Great advice - stop living until you have the money for a pool, after just buying the property, Ugh. Is that a curb cut and open access to your rear yard on the property on your northside? If it is a right-of-way that you can utilize during work on your property, you had better make it legal, as all the work will be more expensive if it has to come in on wheelbarrows along the northside of your own lot. If you have not read my responses to homeowners in the past, I'll try to give you a short version, so as not to take up time from those who will follow. If you want the full advice, email me at cascio.offsite@gmail.com If I cut off in the middle, I have had to leave Houzz, but I shall return. analyze first, then plan Start with the engineer's scale drawing of your new property. Blow it up to a comfortable size and walk around the neighborhood making notes of views into and out of your site from the outside and from within the house. Note all the utilities, above and below grade. Have everyone in the family, and regular visitors, make a private list of all the activities they would like to see located on your property, let no idea be unreasonable at this point. Have a landscape architect study what you have developed and prepare some initial studies or concept plans for your immediate need, the next few years as you get settled, then perhaps a long-range plan that will include your pool, if it is on your "wish list". That should get you productive so you are no longer in a quandry. Good luck, and make it fun!

Tell me about it, the ones across the road were going all day and night in the front yard, including revving up a motor bike they're not allowed to ride! my hubby wears flannie shirts when he's not in work gear. He likes ripping them, that's a trend that should end. of course, all Australian flag thongs (flip flops) are made in China!

Wow, can't believe this has suddenly reappeared. Yes, 8 years ago I was just starting on a very barren garden, mostly dug by a dog and totally neglected. Lots of prep work to be done because the builders of this house had buried everything from metres of plastic, to chunks of concrete to lunch boxes. Then Covid hit but I found a fantastic online nursery where I was able to buy a huge assortment of tubestock plants to keep me busy during all the lockdowns. The tubetock loved the sand to freely spread their roots and grew very quickly into a bush garden with lots of shade in summer, and many deciduous in winter to allow the sun to warm the house, seeds and nectar for a multitude of native birds and a lot of colour - somethign is always in flower. Maintaining it is keeping me pleasantly busy but active in my senior years and I've met so many locals who stop to admire and discuss the my plants.

Start by spending a portion of your budget on the various dream feature items that are relocatable and can be used in your final design anyway. e.g. Buy the firepit you really want - it can become the focal point of your future garden. Test it outside in your backyard for a few months. Are heaps of mozzies annoying you while you're sitting outside around the firepit? If so, then you'll know that you're going to need a gazebo with flyscreens as well as privacy curtains so you can really enjoy lying outside in your hammock year round. The hammock is another relocatable part of your design. First, lie outside in your backyard on a swag or a rug for a few hours. Is it too windy? Is there road noise? Keep experimenting until you've found the perfect location for the hammock. Then buy an inexpensive hammock and suspend it from a couple of sturdy RL4 poles. If it's working, then this is the place where you should build your future patio, that's going to shelter your hammock. Keep testing inexpensive versions of your other ideas out. Trial tea candles or a string of inexpensive white Christmas lights as garden lighting. Do they create the feel you want or do lights just attract moths or unwanted insects? What about relocatable solar garden lights? Or a portable floodlight from Bunnings? Where's the ideal place for your garden table and chairs? Test it out with inexpensive camping chairs - or chairs you already own for a few months to be sure. Then invest in the perfect outdoor table and chairs. Same with the water feature. Start with a wine barrel with a waterlily or a second hand pond off Gumtree. Can you hear the trickling water in the garden or do other noises crowd it out? Keep in mind big goldfish need deep water and space to swim. To help you in your choice of plants,look around your immediate neighbourhood. What purple, blue and scented plants are thriving in your immediate area? Who has the best garden in your street in your opinion - and why do you think that? Do you always see a particular neighbour passionately working outside in their garden? That's the person you should strike up a conversation with to get advise about suitable plants for your immediate area. Chances are they will not only give you heaps of free advise but they will probably give you plants and cuttings as well. Markets are another source of perennial plants that grow well in the local area. Plant these smaller plants into large plastic pots and garden bags and allow them to grow for a year or so. Consider herbs as filler plants - many are highly scented, can be used in cooking and often have interesting foliage e.g. choc mint, fennel, rosemary etc. After you've been using your backyard for at least a year and you've experienced all of the seasons, then invest in your big ticket items like your gazebo. Buy or build a structure that's truly practical for your local microclimate - incorporate glass, windbreak fencing, shadecloth, mozzie mesh or whatever you need to make your hammock shelter ultra comfortable. Build this structure where you've tested it and know it will work - not where a stranger who designs gardens thinks it should go. Spend the remaining money on the things you know you need and want - the stones, plants, irrigation, a birdbath, etc