Monday, April 12, 2010

Front of house & garden - before and after

Here are the before and after pics of our little house and front garden!
The before photos were taken when we found out we had just had our offer accepted on 'The Crappy House'. This was the nickname we called the house when we were looking at it to buy.

Before



During
That's the huge skip bin which was filled with the contents of our front garden including the grass on the council strip to the left which was a hotch potch of different grass varieties and just never did well. We got a bobcat driver in and he just ripped everything to shreds, pulled trees out roots and all it was amazing but very dusty!



After




Before
The garden in front of the house was all mulch and broken roof tiles!!!




After
Now beautiful Sir Walter buffalo grass, stepping stone paths and garden beds with paved edges. Lots of space for William to play cricket one day.



Before
I didn't like any of the existing trees and plants they had in the front garden. There were palms, hibiscus, lavender, azaleas with a leaf disease to name a few, so we wanted to start again with a blank canvas.


After (see Minky walking down the path?)
As you can see, we painted over the mission brown soon after we moved in. It was everywhere from the window frames, garage trim, letterbox post, the railings up to the house... ahhh!



Before


During


After


Before


After
The magnolias are said to grow to 10mts in 10 years which should look lovely framing the driveway.

You can just see the baby lavender plants next to the buxus and our rose bush and frangipani trees.

We would like to get a little white bird bath to put in this garden bed which should look quite cute next to the house.

As you can see we've only mulched the right hand side of the garden beds and the beds against the house. (My car decided it didn't want to shift out of Park at the ANL nursery where Glen was getting more mulch yesterday. We've had to get my car towed to the Subaru Service Centre this morning and the trailer is still stuck at the nursery!)

We plan to put a white garden arbour in between the two beds with the stepping stone path leading to the front door. We will grow jasmine up over the arbour for some more greenery.


I can't wait till the Murrayas grow up into a nice thick hedge at the fence line!

We are trying to decide if we should put a white picket fence up or even just white picket gates to go across the driveway and the arbour when the hedges have grown a bit more so that William can't run onto the road so easily.
What do you think??? Fence, gates, just hedges?

So that's our little garden tour for today. It might not look like much but after all the digging, planting, painting and planning we are quite proud of the change.

I hope you have a great start to the week,


9 comments:

  1. It looks great! Don't you love how rewarding seeing the changes in a garden can be. I have been going through the process as well and I love seeing the improvements.
    Re fence or not to fence? Hmmm, I don't know. We have a picket fence which I really love (but then we have a big dog as well!).

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  2. Your house is so far from being the crappy house... I just love your house and every thing you have done to it..oohh and I just love white picked fences...

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  3. what a transformation ...looks lovely...hard work pays well doesn't it ;) well done .i would do hedges they look lovely when they mature but then again so does a picket white fence.I'm sure what ever you decide it will be beautiful XX

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  4. What a beautiful transformation! A lot of love & hard work has gone into your garden. You must feel so proud to know that you have done it yourselves. I love two of your ideas:- white picket fence & also just white picket gates leaving the hedge to grow into it's own fence... Buona giornata Bella

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  5. Oh Janette, your front yard looks fantastic! I can appreciate all of the hardwork that has gone into that! I love the idea of putting an arbour between the two garden beds with the path to the house, that will be gorgeous and I think the gates for the arbour and the driveway would look great! xx

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  6. I'd been waiting to see your garden pics :) I love looking through our old garden photos too and seeing how things have grown and changed over the years. Your garden all looks fabulous Janette, you guys have done an awesome job! You have a lot of similar plants to us. Love the frangipanis near the house and the magnolias will look beautiful growing on either side of the driveway. You have such a big front yard with lots of lovely grass which will be so great for Will as he gets older. Perhaps wait until your hedge gets a bit bigger to decide on the picket fence option as you might find once the hedge gets bigger that it creates enough of a barrier. Love those stepping stones through the lawn too and the white window frames have transformed the look of your house so much (we got rid of all our ugly mission brown frames too). What a pain about your car. Hope you get it sorted out quickly. so it doesn't inconvenience you too much. Hope you have a great start to your week x

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  7. Good one, luv!! There is something immensely satisfying about a garden reno and it immediately transforms the visual appeal of your house! We did ours last year, and I get the most tremendous kick out of watching everything grow and change with the changing seasons... you remind me I must boast on my own blog about how great mine is looking, too! One Summer and those hedges will be HUGE... promise!

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  8. WOW!! How much work have you guys done! It looks fabulous Janette, your lawn is gorgeous. The whole garden looks so different. Sorry to hear that your car had to be towed, hope it is something simple and cheap to fix:) I love your choice of plants in your garden. I am so envious of your gorgeous murrayas:) I hope you have a wonderful week !! ~ Tina xx

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  9. Wow! I hope we can make our landscaping look half as nice as this one day!

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Thanks! I love reading your comments! Jxx