Sculpting the Garden II

In my previous entry, I posted pictures from the first two days of the Easter Garden Sculpting Extravaganza (as it is now officially titled, headline style and all).  I'm a bit overwhelmed by the lack of greenery in the new garden beds, but the layout is pretty much finished (5 minutes before the parental units were due to be driven to the airport).

Here are the pictures of the last day and a half in chronological order:

My dad smoothing out the sand that the pavers will sit on for the seating area

One of the dogs (Sage this time, I think) walked through the finally level sand

Just as most of the pavers were laid, Pip walked through the very small unpaved area. Again.

Pip looking constructive

The finished beds

purdy shapes

'steps' up to the contemplative spot. I will be sticking my refurbished tipshop bench up there under a magnolia tree

view to the domain/eastern shore (and ugly garden shed) from the contemplative spot

"there's a wolf in my garden!"

And for my next task:

my poor rhubarb plants waiting to be split replanted in their new home

Sculpting the Garden: Easter Project

I've got the family down for a good holiday digathon. At Christmas I lured my family down to Tassie with offerings of turkey and homegrown vegies for a similar reason: cheap labour.

The task for Easter is to sculpt the side area of my backyard. It's been vegie garden beds with an uber functional aesthetic since I moved in (although it was originally all weeds apart from the rhubarb square in the corner). I don't want my garden just to be functional, as in purely for fruit and vegetable production. I also want a place to sit in, study, eat, enjoy. So I drew up a plan which has nooks for seating areas: one near the house for table and chairs, and one up the back where the rhubarb (and the best view to the north east) was for solitary contemplation.

Here are some photos from yesterday's construction efforts. I stupidly forgot to take a 'before' photo, but imagine a couple of large beds with overgrown leeks, silverbeet, weeds, strawberries, raspberry etc etc.

The head digger:


My uprooted raspberry cane, sitting in a bucket of water and liquid fertiliser:


The rhubarb patch. It needs to be totally uprooted


....and a view from the other direction:

bed removal:


And some photos from today:


Bunny, my sister's Jack Russell, is helping:


Will post updates tomorrow. This afternoon we laid out tiered beds and I dug up the rhubarb, placing them in buckets of water and liquid fertiliser before we plant them out as 'decorative functional' border plants along the new scalloped beds. I just forgot to take photos at the end of the day. I hope hope hope the rhubarb plants survive, because they've been spectacularly productive the last 18 months. I also hope my attempts to split the bigger ones go well. If anyone has any rhubarb hints, let me know.

Open Garden Scheme: Two Tasmanian Gardens

 Entrance to an open garden at Castle Forbes Bay, Tasmania

Last week my mum and aunt came to visit me in Tassie (from Sydney and London respectively), and we drove down the Channel to see a couple of open gardens that were open as part of the Australian Open Garden Scheme.

The first garden in Grove illustrated how non-flowering trees and shrubs can create amazing textures and colours in a subtle, yet exciting way.  Many of the trees were turning shades of reds and yellows, and there was a crazy mushroom growing near a stream-like pond.  Like many Tasmanian gardens, there were a couple of rows of fruit trees (apparently it used to be an orchard), and a beautiful hilly, native bush backdrop.

The guy who owns the garden had planted a memorial garden to his son with his wife, who sadly passed away just as it was being finished.  The memorial garden was populated by roses, and was a pleasingly symmetrical and formal space in the middle of the otherwise rather casually composed garden.

 Swoonworthy artist studio, Grove

The Castle Forbes Bay garden was more flower-based, although they had an impressively extensive treehouse.

The roses smelled amazing.  I'm not usually a rose fan, although I was tempted by these gorgeously scented specimens.

 A three-way grafted apple tree

 A greenhouse for vertically-grown tomatoes, capsicum and cucumbers

The husband was fuchsia-obsessed, and not only gave me propogation hints, but also cuttings of a number of his specimens.  It's amazing - I never knew there were so many varieties.

I've planted the fuchsia cuttings in individual pots after dipping them in rooting powder (you can also use honey), and I've placed the pots underneath a cheap mini-greenhouse so that they don't dry out.  I referred to the Gardenseeker website for help, which has a page on how to take Fuchsia Cuttings.

After the gardens we drove to Cygnet for lunch at the Red Velvet Lounge, which was the perfect Autumnal Sunday arvo treat.  We then continued on to Fleurtys at Birchs Bay, which has an extensive sculpture walk throughout the natural bush grounds.

In all, fantastically inspiring day.

Photo Credits: Thanks to Nola James (photographer extraordinaire) for supplying most of these photos.