Jacaranda Seedlings Now Ready For Sale

It has been just over a year since we decided to collect seeds from our Jacaranda tree in our back garden. 

And we are proud to say that they have absolutely thrived and grown into really strong healthy seedlings.

Now is the time to sell these before they get too big for their pots!  

So we are putting them up on Gumtree (an onlinebuy/sell site) to see what interest we get...

There are about 25 seedlings varying between 30-50cm high,  if we can sell them all then we shall collect some more seeds to grow on for the next year.

This is the photo of the Jacaranda tree the seeds originally came from: 

We like to call this tree the 'star' of our garden because it is so stunning in full flower!

Local Native Garden Inspiration

I took these photos of a local subdivision near our house.  Which I had always driven past but never ventured into to explore.

What I stumbled on was a good example of the style of garden we are creating at our place.  

With the bark mulch, gravel and rocks forming the hardscape and the native plants complementing them with their form, colours and textures.  

In fact many of these plants in these photos already have a home in our front garden!

Curving gravel path invites you to venture into the garden

Love this rock garden area

This was part of a playground - using railway sleepers and blocks nestled among the plants 

In the afternoon the metal sides of the bridge cast an attractive pattern on the ground

This has given us some great inspiration for our garden and we can't wait until our plants are as big as these ones! Check out our last garden blog post here to see where we are at in the garden...

Our next step is to put a design together for our back garden - so look out for a concept plan soon...

Mulching the Garden

As the end of the Christmas holidays drew near we did a last push to get the mulch on the front garden.

I feel like we have been talking about doing this all year and just never got the chance to do it together.  But with Summer in full swing and in the grip of some scorching days over 40 degrees we just couldn't put it off any longer.

In total we got 6 scoops of mulch (which is about 2m3) which was two trips to the garden centre to load up the ute.  It was soo hot that we didn't waste anytime getting it on the garden.

All up it cost us just under $200 with a little bit left over to put somewhere else...

(Apologies for the 3 blurry photos -  I think it was so bright the photos haves blown out a bit!  But at least it's a record of progress).

Now the plants have a nice blanket of mulch to keep the moisture in the soil where it's needed most!

Transforming the car-port to a patio area

We haven't been using the carport at our house because it's actually too short to fit the Ute in and be able to close the gates behind it.

When mum was over on holiday she suggested we could utilise the space by turning it into an outdoor dining area - because it is the one spot on the property with a view to the hills.

With this in mind I jumped at the chance to buy a second hand 8-piece outdoor dining set from one of my work mates who no longer needed theirs.  A bargain at $100!

All it needed was a quick hose down and scrub and it looks like new again.  Once in place it was off to Bunnings to buy 3m roll of bamboo to screen off the road a bit better and create some privacy - the bamboo won't last forever but at $16 a roll it doesn't matter!

Here is the result...

With mosquitoes being a bit of a pain this year I've got 3 citronella candles on the table and some citronella spirals for on the ground.  

Next step: invite some people over and start using it!

Planting the front garden

With the grass sprayed off and summer quickly approaching it was time to get these native plants out of their pots and into the ground.  

We used some potting-mix to mix in with the sand to add some organic matter to it and a good soaking of Seasol to add liquid fertiliser and aid water absorption.

There's still a  few more plants to go in yet, and then we will put in a good topping of bark mulch. This will help retain as much moisture as possible in the soil over the hot summer months.  

Tackling The Front Garden

We sprayed our front yard grass a few weeks ago to kill all the weeds and grass.  We want to mulch the entire front garden and verge with pine bark mulch so this was the first step.

Once we could see what was under all that mass of grass Sarah took to the task of re-levelling the area in preparation for a good 75-100mm of bark to fit.  The existing limestone edging was half submerged in sand so it was a bit of an effort to dig it out and spread it out.

We bought a rake at Bunnings for $25, and so-far it has been an invaluable investment! And a good work out!

Digging out the edging

Halfway there..

Done!

You can see the gate in the rear corner still needs a lick of paint and a fix up and this is on our 'to do' list!

Extra soil from the garden bed was used to re-pot our Jacaranda seedlings into individual plastic pots in preparation for on-selling.  We put some water crystals in the pots with them to help them get through the summer.

We also tidied-up the garden bed at the front of the shed.  The bricks had some old crumbling render on them so we chipped that off to make it look a little nicer.  We are thinking of painting this side of the shed (well...maybe the whole shed) and as its the first thing you see when you drive in the gate we would like it to make a bit of a statement.  

The initial thoughts are painting it a dark indigo blue, growing a climbing plant such as Hardenbergia comptoniana and filling it up with red Kangaoo Paws.  The foliage would look quite striking against a blue background.

Either that or just paint it a darker green...but we would quite like to do something a bit different!

The last few months...

The last few months have past in a blur.  But we have managed to do some odd jobs around the property (well mainly Jeremy has been doing them) whilst Sarah has been helping out at a group renovation project learning some new skills.

The front and back fences were the next item on our list of things to freshen up.  We think we can probably get at least another year out of them (we would love to put Colourbond in but we have decided to invest in aircon first before we do this).

So we have chosen a dark green paint  and it's made a big difference!  definitely recommend this for anyone else that has cement board fencing.  We painted the top capping too so the back yard fence now blends into the trees and bushes and is no longer a bright grey eyesore.

We also cut the top of the front gate straight as it used to have a spiky top making it look like a palisade.  It looks heaps better now.  We didn't spend more than $40 on paint but have increased our street appeal immensely!

An update on our Jacaranda seedlings - they are flourishing and we have moved them into larger pots.  It also seems a great time of year to grow lettuces!

Sarah has started buying some native plants to start planting out in the garden.  From left to right is Anigoznthus "Amber Velvet" (Kangaroo paw), Banksia blechnifolia, Leptospermum sericeum (Esperance Tea Tree), Adenanthos sericeum (Albany Woollybush), Eremophila glabra "Murchison Magic", Eremophila nivea "Spring Mist", and Boronia crenulata "Pink Passion".

We have already planted out a red Grevillea olivacea to provide some screening to the back neighbours and fence and it appears to have settled in well with new growth appearing already. Behind it you can see our compost bin which we bought around Christmas time. We reckon our volume of kerbside rubbish has at least halved since having it - and it's generating nutritious compost for our plants!

Jacaranda Seedlings

It only took 2 weeks for the jacaranda seedlings to start popping through the soil.

Now they have grown leaves and are getting bigger by the day!

I would say we had about a 70% success rate of germination.  Not too bad for our first go.

Once they get big enough we will transplant them into pots and give them a year to mature before probably selling them on.  There are some local markets which we have our eye on to try selling some of our 'stuff' - its like a car-boot market but there's often plants there too.

Renovations of the house have been put on hold for the time being as Sarah focuses on starting up her landscape design business.  It has been a busy month but lots of progress has been made.  Its amazing what you can achieve when you leave your mind flexible enough to take on new ideas and see new opportunities!

1000 page views...and a bbq!

It is exciting to say that our blog has officially had 1000 page views! Woohoo, our first milestone for this blog has been achieved.

To celebrate this - and to welcome our first cooler morning in a very long time - we decided to get the BBQ out of the shed, give it a tidy up, and have our first Backyard BBQ Brunch!

Who needs to drive to a picnic spot when we have it all in our yard?!

While we were sitting out in the shade of the trees we started talking about how our two Jacaranda seedlings are in dire need of transplanting and we started wondering how easy would it be to grow a Jacaranda from seed?

So while  Jeremy cleaned up the BBQ after brunch, and fixed it up a bit with some new screws in the legs...

I hit the internet to see how to propagate from seed.  Turns out it's meant to be really simple - you soak them in water for 12-24hr and then plant into moist soil and let them do their thing.

So yep, you guessed it, - we are off to Bunnings this afternoon to get some more potting mix and we are going to try growing some on.  Another project to keep us entertained!

Exploring Zanthorrea Nursery

Last weekend we decided to fill in the afternoon by exploring Zanthorrea Nursery.  Here are some photos from our visit.

They have a great display garden, this area was called the Outback Garden.  The lizard sculpture by the sign was a great addition, and the red flowering shrub - Beaufortia aestiva - is something we are thinking of putting in our garden.

This chalk board at the entrance was pretty eye-catching.  Eremophila will definitely be on our list for a hardy ground cover.

We both loved the sculptural quality of this Eucalyptus macrocarpa and its silvery grey foliage.

..and how's this for a creative way to use a broken pot!

Inspiration for the front garden

 

I haven't played on Photoshop for a long time but it is fun to see how the skills come flooding back!  I've put together this mood board for the garden, the colours, textures and shapes of the flowers and foliage of Australian native species are very striking and will create a lot of visual interest! 

 

 

This illustration shows a combination of water wise native species such as:

 

Banksia blechnifolia

 

Grevillea preissii

 

Angiozanthus "Bush Ranger"

 

Eremophilia glabra

 

Banksia praemorsa "Lemon Lantern"

 

Beaufortia aestiva

 

 

I'm excited; Let me know what you think!
Hint: You can click on the image to make it bigger and see the detail better

Our street tree which is located in the middle of the verge is a beautiful red-gum tree.  Its great to have a mature tree out the front and it provides great shade to the master bedroom and the driveway in the afternoon.

 



Measuring Up the Front Garden





 The front of the house is in desperate need of some street appeal.  Currently we have a lot of rough grass, stumps from the conifers we have already removed and a few succulent plants that are planted against the house.

 

The front garden will be the next project once the weather cools down a bit - we want any plants we plant to have a chance of survival!

 

40 degrees forecast for today, so anything we plant has to withstand this type of extreme heat.

 

 

So to get ready we have measured up the front yard and Sarah has drawn up a to-scale plan. 

 

 

She is now in the process of designing a layout and choosing suitable plants.  The main focus is that the garden is self-sufficient and sustainable.  We will only use water wise plants out here and focus on hardy native plants to achieve this.  Water is a precious resource and creating a water wise garden will save us money in the long run. 

 

Watch this space for the Concept Plan!

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Garden Gnome

For our family Christmas dinner we had $10 Secret Santa gifts. 

Sarah got a garden gnome (thanks dad)! It is now taking pride of place at the front door, a little kitsch but still something to smile at when we get home!

He now stands in Jeremy’s pot plants; the chilli plant (on the left) has been supplying us with red hot chilli's all summer.  Since re-potting these in proper potting mix the plants have taken off and are looking really healthy.

We use the self-watering pots that you can buy from Bunnings.  They store excess water at the base of the pot which helps prevent them drying out too quickly in this heat. 

44 degrees today!

New Fence

The new colorbond fence has gone in between us and the neighbours - it looks awesome, much better than the fibre-board one.  The colour matches well with the shutters and exterior of the house so we are happy.

The next thing to consider is what to do with the front fence.  Either matching colorbond? Or re-vamp the existing wooden palings? Price will probably make the final decision!

Aussie Plants

What should we plant in the garden? Where do we start?

A good idea when thinking of landscaping a property is to take a walk around the local neighbourhood and see what plants are doing well in other peoples gardens and on the roadsides and parks.  Native plants are often the best as they are usually well suited to the environmental conditions compared to some exotic species.

Look for ones that are doing well without irrigation lines – for low maintenance, and also look for plants that provide visual interest through form, textures, and flowers. 

With a tight budget for landscaping it is a best bet to get some structure in the garden first before getting focused too much on little detailed areas. So at the moment I am looking at plants for their functionality - shade, hedging, and ‘bulky’ fillers. 

On my first exploration walk in the neighbourhood I came across these two plants:

 

At this stage I am not 100% sure on their names, I know the first is a Banksia but the second will require some more research -  If anyone can help please leave me a comment in the box below.

How awesome are those flowers?!
 

The Star of the Garden

Currently in full bloom, the Jacaranda tree located in the back corner is one of the existing plants in the garden which we are going to keep. 

 Jacarandas are a popular amenity tree, you often see them used as street trees and shade trees. Their bright purple flowers are very eye catching and when planted on mass such as this avenue we found on one of our walks in the city - they can be quite spectacular.

We are lucky to have such a mature tree on site which has such good form. It has also dropped its seeds and we now have two 1m high seedlings growing beside the shed which we will transplant to other parts of the property. Perhaps out the front where the old conifers used to be.

The only 'plan' so far is to use the Jacaranda tree as an anchor for Jeremy's slackline. Don't know what a slackline is? Here's a photo of Jeremy on his first attempt to slackline on last years Christmas present from Sarah. It's pretty much a webbing strap tensioned between two anchor points, on which you try and balance and walk across. It's really good to build up your core strength and agility for rock climbing.

The goal is to not need a stick for balance! But the first go is always the hardest, even just to stand up is very challenging; and it's pretty hilarious when you get the wobbles!

So the Jacaranda will be put to use soon and we will also recycle an old queen mattress which will be used as a drop pad. Slacklining will be our new summer evening exercise!

Brilliant Bougainvillea

This Bougainvillea is growing out the back of my work. It caught my eye the other day as it is in full display. The photo didn't quite capture that the new bracts (the leaves which look like the petals) surrounding the small yellow flowers were a mix of bright red and hot pink! Such a bright and showy plant, I think this could look good growing along one of our fences to add a bit of colour to the garden. 

They do have thorns and are quite vigorous growing plants so it would need to be kept in check with a prune every now and then. The great news is that they are very drought tolerant and hardy - that means it might actually have potential to survive in our garden's climate!

Amazing Roses

My sister and I were out on one of our early morning walks when we came across the most stunning rose garden I have ever seen.  In pride and place was this standard rose absolutely laden with flowers. 

What an amazing centre piece for a garden, I don't think I've ever seen one quite like this before!