A History of the Garden

I thought before I go any further I should provide some history of the garden.

We built this house well over a decade ago and established the garden from scratch. The soil is typical Canberra clay, with various attempts to improve areas over the years. The block slopes upwards from the street, which means soil, mulch, pavers, etc, have to be carted uphill from where they are delivered to the naturestrip. The original design had no retaining walls and included a large lawn in the back and a smaller one at the front. When water restrictions were introduced it was very discouraging trying to hand water sloping garden beds and we had many rocks on the site so I started using them to terrace the slopes. I also started putting paths through the plantings to make maintenance easier. Creating some definition and structure in the garden has made it look and work better. Seeing this, my husband has become more agreeable to spending money on things like retaining wall blocks. More recently we have reduced the size of the back lawn, replacing the central section with paving and enlarging the surrounding garden beds. We have also installed a rain water tank, and while on the one hand I am disappointed at the loss of more planting space on the other I am glad we had the space available in a rather undeveloped back area of the garden.

I think it says a lot about our early design abilities that one of the first things we did was plant a tree and within a few months realised it would need to be moved to make way for a footpath. I think we've improved since then but I don't think you ever stop learning.

What would I do differently? I would do the hardscaping before the planting! I would start earlier and do more to improve the soil. I would research plants more thoroughly before deciding whether/where to plant them. I would plant more groupings or patterns of the same plant rather than one of everything that catches my eye in the nursery.