🌱 Tour a pretty DIY garden filled with perennials & veggies in the suburbs - Behind the Garden Gate

In the busy northern inner suburbs of Melbourne, the owners of this garden have transformed it in just two years to be a productive paradise filled with veggies, fruit trees and lots of plants. I'm Chloe from Been There, Dug That. Let's go behind the garden gate. We're in Coburg North, an inner northern suburb of Melbourne. The owners Ting and purchased this property two years ago and they were drawn to it because of its large and established fruit trees. But the rest of the garden was quite overrun in parts and other spots just lacked colour and movement. But look what they've created now. There's so much colour and life in this garden now and Ting doesn't shy away from things of bright colours. Check out this angel's fishing rod. You can really see where it gets its name These large established trees were already here over on the nature strip and they do a great job of buffering the house from the busy road beyond. So it makes us feel like we're in a really private little oasis here. I also love that Ting and Hannes haven't shied away from using every vertical space. I can spot climbers everywhere. On some rusted old panels there's a choco vine that pops up every year and it gives them plenty of chocos as well. It might be hard to spot them because there are so many plants spilling out of them, but in this space there are four raised veggie beds and it's really important that these are raised because underneath us is really heavy clay soil which makes growing and establishing things near impossible. But the raised beds solve that really well. I love how they've put their own stamp on this garden. There's plenty of DIY features everywhere like this really eclectic but really practical tomato frame and Hannes also turned his hand to a lot of DIY projects. Over here in the before photos you'll notice that there's a kid's cubbyhouse of sorts but he's repurposed the timber to create a two-bed composting system which provides them with the compost that they need for their veggies. I love just how choco block all of the veggie beds are. Ting is even happy to let things that pop up from the homegrown compost keep growing in the garden which means that come summer time the footpaths often disappear beneath cucumbers and tomatoes and zucchinis that just spill out everywhere. But it doesn't matter, the more plants the better. One of my favourite things about making these videos for you guys to inspire you for things in your own gardens is that I also take home some tips and advice. I've always shied away from growing artichokes at my place because they can be such huge plants but check out what Ting's done here by removing the lower leaves. She's given herself planting space beneath them but she can still enjoy their flowers and so can the bees. How's this for a side-by-side example of two different climbing structures for plants. Here we've got the metal frame structure that you can buy from any good garden centre and Hannes's DIY version with the stick teepee. This is something that they prefer in this space so they're moving away from the cage. But which style suits your garden better? Beneath the teepee I can spy a Malabar spinach which over the heat of summer it will climb up this frame and in here it looks like a cherry tomato. There's a great use of a thick mulch path here that helps suppress weeds and give you somewhere dry to walk. Also I love the addition of this blue stone edging. They picked up these second hand from Facebook Marketplace and they really help to define the edges of the beds and also raise it up a bit so they can improve the soil where they need to. This north-facing sun-filled front yard is home to so many fruiting trees and plants. Let's take a look at what I can spot. So we've got an orange right down the back, a plum, a fajoa, a choco growing over the fence, a big old almond tree here that's not doing too well but it might come good and an olive tree just to mention a few. I'm sure there's some I've missed. Ting admits she's got a bit of a thing for grasses and in this space alone I can spot three different types. This themata here is just magic and its seed heads are so floaty and soft and the contrast between the floaty seeds heads of the grasses and the pretty perennials is just beautiful. They didn't originally like this large expanse of concrete but I think you'll agree that they've done a great job of softening it by the addition of things like the salt bush and the daisies that really cascade over the edges. It's still a functional driveway space but who knows it might become a spot where kids want to play basketball one day. With the addition of some Rio mesh this plain timber fence is now a green wall covered in creepers and these seaside daisies are just spectacular, super hardy as well. Now as we head into the backyard we have to make mention of this stunning yellow flowering grevillea. This was in the original garden and I think they've done a wonderful job of keeping it and doing it justice. This beautiful old established grapevine creates a lovely tunnel that welcomes us into the backyard. It's also doing quite a good job of coming over to these rainwater tanks that they moved from the other side of the garden to give them more growing space. It really opens back up here. It's really pretty, there's loads of plants, of course a few more veggie beds taking advantage of those sunny spots back here. This shadier pocket is created thanks to this established mulberry and another plum tree and down here are some great plants. One of my favourites is the oak leaf hydrangea. I love its elongated flower heads and the leaves in their own right are a real feature. And speaking of planting pockets, back here they've used plenty of raised garden beds as well and there's lots of variation. Over here it looks like some corten steel edging, I can see timber and I can even see recycled edging as well. This back deck gives us a lovely different perspective over the garden and it's obviously a nice spot to sit and relax but the view from that kitchen window is one of their favourites and I can see why. This covered patio off the back door really gives you that indoor-outdoor room vibe and there's plenty of plants in here that we'd normally see growing inside but it's a spot to sit, relax and admire your garden. You might notice that the grapevine and the apricot are laden with fruit and Ting tells me that to protect it from birds they will need to net it but they will do that after we've finished filming. There's some lovely little planting pockets over here. Here again is the corten steel edging that's containing a mixture of plants. There's some love in a mist, there's a maple above us and some more grasses but one of the things that I've seen Ting do a few times around the garden is plant directly into the so it seems like a plant is emerging out of it for a pop of green and that's what's happened with this bamboo here. The backyard has a lovely cottage vibe to it with traditional perennial borders filled with flowers and of course more grasses and I think this ties in really really nicely with the old style shed behind me. Check out this monster tree dahlia, its trunk must be as thick as my arm and when it flowers its big arching flowers come right out from the top. It's really pretty, it's something that's also a feature from the kitchen window. Well this has got to be the cutest little chook run I have ever seen. This is home to five chickens and as you can see they are very very happy in this little home. The run extends around the back of the shed so they've got plenty of space as well as their sweet little hutch. Now even though everything isn't yet in flower in the height of summer there will be flowers everywhere and combined with that movement from the grasses it's just beautiful. Even with the raised bed planting underneath these large established trees has proved tricky and I can see based on the little tags that Ting has tried a few different plants clearly some of which have not survived so she's instead gone with plenty of hardy grasses with their shallow fibrous roots and added some vertical interest this time with a thunbergia or black eyed susan vine. I hope you've enjoyed this tour around this highly productive and very pretty garden in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. Let me know which was your favourite plant or favourite feature of this garden in the comments down below. Don't forget to like and subscribe because I've got plenty more garden tours coming your way. See you next time!