Burners' Backyards: Veggies, Gardening, Landscape & Design

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
Was the natural ground a slope from the back fence to the grassy area? A la the side fence? If so you have done a mighty fine job. Hard to imagine you did this with a bucket and spade.
 

Minlak

custom titis
Was the natural ground a slope from the back fence to the grassy area? A la the side fence? If so you have done a mighty fine job. Hard to imagine you did this with a bucket and spade.
Yeah pretty much where you can see red dirt up to the grass was the slope before - plenty of room for a container now :)
 

Elbo

pesky scooter kids git off ma lawn
Has anyone built a pump track in their backyard? I'm thinking about building one for kids and incorporating it into the paths around the veggie garden in the middle of my backyard. Looking for inspiration if anyone has pics.
 

cokeonspecialtwodollars

Fartes of Portingale
Has anyone built a pump track in their backyard? I'm thinking about building one for kids and incorporating it into the paths around the veggie garden in the middle of my backyard. Looking for inspiration if anyone has pics.
I have, pics here

Still not planted out but the design is here
 

Elbo

pesky scooter kids git off ma lawn
I have, pics here

Still not planted out but the design is here
Nice! Love it. What size area is taken up by a track like that? Can't quite read the scale on your plan.
 

cammas

Seamstress
Phase two of the front has begun today, eldest boy on the digger doing the cut ins and levelling. My lovely :rolleyes: neighbour had to move his car this morning just so he could see what we were up to, pulls car out and drives round the corner and parks it. Hopefully when we are finished he doesn’t OD the weed killer again and poison everything.
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cammas

Seamstress
So the digger finished up this morning would’ve been finished yesterday except for the fan belt breaking, owner knocked $100 off the hire down to $300 and then we slipped the eldest boy some money to cover his time and diesel. Now I need to get the bloke over to the retaining wall, going to probably go with sandstone coloured stackstone or brown timber look concrete sleepers. There is a lot of soil left over but by the time we back fill the retaining wall and fill the garden beds then whatever is left over will go into the backyard so I can level out the grass area and build another couple of retaining walls but only 400mm, I hope.
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Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
So the digger finished up this morning would’ve been finished yesterday except for the fan belt breaking, owner knocked $100 off the hire down to $300 and then we slipped the eldest boy some money to cover his time and diesel. Now I need to get the bloke over to the retaining wall, going to probably go with sandstone coloured stackstone or brown timber look concrete sleepers. There is a lot of soil left over but by the time we back fill the retaining wall and fill the garden beds then whatever is left over will go into the backyard so I can level out the grass area and build another couple of retaining walls but only 400mm, I hope.
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Amazing job.
 

Elbo

pesky scooter kids git off ma lawn
@cammas, good work getting the digger in. I've been 'preparing' an area for new paving in my backyard for a year now. I have a problem with DIY; often think it's a failure on my part to call someone else in to do a job. Just sent off an enquiry to a landscaping company to come in and level it and pave it for me. Time is precious and I don't have a lot with 2 young kids now. Don't have a lot of money either, but can always make more of that :D
 

cammas

Seamstress
@cammas, good work getting the digger in. I've been 'preparing' an area for new paving in my backyard for a year now. I have a problem with DIY; often think it's a failure on my part to call someone else in to do a job. Just sent off an enquiry to a landscaping company to come in and level it and pave it for me. Time is precious and I don't have a lot with 2 young kids now. Don't have a lot of money either, but can always make more of that :D
I hate parting with money and I’m a bit of control freak but time is money, I was lucky enough for my son to be able do the job and have access to the digger bonus it was cheap. The next part is going to be costly but we are going to do it once, the concrete sleepers are twice the price but won’t rot and hopefully look better, as we are looking at the stone finish, second from the top to match the rest of the garden.

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Labcanary

One potato, two potato, click
This morning I finally got around to weeding in the front yard. The kids helped me (eldest was too sick for school but not sick enough to watch TV all day), though the toddler's idea of help was throwing mulch everywhere. It doesn't look half bad now. Needs fresh mulch though.
I'll try to get some photos of my front yard on a sunny day. I'm going for a hodge podge of mostly natives with a couple of non-native plants.
I probably planted too much in the space, but I'm also allowing for inevitable plant death.

In the backyard I've reduced the number of garden beds for now, as I've been struggling to keep on top of maintaining a veggie patch. That will change in time, and with the micro climate of my yard changing with the addition of shade trees.

I tried to grow cucumbers last summer in a spot that was too shaded, though some Warrigal greens have self sown and are doing very well in the same spot.

I look forward to my Elder trees flowering in spring so I can make some cordial.
 
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Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
My vege garden is very quiet at the moment with the cold weather but the ginger is almost ready to kick off again. I will use one piece to seed the rest and hopefully have enough on hand until that starts growing again. 6 plants left and the last two were over 2kg yield. I should move the mandarin tree out and put a lemon in given we use those more often. The apples are great and the excess keeps the horses happy and the oranges were as good as they get. With any luck next year the avocado will have sex with another and we can get little green rocks. Not that I eat them or even that they are hard to get hold of at the moment. This is still a project I am very happy to have done.
 

cammas

Seamstress
Time for an update on the front yard, my sons mate was a bust for doing the retaining wall as he’s currently flat out with work as he’s behind due to the rain. So we called in a company for a quote and he looked and said why don’t you go with a rock wall instead of sleepers, cheaper and minimal risk as you don’t have to bore holes down. So we took his advice and they went to town, it a company called Earthcon Group and they did it in two days with 3 blokes, my neighbour across the road even come and got a card, as he liked the work they did.
So they did a wall along the front fence line and when they got to my neighbours they did a right angle down to the road so their dirt and driveway doesn’t wash away, bonus is the bogans won’t be able to drive on my side, so a score for us.
Anyway here’s some pics, next section is the top part which should be a little easier there’s a small retaining wall to be done to support a garden bed, then brick frontage on them which will be the same as the current round garden bed in the middle, a front fence and plants. I have just put some salt creek rock down for now but that will end up getting down toppings of the same rock, the gravel turns purple after all the dust washes off which will look good with some pig faces we are going to plant in the gaps of the rocks.

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rockmoose

his flabber is totally gastered
Time for an update on the front yard, my sons mate was a bust for doing the retaining wall as he’s currently flat out with work as he’s behind due to the rain. So we called in a company for a quote and he looked and said why don’t you go with a rock wall instead of sleepers, cheaper and minimal risk as you don’t have to bore holes down. So we took his advice and they went to town, it a company called Earthcon Group and they did it in two days with 3 blokes, my neighbour across the road even come and got a card, as he liked the work they did.
So they did a wall along the front fence line and when they got to my neighbours they did a right angle down to the road so their dirt and driveway doesn’t wash away, bonus is the bogans won’t be able to drive on my side, so a score for us.
Anyway here’s some pics, next section is the top part which should be a little easier there’s a small retaining wall to be done to support a garden bed, then brick frontage on them which will be the same as the current round garden bed in the middle, a front fence and plants. I have just put some salt creek rock down for now but that will end up getting down toppings of the same rock, the gravel turns purple after all the dust washes off which will look good with some pig faces we are going to plant in the gaps of the rocks.

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Nicely laid.
 
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