E&S are the proud parents of two cats.  Fundamentally these are indoor cats but a creative outdoor enclosure has been built to one side of the house with the cats able to exit though special holes in internal cupboards and out through a weatherboard exterior.

Shelves, scratching poles, vantage points, tunnels, and grasses are the ingredients of their netted outdoor playground. Protection for the native birds. Protection for them.

As our garden tour moved down one side of the house we looked at a row of newly planted clumping bamboos which, when grown, will provide an excellent visual barrier and help reduce the impact of wind.

Opposite the bamboo established non-edible plants await removal before a range of citrus trees will be planted.

Out the front, the ground has been shaped with swales (check out this site to learn how to build a swale). S kept mentioning how he used an A frame to determine where the swales should be constructed. Watch this video for the process.

Once the contours were found, and the earth relocated, deep mulch was added to hold water when it moves down the slope. As the basis for a food forest, a plethora of trees and other plants will cover the area. A large Chilli plant, raspberry canes, and apricot, apple, pear, greengage plum, and olive trees are some of the recent plantings.

Without doubt an enormous amount of work has gone into the development of this garden. Others like me will have gone away from this garden tour awed by the inspiration that this project provides. Thanks E&S. Certainly I am motivated to make changes in my own garden; in particular it is time I considered creating swales on my sloping block. My suburb of Bellerive is exceptionally dry for most of the year, therefore any moisture I can help the ground retain has to be of benefit to my fruit trees – and should reduce my watering bill.