Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jul 04, 2013 5:41 pm Any good ideas for front gardens without plants? Don't want to be weeding in the future with bad knees. Was thinking of a large fountain, or one garden box filled with stones and a sculpture or maybe a grass tree at most? I think the estate may require a certain amount of plants though. Re: Landscape without plants 2Jul 04, 2013 10:52 pm A garden without plants sounds like an odd concept lol. I'd do stones and plants in pots at the very least. Or some low maintenance natives. How big is the area? The road to success is always under construction House completed April 2011 - slowly making it a home... Re: Landscape without plants 3Jul 04, 2013 11:26 pm standard estate front yard. I guess I am asking for advice from people that have done this concept. I know it's not everyone's cup of Tea Re: Landscape without plants 4Jul 04, 2013 11:57 pm I'm thinking "Japanese garden" with loads of stones and water and a few low-maintenance plants (succulents?) but in tall planters (or stone "crates") up high so your knees doesn't suffer. Come to think of it, you could have them as low as the rest, but have a dug-in path with a built ramp (as the path) leading down in between, so when you need to weed or otherwise maintain, you can walk or roll down and do it standing. It's a bit difficult coming up with ideas in that a) I have no clue as to the lay of the land, and even if I did: b) I'm no good with digital drawing. Re: Landscape without plants 5Jul 05, 2013 12:26 am Yes I was thinking Zen garden, but we have had a stone area before, and yep - weeds galore - maybe just lawn with a some big pots with artificial trees Re: Landscape without plants 6Jul 05, 2013 12:30 am You can have a weed membrane under the stones, so as to stop the weeds. Artificial trees? Really? Build a stone sculpture instead of the artificial stuff, if you really don't want to touch anything "gardeny". You sound like me when I was younger - a flat-dweller in extremis. I couldn't for the life of me see why anyone would want a garden with lawn moving, weeds etc. But there's a a compromise somewhere, and I seriously doubt having fake trees is it. Re: Landscape without plants 7Jul 05, 2013 1:12 am I have seen some nice ones at a local artificial turf place, but yes prob not the right way to go. We have done gardens, pools, acreage, and have discovered that we don't enjoy the outside and if we entertain we would rather a dinner party inside than a BBQ on the patio. I think a Mix of stoned areas, some decking, some lawn and a few grass trees and Dracaenas will do it. Re: Landscape without plants 9Jul 05, 2013 8:28 am Need all the cooling we can get here in Perth! I think water features are good for that too Re: Landscape without plants 10Jul 05, 2013 9:44 am Ouch, Perth. I have only been once, and I got a heat stroke, so I'm probably biased, but I don't want to live there. Too hot for me. Yes, a water feature will help, because evaporation is what cools. With that said, you would get more evaporation with real trees (and (a little) grass or at least some plants). This is the reason the shade under a tree is much cooler than the shade under a piece of shade cloth. I think the best would be a combination, and have the water feature in the shade so it will evaporate a little, but not be boiled off, for want of a better term. I read somewhere that artifical grass can get so hot that it's unbearable underfoot in the sun. Re: Landscape without plants 11Jul 05, 2013 9:54 am Avoid weed mat, it doesn't do the job long term. I would have a lawn (following Fu's preparation plan, to minimise weeds and long term maintenance), and one or two native shurbs, something local to your area. Re: Landscape without plants 12Jul 05, 2013 12:02 pm Gardens require some work, even concrete needs cleaning.. Don't kid yourself that you won't have to do anything even with rocks and succulants.. Water features require cleaning and get all gungy without reg maintainence.. Not many options for you other than to concrete the lot in which case you should have bought an apartment.. And from what you said, you don't like the outdoors perhaps a townhouse/apartment dwelling would have been more suitable build for your lifestyle?? Anyways if you don't want to decrease your property by upto 20% do some basic landscaping.. Compacted grantic sand as the lawn areas, river pebbles (locally sourced) as decoration around the edges with larger rocks as features in the compacted gravel.. Mass planted beds of tough local native grasses will cut out the weeds nearly all together.. Put in a few grass trees as features and a small native tree as feature. Get a zero weed wand and walk around dabbing any weeds that happen to crop up while the plants are establishing (no bending down). Doesn't sound like you would be keen on any of this but i will throw it out there anyway.. Re: Landscape without plants 13Jul 05, 2013 7:50 pm Geez way to make me feel extremely lazy! Only 3 years ago I lived on acreage and ran chooks and cleaned their coop out with fresh hay weekly, so no not lazy. I am happy to clean concrete, pavers, ponds. Just hate weeds, and I don't like the look of straggly plants. I am wanting something architectural looking. We only have a small block. And yes I think a lot of it is that I am living in Perth reluctantly and would rather be back in Tassie, so gardening in the heat is not want I want to be doing. Re: Landscape without plants 14Jul 05, 2013 8:06 pm Not saying your lazy.. Some people don't like gardening/outdoors and thats perfectly fine its not law. Just as is buying a house in the burbs with a yard isn't law also.. Check out Phil johnson's designs that won a Chelsea.. Native gardens, tough, architectural and low maintainence, if your clever about it.. Re: Landscape without plants 15Jul 05, 2013 11:01 pm I built in an estate in Perth also, I have a small front garden, we decided no grass as we didn't want the maintenance. We've done crushed rock, natives such as grevillea, dianellas and kangaroo paws. It requires next to no maintenance. My partner probably spends 10minutes a month pulling the stray weeds. Once a year we will mulch it (prob needs it more often, but meh). Best thing we've done, and it looks amazing when the kangaroo paws flower. I'm happy to Pm you a pic, let me know if you're interested These pics aren't necessarily no plants, but they are low maintenance. Just some ideas I found on google. 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 ⋅ The road to success is always under construction House completed April 2011 - slowly making it a home... Re: Landscape without plants 16Jul 05, 2013 11:21 pm Thank you! The first two are really appealing to me. I like Dracaenas etc. but I can't do Grevillia's/Bottlebrush etc as I break out in hives around those Re: Landscape without plants 19Jul 05, 2013 11:26 pm donna61 Thank you! The first two are really appealing to me. I like Dracaenas etc. but I can't do Grevillia's/Bottlebrush etc as I break out in hives around those I love the first two also, I can imagine they'd look nice with a water feature + they are nice and modern to suit a new estate! Do you guys get a landscape package included in your land? And is the estate strict with the type of plants? (just asking as we built in e llenbrook and we could only have natives, and included in our land was $4k worth of landscaping) The road to success is always under construction House completed April 2011 - slowly making it a home... This certainly doesn't look good. I would be engaging with an independent inspector to have a look at this. As for the unscheduled site visits, most builders are quite… 1 28285 Elvis has left the building... The site supervisor quit after 2 month on the project. I guess he was just instructed to bark at people, but didn't like when he was… 26 20855 Hi, I contracted a Builder to do a Garage to Bedroom + ensuite conversion (Class 1a), the Builder engaged the Certifier and Engineer and received BDA from the Certifier… 0 4988 |