Back Garden Transformation Part 1

This is a picture of my back garden when I first moved into my

 Little Home in 2013. The gardens were all quite overgrown

 and The Sorbus and Silver Birch trees were magnificent!

 I have since pruned all the trees along the side fence line and

 put up a 6 foot high cream fence because all that was there

 was chicken wire and star pickets and of cause very over

grown bottle brush trees. It was lovely and green but quite a

 bit of a mess. My Studio now sits at the right of this pic

 about where that terracotta pot is....

This is where my story starts for this post, the Sorbus Tree

 to the left of the picture died last year out of the blue and is

 a mystery to the tree arborist and myself as to why?

I guess it's time was up!

 The back of my house was very open and bare after the

 tree was removed so I have since had a patio/pergola

 built all across the back of the house....

That brings us to this point, the tree was removed and wood

 chipped and is now in the side garden helping in weed

 prevention. The roots were ground up but left was a mound

 of dirt at the edge of the pavers that was added to when

the patio was built.....

The whole section of yard was a tad higher than the pavers

 and needed to be levelled before I could start my project....

I got to spend lots of time on it in the recent school

holidays. The bobcat guy sure knew his stuff and set to work

 removing the mound and levelling the yard for me....

It was a shame to scape off the nice green grass.....

Like all projects there is usually a hidden disaster lurking, the

sewerage inspection hole was covered in dirt and the guy

broke the top off it with his blade. The good news is I now

know where it is because at one stage we thought it may have

 been under my studio. The council could not find it when

they were approving the DA for my patio so I am relieved

 that it is not buried under The studio....

A quick fix  and a new pipe soon got that sorted. We will cut

 it down to the correct height after the gardens are completed...

A blank canvas ready for me to create....

Very dusty and dry looking here but not for long I hope....

First job was a trip to the steel centre up the road for a post

for my birdhouse. My neighbours Max and Ruby were having

 a ramp installed at their place at the same time and the guy

 doing it kindly loaned me his post hole digger. it sure made

 my job of digging a 60cm post hole a lot easier for sure....

My first experience with Quick Set Concrete,

 that stuff is the best!

It dried in no time at all and was really easy to work with....

The best news is the post is level and solid as a rock....

And Yay! my birdhouse standing tall on it's new post....

 It will get a lick of paint eventually....

It was then repeat times 2 for some gate posts to swing one

of my vintage gates from, a bit of marking out with 

bricks because there will eventually be a path under the gate....

Dig, concrete and repeat until both posts were in....

Now the fun part! or so I thought until it took me over 2 hours

 to drill six holes in the metal posts for the bolts for the gate

 hinges. I mean to say really really really! I even went and

 purchased a brand new drill bit that would not penetrate

 the posts. I conceded defeat and called my cousin Murray

 to finish off the last two because by then I wanted to lay

 down in the dirt and cry. He told me the bit was blunt from

 me trying to get it through and because I had drilled and

drilled so much the metal had heated up and became

undrillable!!!! What the!!!!

Finally he finished off the last two holes and I bolted

the hinge components to the post...

I had contemplated using a couple of old sleepers for posts

 but was worried they would be hard to drill through....

Ha Ha silly me should have went with those!

It was all worth it at the end of the afternoon when I stood

back and saw my gate hanging proudly on it's new post.

 It was a great sense of achievement...

I am using a piece of chain for the latch because I am not in

any hurry to drill any more holes for a latch at this point in

 time plus I like the rustic look of the chain.....

I am sure you are wondering where this vision is heading,

well bear with me and I will show you....

This is to the right hand side of my back patio, I made this

 path to my Studio out of old rocks last year but it is a bit of

 a trip hazard and so I have decided to include this area

into my current transformation project...

This means I had to dig out my roses and a Daphne shrub...

The path proved to be a bit harder to break up than I had

 planned. I did make it to last after all so off to the hire

 place up the road to hire a jack hammer I went....

And didn't I have lots of fun with it, surprisingly it was very

easy to operate and made short work of the job....

Whilst Jacky Mister and I were dumping the rubble at the

dump I scored this little treasure at the recovery shop for $5!

 I like finding old relics and this one came home with me....

Another blank canvas ready to go...

This is how it now looks with the Kwik Kerb garden edging in,

 I will be brick paving in there to make a nice level path and

will extend it farther down the yard to the clothes line one day.

I am also adding 2 metre wide garden beds along the edge of the

back pavers with a gap for another brick path under the gate....

We got this far on the first day and I quickly planted 2 of the

 roses back on one side of the path, I didn't want to leave them

out of the ground for too long because we were having some

 very unseasonal hot weather....

On the second day the guy had his daughter helping him so he

 got the rest finished off a lot quicker than when he was on his

 own. He said I was testing him with the corners because he

usually just does long straight or curved lines. I told him that

 I was confident that he was up for the challenge but I must

 admit I was a bit worried as to how he was going at

 times, it all turned out not too bad in the end....

The plan was to follow the curved edge of

the pavers and I think it looks great.....

This is how it looks now, I will be planting

 hedging plants on either side of the gate to grow into a living

 fence. The straight section will be a brick path and

 I am planting a tree and shrubs in the round bed....

I think it looks like a giant flower, a friend

 commented that it looks like an angel....

It all looks a bit patchy here because some parts

 were dry and some were just laid....

Next job was to remove the turf from inside the round bed...

The Kwik Kerb guy had cut it all with his turf cutter and I

 am really grateful because it saved me a lot of work and I

 got to put it back down to cover the bare ground as well....

Eventually it will fill back in....

I planted the other 2 roses on the other side of my gate, they

look a bit distressed so I will fertilise and prune them so

hopefully they will produce some nice new

shoots soon....fingers crossed they make it!

They were looking so nice before I dug them out....

At this stage this is where I am up to, I have a tree being

delivered from the Nursery and a friend has dropped me in

 some bags of horse manure to dig into the gardens before

I start planting them....

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my project and will

show you some more progress after some planting today...

Until next time, If you can't be stitching

I hope you are having fun like me....

Kate