Evolution of a garden landscape

Much can change in a year and a half. Especially when it comes to the garden landscape.

Over the past 18 months, my front yard has undergone a metamorphosis of sorts: from being a flat lawn with nothing but a Guava tree, to two planters spanned by an archway — one side draped with trellisful of passionfruit, and the other side, lush mounds of lavender taking off like a few hundred rockets.

It all started with a large pile of clay soil on the west side of the house. Whether the clay was of the Perch-gleyed Albic Ultic Soil (Claystone) or Mottled Yellow Ultic Soil (Sandstone) variety was inconsequential — it was neither silty nor loamy, and hence, virtually useless. When wet, it's boggy and compacted, with severe lack of aeration and drainage; and when dry, it's hard as concrete.

Hoping for a quick fix and perhaps a bit of overnight magic, I'd attempted to prepare the soil by scattering gypsum and working the fine white powder into the clumps of clay that were hard as rock. Within days, various greens such as bokchoy, kale, silverbeet, spinach, asian greens were planted into the newly worked soil. Though the project started out feasible, it was clear within a few weeks that the seedlings found their habitat inhospitable, most falling limp except for the Kale, which carried on without fuss.

The vegetables half-dead and the clay soil sitting idle once again, I commissioned a planter, then two. The vision was to put the clay to some use by mixing it with potting mix and compost. The first planter was filled with 1/2 clay and 1/2 potting mix and compost, and a trellis was installed on one side of the new archway spanning the two planters. The young passionfruit was eventually planted into its new home in September 2020, and a year later has taken over the trellis and grown to the top of the arch.

The second planter had the same clay, potting mix, and compost components, but included a layer of gravel filling the bed of the box. Over the next year and a half, this second planter housed bulbs, sweet peas and finally lavender — all the plants exceeding expectations, flourishing with passion and gusto, as if fed on some kind of plant steroids. No gardener could've ask for better results.

The sweetpeas seeds harvested from the batch I'd grown the previous year were sown directly into the planter. And between November and February, they grew to 2 metres tall and flowered like mad, their heavenly perfume laced the air daily. I'd never had such a strong and successful season of the Lathyrus odoratus. By April, the sweetpeas were pulled, and three scraggly lavender plants introduced in their stead.

No more than 6 months later, the lavenders — traditionally known for favouring the dry, sandy or silty loamy soils, with love of blazing hot sun and fast drainage — also bloomed as if they were the last lavenders on earth. Along with these intense purple eye candies that perfume the air and make the heart glad, the bees have also come abuzz. At any given moment on a warm sunny day, there are usually between 10-20 bees doing their business with this Mediterranean plant specie.

There are plants that thrive in the plain acidic clay soil, such as tough herbaceous plants like clivia, hostas, paeonies and daylilies, as well as roses, hydrangea, philadlelphus, and natives such as pittosporum, pseudopanax, flax, oioi and manuka. For most other plants, clay could be a deadly deadweight, but it doesn't have to be. In fact, clay can produce something of a miracle if combined with mulch, potting mix, compost, gypsum, sand and other ingredients, and also making drainage a top priority.

Much has happened over the past 18 months, and I've discovered that some difficult, hard conditions can in fact "alchemically" transform the front yard, as well as my spirit, from paltry bareness to richness and beauty, if a few dollars are spent and a bit of work is done.