Thanks for asking.. I am so happy.. the house was so decayed so we decided to rebuild the same look of a 100 year old cottage but move all the living to the front for the river view.. so happy we did it and went for light grey and white and yellow.. so pleased and we have people in the park comment.. we could not go any bigger because of council and flood zone but it makes it special as it is. Some pictures I just took.. I took a picture of the outlook so you can see why it feels just right.. still work to do as in the gardens and just finding the right plants to put in as it is full sun. Will ask for help on that one too to make it feel cottagey but not block the view. Thanks again for asking. Karen

Maria, I have used street tree mulch, a few different stones, with one being river stones, in two sizes where I get mine from and one called tuscan, available in a few sizes too and I've also used woodchips and there appears to be no stand out winner or looser, nor have I found that the stone beds cause any sort of harm to the plants, even though I agree with @geluka that the very nature of stones would suggest that they would get hot. Providing none of the mulch is right up against the trunk or base of your plants, midesign0401's suggestions are all perfect, but as far as the cheapest for your rental, woodchips or street tree mulch but as will all light mulches like this, the birds will move them around and it would be advantageous to have a border of some description to try to hold them in, otherwise if you cant or don't have that, then I'd have to suggest stone as it stays exactly where it's put and birds don't disturb it at all either. I have attached a few photo's, the first two of which have the different stones river and tuscan respectively and the last photo has wood chips. You can see in the first photo that I have limestone blocks, mainly as a pretty border to accomodate the raised beds but in the last photo it hold in the wood chips. The second photo has the tuscan pebbles so the limestone edging is much lower and the beds of which there are five, are not raised much at all as they border the driveway.

Be aware that artificial turf can get very hot underfoot. You could lay a narrow old brick or limestone paver path to clothes line for easy access and plant ground covers or low profile herbs (eg.oregano and thyme) to use in cooking. Hardy herbs or flowers such as rosemary, lavender, geraniums against the edges of the space toward the back. Even add some large long troughs of flowers on the retaining wall to pretty up the area. It looks like it could get quite warm there but maybe a jasmine or similar climber to climb up a frame attached to the part of the large wall where there is no clothes line. Good luck, it will be a lovely space I'm sure once you get started.

Thanks Anne and I will look at pale grey given the maintenance considerations. I have already paid for a colour consultant who was great but the Reckless grey she suggested for the house render and basalt gutters/fascia and front wall were too grey when we had the render samples put on and while it had a modern look, it was not giving the beach/coastal feel. I will head back into our inspirations paint store this morning to see if I can find the warm grey colours that have the most similar colour make up to Dune, and go from there. Anne you don't happen to know the dulux colour most close in composition to Colorbond Dune so I know where to start? Thanks again and I would love to hear from anyone who has got a dune roof and hear if they tried light coloured gutters and what render colours they have used on their walls.