Gardening gurus.....
- Thread starter Doggy
- Start date
sockman
Likes Bikes and Dirt
As Jon said, lay newspaper on the soil once you clear/clean out the garden beds. Straw is good to use as a cover... helps keep soil moist, lots of worms... healthy soil! Not sure about plant choice though... Can you get a shot of the backyard from, say the back door?
binner
Hath shat hymself
mr landscaper
Doggy, You seem to like succulents so keep on that track. The good thing is they are water tolerant and need hardly no watering at all/ The washingtonia is the only plant to be carefull of as thet grow huge, but are very slow growing.
There are some really cool varigated draceana's out now, they are a little expensive. Yucca's come in varigated form too now so look at those,try to find yucca filamentosa (cool varigated leaf with color).You have an agave there too I see try looking for agave varigated (can you tell I love varigated forms?
) ummm look for agave americana I think it is...really cool leaf!!..Just don't over do it with succulents but you must find room for an Aloe plant, they will fit right in with the rest of the succulents and yr missus will love going out to the garden slicing off a bit of aloe and rubbing it on yr back full of zits....
watch out for that black shit ...DO NOT USE!! go the newspaper and rocks...if you go with the whole desert/succulent theme then stone will finish it, but dont' go getting quartz stone, get something with color and also buy a few med size rocks for stacking and placing between the plants.
As for the dog.....hmmmmm give to your neighbour.that way you can still play and see the dog but its out of your yard.....
Ohhh and go find a wholesale nursery, bust in there and tell em you are an owner/builder and ask for wholesale/trade price list. The secret is go in like you know it and know a few plant names and you will pretty much get trade price every time
hope this helps
Binner
Doggy, You seem to like succulents so keep on that track. The good thing is they are water tolerant and need hardly no watering at all/ The washingtonia is the only plant to be carefull of as thet grow huge, but are very slow growing.
There are some really cool varigated draceana's out now, they are a little expensive. Yucca's come in varigated form too now so look at those,try to find yucca filamentosa (cool varigated leaf with color).You have an agave there too I see try looking for agave varigated (can you tell I love varigated forms?
) ummm look for agave americana I think it is...really cool leaf!!..Just don't over do it with succulents but you must find room for an Aloe plant, they will fit right in with the rest of the succulents and yr missus will love going out to the garden slicing off a bit of aloe and rubbing it on yr back full of zits....watch out for that black shit ...DO NOT USE!! go the newspaper and rocks...if you go with the whole desert/succulent theme then stone will finish it, but dont' go getting quartz stone, get something with color and also buy a few med size rocks for stacking and placing between the plants.
As for the dog.....hmmmmm give to your neighbour.that way you can still play and see the dog but its out of your yard.....
Ohhh and go find a wholesale nursery, bust in there and tell em you are an owner/builder and ask for wholesale/trade price list. The secret is go in like you know it and know a few plant names and you will pretty much get trade price every time
hope this helps
Binner
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Doggy
Inconceivable!
First of all, the garden killing canine. What is he/she?and how old. Think of plants the dog can go under or wont want to go through.
By far the best bed cover if you are covering it is what turns up in your driveway every third day. The local rag. No ,not the skank down the street but good old fashioned newspaper. It's free and plentiful. Chuck 40-50mm of 20mm pebbles over the top or leaf mulch and away you go. Plastic will cause fungal diseases due to lack of ventilation.
Google postrate Grevilleas as they are pretty tough, some spiky to discourage Rover and they dont need much water. Pigs faces are another good ground cover that spreads quickly and is available in lots of colours. Pretty much all stading grevilleas will flower nearly year round in warmer areas, lots of birds.
I have a pretty similar situation except for the dog, mine is too lazy to do anything. I have put in grevilleas to form a screen around my pool. Inside of the screen we are planning a running creek feature with bridge to gain access to pool ladder.
The secret is many beers while sitting in a deck chair overlooking the worksite. Picture the finished site in your mind....ah fuck it, more beer
The dog in question is a 2.5 y.o female staffy/kelpie cross soon to be joined by another female staffy puppy so the plants dont have to be too high off the ground. She has the long hedge down the driveway as an underplant runway...sleeps under there all day with the cat.Doggy, You seem to like succulents so keep on that track. The good thing is they are water tolerant and need hardly no watering at all/ The washingtonia is the only plant to be carefull of as thet grow huge, but are very slow growing.
There are some really cool varigated draceana's out now, they are a little expensive. Yucca's come in varigated form too now so look at those,try to find yucca filamentosa (cool varigated leaf with color).You have an agave there too I see try looking for agave varigated (can you tell I love varigated forms?
watch out for that black shit ...DO NOT USE!! go the newspaper and rocks...if you go with the whole desert/succulent theme then stone will finish it, but dont' go getting quartz stone, get something with color and also buy a few med size rocks for stacking and placing between the plants.
As for the dog.....hmmmmm give to your neighbour.that way you can still play and see the dog but its out of your yard.....
Ohhh and go find a wholesale nursery, bust in there and tell em you are an owner/builder and ask for wholesale/trade price list. The secret is go in like you know it and know a few plant names and you will pretty much get trade price every time
hope this helps
Binner
Im pretty sure I will be able to manage the sitting there with a beer contemplating and procrastinating as well though I must start collecting my local rags, I get about 3 or 4 of the f**kers a week dammit.
As for the wholesale nursery I shall have to rock up in my beat up hilux and steel caps on the way home from work and demand that I know what I am talking about
Nerf Herder
Wheel size expert
Stalker Alert !!
Can't go past a Frangipani ... but I don't think you can get evergreen ones ?? which is kinda useless for your climate and a pain in the arse picking up the leaves ... especially if near a pool.
I reckon a rock feature with succulents would be cool ... instead of all those peddles ... I personally hate peddles ... especially with lawn near by ... the kids fling the puppies all over the place and its farking annoying having to pick 'em up before mowing.
Tequila!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Thats an Agave I think.
Anyways, get a weedmat under the pebbles/rocks (might have been mentioned) there are two types.
One is like a micro fibre cloth, thin and lets heaps of water through, good for garden beds. Stops weeds coming through the rocks, especially some of those tough broad leaf fuckers.
The other is a plastic 'weave' as such. its tougher and lets through water, just not as much as the aforementioned type of weedmat. This is the tougher of the two, and is ideal to lay under rocks, as it is very hard to rip.
The two mentioned are cheap as chips (bro) but can be unnecessary. Weeds need light, above all to grow, so when laying down rocks (if your doing this, or mulch, bark etc), lay down newspaper quiet thickly, this stop all previous weeds that were in your garden.
brisneyland
Likes Dirt
PEDALS.I d'know Nerf, I like peddles a lot! Its not easy to ride without them
Can anyone recommend me some ground cover kinda plants... Must survive without being watered every day, deal with full sun and what looks like fairly shitty soil.
Doggy
Inconceivable!
Nope, Crestmead.....are you perhaps what my dog has been barking at. Sure Im good looking enough to stalk but surely there are others
binner
Hath shat hymself
see ment
second thoughts....cement the whole backyard and put everything in pots
you keep telling yourself that doggy, and you will be goodlooking (in yr own eyes)Nope, Crestmead.....are you perhaps what my dog has been barking at. Sure Im good looking enough to stalk but surely there are others
second thoughts....cement the whole backyard and put everything in pots
Doggy
Inconceivable!
Telling myself this is the only way I get through my day
Cementing the entire back yard would solve my drainage issues but would probably bankrupt me and put me on the bad side of my wife and sister....hmmm, perhaps the latter out weighs the former