Our back yard was pretty vanilla when we moved in, a basic hardwood deck, a keystone wall with a raised plant bed and a few random shrubs.

We engaged a local tiny urban garden specialist design company – City Botanics – to do the concept design and work. They took the existing back yard and our ‘wants’ for the garden, and came up with a fantastic proposal, all this was during one of the Covid Lockdowns with remote consultation. Design Proposal Video

Our concepts were – a journey between different living zones, paths that tease hidden sightlines, orange, yellow and red colours, all aiming to attract bees and butterflies.

Briar and I painted the fences a rich ebony black (ProCoat) at the start of the project, and also painted the deck with a Resene colour ‘Masala’

The team at City Botanics took around 4 weeks from start to finish, they will come back a few times into the future for maintenance and upkeep.

Before

After Initial Build

After 2 Years

Elements

Pavers Split Indian Sandstone Update – swapped out for porcelain tiles and white lime chip at a later date
Macrocarpa Garden Bed This will naturally silver in time
Trough Planters
Dwarf Japanese Maple Acer
Penstemon ‘Garney Spires’
Geum ‘Mrs J Bradshaw’
Imperata Cylindrica ‘Red Baron’
Carex Comans ‘Frosted Curls’
Echinacea ‘Pow Wow White’ Update – hasn’t survived, crowded out by the Penstemon
Buxus ‘Green Gem’ Hedge
Coreopsis Grandiflora ‘Rising Sun’ Large Flowered Tickseed These have been crowded out by the Penstemon – we have replanted a couple of times
Cape Daisy Osteospermum – a later addition to the garden beds replacing the Echinacea
Thymus X Citriodorus ‘Aurea’ Lemon Thyme In trough planters – when rubbed it smells amazing.
Laurus Nobilus Bay Laurel In trough planters – Update swapped out for stronger growing examples
Dicondra Repens Ground cover between pavers initially It grew too high to be comfortable stepping over and was swapped out for Thyme Update – when the pavers were swapped out the Thyme and Dicondra were moved into the beds as edge fillers.
Trachyeospermum Jasminodes Star Jasmine
Camellia Takanini (Blood Red) Gives a great display in winter against the back fence
Camellia Volcano (Japonica) (Red) Planted in an antique copper with Baby Tears (silver) and Begonia
Camellia Volcano (Japonica) x 2 and 1 x Pure Silk (white) with Baby Tears In the initial design there was to be a feature tree like another Maple. This is to bring the view of the garden into the house as we come down the stairs with the view from the living room window
Mixed seasonal colour in smaller planters for the living room window view
Wall planters with mixed seasonal colour – eg Primrose, Lobelia
Lysimachia in 3 wall planters
Hydrangea. We have experimented with Little Ruby (Alternanthera) in these planters too
Catmint – popular with our cats and others from the area
Camellia Volcano (Japonica) x 3

To Do

– Light pole with hardwired festoon lights – replacing the current solar festoon lights
– Irrigation