It’s only been a few months since I posted on my website, but boy has the garden grown!

Spring arrived and everything took off like crazy. Each time I went outside everything had grown another centimetre.

I was recently looking at the slideshow of when I finished adding the dry river bed to the backyard. The yard looks completely transformed.

Below is an update on how everything is looking and any changes I’ve made

The Backyard

Watching the backyard develop and transform has been a real delight.

There’s a long way to go, but I think this time next year it will look more full and complete.

I’m yet to add the paths on either side of the dry river bed, and that will be the next task once summer has finished.

I added four Thyptomene seedlings to the side fence two weeks ago. The Fringe Myrtle plants just weren’t taking off as I had hoped. So they have been moved to pots where I can watch them hopefully grow better. I didn’t read anything about the Fringe Myrtle being slow growing, and I’m impatient! The Thryptomene is native to the Grampians area, and fast growing, so I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop.

There are more plants in the ground than the photos reveal, but I am actually finished putting in the ‘structure’ plants. I just need to put in more ground covers and fill the gaps as they appear.

The bird bath is the social scene for birds. I fill it everyday and clean it constantly. The yard design only has one bath added in, but I will get a few more so everyone gets to have a bath and drink!

West-facing Sideyard

To be honest, not a lot has happened in this area as there wasn’t much to do. But we have a pair of turtle doves constantly nesting in the Karri Oak shrub, so it’s really hard to do any work there as I don’t want to disturb them.

While there was a break between sitting on eggs and raising chicks, I was able to get in and remove the Tea Tree that was not doing very well. The shrub has been replaced with a native Hemp (Gynatrix puchella) and Elderberry bush (Sambucus gaudichaudiana).

I recently added an endangered hopbush groundcover (Dodonaea procumbens), however it’s not seen in these images.

East-facing Sideyard

The sideyard has gone through a temporary change as I gave the dwarf acacia fimbriata a hard prune.

The plant is only supposed to be a 2m high shrub, but had grown well above the roof gutters and starting to droop into the neighbours yard. I did some research for doing a hard prune on Acacias, and everything indicated the bush will sprout new growth. There was already some new growth on branches I pruned some months before, so I have faith it will be ok.

The downside is the frog bog gets more direct sun during the day than it did, so I’m making sure to top up the water every few days. I also added some more rocks, leaving gaps and hiding holes for frogs and lizards (when they eventually arrive).

The Front yard

The front yard looks amazing! I love walking home on the other side of the road so I get to see it from a distance and admire it.

The main hedge is starting to take shape. I gave the Dodonaea bushes a trim recently so they start growing out and eventually join together.