Rockery Project

The aim was to convert the unsightly bank into a rockery garden. Garden beds would be built into the existing bank using bush rock and filled with garden soil. The existing soil consisted mainly of clay and rock and was extremely hard packed which made it extremely difficult to grow any plants.

We decided to plant native plants and we were interested in encouraging native birds back into the garden.

The first step was installing a drainage line in order to ensure the water was not trapped in the soil and garden beds.

This is a picture of the area prior to any work commencing.

This project ended up being around 70 meters in length and in some areas had 3 – 4 tiers high, it took around 2 years to complete from start to finish, mainly working on weekends and hand placing the rock.

Access to the rear of the house was very narrow so we were unable to use any machines to move the rock. The bush rock and soil were brought to the work site using heavy duty wheel barrows and trolleys for the larger rocks. Placing of larger rocks was done with the use of crow bars and generally placed on the bottom tier. Once we were closer to the end of the house, we were able to hire a small excavator to help with moving the larger rocks into position.

We have had our challenges with plants, especially over the last 3 years with drought conditions. You will notice some gaps in the garden where we have lost what we thought were established plants. Overall, the native plants that Goodearth supplied handled the hot dry conditions extremely well and are also just as hardy with our cold frosty winters.

Bush Rock, native soil and mulch were supplied and delivered by Goodearth. Once the bush rock deliveries started to arrive it snowed.