It wasn't until last weekend, when a new client told me that she had read my blog, that I realised that it had been an awful long time since I had made a new post here. I was more than a little surprised to find that it had been exactly a year!
Needless to say, alot has happened since then.
I have not been back to the City Beach garden since mid August 2010. At that time it was mid-plant. I emailed the client recently to ask if I could visit, but was told that two important details had yet to be completed, namely an armillary sundial and two wall sculptures intended for installation above the pool. It had been my intention to feature this project in the next edition of Scoop magazine's Best WA Outdoors and Gardens, but alas not this year. Hopefully it will be finished soon and lend itself to some photos mid summer for next year's edition.
There was a problem with some ficus trees at this site. They started to die after only a month of installation. Some said that they were planted in the wrong place. Nonsense I said...these ficus can survive anywhere! Fortunately, there was an article on these exact trees on a website for a Queensland nursey that stated that, unless they were acclimatised for 6 month after transportation from QLD, they were likely to shed their leaves and die. This is exactly what happened.
I understand that the WA nursery that supplied them has since closed!
The small garden mentioned way back in August last year is nearing completion. (The plan is now in my portfolio.) I'll post pics once the client has said I can visit. Some changes have inevitably been made. Stone paving has replaced the timber paving and a waterwall added rather than the urn water feature. I look forward to seeing the result.
I also undertook a canal home in Mandurah. Not as much work involved here as the client had already decided on much of the hard landscaping. I may well be planting this garden myself....some time in September 2011.
Renovation is now the name of the game.
Some 90% of my designs over the last year have been renovations. I guess with the collapse in the home building market that this in inevitable.
I had great pleasure in designing a renovation in Singleton with mainly coastal natives in the exposed front garden and mainly exotics in the more sheltered rear garden. This will be largely a self build project over the next 12 months or more.
I have also completed a planting plan (only) for a house in Silver Sands, which I will also be planting in September, having dug out and soil prepped the garden in June.
Another self build renovation in Scarborough will be built over a number of years, as funds and time become available.
My latest project is only a few days old and is currently on the 'drawing board'. A small back yard that needed some "inspiration"!
Since September last year, I have also been running a lawn and garden maintenance business alongside the design business. I took an excellent course in turf management at TAFE Murdoch as well as the course needed to get a spraying licence. Add to that planting and garden renovation and you can probably understand why I have neglected this blog!
Too busy!
Anyway, I'll keep you posted on all progress.
