The Sleepout #11 – The Shade Garden

After I got the decking around the sleepout finished it was time to focus on the garden. I was really looking forward to this as I'd been wanting to do something about this part of the garden for a long, long time. It’s the landscaping and the planting that really finishes things off nicely.

Here’s a couple of 'before' pics to show how it was before I started the decking...

and during...

I really wanted to keep the mature pungas (ferns) that were growing in this area, which meant this would always be a shaded garden. So it's a lovely cool place during the summer. As you can see, I built 2 low retaining walls out of keystone blocks to try flattening out the steepness of the bank.

I'm still in the process of finishing off the block work. I now need a concrete cutting machine to cut the mitre on the corner before it’ll be properly finished. I've started planting it out with a triple Bangalow palm in the middle and a few bromileads for now. I also decided it could be a good place for a couple of the large pots I got a couple years ago. 

When the blockwork is finished, I’ll be able to back fill and continue planting. As usual, I'll post more pictures when it's completed.

I'm pleased with the overall direction the Sleepout is taking but there's still a bit to do to finish it off. 

Read more here.

Summer, Glorious Summer!

My garden looks its best in the Summer. A lot of the plants I’ve selected for colour seem to be the ones that flower in summer, which is great because that’s when the garden gets the most use. The most obvious of these flowering plants would have to be the Bougainvillea Vine which I’ve trained to grow over a pergola. It’s a really nice place to sit as it provides a bit of shade from the harsh New Zealand sun. (See my blog post about how I started training a Bougainvillea Vine here.)

The garden has changed quite a bit as it’s matured over the last few years, so I realised it was time to update the header on my Blog. I’ve been waiting for the Bougainvillea to be in full bloom so I could get a few nice photos. The header photo I decided to use was a panorama shot I took from the roof of the sleepout. This year the pergola was a great place to take a few family photos too.

One of the plants I’ve really enjoyed this year would have to be the Hydrangeas. I’ve tried propagating a few over the last couple of years from cuttings and was pleased to see them flowering nicely this year (year 2). The most interesting aspect of this for me was seeing how the colours varied from the original plants I took the cuttings from, as the variations in soil acidity resulted in different coloured blooms. And what blooms they were after giving them a good feed in spring. They make terrific cut flowers too.

   

We’ve been spoilt this year with the number of cut flowers we’ve been able to take in the house.

Like these red beauties (which I forget the name of), plus a few others which I forgot to take photos of...

The big disappointment this summer was that despite my 2 plum trees fruiting super-abundantly, beyond expectations, the fruit was mostly spoiled by an infestation of worms and several days of torrential rain just as the fruit was ripening which caused them to split. I can see I’m going to have to be super vigilant next year and may need to relent as regards my organic, ‘no-spray’ policy.