🖼️
The project:
We wanted to create a garden that was both visually appealing and highly practical. Because the kitchen looks directly onto this space, it was important that the area complemented the home's design while also serving a purpose. The project links the outdoor entertaining area to the laundry, creating a more cohesive flow through the backyard and providing additional space for entertaining. To increase privacy from the neighbouring pool, we positioned raised garden beds outside the kitchen window and built a custom frame to support climbing vines. The result is a productive edible garden that enhances privacy, softens the outlook, and transforms an otherwise underutilised side yard into an attractive feature of the home.
- Materials:
0079540 - Garden Shed
4770255 - Agg Pipe
Drainage Aggregate
3120266 - Tap Timer
3130205 - Soaker Hose
3120622 - Polypipe
0092395 - Garden Arch
1080305 - Sleeper H joiners
8032702 - H4 Sleepers
Timber Stain - bought a tub of the cheapest oil based timber stain and been slapping it on everything.
Garden bed edging
Builders plastic
Gardener 30m Retractable hose
Probably more… hard to list it all out!
- Tools:
Spade (really rate the fiskars one, no longer online.. bought it 15 years ago, something about the angles just make it easy to dig.)
Mattock
Wheel barrow -
https://www.bunnings.com.au/sherlock-100l-steel-tray-wide-wheel-wheelbarrow_p3360550
Impact Driver
Hammer
String Line
Paint brush
- Step 1:
My wife asked me to put a little herb garden outside, and me being me said no… lets make this a big deal! 😂
So i pulled out the tape measure and pencil and paper and started sketching up some ideas. (forgot to take pics)
We wanted garden beds with access all around them.
- Step 2:
The ground outside is very solid clay that does not drain, so i dug a 16 meter trench and ran an agg line to start addressing that issue.
- Step 3:
As the property dropped substantially toward the back boundary, I decided to put a small retaining wall in to bring the the levels up marginally, around 150mm. (No pics of this either)
- Step 4:
Next up I had to mark out the location of the 4 raised planter boxes and excavate (hand dig) out the area to get everything to the right levels.
I then made 1 height of timber rectangle and attached the upright posts and set this at the correct height and poured the concrete footings for each bed for longevity.
Once the concrete was cured, I then built the rest of the boxes up to desired height.
- Step 5:
Next we stained all the boxes, lined the insides with black builders plastic
I decided to surprise my wife and use the trenches for the agg pipe to run a poly pipe to the boxes and plumb in an irrigation system. As she wants to keep changing what she plants, I decided to use a surface soaker hose that she can move around as things change. This is plumbed back to the rain water tank with a timer tap.
We filled the bottom 200 mm with drainage agg, followed by 100mm of cardboard, compostable foodscraps, twigs, and than filled the balance with a compost mulch and high quality garden soils.
we set the garden arch in place on the drainage agg, and filled up around the sides.
Pic in the process.
- Step 6:
Priorities of projects changed, but my wife couldn't wait to use the herb/vegie gardens so she got on and started planting.
Things sat still for a couple of months, until we added the line of teddy bear magnolias.
- Step 7:
Again the project fell down on the priority list until last weekend, with the deadline of visitors turning up this weekend along with the DIY comp ended, I got my running shoes on and got out in the rain! and started tidying things up.
I first built a small step to break the natural fall of the land, again using H4 sleepers, lined the back of the wall with builders plastic, drainage aggregate and tied another agg line into the existing aggs.
- Step 8:
It decided to rain and i had some weeds to remove and clay to move away, but I had 4 cubes of crushed quartz being delivered on my driveway, so i had to get tidying up!
- Step 9:
We then installed the garden bed edging in and put down geotech fabric to create a barrier between the clay and gravel, as well as act as a weed mat.
- Step 10:
We then spread out the gravel and tamped with my lawn leveler with a piece of MDF cable tied to the base of it.
I then added a rich black mulch around the base of the magnolias to help with the levels and contrast the crushed quartz.
I also planted the white african eyes (Moroccan Daisey's) inbetween the planter box and the step to soften the step.
Somewhere between Steps 6 & 7 I laid a slab and built my absco garden shed, to hold my mower, whipper snipper and all my gardening tools.
This now feels like you are walking at a winery, leading onto my other ongoing project (https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/343221/besser-retaining-wall-and-curved-bench-seat#latest)
