In my opinion we were lucky that our backyard consisted of weeds, rubble and dead or unsightly plants because this gave us a blank canvass to work with! So the planning began. My partner has no interest in gardening but unfortunately still has opinions about everything so there was some negotiating to do. Thankfully I pretty much got my way :). He wanted more lawn and small plants (so as to not cover up our beautiful?? shed and green corrugated iron south wall?!) We did compromise on this and the Boronia, Grevillea and Philotheca along the shed are all smaller plants than I would have chosen, but I seemed to get away with planting larger plants on the south wall. My partner had no preference on plant type and I wanted natives to bring some birds to our inner city suburb dwelling (and because I love natives). And they are certainly bringing in the birds! The north side of our garden (left) gets full sun practically all day and I’ve always wanted to grow at least some of the food we eat so this was perfect for a couple of veggie boxes and fruit trees. The potted plant near the shed window is a passion-fruit which was given to us for our house-warming and the ideal place to plant this is against the north fence (near the shed) but unfortunately the house next door to us has been demolished so I’m hoping this little guy will survive in a pot for a while until the new fence is built and it can finally have it’s own patch of ground. I’ve tried to give it away but no-one seems to want a passion-fruit vine :(. Hang in there little guy, you’ll be loving life soon! The natives along the south wall will all grow 1-2 metres tall and despite the boggy, clay soil they are so far loving life.
We have grand plans to build a new shed and create an outdoor entertainment area when we are rich (in say 15 years time!), but until then the little things like watching the Boronia spring into bud and planting new crops of veggies bring me so much joy.
I wish I got an earlier before photo – believe it or not this was after a fair bit of clearing and removing some of the rubble that was our backyard, but you get the gist.
The left side of our garden is the edible side where we’ve got our lemon tree, lime tree and 2 veggie boxes. The rest of the garden is natives apart from the magnolia in the corner which we saved from my brothers garden before he demolished his house. It has been an absolute joy to watch this transformation and see our hard work (which I personally don’t see as work because I love it!) pay off.
Some of the many plants that have been planted in our ‘blank canvas’.
Gardener Jen 
Your canvass is no longer blank (or to be less charitable, no longer an eyesore!). Instead it’s being transformed into an inner city oasis! Brilliant.
I love transformations, especially of the garden variety. Nicely done. What is that large, beige cylinder shape in the before photo?
Thanks! I should take another photo from this angle. Everything’s so much bigger now! The beige cylinder is a water tank which we rescued (and were kindly given permission to rescue) from my brothers house before he demolished it. It’s sitting near our woodshed now (a much more appropriate spot than the middle of the path!).
Ah…I see. Does it collect rain water?
It might be fun to take a photo once a year. I started doing that after we landscaped the front garden to incorporate a ramp. It’s amazing how it fills in.