DIY Garden Revamp Plans

Hi all! I am back!

Just for an update.  We have moved into our new property in March 2014. Took us a few months to settle down.  It's a two-storey house and this did get us some getting used to. Little S tumbled down the stairs a few times but he got the hang of getting up and down pretty fast!

Spring is finally here! In winter, the garden was not inviting and I merely kept up the maintenance. Can't wait for warmer and longer days!

This new garden was not at all what I had wished for.  To be honest, I was absolutely devastated.  This house was definitely a good buy in terms of location and price.  The garden is far from my dream one.  There is plenty of work to do if that dream was to come true.

Firstly, there are several medium and tall trees.  I am sure the roots are well established down below for anything else to grow. And the back garden, where most available land is, is mostly shaded due to the trees' canopy.

Secondly, the land is slope and has 'terraces'. There are plenty of rocks to deal with.  We have a creek at the back and the area is sprawled with overgrowth of creeping weeds.

Our plan is to remove much of the medium-sized trees to allow more sunshine. I doubt we will have permission to remove the large trees, but I do not plan to do that anyway.  I like the kookaburra's visits on the tall gum tree and we are getting rainbow lorikeets coming on our neighbour's eucalyptus tree.  I am sure my two boys will enjoy bird-watching. I would like to retain a bit of the towering greenery.

Okay. Here's my deck. I love it that it is right out of the kitchen. And here's some proposed plan :

I bought a passionfruit vine - Panama Black, which is most suitable for our Melbournian climate. I prefer the Panama Red but unfortunately it may not be that frost-hardy. It's strange that the garden centre is selling the red since it is more of a tropical vine!  My boys love passionfruit.  So do I. And they cost quite a bit to buy. I love the look of a climbing fruit vine too. I am thinking of planting it in the soil below the deck and allowing it to climb up built trellises up to the deck.

You can see the canopy of the medium-sized trees  and tall trees beyond. The spotted-neck pigeons frequent these trees but I really need to allow more sunshine by removing them.

The is the patch right below/beside the deck. I shall name it Patch Deck.  I removed most of the weeds in winter and covered the ground with weed mat.  Not sure what I will plant just yet but definitely something edible. I am planning to plant the passionfruit vine here where the compost bin stands temporarily, build trellises and let it climb up the deck.

I have also just put my culinary lemongrass into the ground.  There's sunshine at that spot and being able to grow really tall, it would be ideal to put the lemongrass there.

Two trees and a shrub most likely will be removed, plus all those groundcovers. I found some hellebores and rosemary growing in the same area and I would like to keep them.