My Backyard Makeover
‘Choob’ pots from The Balcony Garden / ‘Palm Beach’ outdoor tiles from Tile Cloud / Gate custom made by our carpenter
Probably my most requested thing on Instagram stories is to share the details of my backyard garden. Today’s the day I share it all, from plants selected to the garden edging used, to the colour of the painted fence.
Let’s talk about what was here when we first moved in. A whole heap of nothing, that’s what! Not a single plant or tree was in the backyard. It was a barren wasteland. We had an old rotary clothesline, an ugly tin shed (which is still there, we will replace later in the year) and a horrible wire mesh fence. Our neighbour thankfully agreed to go halves with us in replacing the old mesh fence (she actually approached the previous owners who didn’t want to go halves in a new fence), so it was a win for both of us! Once that went up we instantly had privacy from our neighbours and we then painted the sides and back in Taubmans ‘Colorbond Night Sky’.
Olive tree, Olearia platinum and blue chalk stick
Throughout the garden beds, sandstone rocks protrude from the edging to create a natural look
Next we started on the garden beds. My partner hand dug up the narrow bed which lines the back of the house, but quickly realised it would take weeks of back-breaking labour to do the larger side and back garden beds. So we hired a professional with a bobcat to come and dig it out, approximately 20-30cm deep and then fill it in with new top soil (which we ordered from a local landscaping supplier).
We have clay soil in our yard which isn’t fantastic, so we wanted to bring in some new soil to give our plants the best possible chance to establish. The bobcat, made such light work of it – he was here for just a couple of hours. It was worth the $400 we paid to get it done. My advice is to know where to spend and where to save. We did the rest of the planting, and landscaping ourselves saving us a lot of money. Plus planting and selecting the plants is the fun part!
‘No mow grass’ / Ekodeck used as garden edging / Cypress mulch
Agave geminiflora
The garden edging is a product called Ekodeck which is typically used as decking (available from Bunnings). It’s a composite product meaning it’s not going to rot like timber does. It comes in a few colours but we chose Ironwood to match the fence. The mulch is cypress and the rocks are sandstone boulders. We ordered these products from a local landscaping supply store. Most will have these types of products available.
We have just left the grass we already had – I didn’t feel like it was worth spending the money on buying new grass. I’m not sure what variety it is – it’s not the greatest, but hey, it’s green so good enough. We’ve used Seasol to really help green it up and also on the plants to get them growing quickly.
Tip: A thick layer of mulch on your garden bed will help prevent weeds from popping up.
Fence painted in Taubmans ‘Colorbond Night Sky’
Westringia, Agave Cameron blue and Tussock grass
We have so many different plant varieties (in all honesty maybe a few too many - we could have narrowed it down more), but it certainly makes for an interesting looking garden. My partner trawled Pinterest for hours looking for Australian-coastal garden inspiration. He researched into some of the names of the plants and then set out to find those plants. Most were purchased from local nurseries and Bunnings. Some we bought as seedlings from online plant stores. We then repotted them into slightly larger pots so that when it came time to planting, we’d have a few more established plants to make the garden look fuller.
We planted this in January, and the growth we’ve had has been phenomenal. There are particular star performers in the garden that have grown like crazy. The Licorice plants, Myoporum parvifolium, Westringias and curry plants have all been fast growers.
Tip: Give your licorice plant plenty of space to move – it gets big and will grow over the top of other plants. We have to give ours a regular trim.
Curry plants in the foreground
‘Licorice plant’ and ‘Grass tree’
Desert star and Pratia pedunculata / White and grey coloured stone mix
SIDE OF HOUSE
Our narrow side of house is our utility side – it’s not particularly pretty – we’ve got our living room air con vent, gas tanks and gas hot water system out there, along with our power box and fold-down washing line (not shown in this image). It was a fairly straight-forward fix, we painted this section of the fence and the brick wall in Taubmans ‘Crisp White’, and added a barn-style gate (our carpenter custom made this up for us). The concrete footpath was in pretty bad condition. We hired professional painters to prep the surface (cleaned it down with a gurney) and painted it in White Knight paving paint. You can tint in any colour we chose Taubmans ‘Thunder Paws’ – a lovely soft grey. Even though there’s a few craters in the concrete it does a great job at making it look a whole lot better.
We had a professional concrete cutter come out and take 20cm off the concrete footpath to give us more garden space. We also had the only tree on the side of the house removed as it was growing into the fence and had to be removed in order to put the new fence in. We replaced with a line of Heliconia ‘Hot Rio Nights’ and dichondra. We filled it in with small stones which we got from a local landscaping supply store. The overall look is so much fresher!
BEFORE
AFTER
Heliconia ‘Hot Rio Nights’ and dichondra line the side of the house
I’m so happy with how our garden has turned out. But there will be more to come. Once we rip up and replace the old driveway we’ll have yet another space to work with. Also we’ll be replacing the old tin shed with a beautiful SheShedz and either putting in a veggie garden behind it, or a secret firepit area. It seems there are a never-ending amount of jobs to be done but I’m really enjoying the process. I’m also keen to see what the garden will look like in 1 years time – I’m sure the growth will be even more amazing.
