Hello! Although its now Autumn down under, I've been feeling distinctly 'Springy' lately and have been getting back into gardening. I have been a fan of the guerilla gardening movement for quite a while, and lately since I've been watching Guerilla Gardeners I've been inspired to get out there and get planting!
First up, it was the little nature strip garden on the footpath outside my house. I wish I had taken a before photo of this - imagine a big pile of dirt and leaves, rocks roughly strewn around the edges and the long strappy plants dotted randomly among it, and you're getting close to the untidy mess that this garden was before. I pulled everything out, dug the whole thing over, rebuilt the rock edging, added some new top soil, planted some colourful marigolds and replanted the strappy plants along the back. Its very bright, but if you can't be bright in the garden where can you? The little pot was recycled, it holds pink Sweet Williams and sits on top of an old tree stump I uncovered.
Not a very expensive makeover at all: 5x tall yellow marigolds, 5x short orange marigolds, 1x pink sweet william (all $2.20 each), recycled pot (free), bag of soil and bag of mulch ($3 and $5)
TOTAL = $32.20 for colourful nature strip
I also have a little planter near my letterbox and a pot beside of my front door which needed new plants, so they got a makeover too.
New conifer for beside the door ($12), 4x Sweet Williams ($2.20 each), 2x grey trailing plant beside planter (free from council), leftover mulch from front garden
TOTAL = $20.80 to revamp the front verandah
Next on the list was my roof terrace off the bedroom. I needed some pots up there to block off access to the top of the roof of the deck downstairs as a certain bulldog thinks its hilarious to run around and around on the roof where mama can't catch him. It's super hot and sunny up there so I thought it was the perfect place for a little herb garden:
The horrible 'before' shot - please ignore my washing!
After - much nicer!
Strawberries, rosemary, basil and mint
Little strawberries are already on the way!I have also ordered an outdoor rug for up there from ebay, so I will post more 'after' pics of the terrace once it arrives.
3x Mint and 3x basil ($4 each), 3x strawberries and 3x rosemary ($5 each), 3x long planters ($20 each), 3x smaller square pots (I already had these so I'm not counting them in the total), 3x timber deck tiles ($20 each), 2x bags of soil and 1x bag of premium soil mix ($3 and $5), left over mulch from front garden
TOTAL = $185 for terrace transformation
Then, purely by chance, I was at the local Town Hall to do some paperwork and there were dozens of plants out the front. So I asked at the counter what the plants were for, and apparently our council gives plants away a couple of times a year and today was the day for free plants! So I grabbed 12 little bushes with purple flowers, and the 2 grey trailing plants now beside my letterbox.
Council garden beds - now with bushes!Over the weekend I got right into the spirit of guerilla gardening and planted the 12 bushes in 2 little council gardens either side of a set of bollards near my house. The garden beds were dry and dusty with a smattering of straggly plants and rocks, so again I dug them over, added some of my left over soil, planted the new bushes in between the existing plants and mulched with my left over mulch.
12x bushes ($0), left over soil and mulch
TOTAL = literally priceless! :)
Gardening is so rewarding, don't you think?
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Thanks to Ana of Rearranged Design for the lovely tour of our home :) Its an honour to be featured on such a great blog!
And a big hello to fellow Aussies Style is Eternal and Red Door Read - I'm always on the look out for blogs from down under, I've started a collection over there on the right so leave me a comment if you are a fellow Aussie too!
READING: The Happy Home, new blog from the web editor of my favourite magazine Real Living
INSPIRING: Eddie Ross does it again, this time with a fab carver chair makeover. There are some similar chairs on ebay at the moment, I wonder if I can pull off Eddie's look...?
LOVING: Vanilla Green Tea from Aldi, I drink it non stop
COMING UP: The post on our interactive art is still on the way, plus stay tuned as there will be an announcement regarding a new Delaks Etsy store soon!
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