What we've been doing

Is turning the front of our yard into a disaster zone. It's OK though. Usually things have to look worse before they look better, right?

Before

So what's the plan? We are turning that bare patch which doesn't grow grass no matter what into an extra parking space that goes along the front - see the black weed matting? That will be covered with crushed brick pebbles that were free (so long as we did the shoveling and carting of them out of one of As colleagues driveway). Yay. 

During

Between the black matting and the retaining wall (that you can't see in this picture) we're going to plant a row of Leucadendrons that will grow to a metre high and create a bit of a privacy screen so we can put in a little courtyard/deck just in front of the windows you can see on the left. On the road side of the screening plants we'll put in the Strelitzias (that A's mum gave us from her garden, that are still sitting in pots over a year later - opps) and maybe some Kangaroo Paw because I am in love with Kangaroo Paw at the moment!

Leucadendron - Devils Blush via Garden Express

Kangaroo Paw via dicktay200 on Flickr

Strelitzias by Gurney5 on Flickr

Apart from loving the colours of these plants, the leucadendrons are frost and drought tolerant, a must in Canberra. Strelitzias must be tough as despite serious neglect in their pots for the last year and a bit, they just keep on coming back and any plants that we grow, despite the best of our intentions, need to be survivors!  Kangaroo Paw can be difficult I'm told, but I plan on hunting down the gardeners at work for advice as we have the most amazing Kangaroo Paws in the gardens there.

In other news, chair progress is slow. I've pulled two apart and worked out how to fix up the sagginess but trying to choose a fabric is a nightmare! Will post some thoughts on that later.

Hope all is well!