Well it's great to see the sun finally shining in Sydney! After a few weeks of cold weather and the past few days of terrible winds and rain I was finally able to get outside and play in the garden!
This time last year I was helping a friend do a little light landscaping to get his garden in order for spring and ready for a summer of outdoor entertaining! Having recently built a large extension on the back of his home, the size of the garden was somewhat reduced. It's now only about 6m deep to the back fence, but almost 12m in width! What we needed is something stylish that hugs the back fence and will create a great back-drop without breaking the bank!!!
As the back fence was old, but in good condition it was retained. New fences are soon the be added up each side. To tie all the fences together we sprayed them with a Dulux Weathershield paint in 'Charcoal Essence'. This created our back-drop.
We decided to make four panels out of small lengths of Merbau deck and use these as 'illuminated' panels. Outdoor halogen lights are fitted into the panels and light up the timber at night.
For the centrepiece we made a stone encrusted panel. Using cement sheet and creating a framework, we applied a slurry of off-white cement then hand-placed black pebbles in a random pattern.
Using treated pine as the edging for the garden beds, we painted it the same a the fences to tie the whole project together. Using timber and pebbles in this way creates an interesting feature and is very cost effective. A light has also been placed in the ground in front of the pebble panel and will illuminate a pot or fountain...or maybe a pot that is a fountain!
In the corner of the garden there was a beautiful old Tibouchina lepidota 'Alstonville'. This is a medium sized tree that was developed in Alstonville in northern New South Wales. It's a prefect specimen tree for smaller gardens and is covered in masses of beautiful purple blooms in autumn and right through winter. After flowering Tibouchina needs to be pruned to help produce flowers for the next season. This poor tree had been neglected for years (not by my friend....he only bought the property the year before...) and it had lots of dead wood and was quite straggly. I begged him to let me at it......nothing is better than taking to a tree with a branch saw and secateurs knowing that you will bring it back to life! Note the old fence on the right...almost ready to fall down!
And here we are 12 months later....amazing what a difference a year makes in a garden!
The Tibouchina is in full bloom and looks a million dollars. This is not the best photo I'm afraid but you can see that the garden has been planted with Cordelyne sp. 'Red Sensation' in front of the timber panels and between the timber panels a couple of always elegant Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem', the evergreen Magnolia.
As you can see, a pot was chose as the centre-piece and is planted with a classic Cycad.
So with minimal materials and a little imagination you can transform a boring back fence into a garden in a couple of weekends! Go crazy with the paint spray gun, get creative with cement- slurry and pebbles or put your carpentry skills to the test creating timber panel screens.
Get a couple of friends over to help you .....and get gardening!
This time last year I was helping a friend do a little light landscaping to get his garden in order for spring and ready for a summer of outdoor entertaining! Having recently built a large extension on the back of his home, the size of the garden was somewhat reduced. It's now only about 6m deep to the back fence, but almost 12m in width! What we needed is something stylish that hugs the back fence and will create a great back-drop without breaking the bank!!!
We decided to make four panels out of small lengths of Merbau deck and use these as 'illuminated' panels. Outdoor halogen lights are fitted into the panels and light up the timber at night.
For the centrepiece we made a stone encrusted panel. Using cement sheet and creating a framework, we applied a slurry of off-white cement then hand-placed black pebbles in a random pattern.
Using treated pine as the edging for the garden beds, we painted it the same a the fences to tie the whole project together. Using timber and pebbles in this way creates an interesting feature and is very cost effective. A light has also been placed in the ground in front of the pebble panel and will illuminate a pot or fountain...or maybe a pot that is a fountain!
In the corner of the garden there was a beautiful old Tibouchina lepidota 'Alstonville'. This is a medium sized tree that was developed in Alstonville in northern New South Wales. It's a prefect specimen tree for smaller gardens and is covered in masses of beautiful purple blooms in autumn and right through winter. After flowering Tibouchina needs to be pruned to help produce flowers for the next season. This poor tree had been neglected for years (not by my friend....he only bought the property the year before...) and it had lots of dead wood and was quite straggly. I begged him to let me at it......nothing is better than taking to a tree with a branch saw and secateurs knowing that you will bring it back to life! Note the old fence on the right...almost ready to fall down!
And here we are 12 months later....amazing what a difference a year makes in a garden!
The Tibouchina is in full bloom and looks a million dollars. This is not the best photo I'm afraid but you can see that the garden has been planted with Cordelyne sp. 'Red Sensation' in front of the timber panels and between the timber panels a couple of always elegant Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem', the evergreen Magnolia.
As you can see, a pot was chose as the centre-piece and is planted with a classic Cycad.
So with minimal materials and a little imagination you can transform a boring back fence into a garden in a couple of weekends! Go crazy with the paint spray gun, get creative with cement- slurry and pebbles or put your carpentry skills to the test creating timber panel screens.
Get a couple of friends over to help you .....and get gardening!
