Hi everyone, I thought I'd share a few photos of the back garden that came with our property and how that's going so far
Our backyard came with a mixed border with stone edging and a number of established shrubs. It was pretty overgrown and filled with English ivy so I had to spend our first summer there cleaning it all out. (The ivy also covered the carport!!) This will be our third year here and so far I've expanded the bed, gotten rid of diseased/sad plants and added quite a few new plants, mostly natives. Grow, you beauties!
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2013, when we first moved in.
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September 2015 - full view of the mixed border, if we're feeling fancy. I've planted hedges to provide screening and to replace the Sweet Pittosporum, the huge bright green one in the middle. An invasive weed unfortunately I picked native hedges - Hop Bush, Silver Banksia, Starry Night tea tree, Gossamer Wattle. The Flowering Gum is looking worse for the wear after a large section of its canopy broke in 100km winds, but hopefully it'll rebound fine.
On the left are the raised veggie beds we built from sleepers - an improvement on scrap treated pine and chain-link. The left side of the back bed is a shady corner with overhead summer sun, so I planted a Manzanillo olive to grow tall (and give us olives of course) and shade/shelter the understorey guys underneath - tree fern, pieris and waratah. I might add hellebores later if I can find mixed colours, not just medium-purples.
On the far right of the photo is the colorbond wall which was covered in ivy - we took it off, gave the wall a good scrub and repainted in charcoal. The tall branches on it are wisteria.
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I've learned that I would not plant camellias unless they're in a very sheltered spot - these two are quite handsome but the wind and rain leave them in tatters. At least they add a bit of colour from a distance...? The two hebes (one of them a mature transplant) are easy as, no maintenance no muss. I planted a cluster of Dianellas under the gum tree, several Tussock-grasses around my scraggly Silver Banksia, and 'Cousin It' casuarinas and Myoporum (Boobialla) as groundcovers, since pretty groundcover grevilleas don't like it here at all. We also covered the rubbishy old fence with brushwood screening to tide us over for a bit.
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Better shot of the gum/camellia corner on a sunny day - young banksia on left, purple-tipped Santa Monica hebe in the foreground.
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Correa 'Jezebell' - I planted three of these
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Waratah bloom from last year (this year's haven't matured yet)
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Newly planted Myoporum purpurea - purple stalks and little white flowers.
Please feel free to post your own garden pics, or to tell me what I'm doing wrong with mine