Category: Design

Barbie's garden Design Do it yourself Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous Perenniels

Before and After

I have been watching the growth of my garden and, with the gentle prodding from our friends, I had to do this post to showcase the tremendous change that happened in my small part of the world in the short 6 months since I started my whirlwind, one-woman landscaping exploit. I will do each part separate: I have divided the garden into front, veggie patch (along the side), the fruit tree area (back east section) and the back garden (the entertainment area).

The Front Garden

BEFORE:

Remember the front area with the huge lavender bushes that took over the whole bed? They also hid the dry river bed that I so lovingly created…for no one to see! The grass was dry and patchy. I loved my garden like this….. funny how we grow as gardeners! These pictures were taken right in the beginning of our blog in January.

[one_half]Remember my huge lavender bushes?[/one_half]

[one_half_last]My pride and joy, but outgrew their place[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Already starting to look tatty and woody[/one_half]

[one_half_last]The protea bush and the patchy lawn[/one_half_last]

THE ACTION:

The action starts in earnest round about April – it all began with the Leopard Trees then the redesigning begins……

[one_half]The hard work starts ….[/one_half]

[one_half_last]The lavenders are a memory now[/one_half_last]

[one_half]My rose patch at the end of June[/one_half]

[one_half_last]The new grass patch in June this year[/one_half_last]

AFTER:

These photos were taken this week, so this is how my garden is looking like NOW!

[one_half]Its all looking so green and healthy[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Tall corn flowers are temporary as gap filler[/one_half_last]

[one_half]My rose patch is thick and bursting with health![/one_half]

[one_half_last]Can’t wait for the roses to bloom[/one_half_last]

[one_half]I love how lush and full it all is![/one_half]

[one_half_last]The fuchsia is also happy and well mulched![/one_half_last]

I am really pleased that all the love and care you give to your garden, it gives it right back! The mulching and feeding and watering. It is all so rewarding.

Wait until you see the before and after photos of the back garden – you will not believe it is the same garden! Well, I’ll leave that for tomorrow’s post!

Unfortunately, my roses are still shy, so I will have to wait some more before I do a rose post!

Happy gardening to you all xxx

Let’s all send our love to Christine who misses her home and animals and her garden and her gardening buddies!! Send her home safe on angels wings xxx

Tags Design, flowers, garden, gardening, grasses, mulch, plants, roses, trees

Christine's garden Design Gardening Trees

For the Birds …

Barbie, this post is especially for you to show you two new additions to the Brazilian Pepper in the back garden. Remember you commented last week that you’d hang things from the tree? Well I took that to heart and then I found this cute bird nectar feeder at the nursery and decided my birdies that wake me at 5 am every morning might make a bit less noise if they had something to drink back there 🙂

Then I also moved the green “bird house” to the back because they never use it in the front. I don’t know why they don’t – it is still full of all the bird seed I originally put in it. Possibly because Dexter is always in the front garden? Or maybe they just didn’t like its position? We’ll see if they use it now. It would be splendid if they do!

Hope you approve 🙂
What else should I hang in the tree?

Monday morning update – Just spotted a bird drinking from the feeder! Yay!

Happy Gardening
xxx

Tags bird bath, bird nest, birds

Christine's garden Design Gardening Home page features Perenniels

Garden Bloggers Foliage Day

Post author By Christine
Post date September 25, 2011
11 Comments on Garden Bloggers Foliage Day

Another post I’m late with – I’m joining Christina of Creating my own garden of the Hesperides in her new monthly Garden Bloggers Foliage Day which takes place on the 22nd of every month. As I also took part in Foliage Follow-up on the 15th, I found it a bit difficult to do another post about foliage so soon after, without being totally repetitive. That is, until I had the bright idea of showing my current favourite foliage combinations for this post.

Let me preface this post by reminding all that I am a very new gardener and am learning by reading, observation, trial and error. These combinations I am showing here are my own experimentation where I am playing around with colour, texture and form. They work for me … right now. Perhaps I will look back in a year and cringe, perhaps not, time will tell.

I have a few books I have found most beneficial when considering plant combinations and that have changed the way I garden. Two in particular … the first is “Foliage” by Nancy Ondra which I bought on the recommendation of Cathy & Steve of Our Garden Journal. The book opened my eyes to what can be accomplished in the garden without ever considering the flowering potential of a plant. I love this way of gardening as it creates a garden which always looks wonderful, regardless of the season. The second book, which I am absorbed in right now, is “Designing with Grasses” by Neil Lucas. I love ornamental grasses and am on a hunt for a few that will add more interest in my garden. I’m off to buy Miscanthus sinesis “Variegatum” next week. I can’t wait to add this to my garden and have the perfect place for it.

For today, these are my current favourite combinations (Click images to enlarge)

[one_half]Festuca Glauca, Acorus and Lamium[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Festuca Scoparia and Duranta[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Chondropetalum tectorum and Nandina[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Pittosporum eugenioides & Dietes[/one_half_last]

[one_half]A mix of foliage I love[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Iris, Acorus gramineus and Cat~~nip~~ , i mean fur[/one_half_last]

These are just a few select combinations I’ve been working on very recently. Im really loving the combination of photo 4 – the Pittosporum eugenioides ‘Variegata’ with the tall strappy Dietes in front of it and the Delphiniums peeping through … I can stare at it all day. I think the lovely bark of the tree right next to it all enhances the scene of course.

I have a long way to go and right now its all about finding the right plants – sometimes it means waiting for the plant to become available or driving way out of town to a specialist nursery to get it … but its so worth while when it all works.

Happy Gardening
xxx

Tags foliage, foliage follow up, garden bloggers foliage day

Barbie's garden Design Do it yourself Gardening Miscellaneous Trees

Apple Espalier

My next project is to learn how to do an Espalier Tree. I bought 2 apple trees last week and I have an ugly vibracrete wall I want to hide, and this will be perfect!!

The term espalier refers to the way fruit trees are trained to grow against a wall. It makes the tree easier to prune and the fruit easier to pick. This decorative method was often used traditional walled kitchen gardens and is perfectly suited to growing fruit in the smaller garden.

Here is what inspired me!

And here are my two “Golden Delicious” apple trees -bought straight from the Elgin Valley where all our best Cape apples come from! Amongst these two trees you will see a Hanepoot Grape vine and some ground cover for the stepping wood. I’ll blog about that over the weekend.

But first, I have to learn how to make an Espalier….. now lets Google ….

Tags apple tree, espalier, espalier apple tree, golden delicious apple tree, how to make an espalier

Christine's garden Design Gardening Home page features Perenniels

All about Change – the Azalea bed, then and now

Post author By Christine
Post date September 4, 2011
39 Comments on All about Change – the Azalea bed, then and now

If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies. ~ Author Unknown

I’ve long hung on to the overgrown trees I inherited in my garden, believing that excessive cutting back or pruning would change things radically. I was wary of changing things too much. Mostly, I was wary of losing my fiercely guarded privacy. You see, I’m a very private person, reclusive some will tell you. And mostly, I liked it that way.

And then I started this blog, and suddenly, things were a bit less private. Strangers were “looking” over my walls and into my garden. It actually felt quite nice. Some of those strangers have become gardening buddies and I look forward to their virtual visits to my garden and mine to theirs. Then it dawned on me … perhaps cutting back a tree or two to let in some more light was not such a bad thing after all. Maybe just prune back a little … and so we did. And guess what? Nothing terrible happened. In fact, the sun peeped through and it made both the plants and me smile a bit. Perhaps time to prune back a bit more? Let more light in? Why not?

Get the tree feller in, see what he says. He said two trees HAD to go or they would cause problems with the foundations of my house within the next two years. Oh dear … more loss of privacy? He chopped them down. Then he cut back the others. Hard. Quite a shock to my system. It’s taken quite a while for me to get used to all the light (and seeing some neighbour roofs). But I’m still here, nothing bad happened and … now I like it! I can see the mountain – I have a view! And I see the sun and the sun sees my plants and they seem to be smiling back with their lovely blooms.

Today I’d like to share with you the jungle I was hiding in and how I have transformed this area which I call the “Azalea Bed” over the last three years …

Before – no light, no sun, just overgrown trees

After – Now in September 2011

More “Before and Afters”

[one_half]Before – Dexter as a puppy[/one_half]

[one_half_last]The same area (and Dexter) today[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Another “before” with baby Dex[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Today Lilies & Azaleas grow here[/one_half_last]

My “brag book” – the way it looks today

(click to enlarge)
[one_half]The way it looks today[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Can you see the Mountain?[/one_half_last]

[one_third]Azaleas and Lilies[/one_third]

[one_third]Looking to the mountain[/one_third]

[one_third_last]Looking from the other view[/one_third_last]

The last photograph shows the bed from the other side (with the mountain behind me). There is of course still work to be done in the front of the bed and once the Tulips have died down in the bed opposite the Lilies & Azaleas I will be planting perennials in there (not doing the Tulips again next year).

I should probably have waited to show this when all the Lilies are blooming and when the Prunus is covered in blossoms … but I’ll just have to show you how it looks then again … it will be another whole new look. I can’t wait!

Happy Gardening
xxx

Tags azaleas, before and after, liliums, nandina, nandina pygmaea, trees, tulips

Barbie's garden Design Do it yourself Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

Patchwork Patio design

Hi Chris, I thought about what you said on coming to sit on your patio to get a feel of it. I had this Patchwork Patio idea in my head but did not actually know what it was going to look like. I did my research on the tiles and pebble prices and found everything at Cape Garden Centre. The prices were the best by far and got everything – I mean everything – under R900.00. I even got all the tiles and stones and plants in my Fiat Uno. I was worried about my suspension but she managed all the way home. But before the great trek to the Garden Centre, I marked out the area to see the actual layout and my clever hubby took a snapshot of it and designed it quickly for me in Photoshop!! This was the breakthrough I needed.

Check out this clever movie on the design layout of my Patchwork Patio ….

And here are the photo’s of the actual work done to get it looking like this. I am so pleased with it! It literally took me two days to do this from start to finish. I have also been lucky with the weather. My back area is really beginning to look like a real garden….. I hope you enjoy this as much as I have ….. What have you been doing in your garden?

[one_half][/one_half]