Melissa's Garden
Melissa's Garden
Melissa joined the classes with 2 main objectives – to get the garden looking good and easy to maintain with her time constraints. And she harboured a secret passion we discovered along the way… bees!
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This yard had two distinctive characteristics – flat and steep! There were awkward level changes and angles throughout.
Melissa’s biggest challenge with her garden was that it wasn’t established at all, with poor rocky clay soil, steep slopes and nothing planted.
Melissa needed a low maintenance, neat garden that grew hedges quickly.
All of these things needed to be addressed. But to make sure it wasn’t just functional, the design also needed to look good.
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The first solution was to plant a screening hedge to break the overbearing height and separate the back yard into distinct spaces.
She focused on soil health to create beautiful lawns for the children to play on.
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Steep slopes are often neglected – they’re sometimes just too hard to fix. Melissa has left them as they are for the moment and will probably plant up later with native flaxes and bush.
But the new hedge already creates a boundary enclosure around the lawn area and hides the shed.
Neighbours also noticed an huge improvement in the fruit and veg yield! The honey was used to make soaps and salves - or a real treat to eat too!
Adding steps to access the back slopes will invite you to travel from the lawn to discover the native bush framing the garden and the beehives.
By applying what she learnt on the course, Melissa has done a really great job, bringing a well laid out and beautiful garden to a really difficult site.
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BEFORE: Unusable slopes, busy and wild.
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AFTER: Lighting adds a warm ambiance and a lush lawn - a beautiful sight!
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BEFORE: Steep slopes leading into a house without proper drainage will have the risk of house damage.
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AFTER: A lush lawn always brings bliss for bare feet!
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DURING: A new deck underway will connect different levels and provide a sunny seating area.
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AFTER: Deck done in just one month! The well planned plank layout in different directions avoids an exaggerated l-o-n-g patio.
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DURING: Slopes cleared, new screen hedging in, grey gravel will add interest to the design.
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DURING: Slopes cleared, new screen hedging in, grey gravel will add interest to the design.
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AFTER: Hives in the native reserve improved yield on their fruit and veg.
I found the group discussions and practical focus on what we wanted to do with our own gardens the most valuable. Great that the material was adapted to help with our issues – flat vs. steep garden design challenges. Doing the “field trips” were a great add in option too
— Melissa.
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