First off, 'WTF? Gardening?', 'What is he thinking?'. Good questions. I have no gardening expertise. For the majority of my life my gardening experience has been, mow it, chop it down, or dig it up. Things haven't changed a great deal. However, I was trying to do some research the other day and there isn't a lot of info that seems to be about people who have actually chucked a plant in the ground and expected it to grow.
A bit of background: my wife an I own about 2 acres. It is separated into 3 roughly equal yards - front yard, back yard and bush. The front and back yard are separated by the house and some small fence portions, and are the most developed, they were already reasonably established when we first moved in. The bush is a slopping lightly wooded area that was overrun with giant-rat-tail-grass when we moved it. It has been a little over 3 years and we are at last starting to see some actual changes in the way that the garden may eventually look - partially because I have recently been successful in growing things. We will come back to that.
First lets talk about the property. Overall the lot is approx 50 meters wide at front and rear, and approx 150 meters long on either side. The lot is separated depth wise into the front, back and bush yards, and is within 500 meters of a major river. Soil is consistently sandy river sediment for approx 1 foot down to a layer of grey clay for about 4 inches, followed by a denser red river sand with other mixed elements. Areas around the house and drive way have differing levels of building refuse mixed into the topsoil, and this sometimes complicates propagation.
The front yard is approx 40 meters deep and has a driveway that is partially grassed/gravel, it widens out to the car ports and has a narrow right hand portion with some palm trees, and a wider right hand portion about half the yard that has a range of other shrubs and an occasional tree also. The whole front yard in general slopes north away front the house, but only fractionally, visually it appears to be flat. When we moved in, both sides were wildly over grown, and it was difficult to see how much yard actually was available. It also was very wet. At some point a berm had been built up around the border of the left hand side, thus creating an area about half the size of the front yard that could not run off in heavy rain. Instead it sits and eventually evaporates. In periods of heavy rain, it will sit and almost stay as a swamp for weeks until dry weather returns. The east and northern fence line were overrun with tall grass weeds and a few other hedge like plants. The very centre was dominated by several thorny bushes that took up a space roughly 10 meters x 5 meters. There were several lilli-pilli shrubs and also many palm trees in a corner area near the house. There are also a few smaller native trees standing about 3 meters, a 10-15 meter Ghost-Gum is the prominent feature. A few other trees also existed. On the right hand side there were a lot of palm trees and a few other overgrown shrubs and several weeping natives that were massively overgrown as well.
The back yard is also approx 40 meters deep. It has the majority of the house itself on its 'side' of the fence and also has the shed, sandpit, cubby house, water tanks and clothes line. The whole yard slopes generally south west away from the house, although visually it looks flat. The last 5 meters of so towards the rear fence begins a gentle slope that steepens in the bush yard. On purchase the back lawn had not been mowed for several months, the septic lines had over grown to several feet, the sand pit was not able to be seen for the weeds growing in it and the rear fence was preceded by many piles of refuse. The west side had a small lilli-pilli garden with a few palm trees and then a range of rambling hedge like plants and again a considerable growth of weed grasses. A ground level sand pit was almost impossible to identify due to the quantity of weeds growing from it. There was really only 3 trees in this yard. A leopard tree towards the west of the house and some gum trees of about 5 meters towards the south east corner. There were two shrubs over the septic line and a lot of grass and refuse towards the rear fence. On the east side of the house was a creeper that was taking over a portion of the house, it was quickly removed before it damaged the house further.
The bush yard was [is] the most overgrown. It is approx 70 meters deep and starts with a gentle slope, then has a steep section, before becoming more gentle to almost flat at the bottom of the yard. It is approx 5 meters lower at the bottom than the top of the yard. On purchase the entire bush yard was overgrown with giant-rat-tail-grass. There were also piles of refuse - garden, building and other - in this yard. It is only fenced on 3 sides, with a 4th fence line with an adjoining un-developed property in semi completion. This is also the most heavily wooded yard. the majority of the yard has most likely never been cleared. There are some very large ghost gum trees including a very tall specimen of at least 20 meters. However the majority of the yard is populated with iron bark trees. There are a few open spaces such as the top north west corner and the bottom of the yard, these may have been cleared in the previous role as agricultural land or during developments of fence lines during the development of the residential estate.
Well that gives you a run down of the property as we found it. Next I will talk about some of the changes that we have made and plan to make in the future.
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