This is a compact garden around a new home, just a 10 minute walk or 1 minute drive from the heart of Candelo, showing what can be achieved by one person in just two years. The main aims have been to create screening between the house and the road and to create a productive veggie garden. 

 

Many native shrubs have been planted for screening. As the garden and surrounding trees grow, plans are being formed for further development and expansion.

​

I began work on my garden two years ago when I moved into my new house on the edge of Candelo. Set on four east sloping acres, the garden around the house is quite small as yet. No doubt expansion will happen over the next few years as is the case in most rural gardens. The block was covered in a combination of blackberry and African love grass and of course still is, but a busy mowing regime is taming it for the moment. There was a small group of native trees on the south east corner but otherwise it was a bare paddock. 

The structural landscaping which includes retaining walls and steps was created by the house builder who also reserved the topsoil from the building site to be used in the gardens. This provided great ‘bones’ for me to work with. However, the creation of garden beds, both flower and veggie are all my own as is the tree planting around the paddock which in the future will provide screening and a woodland feel to the block.

I have happily taken advantage of donations of plants from friends and neighbours, the FOGO compost from Bega shire and other free resources like autumn leaves and mulch from friends' tree lopping. This has helped to offset the costs of material like gravel, edging and all the plants purchased these past two years. Being on tank water is also a bit of a handicap making me extremely cautious about throwing water around during dry spells. 

Further out from the garden itself are mixed tree plantings graduating from natives to exotics as you come back closer to the house. A variety of maples and silver birches will provide vibrant colour in the years to come. Dogwoods, magnolia and other deciduous species will take a few years to shine.  

 

Around the house itself is a mixture of plant varieties with a strong emphasis on small native shrubs and ground covers. Some of the plantings might be haphazard but there is a lot of experimenting going on in an unfamiliar environment, different soil, and climate. This is quite exciting in many ways!

I hope that this new garden inspires by showing what one person can achieve in a relatively short time.