I've been dying to show off the new blank canvas I'll be creating a suburban garden in. I can't help but think of Hive Gardeners like 
Most of you know I have five acres and a huge garden, but we're selling that and have bought a suburban block and very small house on the coast. The block is 663m2, so not even a quarter acre, but it still feels large because the house is tiny at only 81m2 which is small by Australian standards! It was one of our criteria, to be honest - a shed and a garden, and it has the added bonus of being north facing.
We settled this week - and full of nervous, anxious energy, me and Mum set to pulling out scrappy and misplaced natives, and thinking about what would look good and what would work. There were a lot of shrubs in odd places - some people just plant anything with no idea of the purpose.
The front garden is big enough to do an extensive native garden to attract birds and have something beautiful to look at from the front bedrooms and living room. It'll also create a screen from the streetview. At the moment there's lots of wattles flowering, and a few of those will have to go. The bright yellow flowers are all over the place now it's Spring.
There's also two huge trees which is a bonus - they give a visual point of interest and will house birds. I'm a bit worried about possums as they are noisy, destructive buggers, but we'll soon see. I'm just pleased there's enough plants that I don't need to bother with a front fence. Jamie's sad we won't have the bird life we have now, but I'm more positive, believing if you plant for them, they will come!
The back garden to me is huge and when I think about it, it's probably just as big as my central veggie patch at home and then some. The below photo shows the 'L' shape created by the deck quite well - I'm standing against the house to take this photo. Look at all the moss taking over the paving. And that tree will go - it dominates the view over the treeline in distance, which is basically national park.
UPDATE - THE TREE IS GONE
That paving is going to go too - it'll make more room for veggie beds. Also, note this space here, because in a few days I'll update you with what I've achieved in less than a week! I started writing this post last Wednesday and a lot has already changed since then!
Here's another view of the back deck, which is huge. When you come down the steps, you enter the garden through a small gate to the 'back' garden, where the door of the shed faces. There WAS a metal washing line (HIlls Hoist, for Aussie readers, but we have already got rid of that). I imagine popping down the stairs to a herb garden.
Right up the back there's room for my chooks - you can keep 12 in residential areas but I'll just keep my six. I was rapt to see that next door also have chickens and a permaculture style garden. That made me so happy. They aren't that much younger than us and were very welcoming when we arrived. Jamie'll have to build a coop and we'll fence the back part off, incluing the olive tree, which always thrives with chickens. There's a beautiful huge grevellia for shade as well.
Standing on the back deck - you can look down onto the garden. This post is getting confusing as things are updating so quickly. I'll have publish it right now and forget about it, and update you next time.
The compost bins will also go here in the next few days. For now I'll just start with the big plastic black bins so I can get it started straight away. There's a heap of seaweed on the beach at the moment and I'm excited about the ease of collecting to layer in my compost whenever I fancy!
Oh goodness, I realise I'll be able to do it earlier as the microclimate by the sea is about a month ahead! Definitely tomatos by Christmas then! I think it'll be convenient to go straight down the steps to grab herbs, lettuce and so on.
Here's Jamie on the roof of the shed fixing the guttering. The red grevillea is gorgeous!
Along the fence there's a few apples and what Jamie thinks might be a cherry. I'm concerned about whether it's grown up from the root stock. I'll be pruning these with Mum in the next few days - she's more of an expert than me.
On the fence side I'm not sure - I'd rather fruit trees espaliered here, so might lose the plants and get Jamie to put up some mesh to get my nashi and cherry growing immediately.
Oh the other thing that is delightful about this town is there's kangaroos that come down the street. The town is right on the edge of huge national park and full of trees and wildlife, so you have to learn to live with the kangaroos as well. The back garden is fenced off, probably to keep a dog in, so the kangaroos can't get in, and I'm delighted to learn that there's hardly any rabbits, if any, on this side of the river.
I am told by the neighbour there is pesky possums ... Netting will be needed!
Ah, the whole thing is so excited - so much so, that I haven't had time nor inclination to start missing the old garden at all.
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