FROM BARE TO BEAUTIFUL

A naked wall is just looking for attention – so give it a new garden bed with lush plantings, then spruce up your side passage, too!

1 TINY BUT TOUGH

Try this compact form of coastal rosemary, called ‘Zena’. It comes out with dainty little mauve or white flowers during spring.

2 MAKE IT GRAND!

You’ll love the velvety bronze undersides to the rich green leaves of the evergreen magnolia ‘Teddy Bear’. Its large and gloriously creamy flowers appear in early to late summer.

3 YOU’RE WELCOME

Be strategic with your garden furniture – an arch hints at something exciting beyond!

4 WISE CHOICE

Clumps of salvia ‘Blue Cloud’ will turn out these flower spires up to 1m tall all summer. Then, in winter, the leaves can turn a lovely burnished purple.

5 CASTING SHADE

Grey is always a great backdrop and helps other colours to pop – like the bronze on the magnolia trees, the creamy gardenia flowers and the hints of purple from the yet-to-explode statice.

There may be part of the garden you never visit as there’s nothing you want to see or do there. You can change all that by creating a small garden bed with huge wow factor. Add colour with deep purple heucheras and soft purple statice, bring in perfume with gardenias and enjoy glamour with a couple of evergreen magnolias. Then add an arch and stepping stones to turn that boring side passage into an inviting garden path, and voila! You’ve just created a space you’ll visit more. PS, an easy-install automated irrigation system keeps your new plants healthy.

EASY STEPS TO YOUR GARDEN BED AND SIDE PATH

Here’s how

STEP 1 Measure up to 1.5m into lawn from wall edge and mark with landscape spray at 1m intervals. Join up marks.