Well it wasn’t quite a jungle, more like pockets of planting that didn’t give the garden any character or soul. If I wanted the garden to have time to establish a bit before the bbq season, I had to take time out from rescuing the house to get new plants in.

The granny flat virtually faded into the 2nd storey of the house I back onto. I did a quick coat of dark grey on the weatherboard and white on the trims to create some depth and separate it out from the neighbours. Then, the first section of garden to tackle was the back left-hand side where the pavers met the very low old paling fence. It was stark and ugly.

Fresh new look for the granny flat and my next job, the fence.

Using treated pine, I erected a very basic frame for the climbing plants  to, well, climb on. I also removed an additional row of pavers to create more depth to the garden bed.

And then it was in with the plants. The paved section was going to become another entertaining area so I wanted it to be surrounded by tropical plants – a little oasis down the back of the yard. I bought most of the big plants from a wholesaler and although I had to travel about 50mins to get there, it was a nice excuse to go bush and I saved a few hundred dollars. The star jasmine plants which were to grow up over the frame-work were bought off eBay, cheap as chips.

The next section to get a spruce up was the garden bed on the left but closer to the house. There was a stunning golden cane palm which had obviously been there for years. But it was getting over taken by this very fast grown hedge thing. If it was a box hedge or a biblical jasmine, I would have kept it but it wasn’t! The bottle brush was also looking virtually dead and encroached on the yard. So snip, snip.

The gorgeous golden cane and out of control hedge

And although cutting everything back opened up the yard to the neighbours, I knew it would give my new planting space to breath and grow and eventually create a new screen.

Looking bare but it needed a good hair cut

Sitting back and surveying… with a wine