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Gardening / Landscaping

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ya mum!
In the absence of a gardening / landscaping thread (at least from the searches I did) I thought I'd start one.

So some serious effort yesterday. Laid new turf. For anyone considering it, I'd say do it yourself if you're physically able. It's tough and dirty work but you're in control of gaps and attention to detail. Not to mention the immense satisfaction once it's done.

Anyway, I thought I'd share and get people's opinions and thoughts on what else we can do. We're at a state we'd happily call "complete" now.

When we moved in, we knew the grass they had wouldn't last with having a giant dog - and it didn't. It was a very fine grass with no runners (surface or root) and no ability to self repair. I think it was a fescue (sp?) variety. This is how it looked almost exactly 12 months ago to the day.

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And this is how it looked up until yesterday... Thanks Harley! :D lol
We have managed to keep the trees nicely trimmed at least.

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Now we ended up going with Kikuyu for the new turf as it's the toughest grass there is while still being a medium softness. Surface and root runners, self repairing and quite aggressively growing, which equals good weed tolerance. It's also a more "emerald" green than buffalo varieties (which tend to be quite a dark green) and maintains its colour all year round (where buffalo browns off). It's exceptionally hard wearing and doesn't need a lot of watering once it's established. The effort with Kikuyu is mowing and edging - basically keeping it under control. Effort which I'd rather, than effort to keep it nice.

So it now looks like this...

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We added the fence and concrete slab back in September so we have a "dog yard" for Harley when we're not home. We're also going to move our table and chairs as well as the BBQs to the concrete slab area, as it comes directly off the kitchen. The covered alfresco area will get a new outdoor couch setting with coffee table and some clear, automatic cafe blinds before next winter. We may put a shade sail over the concrete slab but there's already shade thanks to the fast growing boundary trees.

I have thought we could do with some ground cover plants and/or flowers around the bottoms of the trees rather than just bark as it looks quite "clinical" as it is. But then, would that spoil the simple, neat look we have? I have thought about a hanging garden for things like chillis and spices on the side of the house too, but would that look over the top?

Like I said, we're at a point we're happily calling "complete" for now but like modifying cars, there's never really such a thing as complete when it comes to house and garden stuff.

A final question... Is a whipper snipper the best option for really neat lawn edges?
 
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kiwicon

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Kikuyu runners are a pain in the arse if you let them run, so mow more than less to keep it under control, and yes a whipper snipper would be the best solution since you have edged the lawns already...

You could put some small grasses etc under your hedge but like you said, it might clutter up the 'clean look' perhaps dump some more bark in there.. or maybe even some pine chip to add a bit of colour.. white pebbles would give it a nice clean modern look also..

hanging garden? as in hanging baskets or the house guttering idea? - again if it is in the right place it could blend in nicely...
 
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ya mum!
Yeah our first thought was to top up the bark or do something with the ground cover similar. The rock idea is a good one!

Hanging as in mounted on the wall...
 

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then yip the marley guttering hanging garden would be the go.. if painted grey (or even left white) it would be almost un-noticeable.. whereas painted pink would stand out like dogs balls...

copper looking guttering would look the goods too...

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ya mum!
Nice man! Thanks for the recommends. :D
 

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I really want to mow my lawn now.
Thanks guys.....

Question: What did you use to edge it? I use the old manual stick thing with a wheel, but since I have about 4 times the lawn as raj, it takes FOREVER
And I edge it every second time I mow...
 

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Definitely keep on top of the edging coz that will run rampant if you don't. And on that subject, a proper lawn edger will work better than the old whipper snipper, particularly because you can set the depth of the cut much greater and you end up with a far neater cut.

I have a 4hp Honda powered ex contractor's edger I picked up for a good price over ten years ago and it is still running like a champ. I would suggest steering clear of those cheap Chinese made jobbies that Bunnings et al sell. You want something with good power and a strong frame.

A vertical garden on the side of the house for chillies etc would go well. Out of interest, what direction does the wall face ? You can get the pre-made plastic gear but to me it looks a bit meh. I made one out of used pallets, coated with decking oil for a succulent garden on the wall which had much more character than the off the shelf items.

BTW, what are those boundary trees ? Look like pittosporum ?

We moved into a new place (for us bit it is 35 yrs old) a few months ago. We have been consumed with interior work including 200+m2 of flooring, painting etc but now spring is here it is time to show some love to the outdoors.

I am having a ball of a time sorting out the retic atm.

All the wiring was disconnected at the controller. Once connected, no valves operate.

Majority of the risers and spray heads have been removed with water just bubbling up from under ground when you manually operate the valves. Cleared out one to put a bigger riser on and found a bunch of cut wires. Ahah....that's why the valves aren't working off the controller !

A whole bunch of pipes with spade cuts. Fix a cut and find the next leak lol.

I think I've got two stations running right now but there are three others that seem a bit more problematic.

And this is spread over a 834 m2 block.....oh the joy.

At least all the valves are together in one location right next to the mains which was easier than hunting them down.

But on a brighter note, I have got the outdoor theatre running with 42 inch wall mounted plasma and surround sound. Not the best pics and that shitty green table has been 86'd for a gumtree special timber hall table with drawers for all the necessities. Still need to tidy up the wiring etc but the garage wall is single brick so need some more thought there.

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kiwicon

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Yeah they do look like pittosporum ... those things are going to get massive :) and agree with a motorised edge trimmer.. I was visualizing the old manual one with the cutting wheel, where you stand on it and push lol...
 

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Question: What did you use to edge it? I use the old manual stick thing with a wheel, but since I have about 4 times the lawn as raj, it takes FOREVER
And I edge it every second time I mow...

My dad had one of those in the 70's lol.

This is our old place. There is no way in hell I would have used one of those there. Way too much edging.

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stockies

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Yeah the edger was my dads, I've been looking at Bunnings at a powered one, but the decent ones are like $500 - for that price I'll just continue to push my manual one and swear and sweat.
 
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