Back yard paradise

Our amazing landscaper, Andy, came back today to finish off the last few things (including lights - I can't wait until it gets dark to see it all lit up).  So here's some better images (sorry Mum) of his masterpiece;

Back yard - Aussie Style

We are two VERY happy campers as our back yard is 98% finished and EXACTLY what we wanted.  It's sustainable, all locally sourced, native & in our minds, unbelievably beautiful.

Here's a few before & afters...

This was a really low point directly behind the house which suffered from pooling water after only a little rain.  Beneath the creek bed, Andy has run some drainage and used the left over bricks, smashed up,  just under the dry creek bed.

Its a little hard to see in these pics, but our gorgeous Ironbark deck extends into a "jetty" which then juts out over a dry billabong.  This area used to be "Lake Cranbourne".  Now, if it overflows, it's channelled to the storm water.

This is our North boundary which we originally had lined with Blueberry Ash. The problem was I had nowhere to dry any washing & didn't want to plant a hills hoist in the middle of our yard or purchase a dryer. So Andy came up with the idea to span some tensioned wire between two railway sleepers to blend with the climbing frame we have outside our bedroom door.  We'll grow some jasmine along the wires too, so the clothes take on a little of its scent while they're drying.

We love love, love it.  I'll no doubt post many more piccies in the coming days.

The hugest of huge thank yous to Andy from Eskape Landscapes. If anyone wants work done, I'd happily pass on his contact details.

Back yard sneak peek

Long time no post!

We've been doing all kinds of fun things, but mostly just enjoying our new lives in this gorgeous home, oh + getting fit & healthy while recovering from stupid back surgery (more on this in a future post I think).

Our landscaper, Andy, who did such a brilliant job on the front has come back (under his own business name Eskape, as the previous company went bust 3 days pre-Christmas) and is turning our formerly flat, weedy, wet, yuk back yard into something we've already fallen in love with.

Here's a quick snap;

Fingers crossed the turf and planting will be done by Friday..YAY!!!

If any fellow Avenuers (or anywhere nearby actually) are looking for a landscaper - I give Andy two thumbs up.

How does your garden grow?

Ours has gone crazy considering it's less than 3months old.

Here's some snippets from around the orange house;

The narrow bed beside our driveway has Dianella "Casa Blue" and Climbing Fig which has already started to stretch out on the fence.

The grasses that run either side of our entrance deck have begun to flower.

As has the Blueberry Ash that we have along our northern boundary. They now peep about a foot above the fence line.

I love the way the "Chinese Star Jasmine" has reached up to the first run of wire.

The mass planting of Dianella in front of the stacked stone wall has gone crazy. These little guys have doubled in size already.

So completely besotted with Kangaroo Paw right now.

Put it all together and it looks like this;

Cool places to go in Cranbourne

Confession time...
I WAS one of those people who thought that Cranny was full of bogans with 11 kids under 12, a front yard car kept for spare parts & dole queues longer than the line for a train after a Collingwood v Carlton game at the "G".

What we've found since we purchased a little slice of 3977 is that, sure, there may be tiny pockets like that, but it's a damn good place to live.  The people are seriously friendlier.  Everyone says hello or at least nods in your direction.  And shop people give much better customer service.  How I LOVE good customer service!

So now that we're here, we thought we might start exploring the area and finding some cool places in and around Cranny.

Although we've been here once before, this place is now free, FREE, FREEEEEEEEE. So first stop on the Loz and Reinsey 3977 discovery tour is...

CRANBOURNE BOTANIC GARDENS

Don't groan - it really IS cool.  And it's all native.  There's loads of ideas for those of us with new gardens to create;

Yeah, it's possibly an old person kind of thing (not that I'M old) (the "old boy" could be though), but it's under 10 minutes from home and did I mention it's FREE?

Tree mail

A few weeks ago I had to leave for work early on a Sunday morning and I was seriously pi$$ed that I had to drive to Geelong after a late one the night before.  By the time I arrived I was still completely feeling sorry for myself until I spied the most random workshop right there in front of the venue.  It was called iron and wood or something like that, and since our garden has a rustic flavour, I popped in on the off chance that they made letterboxes.  It must have been fate, coz they'd only JUST carved this massive hunk of redgum in half.

I reckon there's going to be people who share our love for it, people who point and laugh and people who are too polite to tell us we've lost the plot.  Are you brave enough to tell us which category you fit into?

Introducing our new mail box...

I know, right!  It's a freaking TREE!!!

View from the house

This is how she looked before becoming a mail box!

I leant a few lessons that day.  Sometimes you have to trust that you're in exactly the place you're meant to be & that a Holden Cruze is a lot roomier than it looks.

Getting to know you

We've been having a lovely time getting to know our house - it's light switches, how it lives, which windows to open when the wind blows a certain way.  It's been really fun :)

Our shutters were hung to the front windows on Saturday morning;

Dining and family rooms are coming together - just need some more "stuff";

Still tossing up whether to paint the master bedhead wall in Jasper or leave it as is;

Front and side gardens are done and we're tickled pink, blue and purple with the look;

When we started on this "ïdea"all those months ago, I never imagined that it would be this good :)

Star Struck

For those who don't know me (very well) I work in sport and engage with some fairly high profile people on a day to day basis. (That sounds pretty up myself, but I'm really not, just setting the scene for today's little story.) Anyway, last Friday I was completely and utterly star struck in a way that not even Michael Jordan walking into my office would have evoked. Last Friday, I met Phillip Johnson.

Who, I hear you ask?

Phillip is a garden designer, in fact he's won National awards for his work and environmental types would hold him in pretty high esteem. We've seen his work at the Melbourne International Flower Show over the past couple of years and have withstood the crushing throngs to get up close and personal with his show gardens. (Oh God, I'm revealing too much of myself here - yes I'm a complete and utter nerd).

In 2009 he won best in show with "Habitat". A natural billabong, decked "rooms", a produce garden. It was really something. And although we hadn't even considered building a house at this time, this garden left an impression on both of us as something we would like to create in the future.

But 2011 left an even bigger imprint on our nature-loving, greeny (Loz) selves. He named this one "Bathe". It was brilliant. He won the sustainability award but only came third in overall best garden (ripped off). While at the show we entered a competition to have a free garden design by Phillip. We didn't win, but what it did do was put us on the mailing list, and boy this is a much longer story than I imagined...

Fast forward to last Friday, and PJ was at our house, the new one, walking around our yard, talking to us, US, Me & Loz, about all the fantastically sustainable things he could put in place, and giving us our own little paradise in Cranbourne North. Here's some of his work.....

I'm sure it's not to everyone's taste, but if we had a garden like this I doubt I'd ever want to leave home again!

Wanna see more?  Check out Phillip's website here
(OMG - he was at our house!!!  *arms flailing wildly in mild hysteria*)

P.S. 13 more sleeps til PCI  :)

A partridge in a pear tree

We've got what I think is a Manchurian Pear on our nature strip.

It just appeared out of no-where, but it's making me incredibly :) coz;
1.  It means we're going to be moving in soon
2.  I lurve deciduous trees but they wouldn't fit with our garden plans.
3.  It means we're going to be moving in soon.
4.  It'll blend in nicely with our autumnal external colour scheme
5.  Ha ha ha.......