Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Mar 16, 2010 7:22 pm Have been going in fits and bursts on this for about 5 years. Priorities have changed and now am full steam ahead to get the front finished and move onto the rest of the property. I have designed and laid every block, with a bit of help from various people on occasion.
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 ⋅ 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 ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Next jobs are pour liquid limestone ramp and path to house, make gates and fit (stainless steel/ timber), finish garden beds including espalier citrus and vege patch, build sundial, install retic irrigation and lighting. And that will be the front finished ! Re: Front yard 2Mar 16, 2010 7:35 pm Great job! And it's nice to see a front yard actually being used, instead of providing decoration for the front of the house only. Re: Front yard 3Mar 16, 2010 8:13 pm Actually looked at the date stamps on the photos and realised that it has been less than 3 years since I started. My back has certainly aged more than 3 years in that time. The front verge is now gravel and the boat bay is brick paved, currently being used as my materials stockpile area. Plantings so far are - 3 Hardenbergias on the far fence bays to hopefully cover the fence for protection from the SW wind. Next heading back towards the stairs are espalier lime, 2 Westringia 'wynaybie gem', espalier lemon tree, and then a vege patch in the corner, stepping stones to the mail box. The three trees are olives. The other garden bed with the yuccas I would like to in time get rid of the exotics and replace with natives which will tolerate the conditions - part sun in summer and nearly full shade in winter (the house faces south) Any suggestions? (Geraldton WA) And also any suggestions for a native small shrub / small dappled shade tree / ground cover in amonst the vege patch ? It is full sun year round and exposed to a bit of wind so am trying to impove the microclimate around the veges. thanks Re: Front yard 4Mar 16, 2010 8:23 pm Looks fantastic. I'd love my front yard to be useable space with some fencing for play equipment but sadly front fences are not allowed. Instead I want to make it a parents retreat area as we have only nature reserve opposite. I love what you have done with your space Re: Front yard 5Apr 05, 2010 11:20 pm Have done a bit more, posted a few pics here viewtopic.php?f=22&t=29003 Re: Front yard 6Apr 05, 2010 11:52 pm Looking at the mulch in the shots, it is quite dark and woody. Get some straws into it as well to really kick off some good composting in it. That will be fine over winter out where you are and they tend to blow around for a few days and then nothing. Re: Front yard - path laid, gates built and fitted, planting 7Feb 12, 2011 2:11 pm Have been chipping away out the front. Laid a liquid limestone path with glass tiles inlaid for a splash of colour. The material was easy to mix and work with, but on close inspection there is some surface crazing. Possibly due to hot weather when laying. Is hardly noticeable though. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ (Finished pictures later on in next posts) Re: Front yard - path laid, gates built and fitted, planting 8Feb 12, 2011 4:36 pm Gates These were a very tricky project. As the driveway is uphill the gates had to open outwards, and the left one had to have a cut-away to enable opening around the truncation wall. After much head scratching and trial and error on CAD I had the frame design finalised. Gate frames were welded out of 25mm x 2mm wall square 316 stainless steel tubing. Cladding used was 85 mm jarrah decking and 40mm jarrah decking splits in a alternate pattern. I calculated all the slat positions and marked onto the gate frames, then drilled through with a drill press, both the slat holes and the frame holes. Slats were to be bolted through with m6 316 machine screws, with no overdrill. Unbelievably tedious and time consuming. The decking was coated with 2 coats of Intergrain ultradeck. (More tediousness) Once drilled I assembled the gates. I had already fixed 4x2 jarrah posts through my 500x500 limestone pillars with 20mm stainless threaded rod, and bolted my hinge plates to this, and made sure that the hinge pins top and bottom were in line and plumb. I had already tested the gate frames on the hinges to make sure it all lined up and swung ok without binding up (as stainless steel is very prone to - called galling). I placed the cladded gates onto the hinge pins. I was very happy about the way the gates fitted and swung, with vitually no friction whatsoever and not a hint of sag, so I proceeded to tackle the automatic gate kit I had got off the net. DC power so no need to get mains to the gate, dc cable run accross drive in an expansion joint in the slab. Fitted the gate motors to the jarrah posts and tweaked it all up. (More tediousness) Very fiddly affair but got it all done eventually. Solar panel keeps the batteries charged. You may have noticed the steel angle iron running alongside the limestone pillars. Before I hung the gates I got paranoid about the weight and leverage of the gates (especially if 3 kids decide to swing off them)pulling over a pillar, so I came up with a plan to re-enforce them by excavating alongside the pillars front and back and pouring a concrete block which anchors 50x50mm stainless angle iron alongside the pillars. I connected them together by drilling through the pillars again and tying through with ss threaded rod again. There that should give bit of peice of mind. Re: Front yard - path laid, gates built and fitted, planting 9Feb 13, 2011 11:44 am Soil prep
I used DSATCO piggy post, yellow sand, zeolite, spongolite, attapulgite as soil ammendments. Mulched with a thick layer of pea straw and then tree lopper mulch. Just used a shovel and fork to dig it all through. Planting I have spaced the plants quite far apart to allow for the eventual size of the mature plants, also I will divide up some plants as they clump and spread. Also more stepping stones to be added to the mailbox (one of which will be a 300mm pipe lid covering an in-ground worm farm a la the hairy fellow on SBS forgot his name) There are a few kanga paws which have been cut back hard so not really visible, but they will get quite big. I am still looking for an nice native shrub for one spot, I wanted Acacia littorea/truncata but am struggling to find one. Ideally I would like a medium shrub with perhaps a contrasting foliage colour/texture (anybody?) Species include albany wooly bush, wedding bush, kanga paws big red, yellow gem and flavidus yellow, dianellas (lots of different ones), knotty club rush (I love these), grevillia gilt dragon, hardenbergia comtoniana (for the trellis), hakea laurina as the small tree.( I decided against corymbia ficifolia as I heard the leaves are very staining and is next to my unsealed limestone path.) Am also going to add eremophila kalbarri carpet and the patch of lawn to the left of the path with the trickle hose coils on it is going to be replaced with a lawn like (here's hoping) planting of grevillea gingin gem. Re: Front yard - path laid, gates built and fitted, planting 11Feb 13, 2011 11:56 am Keen that front yard is looking amazing. You've done some fantastic work there. Congrats. Re: Front yard - path laid, gates built and fitted, planting 14Feb 14, 2011 12:06 pm Great Job! Second Time 'Round Re: Front yard - path laid, gates built and fitted, planting 16Feb 14, 2011 10:30 pm After a backbreaking day in sweltering heat (Geraldton max 39 deg today), the brownline drippers and MP rotators are in! Sexy beasts those MP rotators are when working. Prick of a job running irrigation retic but pretty satisfying watching those machines do all your watering for you that's for sure. Re: Front yard - path laid, gates built and fitted, planting 17Feb 15, 2011 12:03 am Next time have a look see if any of your local hire places do a retic trenching saw. These things will cut the trench, lay the pipe and cover the trench in one go. They are a bit bigger than a lawn edger. They go by a few names. Otherwise talk to your local retic shop and see if they know anyone round Gero with one Smash the retic in there should be ss cable so you can pull up bore pump for service 1 3152 I had new concrete laid, extended the alfresco and had the sidewalks concreted too. I noticed the concreter didn't put the expansion foam anywhere, there are expansion… 0 8117 Hello everyone, After some suggestions and ideas about how to put a concrete path around the drop edge beam area on our new build. We are required to have a concrete path… 0 12872 |