New Beginnings

In January 2012, we bought this 1860's cottage in the Adelaide hills.  It is on 5 acres, split between bushland at the back, a paddock (about an acre), an old orchard and the garden areas immediately surrounding the house.

The house and garden were in need of some love, both being a bit overgrown and shabby.  We could see the potential though, and without hesitation, decided to move back to SA.  The house settled in June 2012 and we set to work immediately!

We could tell, walking around the garden, that at some point there had been some planning and forethought put into the garden, with plants like the 4 large oaks, birds of paradise, echiums, euphhorbias, and hundreds of beautiful bulbs and roses everywhere (just to name a few!).

 

One of the most beautiful parts of the property is the paddock to the right of the house, which has views towards Mt Lofty.  While you can't see the sunset from this point (it is further to the left), it does glow at the time of sunset and if there are clouds, is a beautiful place at that time of night.

The property also has this small stone cottage, situated about 50 metres from the main house.  From what we know, this is the house the original owners of the main house lived in while building the bigger cottage.  It is called 'Emmies Cottage' after the 6th daughter of the house's orignal owner, Ray Brodie.

As you can see, there was plenty of native trees and bushes around the house, which we knew we would need to deal with before the weather got hotter and bushfire season was upon us. 

In fact, the house was almost completely lost in all the growth and couldn't really be seen from the front fence!

So, one of our early jobs was to do some clearing, in order to feel a bit safer for summer.  This was the view immediately outside the back door - most of the plants are hawthorn bushes, blackberries and small fruit trees which had been left to grow wild.  In fact, you could barely walk through this section of the garden as it was so prickly and overgrown!

To the right of the house, we discovered a very old orchard, with apples, pears, cherries and some walnut trees.  Part of our job in clearing and cleaning up the yard was to prune back the fruit trees, and try to see which ones would be productive again.

This is one of Brent's early sketches, with a design for what the garden might become.  It is not drawn to scale but gives a good idea of the vision we have of what this garden could be and where we hope to head with the property.  We are sure it will evolve and change as we grow to understand the garden better, and get to know things like the climate, water availability, size and scope of the garden.  But let's hope we can rescue it a bit, and give this beautiful old house a garden that helps to celebrate it's history.

Time for a change...

After lots of work, we finally got to a point where we could sit outside and enjoy the garden.... the only problem being the slight slope towards the back of our house, which meant we had to prop up the end of our table.  So, lesson learnt, we made the decision to go ahead and pull up all the bricks, and start over. 

So, over a couple of weekends, all of the bricks were pulled up, and a couple of cubic metres were dropped in to the courtyard in order to get the yard as flat as possible.  It was a lot of work, but well worth the effort, and made the courtyard feel much more enjoyable to be in.

                                      

Once completed, the garden finally felt 'finished', it was just a matter of time for the private green hedge to fill in, and hide the side fences.  We also wanted to replace our outdoor table with a teak setting, but knew that could wait!

  

Below is the side garden looking to the left of the courtyard.  As you can see, the hedge has pretty much joined up, creating a 'walled-room' effect.  I really love the look of green layered against green, and now that the hard surfaces are covered, it felt like a beautiful oasis, especially on hot days when the garden would remain relatively cool with its own micro-climate.

 

In January 2012, we completed the courtyard by painting the back roller door a dark blue/grey, and installed reinforced mesh in-front, on which we grew a Crimson Glory Vine (Korean Grape).  We cut a door into the mesh for easy access to the rear laneway, and made sure the mesh could be removed without too much effort, should the yard need to be used as a carpark (not that we wanted to use it for that purpose!)

 

And, shortly after 'finishing' the garden, we made the decision to sell the house... And buy something with more space for a larger garden.  Our little boy Lachie, was 2 and a half at this time, and it felt right to return to Adelaide where we both grew up. Ironically, we weren't sad to leave the house at all, but definitely walked away from the garden and plants feeling quite sad!  It would've been great to be able to take them with us, especially as some of them had been with us from when we were first married back in 2003!

Finding more space for plants...

Whilst our backyard is very small, I have managed to find another piece of cement to pull up and replace with garden. Admittedly this position in the yard is not ideal for vegetables, its is better then nothing.

Trial and Error in plant selection (although there is more error than trial at the moment!)

I have included spring onions, artichokes, Garlic, spinach and even a fig tree. I know a fig tree is an interesting choice for such a small garden however I am keen to manage it quite closely.