Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Nov 06, 2009 5:06 pm Anyone have any inspiring pictures of front gardens? I just can't BEAR the idea of the Typical Perth New Estate Front Lawn with Strappy Things Round The Edge. But I'm really struggling to figure out what else to do in quite a small area (no footpath) without it looking too cluttered. I would like to do something with natives in a formal style with straight lines, involving some lawn but not a great expanse of it. I'll get a street tree in the middle from the council mid next year, likely a flowering plum (they didn't give me the option of any natives apparently they grow too big, yeah right) Re: Front gardens 2Nov 06, 2009 5:27 pm The people who said that are horticulturaly ignorant and uneducated. It is attitudes like that that go against what the bigger goals and picture is for Australian Horticulture, the nursery industry and the landscape industry as well as regulatory bodies of water and energy. BUT! wow, so stoked you are thinking like this Check the water corps web site and then go visit Zanthorea nursery. Worth a trip. The folks there specialise in this very set up. Go along to some of the great gardens workshops, John Colwill is "something of an expert" in that whole area I like to use Correa dusky bells in my landscapes as a formal hedge, but it isn't a WA native. One hell of a flower show. Use the Empire Zoysia for a small lawn space and most of all take a drive to Knigs Park and have a wander around near the cafe, war memorial area. Some excellent WA native landscape ideas that are stupidly easy to do at home The areas further on the walkways from the tree top walk will also offer excellent inspiration. Take a note pad and camera, jot down what you like You can get nearly, if not all of them, from nurseries and if not try the Kings Park nursery I know that Midland TAFE is also having a plant sale soon with many WA natives for sale. Re: Front gardens 3Nov 07, 2009 1:52 pm Been to Zanthorrea *tick* liked their formal native garden and am now planning to have a couple of Wedding Bushes in a sort of standard-ish shape out the back. Been to the basic Great Gardens workshop *tick* Excellent place to start, now I know how to prepare the soil, but they spent a lot of time selling the need for waterwise planting and soil preparation (needs to be done, true) which I knew, and what I need to know now is How to make it Look Good for Dummies. Spent ages on watercorp website *Tick* Persuaded spouse to use Zoysia *tick* Next: off to King's Park - great idea, thanks! Good to have a few pointers of which areas to look at, it's a bit boggling otherwise. Ooh, nice to hear that correas make a good hedge. I was looking for an excuse for some of them. I'm not fussed about WA plants vs. Aussie plants, as long as they're very drought tolerant How often would they need to be trimmed? Still don't know how to fit interesting things in small area without cluttering it or getting vetoed by spouse who flatly refuses to have expanses of mulch! In progress... BTW if you haven't read Diana Snape's aussie garden book you have to, it's truly awesome. (off to look for books thread) Re: Front gardens 4Nov 07, 2009 2:58 pm Here is the area, in case it gets anyone's creative juices flowing Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ You may notice that there's nothing straight, symmetrical or formal about it! I just have to make things hard for myself. The driveway on the left has a curvy edge. The front door is way over to the left. The feature wall isn't something I want to hide, and it's not in the middle. What is almost right in the middle is that blasted silt pit and I'm not sure what I'm going to try to grow over that. Also, the kerb's about 30cm lower than the house foundations. Re: Front gardens 5Nov 07, 2009 3:27 pm englyn ....the kerb's about 30cm lower than the house foundations. Well, that's a good thing. At least you won't have to worry about drainage in heavy rain, all the water will run off into the gutter. Symmetrical is boring anyway - I think you have a fantastic blank slate there. Here are a few pics for inspiration....maybe some of the elements in them might appeal. 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 ⋅ Have you thought about adding raised beds at different heights? It might add interest....Henley do it very well with their displays here. And you can always swap the plants for whatever you want - hedges work well in raised planters. Re: Front gardens 6Nov 07, 2009 10:02 pm viewtopic.php?f=19&t=21647 browse some of the landscape association web sites and check out some of the award winning gardens. Also, there are a few good landscape mags available at the newsagent for about $10ea. Re: Front gardens 7Nov 07, 2009 10:09 pm As for Australian plants all being water wise, you will be let down if you don't do your research . Over all, here in WA most of the East coast natives are going to need the two watering days we have available. Our natives are often bred for sale over there where summers are generally wetter than ours. Kangaroo paws are a well talked about so called waterwise plant. Not over here they aren't unless you get the ones that grow out in the bush naturally. Again the bush gems etc will need two waterings a week, rich soils and well mulched. This is why growing West Aussie plants is so much more rewarding and they are much more unique than East Coast natives. But I am a little bit biased Re: Front gardens 8Nov 08, 2009 11:14 am Ooh, Kek, thankyou thankyou for the photos! That first one in particular, it's a very similar thing to my spot, and gorgeous. Hmmm a few different plant choices and maybe a path more similar to that one with all the dianellas(?) and cushion bushes... I like that pic too though I've a feeling my OH won't Yeah I know about the roo paws Fu and they've been vetoed anyway Maybe I can find a correa with a red flower to go with the house wall (I know they exist, just have to find them for sale... a certain large nursery wholesaler is listing all the correas as out of stock) or I was previously thinking about some small grevilleas - I'm not usually much of a fan as they grow a bit spindly sometimes but I gather I can fix that with regular haircuts and you can't beat the flowers I would love the raised beds like the display homes but we have that kind of thing out the back and I've run out of budget for that at the front - for the moment anyway Re: Front gardens 9Nov 08, 2009 11:24 am Cushion bushes are beautiful - I have quite a few in my front garden and I love the contrast of the grey foliage against some really vibrant green acacia cognatas (dunno if those do any good in WA??). I have to keep my cushion bushes trimmed or they go all leggy and feral, but they're worth the teensy trouble of a regular haircut: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I also love the Libertias in the background - the yellow-leaved plants. They go almost orange at certain times of year. (Do they do OK in WA, Fu....?) They give a nice contrast too, but I'm useless at recommending plants for anywhere outside Melbourne. Re: Front gardens 10Nov 08, 2009 12:17 pm Now I remember I liked your front garden Kek and I think I'm going to pinch some bits... http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i18/kerrynw/Blog_header.jpg You have a front door at the left with an L shaped path like mine, and I like how you've continued that down to the front. I've learned a valuable lesson from your cushion bush photo however, I'm going to avoid mulch next to pavers set in river stones - I'd never get around to getting the mulch out of the stones! Re: Front gardens 11Nov 08, 2009 2:04 pm The birds scratch around in the mulch and chuck it everywhere. It's actually not too bad - they mostly spread it over the footpath a bit, and I just sweep it up. Feel free to pinch any ideas you like; it's what I do all the time. Speaking of stealing ideas, I found some nice ideas today at some new display homes (not too many Strappy Things, either ) Apologies for the totally crap phone photos: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I thought it was a nice mix of lawn, pebbles, gravel and mulched beds, and the olive trees look great. This succulent would be a good bet for dry climates. I have one in a bowl of cacti, can't remember what it's called though. It gets a tall pinkish flower spike though. The massed planting is going to look fantastic in a couple of years. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ No idea what this plant is, but I liked the look of it... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Actually, in this photo it looks exactly like a horrible weed that I'm always pulling out. It looked much nicer in person. I took heaps of other pics, but they're taking forever to upload today, so I'll save the rest. Re: Front gardens 12Nov 08, 2009 2:08 pm Re: Front gardens 13Nov 08, 2009 2:34 pm Ha, ha! Would you believe I actually bought one of those just a few days ago? I fell in love with the gorgeous dark green foliage! It's actually a limonium perezii. It gets to about 1m and has beautiful purple flowers. I'm actually thinking about going back to the nursery and buying a few more.... Fence, paving, retaining wall - CHECK! Still so much more to do..... Re: Front gardens 14Nov 08, 2009 2:56 pm Ooh, thanks for that, Bella. I might have to get some myself for the back yard. Re: Front gardens 15Nov 08, 2009 5:18 pm This thread is great, please keep posting pics, I am trying to get some inspiration for my front yard. Re: Front gardens 16Nov 08, 2009 6:59 pm englyn Now I remember I liked your front garden Kek and I think I'm going to pinch some bits... What?, like the front door knobs, the light fittings... Re: Front gardens 17Nov 08, 2009 7:08 pm Fu Manchu englyn Now I remember I liked your front garden Kek and I think I'm going to pinch some bits... What?, like the front door knobs, the light fittings... Yeah, it'd be worth the plane fare over, I'm sure. Re: Front gardens 18Nov 08, 2009 7:57 pm yeah I'll just stack some of your river gravel in my suitcase. I was wondering what that plant right at the front was before I read down. It looks a bit like a relative of a bok choi Yep, dwarf cushion bushes are cute. I've nothing particularly against strappy things - actually I really like dianellas, cordylines, roo paws... it's just that it seems like everyone's front garden in my suburb is full of them. But not agapanthus Re: Front gardens 19Nov 08, 2009 8:07 pm I had a quick drive past some display homes today and quite liked this one: http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/ac244/englyn_photo/frontdisplay2.jpg http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/ac244/englyn_photo/frontdisplay1.jpg I like that it's based on triangular shapes - something different. Gives a strip of lawn at the front too without being at all boring. Guess you have to use several different levels to pull this off though. Re: Front gardens 20Nov 09, 2009 6:19 am englyn I like that it's based on triangular shapes - something different. Gives a strip of lawn at the front too without being at all boring. Guess you have to use several different levels to pull this off though. You might be able to use that as a starting point. If you achieved the different levels mainly through your plant choices - taller ones at the back, small at the front etc, and had some defined edges between sections, it might work. And perhaps instead of the raised beds, you could get away with using a row of square concrete planters. I can visualise it with big square pots like the ones used here, all in a row: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Get some long brass machine screws and bolt right through the gate and put brass acorn nuts and washers on the other side. It will never come off 1 9080 that will depend on the kitchen bench depth. you'll have to specify it so it allows for both the tap and the sink 1 7397 |