Our third Garden Rescue Makeover kicked off again this morning bright and early. We surprised winner Chelsea from Bonbeach with the Mix 101.1 Breakfast Crew, and met her partner, dogs and friendly neighbor too. Everyone was pretty excited at the prospect of heading over to the beach after transforming Chelsea’s garden, so we got stuck into it in record time.

Chelsea had been in her place for about 4 months and had a large garden slowly taking shape around the house on all sides, but the dry spell had given her several problems to tackle. The area she sent in for the competition was beside her back door, where some hydrangeas had been totally parched to a crisp with the lack of water.

After clearing out the dead plants, Chris had a relatively clean slate to work with. As the area was neatly square against a straight fence, with a straight path running alongside, Chris decided on a formal design with some softer elements such as weeping trees to compliment the country feel given off by the weatherboard house and surrounds.

Being close to the ocean, Chelsea’s soil mostly consisted of black sand. What she had struggled with in trying to keep her garden alive over the dry spell was the fact that water was running off and not soaking down deep into the soil. We applied several doses of Devotion Liquid Soil Wetter and also worked some manure and soil mix into the ground to give it more organic matter to hold moisture and nourish the plants. Our faithful Mix 101.1 garden gnome used his expert watering skills to give the ground a good soaking.

Chris carefully laid out all the plants and ensured they lined up neatly, as spacing and symmetry are important in a formal style garden. The bed was edged with an English Box border, and featured two Weeping Mulberry Trees, Standard Lilly Pillies, and small growing Gold Star Pittosporums. In between were flowering groundcovers Seaside Daisy Spray and Blue Margueritte.

After planting, the bed was topped off with some mulch to keep the moisture in and a final thorough water. The result was a total transformation of a dead section of garden into a small paradise that lends inspiration to the rest of Chelsea’s evolving garden.

We went out early again this morning with the crew from the Mix 101.1 Breakfast Show to surprise the second winner of our Garden Rescue Makeover Competition, running this week. We met Rebecca from Greensborough and her lovely children, plus their friends plus her helpful neighbors and the cat! It was a warm atmosphere. As everyone departed for work and school we were left to create the garden transformation.

Rebecca has recently moved into her current home and the garden had gotten out of hand under the previous owner. With the recent dry spell, everything was looking a bit crisp. The area Rebecca sent in for the competition was beside her front path, and there was some great potential, with a number of nice established natives among the straggly and overgrown bits.

We started by cleaning out all the straggly and overgrown plants two metres to the left of the path, to create the space for our new garden section. When Chris checked the soil it was largely clay and nearly rock hard, so we also watered in plenty of Devotion Soil Wetter and Organic Clay Breaker.

Chris then did the hard yakka turning the earth in preparation for the new plants. Our faithful Mix 101.2 garden gnome kept the watering going to soften and hydrate the soil. Then we topped up the bed with 1 cubic metre of soil mix to give the young plants some nourishing space to get established.

Chris chose 3 main features for the garden – a beautiful weeping birch, an Indian spruce and a cluster of 3 large agaves. Tying everything together were smaller plants in silver shades including tussock grasses, blue chalk sticks, lamb’s ear, and silver dichondra. Red fountain grass provided a contrasting accent.

Topping it all off was 1 cubic metre of black mulch, which really made the colours in the new garden section come to life. More thorough watering and the garden was done, ready to surprise Rebecca and the kids when they arrived home from work and school. The new section worked great with the existing garden while adding some much needed fresh life.

This morning Chris and the crew from the Mix 101.1 Breakfast Show got up bright and early to surprise lucky and lovely Vickie from Fairfield, who was the first winner of our Garden Rescue Makeover Competition running this week.

Vickie has created an urban organic oasis in her small backyard, complete with chooks, dogs, custom built compost bins and a bounty of home grown fruits and veggies. However the recent dry spell has killed off several plants, and the task of tending to such a paradise had left Vickie with some overgrown and neglected corners.

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Chris spotted a corner with some overgrown and frazzled Monstera which had split its pots and rooted deep into the ground. Just next to this tangled mess was Vickie’s outdoor setting, so Chris decided to create a nicer space for Vickie to enjoy surveying the rest of her well-loved garden from.

First we had to remove the offending Monstera and its chunky roots, and apply a good soak of Devotion Soil Wetter to the area and water it in. This began the process of softening and re-hydrating the soil. Chris marked out a curved garden bed beneath the partial shade of a large established Grevillea robusta. He then shoveled and turned the soil in the bed area and added more soil wetter, which was again watered in by our handy Mix FM garden gnome.

To give the new plants some root space of their own, we ordered 1 cubic metre of premium soil blended with mushroom compost to create a raised bed just under 1ft high. Some large rocks in the existing garden placed throughout the bed provided interest and structure. More soil wetter and a good watering were applied, as we found the soil was also dried from the hot weather and was “hydrophobic” – tending to repel water.

Chris selected 4 small growing trees to star in Vickie’s new garden: an Emperor Mandarin, a Pink Weeping Cherry, a Crimson Sentry Maple and a Yucca Sculpture. This relatively eclectic mix echoed Vickie’s existing living patchwork garden. To tie these together Chris selected a more limited pallet of low shrubs, grasses and succulents for filling in the bed around the trees. These included Blue Chalk Sticks, Dwarf Nandina, Knotted Rush Grass and Black Mondo Grass.

We finished the bed with half a cubic metre of pine bark to blend it with the rest of the garden, prevent erosion and assist with water retention. The finished product looked great and Vickie was very happy with the change and lift in her backyard. Chris gave her a premium wide hose and rosette nozzle to help her get through the remaining dry weather, and in return Vickie gifted us with some of her lovely home-grown produce. Thanks Vickie!

When we arrived at Dianne’s place Marie & I jumped out with big trays of mauve, purple and white primula that looked fantastic. We walked into the garden and Dianne who was at the gate burst into tears. She told us she’d had a terrible year, she had lost her husband a year ago and 4 months later had moved into a small unit and she was missing her old home. She hadn’t been well and hadn’t been able to make the garden in the unit nice, so this was a big thing for her.

We went to work and mixed in plenty of peaty planting mix, as parts of the bed were dry powdery sand. This will break it up and allow better moisture penetration and holding. I then planted a large 4ft tall Standard Lilly Pilly at either end of the bed, then a border of Japanese Spindle bush around the bed and the white lavender and purple primula in the middle of the garden. This garden is small and easy to dig and we thought that the best way to have colour in a bed like that all year round is by planting annuals twice a year. I expect the Primula will finish by late September and we told Dianne to plant some Petunias, as these will flourish until the next Primula or Viola season.

Dianne is a feisty lady and she hopped in and helped us do the garden. She put on a lovely afternoon tea, which was great as we had skipped lunch to get all the things together for the garden, and sent us each away with a big hug a kiss. Just as we left, Dianne’s daughter, son-in-law and 10-year-old grand daughters arrived. We asked the grand daughters what they thought of the garden and they said “Awesome”.

Barbara and Mick recently retired to a house with no garden in Hastings. They have begun planting their garden up and are trying to achieve an attractive low maintenance garden. In the front in the porch area, where they sit under the veranda, it looked a bit flat so we decided to place two striking pots and plants there. We chose two tall ripple pots in brilliant green dappled with black streaks and we planted two large silver/grey giant Agave into them. Agave have a very structural look and gave the garden a strong focal point.

My idea when decorating an area with pots is to use large visually exciting pots and plants that really make a statement. Too many small pots can create a cluttered look with no real impact.

Barbara was excited that they won the garden makeover as Mick had a massive heart attack a year ago, and since then they have had a tough time where they have had to completely reorganise their lives from working in their own real estate business to retirement and a carer’s roll. But this week Barbara felt their luck had changed as they won Burgos bunch for lunch and then a Chris & Marie’s mini makeover. Barbara and Mick are a lovely couple, we enjoyed our visit, our morning tea and the makeover and we hope their luck has changed.