During the Christmas break in 2018 I decided to replace an old and crumbling retaining wall at home with a new timber one, and use this as a lean-to for building materials. The last two photos should be the first two ones, sadly I'm not clever enough to move them....

Sounds crazy, but we got soooo busy in 2018, that we never had time to update the blog to show you some of the projects we got stuck into at the end of 2017 and in 2018.
So here are the highlights!
This was a gazebo we built late in 2017 in Havelock North, it replaced an exisiting gazebo that had been removed earlier.

We spent a large part of March creating a new garden for clients in Parklands, the design for this garden was done by someone else, and was modified to suit the client as we put everything together.
We built 8 raised planter boxes to start with....

Once these were built and in place, we then started on a corner pergola, and a concrete pad for a spa pool, complete with posts to hold custom made trellis panels.

While we were doing this, we also started on laying the brick garden edges, once again we used old red bricks for that wonderful aged look.

Once the edges were all installed, the spaces between the planters were layed, and the trellis panels installed as well.

We also started work on the front fence and gate, a path behind and next to the house, and the corner pergola/patio area.

Once the pickets were attached to the fence, and the plants were planted, it looked lovely, and the finishing touch of the archway over the gate was superb!

A very late blog post for February, it's even quite late for March!
We have been very busy as usual with our regular garden clients of course, especially after the rains finally did come in February and everything started growing like mad.
We've also been busy with a couple of landscaping projects as well in the last two months, and the first one was a solution to make the best use of a very impractical area below a carparking area.
The first part was putting a lot of posts in the ground....a lot of posts.... 

Part two was fitting tanalised board to the posts to create the retaining walls for the soil and compost to go into.

After that we had to build some steps at the bottom of the wall to enable access from both top and bottom. 

Once the building part was all finished, we left the soil to settle for a few weeks, and then came back and planted the gardens and installed some nice schist stepping stones.

2017 started with a great project for clients in Hastings, replacing a tired old broken concrete path with recycled old red bricks. These are some photos of the old path as it was.

Once the old path was broken up and removed, the area was dug out to allow for a basecourse and sand to be put in to give the bricks a solid base.

Basecourse was put in and compacted.....

Once that was done, it was time to start concreting in the outside rows of bricks, to secure the bricks in place.

And then it was finally time to start laying bricks properly!

And this is what it looked like when it was finished!

We would like to thank all our clients for their support this year, and wish all of you a fantastic 2017.

2016 has been a great year for The Real Garden Company, at the start of the year we were still operating with just 3 of us, and over the last 12 months we have grown to 5 of us, as well as using a large number of hard working back packers on some of the larger projects.

None of that could have happened without the ongoing support of all of our regular clients, and it certainly couldn't have happened without the hard work and commitment of everyone working for The Real Garden Company.

Thank you all very much for this, and we're looking forward to what 2017 has in store for us! 

The last few months of 2016 have been extremely busy for us, and we have worked on a few projects that we haven't had time to put on the blog.
Now the year has ended it's time to share some more photos of these jobs.
This was a very nice replacement of an old ponga log wall which was starting to fall apart.
​The owner decided he loved the look of the logs so much, he wanted new ones to replace the old ones.
We agreed, and it looked great once it was done!
​

This job consisted of two parts, the first was to extend an existing level raised area to accomodate a swimming pool over the summer period, and the second part was to reduce the width of an existing raised planter which ran along the boundary of the property.
Bad weather over October didn't help with this project, but it got done and looks great now it's all finished!

This was the last big job we completed in 2016, a new garden for clients in Havelock North.
We provided the design for this back yard, and then installed the finalised plan over the last few weeks before Christmas.
Two concrete pads were made, one for a spa pool and one for a garden shed.
Once these were in we installed the macrocarpa garden edging, and then made two concrete paths coneecting all the areas together.
Composting, planting and mulching were next, and the ready lawn went down last, to give the happy owners a lovely new garden for 2017!

Earlier this month we were asked to turn a tired grass back lawn and patio into a large paved area.
The job itself seemed easy enough, until we looked at the access to the back yard...up 8 steps, then up a 15 m long path, then 10 m past the house and a tight turn into the garden itself.
Just the job for The Real Garden Company in other words!
This is a two part job again where we will also be replacing the front paved path with a new concrete path, so be sure to check the blog over the next couple  of weeks for more photos!

To be honest, we actually started this project in June already, these photos show what we started with and how we turned a pretty dull lawn into a gorgeous brick courtyard.
You can probably see that initially we layed the bricks in the diamond in a basket weave pattern, but in the last two photos they've been re-layed in a running bond pattern...this highlights the diamond shape a lot more.
The shape reflects a similar diamond inside the house, and when you stand inside and look at the brick courtyard, it looks amazing!
And if you're wondering what the posts as for, check out the next lot of photos...

The courtyard was completed with some beautiful trellis panels made for us by The Trellis Factory in Hastings.
Every one of these bar two were a different size, as we had to work around some exisiting posts, decks and new gates.
Every one of the panels slotted in perfectly, and once they were up, the original plain lawn was transformed into a peaceful and secure space for people and pets!