- Lawn area and exiting raised garden bed
sprayed out.
- Raised garden bed increased in width and
lined with boulders.
- Whole area mulched.
- Raised garden bed planted out.
- Small trial patch of Microlaena lawn
planted.
- Lawn area sprayed out.
- Two soil mounds created.
- Whole area mulched.
- Mounds decorated with boulders and logs.
- Whole area planted out.
61-71 Yale Dve, Epping.
Hi Greg,
Just wanted to let you know of my initial
reaction tonight when I walked out onto the
patio and saw the pond.
"Oh wow"
It looks great. The brush fencing really sets
it off, but you've done a great job
of making it look natural - apart, of course, from the fountain in
the middle! But it
does make it sound like it is a gently murmuring stream.
Looking forward to many more reactions like
this, as the rest of the garden progresses
:)
Thanks
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This commercial premises is in a former weed
infested industrial area so weed suppression is of paramount
importance if this garden is to remain looking attractive.
A very thick layer of green waste mulch with a
thin topping of decorative mulch is the order of the day here. I
mulched out side the fence line as well to try keep weed growth as
far away as practical from the garden bed proper.
Given the stone ornamentation the garden
required a formal look with plants having foliage with strong
architectural characteristics. The front section of garden is about
70% local native and 30% Australian native. The rear garden bed is
100% local native.
I used Eucalytpus caesia or Silver
Princess which will look great among the stone ornmanents with its
silvery young bark, weeping habit and large pinky red flowers.
Beneath these are some of the ground cover
Banksias such as Banksia blechnifolia, Banksia repens
and Banksia petiolaris. The bold serrated foliage and
creeping stems will
The taller ornaments have a back drop of
Banksia praemorsa or Cut Leaf Banksia. The finely serrated foliage
and large burgundy and yellow candle like flowers will look
stunning.
The urns and planter boxes contain Banksia
coccinea or Waratah Banksia which has large leaves, an unusual
candelabra like growth habit and stubby crimson candle like
flowers.
Also scattered around the stone
ornaments are Orthrosanthus multiflorus or Blue Flag, Bulbine
bulbosa or Native Daffodil, Arthropodium strictum or
Chocolate Lily (alternative to New Zealand Rock Lily), Lomandra
longifolia 'Stanthorpe', Lomandra confertifolia
"Little Con" and Correa glabra or Rock Correa. The
beds are bordered with Patersonia occidentalis or Native
Iris.
This part of the garden was previously
established and weed growth through the beds was a major headache
for the proprietor.
With the addition of a nice thick layer of
mulch through the planted areas and the fence line, addition of the
vigorous native ground cover and lawn alternative Dichondra
repens and periodic spraying of the bare areas with Simazine
will greatly reduce unsightly weeds.
The addition of several Dodonaea viscosa or
Hop Bush will soften the backdrop and fit in nicely with the exotic
shrubs that have been previously planted here.
The black tinted mulch looks magic with the
grey edging blocks and ornaments.
The theme continues in this section except
that crushed terracotta has been used as the decorative mulch rather
than black tinted wood mulch. The red colour fits in nicely with the
pinkish edging blocks.
The following display garden beds were created
by other landscapers that clearly did not have a good understanding
of weed control.
They used the standard soil mixtures from the
landscape supply companies and left the soil bare. Several months
later the proprietors of John Stonemart were battling to keep on top
of the weed crops that continually pop up in that bare soil.
With a nice thick layer of mulch and a good
spray with simazine should see weed growth some what reduced. Not
only that the layer of decorative mulch (over the green waste mulch)
provides the garden beds with an immediate lift.
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This pond is double lined. The central section
is lined with rubber, to provide a guaranteed minimum water level.
The periphery, and under the rubber liner, is lined with bentonite
(clay) so that plants can planted directly in the ground, rather
than in pots, and thus allow for a much more natural look.
The pond pump is in a pit behind the boulders
at the back and water cascades out from beneath the top most boulder
at the centre.
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Front before: 
Front
after: 
Back
before: 
Back
after: 
Lawn
area just sprayed to eliminate Cape Weed seedlings and encourage
remnant native grass to take over and form a lawn. A
small amount of rubbish is still to be removed at the time the
photograph was taken.
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Pace Farm
The garden beds at this premises were very
degraded in no small part due to the builders plastic that had been
laid beneath the mulch. This had
prevented rainfall from penetrating evenly into the soil, prevented
air circulation, prevented worm activity and generally soured the
soil. Not surprisingly most of the shrubs had died and those left
alive were very straggly and untidy. 
Most of the builders
plastic was removed, most of the native shrubs
were gut down to their stumps and will be allowed to re-generate
while the exotic shrubs cut down and poisoned. Dodonaea
viscosa was planted along the rear of the garden beds,
interspersed with a few Solanum laciniatum for vibrant
splashes of colour. The front of the garden beds were planted with
beautiful leafy Goodenia ovata.
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