The landscaping of my gardens are always a work in progress… We have such a large block, that there is just so much ground to take care of! I’ve broken it down into areas and am working on them one by one, but that means there are other areas that look horrible until I can get to them. Another problem in Canberra is, there is only a small window of opportunity to work in the garden. In summer, it is much too hot (on average about 33 degrees celcius, up to 40 in the dead heat, with a dry burning sun), and much too cold in the Winter, with days sometimes only getting up to 5 degrees. Luckily this year though I have Sunday’s free from Soccer, so will hopefully be able to get out in the garden a lot more, even as it gets cooler.

A little while ago I talked about buying some big pots at Rodney’s 50% off sale and working on an area in the front yard. I finally got around to taking a photo today to show what I’ve done!

This was taken looking out towards our street. I already had the three smaller grey pots, which Harley had dug the contents out of numerous times already in the backyard, so they have been given a new, less disturbed home out the front. The darker, big grey pots are the ones I got from Rodney’s, for I think $35 each. Bargain! I’ve planted some native grass plants in each (Liriopes and Wild Iris’), and as a little surprise have also planted bulbs (jonquils and daffodils) in the corners, which will show a lovely pop of colour in a couple of months. The line of pots is sectioning off the outer-front part of the yard from the part where I park my car on the dirt driveway (which will hopefully be concreted one day).

Here is a picture of when we first started working on the front yard, a little over a year ago:

It’s funny because it actually looks so neat to me now, as the grass is nice and short and there’s no leaf litter… but talk about barren! How boring.

Since then, I have planted a circular garden to the right (will be planting bulbs in there soon for spring colour), which leads into the row of grey pots. This then turns a corner at the big tree, with 2 more white pots forming one wall to the main grassy area, which I have screened off using trellis and a long skinny garden bed. This used to have a row of English Box hedges, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) these were the wrong choice, they didn’t do well and most of them have now died. Now I have planted some Liriopes, some Wild Iris and climbing plants to cover the trellis, including Chinese Star Jasmine, which smells divine when flowering. I’m also planning on planting some more pops of colour with Snap Dragons and also some Pansies.

So hopefully when the trellis gets covered with the climbing plants, the little grassy area will be fairly enclosed and semi-private for lovely summer afternoons in the future =)

Of course on my 5 year plan is still to paint the house, replace the gutters and get the roof done, along with 50 or so other things!

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