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The Hopefulls yard
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Author:  The Hopefulls [ Mon Feb 01, 2010 7:52 pm ]
Post subject:  The Hopefulls yard
Hi All,

we are looking for suggestions on what to do with the rest of our backyard. Murray is wanting to put down artificial grass.:yuck:

As we live in Adelaide we do not have a water allowance for any lawn. (water restrictions)

I have suggested a pebble backyard :bat: As you can imagine that went down well.

We have a vegetable garden which i could probably extend, we have our aquaponics and we are into hydroponics (vegetables not the green leaf).

All suggestions are welcome.

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Author:  The Hopefulls [ Mon Feb 01, 2010 7:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
last one

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Author:  dufflight [ Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
Fruit trees with a full blanket of hay mulch over cardboard. You can cover to protect from the elements and they will not take a lot of water.
Author:  chillidude [ Wed Feb 03, 2010 4:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
I love my artificial grass around the pool - but geez it's expensive !
Author:  earthbound [ Wed Feb 03, 2010 6:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
Yeah, I would suggest fruit trees, cardboard and a thick layer of mulch. Here in W.A. there's a free service for tree pruning mulch http://mulchnet.com/index.php you can give them your address, then if there's a tree pruner in the area with a full load, and he doesn;t have any paid mulch orders to fill, they will drop the mulch off for nothing rather than having to drive to the dump.. (I should start a new thread)

They might have something similar in Adelaide..

Fruit trees will do well with just drippers at the tree..

Hey is that truck brake drum potbellies? With a truck exhaust for a chimney? Nice... :)
Author:  The Hopefulls [ Wed Feb 03, 2010 9:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
Yes it is the drum and stack pot belly. Works mighty fine, except we have been so dry for the last couple of years, we havent been able to use it. So we bought one of those gas heaters that you can put on the outdoor table. Doesnt have that wood fire effect though.
Author:  Tristrin [ Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
Another suggestion:
You could continue with the pavers right up to the garden edging and have a few large pots with fruit trees or ornamentals. A few large pots looks better than a clutter of small pots. Lilly Pilly's do well in pots, & I dont mean standards (balls on sticks :yuck: ). Two varieties that are great in pots are Syzygium Bush Christmas & Syzygium Australe Undercover which has a weeping habit but could be harder to find. Cordylines are also very popular for pots & usually do well. A shade sail over top can make an area look attractive as well as protect the plants if it is in a hot spot. I noticed a BBQ in one photo, so maybe an outdoor setting could be included. If that's not needed there, a bench seat looks great and is always useful. I wouldn't choose pebbles, they usually end up in areas where they're not wanted!
The main things to consider are; what you want to use the area for, your personal tastes and the climate.
Hope this helps & have fun :cheers:
Author:  The Hopefulls [ Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
We have spent the day tidying up just a little. Murray has built a new bed specially for spuds. We are going to line the side walls with plastic, use weed mat on the bottom and use a combination of straw and good soil. Shall see how it goes.

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Author:  Tristrin [ Mon Feb 08, 2010 9:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
The potato bed is looking good :thumb:
I think the area might be a bit bigger than i first thought; can be a bit hard to judge size in some photos.
Author:  The Hopefulls [ Sun Feb 14, 2010 5:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
Well we made the decision to go wicking. So we spent the day lining the bed with plastic and adding a drainage hole. We had a heap of maidenwell (hydroponic medium) left from when we changed our aquaponic beds from maidenwell to hydrotron. We thought that it would make for a great wick.

Next weekend we will get some good quality garden soil, mushroom compost and a few bags of sugar cane.

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Author:  Faye [ Sun Feb 14, 2010 5:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
Nice and neat Fiona and Murray, well done. You made it look easy.
Author:  earthbound [ Sun Feb 14, 2010 5:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
I'll be interested to see how this goes for you, I think we might still have some liner left from our big aquaponic system. :)
Author:  Food&Fish [ Sun Feb 14, 2010 6:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
Just a tip fill it with water just to see theres no leaks
And when you do the next one the gravel only needs to cover the center pipe
Author:  The Hopefulls [ Sun Feb 21, 2010 4:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
Sometimes you have to wonder about these so called professional suppliers.
We went off to invesitgate the best type of compost and soil that we wanted for the new bed.
Finally settling on what we wanted, we gave the man behind the counter the measurements for our bed and asked him to calculate how much we would need.

The following photo is what is left of our little pile after filling the bed. We could have got away with $80 instead of $160.

Note: must learn how to calculate the area of something we want filled.

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Author:  The Hopefulls [ Sun Feb 21, 2010 4:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Hopefulls yard
next question, anyone know when the best time to plant potatoes in Adelaide is?

What variety is considered to be one of the best to grow?
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