Build Thread - Modern Formal Garden on a Budget

Hi All,

After several years of planning and budgeting, we've finally commenced landscaping work. This is our first major landscaping effort, so we look forward to any comments and feedback. Unfortunately we're reliant on professionals on most of the hard landscaping components. Hopefully over the next few years, we can pick up basic skills and knowledge to evolve the soft elements.

The style that we're after is a modern take of the traditional formal gardens. We have a very small space to work with, and an even smaller budget. The attempt is to apply the same basic principles, but on a much more smaller, read: cheaper , scale. Think of it as a poor man's Paul Bangay or Peter Fudge design, using natives and water-wise species.

Completed this week are the footings for retaining walls and paved area. I'll try to post more pics as we progress.

Moving clockwise from the north aspect:
1. Footings for front retaining wall and step.





2. Side gate, gravel path and future vegetable bed.





3. Stepping stone footings at the south side.





4. My tiny lawn area with mower strip





5. Pergola and retaining wall

Ironically you will be on the pathway to creating a fantastic landscape. With tight constraints, you will be extremely creative. You'll have to be.

The plants are really easy. Use only tube stock. Pay cash. Buy wholesale. Plant at the start of winter. Lots of free rain to water the new plants. They can establish before summer and you slash water costs in summer.

Natives will lend themselves to formal planting better than nearly all exotic plants.

Use the WA watercorp plant lists in the stickies at the top of this forum (The plants are sold Australia wide). Also check out good local native nurseries. Pick out your favs then source the plants in tubes.

Get the soil right. It will pay for itself in a year or two. Skimp on the soil and its amendments, it will cost you.

You want organic compost, sand and zeolite blended with existing soil structures.

I look forward to progress pics on this one

Good luck with the project bud! Will be following this one, out of curiosity where are you based ?

That pergola is not going to fall down! Looks like you could land a helicopter on those timbers.

Thanks Fu! How does one get access to wholesale prices Fu? I'm located in northern suburb of Melbourne.

I've been going through the Watercorp list as you suggested. Do you have any native recommendations for formal gardens? I'm looking for substitutes for English Box, Weeping Fig, and Boston Ivy that has similar foliage and density.

What about bentonite and bactivate? Are they needed for clay soil?

Thanks! We're in northern suburbs of melbourne.

Designed to survive another melbourne earthquake.

Sorry I can't help with any of your questions but I just want to say I'll be following your progress, it looks really interesting, I love that pergola!

I have heard that there is a wholesale nursery in Thomastown. I did not build in an estate with builders guideines etc, but I know of a few who did in the mernda area and were given a card by their developer to go to this wholesale nursery and they received a further discount. I dont know if it is strictly wholesale or not and I am sorry I cannot remember the name off the top of my head, I want to get the card off them to visit it myself - I will try and find out for you and let you know.

Also the Latrobe Uni carpark market, which is on every Sunday till 1.00pm has excellent plant stalls with really cheap prices. Also the trash and treasure market in Thomastown is still held and they also have a couple of plant sellers - again really cheap prices compared to nurseries. On thing with both these markets is that you have to get there early to get the good stock - they sell out really quickly. If you have to go to a nursery try Sertels in Bridge Inn Road in Mernda - I have found them to be the cheapest compared to other nurseries in the area.

Good luck with the rest of the landscaping plans - it looks fantastic and with the weather in Melboune finally starting to clear up we might all get some progress done this Spring.

Love your pergola! What kind of wood is it? And do you mind saying how much it cost you to build?

Thanks! It would be great to know if there are wholesalers nearby that we can contact. I do however frequently go to the latrobe uni sunday market and the thomastown trash n treasure, will keep an eye on any bargains.
We have a very narrow entertaining area, rather than fight it, I thought it would be better to further emphasise the narrow corridor.

The pergola cost us approx 8k. At the end we went with Cypress Pine. The original plan was to fabricate either structural steel beams or RHS that would then be powdercoated.

Bookmarking this, I too will be doing a formal garden in Melbourne...eventually.

Looking forward to seeing it all eventuate!

Plantmark on Mahoneys Rd. Porter Davis clients have a deal with them, so do some developers, but they're open to the public on specified weekends. I get an email shortly before. You don't need a card. Just ask someone to let you know when... Personally, I don't think they're all that cheap. Know your prices before you go.

Cheapest way to go with plants is to use tube stock. They establish far far quicker than more mature larger container plants. Plenty of trials/studies show tube stock plants overtake larger container plants within 12 months and are aften far more healthy. I now use tubes whenever possible. Plant them in autumn/winter and water them in, go inside for winter and when you come out in spring they will be as big as the more expensive larger container plant at a 1/4 of the cost.

Week 3 Progress

- Completed all footings.
- Retaining walls raised, waterproofing done.
-Drainage works completed.
- Side gate assembled.
- Garden edging installed.

Next steps are rendering of vertical surfaces, soil prep for turf, topping for gravel path, and lay pavers. Work is expected to resume again early october as we wait for the granite pavers to arrive.

Here's some pics.
1. Front Retaining Wall and Path


2. Side Gate

3. Gravel Path

4. Pergola and Planting Bed

looking great,

are you planning on rendering yourself?

Did you weld the gate frame yourself or is it one of adjustable kits from bunning?

Moving along fast, it will look fantastic!

2

Where would you recommend for cheap wholesale prices?
Thanks for that, we are planning to start planting next autumn. When we do, the majority will be tube stock.
Unfortunately no. I'm wondering if it's really all that difficult. Then again don't want cracks to appear in a couple of years time.
The hinged middle section uses one of those DIY modular frames.

Any updates,looking forward to see what you've done.

There's been a bit of a delay with the pavers, so work has effectively halted in the past 3 weeks.

The good news is our granite pavers finally arrived this morning. We're very excited indeed. These will look much lighter when they are dry and cleaned.

Planter box capping is done along with base coat for render. They are exactly seating height, reducing the need to squeeze in outdoor furniture such a narrow space. I'm thinking a deck chair or two should suffice.


Mower strip edging is also laid. Notice soil prep has been done for the turf. Organic compost, zeolite, and lawn mix cultivated down to 300-400mm. Applied some gogo juice, seamungus and molasses to get things going. A couple resident worms has been spotted too.

Update:

Hard landscaping is almost complete. Vertical surfaces are now rendered. No plants though, the only soft landscaping completed are the small turf area at the rear.

There's still a lot of work to do. Next steps for us are lighting, irrigation and soil prep for all garden beds. Hopefully next autumn we'll look to start some planting.

1. Pergola

2. Turf. We decided to lay Sapphire Buffalo due to the aspect and shade.

3. Lilydale Topping.

3. Front retaining wall.

Looking great !!!