My garden needs a makeover. HELP!

My garden is a mess! I know summer is not the time to do major garden renovation but I need to start planning.

We need to rip all the plants out and start again. Problem is DH and I are not the gardening types. I am a total brown thumb - everything I touch in the garden dies!

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Front garden faces south. We live in Melbourne and have clay-type soil. I want plants that are child-friendly, low allergenic, low maintenance and don't attract bees - and oh, don't die if they get neglected because that is bound to happen. On the eastern side is a high fence so something that would cover that would be good. Most of the garden runs along the front fence which is about 150cm high - picket, you can see through it.

Back yard faces north but there are large areas of shade - the garden beds runs along the eastern boundary - again a high fence.

Court yard too has a small garden bed and faces east - mainly gets morning sun.

Would dearly love a herb garden too - what are the most indestructible easy to care for herbs.

Looking forward to some advice,
Thanks
TICKLISH

Ticklish my husband and i had a simmilar Brown Thumb reputation in our family.

We have just done over our front yard and I must say it looks fantastic and 8 months later it is not only still alive but thriving.

I suggest that you go to your local nursery and talk to them about your requirements and be honest about your level of commitment to care (in my house we are LAZY when it comes to this stuff)...

I have a great plant called a hebe which the nursery told us was basically a self reliant plant all I had to do was plant and it would grow - and it has..

I also planted roses as they are relatively low care and we have beautiful flowers on them - just spray them for afids and black spott and dead head them and they have trippled in size..

You also need to take into drought tolerance..

One more thing it surprised me at how expensive it can work out...

Oh Oh one more thing mulch like there is no tommorow as it stops (or really minimises) the dreaded WEEEEEDS!!!

Hi there
Have only just seen your post. Am in Melb too, in a house with south facing front yard and north facing back yard. We have spent last couple of years improving both gardens with some hits and misses! Our criteria for front was nice looking, low allergen, native, drought tolerant plants which will give privacy and bush up to give the feeling of not being in the burbs. Lots of options available.
As a starting point I would strongly suggest spending a little bit of time and money on improving soil if you can. Most plants espec drought tolerant native type plants dont like clay.
You will prob need to add and dig in some (alot! depending on how clay the soil is) gypsum and other organic material. Its also worth digging through some water saving/holding crystals. It will depend a little bit on what plants you select as to exactly what you need to add, some soils like acidic soils, some like alkaline soil.
Go and talk to your local garden supplies, they will have some suggestions, its cheaper to get materials in bulk from places like that than in bags from somewhere like bunnings.
In looking at low maintenance low water plants - think grey foliage copes better in heat.
Succulents such as sedums like shade and cope well with minimal water too.
I have had great success with correa alba in my front yard, they are under the eaves and get minimal sun. They have bulked up . Certain native grasses manage on minimum sun too.
Along front fence you prob can't go wrong certain natives such as geraldton wax or westringia (there are various kinds of each). I have both in my garden. They both flower almost all year but I must admit I have not noticed a heap of bees. They both bulk up and could be hedged, eventually they will give a great deal of privacy. They could be utilised in the back yard too along your eastern fence if you wanted a uniform hedge. They both do need a trim from time to time which is a worthy investment of time in the early years to stop them getting leggy.
Kyliehd is right, the hebes are good although some do have flowers which are very bee attracting. Talk to your local nursery guy.
sounds silly but have a drive around your local area and take pics of plants you like and which are thriving in similar positions to your garden too. that process can really help.
Re the herb garden - again, improve your soil if you can with manure/organic matter. Most resilient plants most of the year for me, which are planted under the back window facing due north getting sun pretty much all day - sage, big leaf parsley, chilli, mint (grows like a weed if you would let it!). There are some seasonal herbs which need a bit more care but which we use alot - eg basil.
Insofar as cost is concerned, it is worth checking out wholesale nurseries who sell direct to the public, also the site gardenexpress is very well priced for certain things. If you can wait its much cheaper to plant smaller sized plants rather than bigger more developed pots - alot of the plants i have mentioned are very fast growing. Also if you buy a number of plants together you can often squeeze a discount from your local retailer.
Good luck!
Belinda.

just a quick note , some of the hebes can be really bad for bees so if you want to avoid bees id avoid a hebe. Shame cause they do have a pretty flower and are pretty resiliant

We've just moved back into our house after 5 years of having tenants in it and my garden needs a makeover too!

We'll start with treating the whole yard with wettasoil (to improve the amount of water that goes into the ground - you might need to think about putting down claybreaker if you're on heavy clay) then next we'll weed and dig over all the garden beds. Next we'll get a truck load of high grade organic compost - and spread that over the beds. Final layer will be some organic mulch - I'm thinking something like peastraw which is fairly cheap here but will rot down and improve the soil further. We'll think about a more permanent mulch-layer later on once the soil's a bit healthier.

Finally we'll remove all the dead plants, and give a light trim to anything that's likely to survive. By that stage it will be getting on to late summer/early autumn and we can decide what we're going to plant into the gaps we have.

Good luck, enjoy the process!

Thanks for all the great advice gals.

No for the hard slog - getting out in the garden and getting some work done.

TICKLISH

My garden desperately needs a makeover.. luckily my sister has just finished her horticulture degree and she is going to design me a gorgeous garden and basically do all the work for me.

You could try calling Melb Uni Burnley campus where they study horticulture, and try offering your garden free for a uni student to come in and design for you for one of their projects? You might still end up having to do all the work, but they might (not sure though) tell you what to plant and how to fix the soil etc?

Really Yael - are there students out there in desperate need of a garden project? PLEASE HAVE MINE!!! I might have to try that!

I'll ask my sister after work what kinds of projects they had...

otherwise you could pay a little for a grad student just to do the design and talk to you about what you want out of your garden, analyise your soil type etc, and tell you how to do the work, but you do the actual physical labour of digging everything up, fixing the soil, replanting etc.