John and Shirley an inspiration to all!

Im going to write little bit about my neighbours as there garden is much more fascinating than my own. John and Shirley moved to my street in October 2010. Their kids live in the area and they thought it was time to be close to them. They have moved here from Inveloch which seems funny to me as I always imagined retiring to the country.

They are a very sweet couple and they are crazy keen gardeners, especially shirley!;they're so enthusiastic about their relatively new garden, and were super excited to tell me all about it. John is in his 80's but he is very fit and not afraid of a little hard work.  they have quite a small paved back yard but they are trying to create a lush full feeling out there. in the front yard there used to just be a  Weeping or Ornamental cherry which they have kept but everything else they have planted themselves and  this includes:  Pitosporum angulatem, Hardenbergia, Asparagus densiflorous fern, Nandina, Magnolia grandiflora, Cordyline austarlis, Abelia shulmanii so they have planted a lot and that's just in the front and down the side. they also had an entire side fence covered in Hedra helix which was pulling the fence down. They have pulled that away, but it's a pretty persistent little vine and is still trying hard to conquer.



In the backyard  they have planted Callistemon, geranium, port wine magnolia wild rasberry  hibiscis hibbertia scandens. native wahlenbergia, so you can imagine it's starting to look pretty amazing. If i had such a bare uninspired space i'm not sure I would of had their vision. they made a very small vegie patch and planted a few herbs when they moved but they started to sprout and then all died.  so they are convinced the soil in contaminated in some way. maybe from  the paint from the fence so they are trialing a few other things and then they might change the soil entirely. i will speak to them this week and we can see how it's all going.