Clyde Estate HomeOne Building Thread - PCI Completed - 28th August. Handover - 11th September. Re: Mulch, Grass Seeds and Pathways.. 5Jul 22, 2009 1:36 pm well now we have the mulch covered and it suits the environment and your budget I'll answer the next question tonight. I don't mean it to be a lecture in Horticuture but I may as well teach a bit too The whole give a man (Or erinleigh) a fish thing Re: Mulch, Grass Seeds and Pathways.. 6Jul 22, 2009 1:56 pm Fu Manchu well now we have the mulch covered and it suits the environment and your budget I'll answer the next question tonight. I don't mean it to be a lecture in Horticuture but I may as well teach a bit too The whole give a man (Or erinleigh) a fish thing Take your time Fu, I don't want to overwork you. As I know nothing about gardening.. I'm really enjoying all of this! I really appreciate all the information as I'm going to have many helpers in the garden who will want to argue with the way I want to do things.. I need to be able to let them know WHY I am choosing to do it a paticular way.. Ie. My aunty loves to garden and will be helping out with establishing something and I'm already trying to prepare for her "You have to lay newspaper down first to stop the weeds.." speech. And.. I promise to post lots of pictures of our DIY landscaping when it comes to that time. Building with PD - Regent 23 Cascades on Clyde Estate HomeOne Building Thread - PCI Completed - 28th August. Handover - 11th September. Re: Mulch, Grass Seeds and Pathways.. 7Jul 22, 2009 5:40 pm Ah Fu, I love lectures and with such beautiful pics from our South West ... a lecture is not a lecture if you know what I mean. I remember from my uni years we as students loved some lecturers but hated others which were only good for a nice nap. Yours is definetely not for sleeping, on the contrary, inspires to take a spade, rake or whatever and go into the garden . Do not worry erinleigh, I have killed many a plant during those 25 years of gardening. Just take FuMan's directions start with the soil and you will be right. When I started I did not have such a nice guide, I had to read and critically assess all info, some of it was rubbish and my plants died some was valuable and they thrived, later I just used hands on experience. Maggie Re: Mulch, Grass Seeds and Pathways.. 8Aug 11, 2009 8:09 pm Hi Fu, Just a friendly reminder... that I still need some help in paticular with planting grass seeds. HANDOVER IS BOOKED FOR SEPT 4!!! Ideally.. i'd love to get set up with the basic landscaping within the 2 weeks after handover.. So I'd really just love to know if you think Mid Sept is an okay time to plant lawn seeds and if you have an info on watering. Thanks in advance! Building with PD - Regent 23 Cascades on Clyde Estate HomeOne Building Thread - PCI Completed - 28th August. Handover - 11th September. Re: Mulch, Grass Seeds and Pathways.. 9Aug 12, 2009 1:45 am I hate to recommend lawn seeds but as many would know if you have to use them, go for a Munns seed. They have the highest germination rates of all of them. Look on the packs for germination rates. Pointless buying a cheap box which is almost as much sand as it is seed and the seed has a low germination rate Munns arid if you must Roll on turf is the absolute go however and you will know my thoughts on what type Re: Mulch, Grass Seeds and Pathways.. 10Aug 14, 2009 6:37 pm Thanks Fu, went to bunnings and mitre 10 and a few other landscape places and nursies on the weekend.. we think we'll be using the Munns Pixie Sun n Shade.. we looked through the different seeds and thought this may be best for our melbourne weather. It was around $20-$25 for a 1kg box.. which I *think* from memory would cover an area of around 25m2 for a new lawn. Or was it 50m2? Here's the info if anyones interested straight from the Munns site. Quote: A lower growing tall fescue which requires less mowing. Can be sown with confidence in heavily treed areas. Will grow equally as well in full sun. Hardwearing & evergreen. Good pest and disease resistance. Will grow in a wide range of soil types (i.e. clay to sandy). Drought and cold tolerant. Ideal for over sow and lawn repair. Contains 85% endophyte. Building with PD - Regent 23 Cascades on Clyde Estate HomeOne Building Thread - PCI Completed - 28th August. Handover - 11th September. Re: Mulch, Grass Seeds and Pathways.. 11Aug 14, 2009 8:25 pm No wukkas Erinliegh would have been 25m2 coverage. We done our landscaping a year back using Couch, over the recent months I have noticed another type of grass growing with the Couch in a 2x2m radius. 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