Going for green!

We have spent the last week getting a garden bed started out the back in our very bare and boring yard. It's been so long coming due to many circumstances - primarily money and climate. We are on Level 5 water restrictions which means no watering systems to be used, no hoses, only bucketing and watering cans. We have kept the garden out the front alive and thriving using bucketed bath water.

Don't let the "cool climate" tag for Orange fool you - it's cold AND dry here! We have been planting drought tolerant plants like flax, protea, irises, aggies, silverbush etc. My one consolation is a dogwood and a magnolia tree.

So, out the back we are going to have most of it done in mulched native garden and only one small area of grass. We hope that will be enough for our two girls to play on. Besides, we are very close to the Botanic Gardens and other green parklands. Below is a picture of the area that will eventually be grassed. We will probably seed it next year - or we may bite the bullet and turf it. Depends on the weather and how the water restrictions go.

Below are photos showing the first of our backyard garden beds. The whole lot of the yard apart from the grassed area and some pebbled paths will be mulched and planted out with natives.
Below is a gorgeous white protea I just had to have - we have to wait for it to stop flowering before we can plant it. It will eventually grow quite large (hopefully)

I look forward to the day when our backyard is shady and a little haven for native birds and the occasional lizard. Our aim is to create something that is welcoming, low maintenance and drought friendly. We estimate it will take us a good 5 years to get there and even longer for tress to get up but, we'll get there. The big question is will we still be in the house to see the garden at it's best? By then we could have outgrown the house and moved on, or may have followed work to another town, who knows.