Garden Makeover

Hiya,
In March when my back was much better I went over to my son and his girlfriends place and did their garden for them.
They wanted some sunshine, less spiders and some herbs for cooking as they are both chefs.

Weeds everywhere, even this large pot straight ahead had a large broad leaf privet in it. Notorious environmental weed. Out it came to give us a pot for the herbs. The lemon tree to the right of it got a weeding and mulching and overhead shrubs pruned back to let light in.

With Crepe myrtles pushing through the pavers in several places. We cut them off and boiled the kettle and poured over them. Too dangerous to paint with Glyphosate as it may go back thru the roots to the big tree which is gorgeous and far too good to lose. Very dark under the loquat and pittosporum undulatum -which is growing in next doors plus Ivy pulling the fence down in several places. So we set about cutting these back to let the light in and retrieve the compost bin which was right in up the back and lost from sight.

Another view of the previous canopy problem. The clothes line was in almost complete darkness.

Shrubs let to grow out of control, all woody and blocking the paths. With a courtyard garden space these were never going to work unless kept under control.

At the other end was a dark corner covered with the neighbours pittosporum undulatum, another environmental bird shit tree weed. We hacked it back and the plant underneath. It will grow back and then suit the new light conditions.

See the fence is bad. The pandorea jasminoides vine was getting out of control and brought spiders much to close to the house for C to bear!

And so there you have it, a dark disaster. My son and I set about to work while C made us a cake and lunch. Nice having Chef children.

Several hours and much food later it looked like this.

Compost bin in position, all spiders removed. Pots freshened up and planted with Rosemary, sage, parsley, chives, garlic, oregano and more all ready to go in the increased sunshine.

Under the clothes line is now free from suckers and spiders and can be used. Still lots of Ivy on the fence, you should see over the fence. Make you tremble with fear!

Pavers and steps weeded and cleaned up.

You can see the sunshine coming in here. It will never be full of sunshine as it is a South slope but herbs should do well.

Some rather nice plants were found amongst the overgrowth. These were cleaned up and brought forth. i took home some cuttings from a few really nice ones.

You can the inside of the pittosporum, we had to cut a lot off, big mounds were left in the front yard.

And this is of the lemon tree as in the first photo.

Well my back was rather sore again for a few days but it was worth it. To see the looks on their faces and to know that I am helping them to get involved with their garden. Makes me feel great.

Dayla