December 16, 2008
· Filed under Garden · Tagged Front yard, natives
Stage 1 of the Australian Native front yard was to select local native plants from ‘The Native Plants of Adelaide’ book. Started removing lawn and planted out small seedlings from the Native Plants sale at the showgrounds. (May/June 2008)
Stage 2 was to select more local, native plants from the State Flora that we couldn’t find at the showgrounds and to plant them. (May/June 2008)
Stage 3 was (a bit out of order) to create the design and to lay out pathways. Hardy plants from Sarah’s were added to fill some spots and all the beds mulched. The bed by the driveway was weeded for the third time to hopefully eliminate the grass weeds. (December 2008)
Stage 4 will be to add more plants from the State Flora – grasses mostly. Add water feature and plant grasses around it, fill in gaps with Isolepis nodosa – SA knobbly club rush. (See State Flora or Adelaide City Council ).
Stage 5 will be to move the letter box over to the driveway side and to cover the pathways with gravel or sawdust. Also in stage 5 will be a reassessment after the first hot summer – some plants may have died and will need replacing and some gaps will need to be filled. Hopefully by this stage the plants from stage 1 and 2 will have grown to a size more closely resembling their full grown size. Perhaps some garden art, rocks or logs can be added at this stage for the wildlife.
Stage 6 may be a fence. If the plants at the front don’t grow into a hedge very well, a fence wall may be constructed.
Stage 7 will be the nature strip – removing the lawn and planting hardy things – perhaps repeated plantings of the SA Knobbly club rush or that rounded silvery thing with more ruby saltbush (enchylaena tomentosa).
Stage 8 will be to enjoy!
May 28, 2008
· Filed under Garden · Tagged acacia, favourites, Front yard, gardening
This one is my favourite so far in the front yard. I’m sure that once the muntries and ruby saltbush start producing fruit that will change.
Acacia myrtifolia
It should turn out to be a rounded shrub about 2m high with cream coloured ball-shaped flowers. I like the leaf shape.
sorry but the picture is not the right way up.
Kunzea pomifera (muntries) should be very tasty when they grow.
Kunzea
pomifera
May 13, 2008
· Filed under Garden · Tagged Front yard
We decided to plant out the front yard with natives. We went to the Australian Native Plant Sale at the Adelaide Showgrounds and to the State Flora nursery at Belair national park to get some native, edible and mostly South Australian plants to go with the existing huge tree which we think is a W.A. Eucalytus conferruminata (identified by the state flora people).
We have:
Edible
- Quandong
- Midyimberry
- Ruby Saltbush
- Kunzia Pomifera
- Curry Leaf
Flowers for attracting native birds
- Banksia ornata
- Correa
- Grevillea
- Acacia myrtifolia
- Acacia paradoxa
- Coastal Saltbush
- Tufted Bluebell
- Sticky Goodenia
So this is what the front yard looks like now, with all the baby plants, mulch, dirt and grass:
May 13, 2008
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged Back yard, Front yard, House, Original
So we finally got a house. It has everything that we wanted – enough bedrooms, entertaining space, a big yard (an 800 sqm block), a band room (a.k.a. garage), built ins and is close enough that we can still ride to our work places if we want to (20 mins to get to and from school whee!).
This is what the front yard looked like when we moved in:
