Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jan 10, 2010 9:22 pm calling all you landscaping guru's out there, i'm building a house and have no idea what to do with the landscaping. I would appreciate any suggestions or ideas you may have regarding plants & where to put in garden beds etc. As I don't have an alfesco area i'm going to be putting in a patio basically running right accross the back of the house. Other than that i present a completely blank canvas for all you green thumbs to work with. Obviously I'm looking for a waterwise & low maintenance garden. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/zz16 ... an0001.jpg Re: Help!! i don't know where to start 2Jan 10, 2010 10:45 pm First things first where are you building? and have you sussed the stickies at the top of the landscape forum index? Re: Help!! i don't know where to start 3Jan 10, 2010 11:01 pm I've looked through the stickies and am intending on going to the next great gardens seminar (i think the next one near me is in february) and am building in Seville Grove in Perth. I've even read through all the links on the watercorps page and still have no idea. I think i might need to take a drive through some newer areas and see if someone has a design i like. Re: Help!! i don't know where to start 4Jan 10, 2010 11:24 pm Have a squiz at what I just posted for Dark Angel viewtopic.php?f=19&t=28113 that may help a little. (although gypsum is not needed ) Yes drive around and view other landscapes but resist the temptation for Mc Plants that everyone has. Visit Kings park (a bit off the show just now but normally very good for ideas when the whole place is in full flower) Take a pen and a camera. The Perth Zoo is also a great place for ideas. Get some of the pool and landscape mags from the news agent Heaps of ideas in those Work out your budget and include soil in that. That will be far more important than anything else, even the plants Visit some of the better retail nurseries and see what is available at the moment. Check out Zanthorea's web page for heaps of ideas with their pdf's available Some of the best info available in WA Also have a squiz at this http://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/horticulture/botanic-garden Re: Help!! i don't know where to start 6Jan 16, 2010 7:04 am Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hi Jollie - you have a really nice-sized yard to work with, lots you can do with that! With your patio, have you considered that the back of your house faces west? That would make things a bit unpleasant on summer afternoons and evenings with the hot sun beating down on you (not to mention the squint factor as it drops lower ). I don't know what ideas you had for the northern side, but I'd put your patio there, or even make it an L-shape, filling most of the space on the northern side for outdoor dining or seating, and extending round the corner to the back of the house. Even if you added a pergola to the back, the sun would still be a problem as it gets lower. Think about providing shade for the back of the house (and for your patio) with trees. I suggest you start a list of must-haves in terms of what you want to put in your back yard and then play around with approximate positions on a copy of your site plan. That will help you to work out if you need shade trees, hedges or tall shrubs for privacy, big lawn/small lawn/no lawn, landscaping around a pool, and so on. Then you can begin to think about the types of plants... Make sure you have enough outdoor taps (my current obsession ) and provision for rainwater/greywater so that watering can be organised easily. And when you have it all figured out, make sure you come back and show us what you're planning. Re: Help!! i don't know where to start 7Jan 16, 2010 1:25 pm It isn't often hot in late arvos in perth for west facing areas because nearly every single bloody day the howling seabreeze/gale roars in but there in ****** something to keep in mind for plant selection. It has to withstand strong wind and something that forms a wind break to about 3m would be ideal around the fence line. A few excellent choices would be the Yanchep rose, Grevillea olivacae, Vibernum tinus, the native hibiscus Alyogyne "west coast gem". Re: Help!! i don't know where to start 8Jan 17, 2010 12:49 am Thanks for the suggestions Kek. I'd thought about putting the patio down the side of the house for the same reason as you suggested, however in the end i didn't want to block off what will be my only access into the back yard. Also i thought that it would be much nicer to be able to look out into the garden rather than bascally straight into the fence. My main thoughts at the moment for must haves in the back yard would be a shed (what can i say i'm i guy we just love our sheds) but will have it screened off from the rest of the yard. I was also looking to put in something to create a little bit of privacy & block out a bit of the late afternoon sun along the back fence with something smaller underplanted with it to fill in the gaps. I'll need some grassed areas as well because i spend quite a bit of time with my niece & nephew so will need somewhere for them to go wild outside. I had an old shower unit that broke on me and when I took it off, there were only 2 water pipes, instead of the normal 2 water pipes and a shower head pipe. S o I… 0 36939 The most definitive answer to your question James is this taken from the James Hardie Axon Cladding Installation Guide - i just happen to have it… 5 3667 Hi there, long-time lurker but first time posting. I've bought a house 2 and a bit years ago and last year we had some major water damage on a converted pergola area… 0 7931 |