help..what to do about factory view?

[6weekstobaby]

Hi all,
I'm planning to transform my weeds into a fabulous garden..have measured it up and put to scale on grid paper.

The house is a neutral 50's weatherboard with a modern open living/kitchen opening on to what will eventually be a deck of some description.

Looking out from the living you see a wall the neighbors have kindly built...which I'm excited to render and paint and do some water feature thing with - makes a nice courtyard.

Looking out from the kitchen-dining, you see the backfence and duh duh, a big #$% colourbond factory behind us.

This is my dilemna..

What do you think I should do to screen, hide, embrace the 10m colourbond wall? It's pretty ugly although you could say it gives a rural aussie feeling (can't imagine it's great for the property value).

Do I get some really big trees and wait 10 years? Do I acknowledge I can't hide it and do some tricky 'go with it' design thing? put a couple of sheep in the garden? put a colourful thing somewhere else to draw the eye away? etc

Your ideas please...feel like I need to sort this out before I can do the rest of the plan...

There are a couple of gums and a big pine tree in the backyard, and we're in a Melbourne suburb a couple of kms from the beach I'm thinking we go with an Australian native, fairly modern garden.

Thanks in advance for your help..been racking my brains over this one. Any other ideas re landscaping more than welcome...see photo's below..


PS: My baby is now one! ( see photo)

[Honorary Bloke]

I'd have a go at hiding most of it with fast-growing evergreens or bushes, rather than deciduous trees. As you can see from the pic, the trees get too tall and don't hide anything after some years.

Over here I would recommend Leland Cyprus or similar--don't know what the equivalent might be in OZ--as it grows quickly, fills out at the base and in two years would hide the view almost entirely.

You could also erect a fence, but that is a bit exy.

Your idea to make a focal point elsewhere is a good one. Draw the eye away from this view with your water feature, ancient Greek statue, or what have you. Depending on your sun exposure, plan your courtyard so that people are naturally facing away from the factory and inward toward your garden or house.

It is a challenge, but it will be fun to see what's possible. And you are correct, it will affect your resale value, so hiding the view rather than emphasising it is the go.

[6weekstobaby]

Thanks Bob,
Do you really think bushy stuff will grow that high? We do have cyprus in australia and i will check out local equivalents today.

Good point about where people face. I was thinking we could extend the brick wall partway into our garden at right angles to where it is and have a feature in that corner (which would be the corner of the deck) and have people facing that or an alternative would be to have them facing off to the right of the back boundary which has a bit more distance (which currently has an old shed we will demolish, but nice-ish views of trees behind). I tend to want to look further away.

So much to do and so much to hide!

The brick wall is north and the factory boundary is east, so the sun is on the deck to be area most of the day - in your eyes if facing the factory.

Is there any particular theory about where to face vs the sun?

Thanks Corinne

[Ivan in Oz]

These work here and surounding areas,
Here it's Hot in Summer, Max out at about 45*C
Cold in Winter, down to -6*C very occasionally,
Fairly dry,
HEY! We are in a Drought.... I use Bath and Laundry water

Melaleuca "Revolution Gold"
Clumping Bamboo...NOT Running Bamboo,
there is a very BIG Difference and shoots are Edible
Acacias, Wattles, BUT they live little more than 7 - 10 Years......Something to turn, eh?

[6weekstobaby]

Hi Ivan,
Clumping bamboo is something i'm intersted in to screen it...how high does it get and does it look like traditional bamboo?
Cheers Corinne

[DJ’s Timber]

Pittosporum is a good fast growing screening tree, my dad has a few different varieties at his place and they make a good screen. Check out this nursery's website for some ideas

[echnidna]

Paulonia is a very fast grower not sure if its evergreen

[pharmaboy2]

you need professional help I think!!!!!!

What to plant depends on soil how much depth of space you can use to layer a garden, is the ground wet or dry, can you water it, whats the most important thing to block etc. First things first, if you decide on native first up you have drastically reduced your option from the get go. of the natives, lilli pilly trees are about the only option for the big wall, and they like water.

there's alot to be said for the leylandi's - Naylors blue is a nice colour and yes they will grow big enough, especially if you make a big effort with deppening and improving the soil and maybe running some ag pipe straight off your gutters to give them some good watering during summer.

i have sme bamboo, and it would work also, but isnt as thick as cypress. whatver you do, using some nature reed type product on the fences first, planting in front, then putting water feature, statue etc in front of some bushes will draw the eye. Drawing the eye down towards features is a great way of hiding ugly things. pergolas also restrcit the view upwards and can help for the first 5 or 6 years.

Buy jamie Duries books, and maybe half a dozen of the landscape indoor outdoor magazines - consider it an investment in not stuffing up and wasting hundreds if not thousand of dollars on wrong plants and decks and various stuff.

[Clinton1]

there are screening trees that will be able to block that view in a few years time.

The con's of these trees are that because they are so fast growing, their root system also spreads quickly, sucking water out of the surrounding area. I'm thinking of my neighbours 4 year old, 5 meter trees that lifted my paving!

I guess you need to tell us, or your local nursery, the height needed to block the view, as well as the maximum space you want the tree to cover. (i.e. a line along the fence, out to a maximum of 3 meters from the fence, or whatever)

Another consideration is being able to improve the soil in that location and dumping some grey water into it... to generate better living conditions and to stop some of the root spread into other areas.

There are some great aussie natives that would do as well, but I guess first consideration is:
How high and how fast?

[Planned LScape]

Agonis flexuosa "Afterdark" is a good alternative to trees with nasty root systems- http://www.metrotrees.com.au/treehan...-flexuosa.html

It fits in well with contemporary designs, grows relatively fast, has nice colours and is pretty hardy too.

[Ivan in Oz]

Hi Ivan,
Clumping bamboo is something i'm intersted in to screen it...how high does it get and does it look like traditional bamboo?
Cheers Corinne

Clumping Bamboo are in MANY types,
it's just that they are nowhere near as invasive as running Bamboo.
http://www.calyx.com.au/bamboo.html
http://www.bambooland.com.au/catalogue_top10.htm

Some Victorian Bamboo Nurseries here
http://www.bamboo.org.au/nurseries.htm

And as pharmaboy2 said - Lilly Pillys
mine would be what was once called Eugenia Coolminiana now Syzygium oleosum, but perhaps to cold

[6weekstobaby]

Thanks all... will follow up with more research on your suggestions - must admit upfront - I'm not a big cypress/pine or pittosporum fan - just something about the look of them...

• Paulonia - had a quick look - deciduous.

• Lilly pillies- I keep reading conflicting stories.will check more, along with Agonis and bamboo

• Someone also mentioned Blueberry Ash....your thoughts?

Pharma-Boy - I keep thinking I need professional help as well...had a couple of quotes just to do detailed plans, no actual construction, and they were both well over $1000 - which I understand is because there is alot of thought etc involved, but part of me keeps thinking if i look at enough websites and books etc ( i already have 3 of Jamie's!!) I can do it myself. By the way, not mad on Jamies stuff - bit too try hard for my liking, I'm more into the natives with a bit of dry stone, clump of black boys, a deck and subtle water feature...Naturereed on fence - will do.

Soil type is sandy. Plenty of sun on this spot. Melbourne weather - fairly dry, about 800-1000mls annually i think, temp between 10 and 35 year round...

Re how high, how wide, how fast ...I reckon 6 metres high and fairly thick will block the view. The width of the back yard is about 8 metres and the bed depth - i guess we'd go standardish 1.5-2 metres? How fast? ...ideally 2-3 years before it starts getting up there

The are two established gums planted about 1.5 metres from the fence - i'm imagining the screeners will grow under them, so need to 'match'..the gums - you can see in the photo are already about 10+ metres high with stringy bark and no low branches.

I also read today that this idea of multi planting - underplanting the gums with one or two others gives more interst and more natural look than a row of same the plant.

Must also mention, i'm still under the impression that I wil somehow source all this stuff ont he cheap - grays, country nurseries etc and my husband will do all the work and we'll get the $30k garden for $5k...???Call me crazy

Thanks again..
Corinne

[6weekstobaby]

Thanks for that Nursery site link on screening - looking at it now, lots of good stuff!

[pharmaboy2]

going to go out on a limb here , but the gum trees in your piccy dont seem to screen anything but the sky, and probably add lots of leaf mulch to your gutters. There are good aspects to gum trees but nearly all of those occur either in forest or in woodwork sheds......

local knowledge is everything, Ihave no idea what grows around your parts well, but the local nurseries do, and backyards with healthy plants can tell you heaps as well - whats popular over long periods of time will usually remain so because they are well suited to the area. whatever you do, spend more money on soil improvment than on the plants, and just as much again on some irrigation (i'm afan of simpleinterrauption of downpipes flowing to where they are needed)

things dont like growing under gums either which is usually a problem - keep in mind that fast growing usually (not always) means growing sparsely and messy - I've managed a couple of times to get a nurseryman over for nothing after work during the week - usually after going in a few times, always buying something or other and building a relationship - and I certainly wouldnt pay a grand for a plan for such a small garden - maybe they are ex male dancers....

[Ivan in Oz]

going to go out on a limb here ,

Well Then LEAF it alone

Yes.
Local knowledge for what grows well.