Front garden plans.

I had a horticulturalist from Sydney Water come and visit the other day. It was part of a service where you pay $33 for a Sydney Water horticulturist to come and prepare a tailored watering plan for your garden.

The qualified horticulturist looks at:

• soil type and quality
• position of plants and trees
• type of lawn
• how much sunlight and shade your garden gets
• slope of your lawn and garden.

and then give you recommendations on what are the best plants for your garden, how often you should water it and other great tips.

I really enjoyed the visit. I had previously believed our soil to be very poor quality but he told us otherwise. We were advised to use some river sand in parts where we have some clay soil.

What excited me the most was that he told me that the front of our house has perfect soil and sun/shade that we could pretty much grow anything, in particular a cottage garden with a native twist.

I have lone coveted a cottage garden in front of a house near us. I was given some cards with descriptions of different types of gardens (Native, Cottage, Sub Tropical and Courtyard) which has some information on it, as well as a link to their website, which contains more information on a large variety of plants.

I have now set to work planning our front garden. I would love a cottage garden, but also lie the idea of having some natives, particularly as we have a large gum in our front yard. After a bit of browsing i am looking at the above plants for the front garden. They are a mix of shrubs, ground covers & flowering plants. Of course i haven't priced these yet. I am hoping they won't be too expensive.

I would defiantly recommend you look up this service if you are a keen gardener, especially if you are beginner like me. It was a really interesting and informative experience!

Now lets make like Mary quite contrary and see how MY garden grows...