Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Mar 04, 2010 4:07 pm Hi Everyone, We're looking for ideas for a temporary solution to our garden. We're planning to build a formal garden, however the extent of construction effort required won't fit this year's budget. So there will be a 12 month gap where we need to have a temporary and economical solution for our garden. In total there are about 160sqm of bare earth around the house. So we're after your collective wisdom. Mulch? Weed Mat? Gravel? Let the weed thrive? Re: Temporary Landscaping Solution 2Mar 04, 2010 4:58 pm Hi. I would be investigating growing one of those ground cover crops that you can subsequently dig in to improve the soil. I'm just not sure if there are any that will last for 12 months, I thought they are usually planted for one or two seasons. For any gardening question it's useful to include your location. Re: Temporary Landscaping Solution 3Mar 04, 2010 10:05 pm Yep, "Where the bloody hell are you?" Please leave the "weed mat" for commercial nursery floor covering or under pebble path ways. I'd cover the area in green mulch (tree prunings/ shreddings) and also look at sowing the nitrogen fixing crops available from seed mobs. Then you watch what the garden does later Very sustainable, you will be creating new fertile soil, you will be creating the foundations of what may end up being a great garden Re: Temporary Landscaping Solution 4Mar 04, 2010 10:52 pm Yes it says Perth but the concepts and principles are the same. It's all about reating new soil http://www.greatgardens.info/docs/GG005.html Re: Temporary Landscaping Solution 5Mar 05, 2010 6:14 am A third vote for a green manure crop! I'm doing that in one section of my garden beds After 4 years - we're in! Re: Temporary Landscaping Solution 7Mar 05, 2010 6:54 pm I think I looked at the Green Harvest website and they had a specific one for breaking up clay After 4 years - we're in! Re: Temporary Landscaping Solution 8Mar 06, 2010 12:32 pm Green manure crops will be an assortment of species and variety. Just comes in a bag and you chuck it around. Have the much down too and you have the recipe for a wonderful soil come time to landscape You may not even have to buy any in. Just rake back the mulch and green crop, dig it in and add gypsum, olsens green bio, zeolite, spongolite and use lots of molasses and powerfeed and your clay problems will be over That rich soil will always need replenishing as the plants and microbes feed from it. So mulch heavily with green mulches and straws which will continuously break down to form new soils and healthy microbes friendly environments Re: Temporary Landscaping Solution 9Jun 11, 2010 10:56 am Areas that are going to be turfed, use sand with a 10% mix of organic material. Get about 10cm coverage. Look at contouring the surfaces to trap water run-off and build up your garden areas with a good soil mix. If you have boggy areas, look for an aggregate that sits well with the cladding on your home and get a drainage solution in. Boggy areas get pretty stinky and wreak havoc with slab levels. Re: Temporary Landscaping Solution 10Jun 13, 2010 11:37 pm I would go for a much higher content of organic soil. Sand will be a wonderful base structure but it's ability to retain moisture and the role it has in nutrient leaching is a concern. That way you can be set free from a reliance on lawn fertilisers for results Re: Temporary Landscaping Solution 11Jul 01, 2010 10:53 am A 90:10 sand/organics mix is perfect for lawns. This ratio encourages lawn roots to grow deeper than usual. The benefit is lower water consumption and healthier appearence during winter/off-season. Additional organics can be added below the sand layer if need be, but the 90:10 sand layer is important. Re: Temporary Landscaping Solution 12Aug 11, 2010 12:10 am It is that ratio that we are trying to avoid now days in WA from the info from my mentors and peers. The days of growing turf on high sand (yellow sand as an example) must come to an end if we are to improvements in... Water use on turf Fertiliser use and efficiency on turf. I have even seen the most old school stickler and well respected turf legend change his ways and see what is happening around us. This is why I suggest a much higher ratio of organic content and in clay soils sand is still vital and highly recomended to include in the prep. Sand won't hold nutrients so high ratios of it should be avoided. The organic content will act to slow nutrient leaching (as will amendments) into our environment from the fertilisers we get so obsessed with in domestic turf applications. Organic material will act as a buffer on pH as well. pH becomes far less of a factor in the turfs health. Sand will assist with drainage in heavy soils. It is this sand mix ratio that is in part responsible for the Perth metro area consuming 30% plus of the available fertiliser supply in Australia. The majority of which goes on our crappy lawns and into our water ways. I would hate to see such a thing occur elsewhere. Higher levels of organic material act as a buffer for pH imbalances so therefore a higher content is of great importance to future fertiliser use, and water use to remain green with minimal effort. Remember we must now be fertiliser wise and also water wise Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hi JW I just read your post and I find this situation quite strange. When we build, we get a temp pole for construction which becomes the permanent pole for one of the… 1 3934 Hi all, Not sure if this is a good place for this question but I guess we'll find out! 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