Newcastle House-landscaping - veggies, general trial + error

Great idea boxus hedge will provided as divider between pool area and patio area.
Once boxus are knee height it will soften concrete look.

Build Thread : viewtopic.php?f=31&t=81624

Bahahhaha hahahha omg that sounds like something we would do when our house was on the market we decided we needed to extend the tiger grass around past our shed but I didn't want to spend any more money on plants, we decided to split up a couple of the giant tiger grass clumps, let's just say it took 4 hours the pair of us covered in mud a hand saw a broken shovel and a few blisters to dig the rotten things up. We ended up using a a sawzilla (at 11pm mind you) and hacked the crap out of them, they almost died and Mr T kept laughing at me because I refused to spend another couple hundred bucks

Have you started the paving?? The concreting looks great and the box hedge will look good, just make sure it can tolerate a bit of chemicals and acid from the pool water or it will burn them.

Not sure about your solar quote Cat, I haven't really looked into solar so much, this next build for us isn't long term so I don't think we will bother.

Did your kids take a dip? I hate cold water too, Mr T normally ends up throwing me in 🤦🏼‍♀️

Wow Cat your pool looks awesome

Our pavers arrived. Woo woo.




I tell you - man they're going to be bright

Yep knee height is exactly what we're thinking When sitting at the table, knee height plants will block most of the brightness from the pavers... hopefully!

Haha! definitely sounds like something we'd do too!!! Think you'll just spend the couple hundred next time




Yep good idea. I have lots of plant googling to do


Ooh not long term?? I thought this place would be. I cant wait til you're ready to share on your thread and tell us all about it


Yep! They've been on the step a couple times, haha mind you not for long!

Aw thanks heaps, we're super happy with it.

It will look great once all done. Slightly biased on the pavers... they will be perfect

How do you split up your reply like you did to mine? That's very cool.

I dunno Cat I'm a bit of a tight ar7e and won't spend if I don't have too. I'm going to go all the way back from Hoya (google that and see we now live at the back of no where) to Berrigans nursery at mudgerabra to buy all my plants because she is the best priced by far, 4 hour round trip but worth it.

Nope not long term we will keep it just over 12 months and turn it, I can't go to work with 5 kids as my childcare bill is over $1k a week so this is the plan

Have you guys melted over the weekend and taken a dip??

How are the pavers going?

Our pavers have been laid.

This is before grout:

Stunning

We'd kept these pallets since the build and landscaping for vegetable gardens but seriously how hard are they to take apart!? It was taking so long so I said farewell and gave them to a happy person on gumtree.


Then I tried to use some year old left over treated pine we had around - haha! Check out the bend in it.





That was futile so we bought some more. Still need bracing as some of the other old members are a bit twisted.





Vege patch all painted with some dirt. Garden edging going in. Unsure whether to turf + sand pit with a climbing fort in this section, or just mulch the whole lot and plant an orchid of fruit trees.

I'll admit, some days I think "hmm yeah okay, the patio is probably a bit big". I absolutely would have done it smaller if I knew we were going to get a pool when we put it in!




Top level grass is doing well. Really need to move the tramp back down the back (moved it up there to get the pool in). Wish we never bought such a big one... we need three, preferably four adults, to move it between the levels. And three adults to move it *at all*.



The pool all grouted. The first of the now many freaking mulberry eating bat poo stains appearing




We bought some salt tolerant plants. You can see them against the fence. They arent planted yet.







This type of lavender is by far the easiest thing to grow. Our Euky Dwarf in the middle has barely grown



Wish we could afford to concrete the middle of this side access. We can't even afford grass. It's going to be dirt for a while yet. Or weeds...

Thank you

My little gardeners helped plant out the vege patch. There’s sun flower seeds ‘planted’ through out it too I’m not sure if they’ll get through the cane mulch, I tried to clear it away from the most condensed seeded areas. Haha







Tomatoes in some old pots:



Dwarf lemon tree, dwarf mandarin tree and some murraya at the back.



Extended the side fence. Had to raise it 300 to meet pool regs, but we decided to take it up 600 for more privacy and so my plants can legally grow taller. Still technically have to do the panels where the neighboring sheds are.

So amazed with all the DIY you guys have done.

What do you want to grow in the vege patch? You have so much room you could make compost bins using pallets and chicken wire.

Is it easier to paint the sleepers before or after installing?

Thanks very much. If we could afford it we'd get someone else in to do it. In saying that it's rewarding once it's complete, even if it's got a heap of imperfections

We've planted corn, capsicum, button squash, tomatoes, lettuce, zuchinni. And have watermelon and pumpkin to grow down the back as wild vines under the citrus trees.

I've been researching espaliered fruit trees. They look so cool. Just need to work out where I'll put them.

Hmm I'd recommend painting afterwards because then you only paint where you need to. Also less patching up of paint required.

We (I) want to paint all the fences and back brick wall a dark colour too. Husband thinks its a waste of money as eventually the hedges will grow over them. I think it will be several hundred well spent for those years but need to research type of paint and costs to weigh it all up. Then there's the problem of how I make it look neat beside the pool where i can paint it easily where there's no plants, but then can't easily paint behind the adjacent hedge. OORR we just leave it and spent all those hundreds on cool plants

You made me laugh re the big trampoline .....being in 5 acres our sons was huge too.....finally managed to get it down to the verge for the bring out your dead day last weekend ......he's 14

Hehe well 14 years is a great stint!! I hope ours are using it up til then.

Did you turf under yours? I think I’ll need to put it on a thick bark mulch area. It’s a bit weird crawling and pushing along a mower under there. Lol yep that’s how I mow it

We turfed and did the same .......to get it down the verge we put in on a car trailer