Category

Front Garden

Aug 15 2018
Love0

6 Simple Landscape Ideas to Improve Your Front Yard

By Front Garden

People frequently ask us for simple ways that they can improve their front yards. Thankfully, years of experience have given us many ideas to share and in this post, you will find 6 straightforward, cost-effective ways that you can enhance the appearance of your front yard and your home. Add in vertical details A flowering vine climbing up a fence or a corner of the house; an ornamental tree with colorful annuals at its roots and tall flowers planted along the front of the house are all vertical details that can add a touch of class to an otherwise common…

Read More
Jun 20 2018
Love0

Front Yard Hill Landscaping Ideas

By Front Garden

An upward sloping front yard can be an eyesore without proper landscaping. Left to its own devices, it may soon become bare as erosion and a lack of water absorption thin out the plants that manage to grow there. The front yard is an important part of your home’s first impression on visitors and passers-by, so finding solutions to a front yard that slopes down to the house with landscaping is important. Ideas for Landscaping a Hill One common recommendation for landscaping a slope on a budget is to plant a hardy ground cover. This can work well with short…

Read More
Mar 21 2016
Love0

Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show 2016

By Backyard Garden Design, Events, Front Garden, Garden Design, Other, Plant Selections
The Normark team went to the 21st Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, below are our highlights from this year; The Greenery and Vivid Design Winner of 'Best in show' Using dramatic sense of scale, this is a deserved winner with stand out quality execution and attention to detail. Ian Barker Garden Design Gold Medal Softening perennial planting palette we have become accustomed to seeing from the Barker brand. The lake house was the standout out feature of the show for us. Garden Ridge Design Providing an intimate and inviting space, this garden comes into its own in the evening which...
Read More
Mar 10 2016
Love0

Ground Covers

By Front Garden, Garden Design, Landscaping Tips, Other, Plant Selections, Uncategorised
Ground covers are a great way of adding colour to your garden. They can be used in between trees, plants, pavers or as a feature in their own right. Ground cover by definition means the plants grow outwards rather than upwards and can often cover large areas. Some of the benefits of these plants are that they can help protect the soil from erosion, supress weed growth and are low maintenance, making them ideal for a low-maintenance garden. The range is diverse, from evergreen to annual, just make sure you assess the spot you have in mind and choose appropriately....
Read More
Jan 12 2016
Love0

Soil Misconceptions

By Front Garden, Landscaping Tips, Other, Uncategorised
Our industry association, Landscaping Victoria, held a conference on 'Soil in the Landscape' to help improve our knowledge of how to deal with soil in different situations. For several reasons there has been a misconception built over time where we have been advised to dig out the existing soil without consideration and import new organic soil, when in many cases we are better off using and treating the existing site soil. Senior Soil Scientist at SESL Australia has some tips on the process to undertake in assessing existing site soil and how to treat it correctly. o   Test soil PH...
Read More
Aug 18 2014
Love0

Climbers

By Backyard Garden Design, climber, Flower, Front Garden, Garden Design, Normark News, Small Garden Design, Uncategorized

At Normark we like our gardens to have a consistent pallet around the perimeter. This can be achieved in numerous ways but a cost effective and high impact solution can be installing a climber frame. It would be priority to paint all boundary fences with a dark colour exterior paint so that the green of the plants are exaggerated when growing up the mesh frame. We like to use the one plant type for the perimeter to provide an elegant backdrop for the garden.
Climbing frames can either be a steel weld mesh, timber lattice or stainless steel yachting wires. Material used will depend on the end result desired.
Have a look at some of these climbers, they look so much nicer than a plain fence.

Read More
Jun 30 2014
Love0

Red Hot Poker (kniphofia)

By Flower, Front Garden, Garden Design, Normark News, Plant Selections, Uncategorized

These vibrant flowers add a striking hit of colour over the winter period. The bold flower that sits atop of a long stem comes in colours ranging from red, yellow, orange and all variations in between. Originally from South Africa Red Hot Pokers are drought and heat tolerant and grow from 60cm to 2 metres in height.

These clump forming perennials attract local birds such as Rosellas to their tubular florets. Plant them in full sun where they will flower from May. Dead head continuously and they should flower all the way through winter into spring. Clean up leaves at the end of spring. They can be propagated by plant division, just remember to cut back late spring or autumn with crowns just above the ground.

Read More