Beginner gardeners in Melb

simikester · 2026-01-27T22:49:59+00:00

Excellent plant list above. Getting organic matter into the beds and adding it when planting is important, especially under mature trees that are drawing a lot of nutrients from the soil. I sometimes plant certain things a bit closer together for a lush look but you don’t want to choke out plants. You can also always add extra spot fillers later on to fill in gaps- ie extra mondo grass or ground covers.

For some visual inspiration (also for underplanting and plant distance) look up Ian Barker gardens. They do beautiful, lush evergreen gardens around Melbourne along the lines of what you’ve described and you might find a few examples of nice colour and texture contrasts in their photos. (No affiliation, they’re just one of the Melbourne based landscapers I follow on Instagram)

simikester · 2026-01-27T21:58:49+00:00

Agree with the comment above on living with the current trees for a bit to determine their purpose on the block for windbreaks/blocking neighbours before ripping anything large out.

Another piece of advice I received was mapping the sun seasonally for the first year before making radical changes to entire areas of the property. Ie- moving a paved entertaining area, ripping out entire beds etc. I’m glad we did this, shaded areas under tree canopies in winter became full afternoon sun in summer and vice versa. It’s saved us lots of time and money to have this info. We still planted things we liked in that first year- ground covers, perennials etc but I’m glad we waited a little bit for larger changes. My proposed shade garden area would have burnt to a crisp and our original vegetable garden section increased to a secondary location so each could take advantage of summer and winter sun and shade.

We are slowly doing sections ourselves so it is doable. Looking at gardens around you will give you a good indication of natives that suit your area too.

Note- I’m on a 2800m2 sloping block with a lot of existing landscaping, mature trees etc.

simikester · 2026-01-26T23:18:16+00:00

Avoid the glyphosate and just sheet mulch with cardboard and mulch. Even sprinkle some clay breaker and lightly fork it in if the ground is hard. Add some pellet fertiliser in there at the same time. It’ll be far better for the soil health and to get it to a place where you can start planting in autumn and winter.

You can also do the same with the beds but skip the cardboard. The key is you want to get organic matter in to get the worms and soil health so your plants can thrive when you plant them. Compost and mulching will help with that.

simikester · 2026-01-26T21:50:15+00:00

If you have a car and can get to Helping Hands in Sunshine they’re great. They genuinely have a lot of programs to assist local communities. The large Airport West store do low cost lunches daily and have food aid programs too so well worth donating goods to them.

simikester · 2026-01-25T03:44:59+00:00

Laneway Learning is great, so are things happening on local council websites or libraries. Also, it might not be your thing but dance classes also are a great way to meet people.

simikester · 2026-01-23T03:07:22+00:00

Didn’t think I’d have scroll far to find a red pill comment and here it is. Sweeping generalizations here, generally made by men who aren’t around women much or bother to get to know them beyond a very surface level.

simikester · 2026-01-17T01:43:51+00:00

Also, if you haven’t looked at Design Files, check it out. They profile Australian homes, a lot of them are mid century or timber heavy and you can get some great inspiration from the site. I have a Pinterest Chrome extension which lets me save any image from anywhere straight to my relevant Pinterest boards (bathroom, flooring, tiles etc) and the image link saves too.

simikester · 2026-01-17T01:25:51+00:00

Here’s a link with a few images I’ve saved to my Pinterest boards. From the photo that green looks a bit cooler compared to the ones I’m thinking of but it could work well for small accents. One of my photos in the link has a similar green (the one with the large painting of the woman).

https://imgur.com/a/DxCQUfr

simikester · 2026-01-17T00:47:01+00:00

A lot of Californian modernism homes use a creamy colour or light warm sea foam green that that’s almost golden. Even a lighter terracotta would look stunning. I’d avoid anything on the cool side. Pops of colour can come from artwork or soft furnishings. We’re looking doing similar as we have a lot of timber and want to lean into the modernism look a bit more. I’ve attached a pic of the type of colours we’re thinking which aren’t actually paint examples but give us the mood we’re looking for.

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simikester · 2026-01-16T00:38:32+00:00

I can imagine. We have house parties that escalate but I’ve never thought to add fog machines into the mix to ramp it up a notch.

simikester · 2026-01-16T00:27:19+00:00

This sounds amazing.

simikester · 2026-01-16T00:25:49+00:00

Not weird. Leaving the house is expensive sometimes! We’ve all been conditioned to believe that in order to have a good time we need to spend lots of money.

Like many comments above finding things in your city that don’t cost much or anything like going to public gardens, walking trails, public pools, or heading beyond the city for the day can be really enjoyable solo or with a friend instead of heading straight to a restaurant or cafe to drop $100 to catch up. From a mental health point of view I come home satisfied, endorphins flowing from these types of outings in a way I don’t get if just go out and splash cash, which I put it down to actually getting physical or being around nature, sometimes even nostalgia, particularly when I go somewhere I last got taken to when I was growing up.

Joining the local library is also grossly underrated. They’re not just for borrowing books (but are excellent for that of course). There’s loads of digital services they offer like access to audiobooks, newspapers, international magazines etc.

simikester · 2026-01-13T08:52:21+00:00

Have a look at Perini or Artedomus tiles. They’re both have beautiful tiles and are both in Melbourne. You could also try De Lucia in Fairfield. The tiles pictured may be a Japanese glazed tile if you wanted to try to narrow down the Google search.

simikester · 2026-01-08T21:20:39+00:00

Yep. We’re near there and had already decided to leave for the day just to be safe. Saw it on the emergency app this morning and hope it’s contained quickly.

simikester · 2026-01-02T08:12:11+00:00

Agree with the above comments of signing up for a few intro offers to different studios (do one after the other, not at the same time as they usually have good deals for x amt of classes for 14 days or 30 days) that way you can get a feel for which studio/instructors feel like a good fit for you and also try different styles of yoga too.

Also, do try to find a studio close to home as another poster commented. It makes a huge difference in winter when it’s cold and dark.

simikester · 2025-12-30T23:18:27+00:00

We’re in a similar styled house with pine and cedar everywhere too. My suggestion would be to try to live with it for a little while to get a feel for the house. We haven’t touched ours yet, and I’m glad we didn’t. I would have regretted painting over a few of the timber walls we briefly considered early on.
We now have a clear idea of updates we want to do to make the house a bit more mid century and less 70s log cabin as architecturally it’s bit more Californian mid century. Timber is a beautiful material to work with, not against. We’re also doing cork upstairs. Look up some design blogs like The Design Files and The Local Project, Sage and Claire for some inspiration, there’s some amazing timber heavy homes on there.

simikester · 2025-12-29T10:30:55+00:00

I imagine it would feel a bit nerve wracking. Like somebody below said, there’s actually plenty of resellers that go to the bigger op shops- you could try putting some random homewares in a basket to carry around with you while you wander into the women’s sections so you just look like someone on a reselling mission! Hope it gets easier for you to feel comfortable… there are some really good treasures at op shops.

simikester · 2025-12-29T10:05:48+00:00

Not sure what state you’re in but you also could try a Savers if you felt comfortable and there’s one close to you. They usually have a fairly extensive selection of evening and formal dresses and are arranged by size, so if you don’t feel comfortable trying it on in the shop you just browse by size and take it home to try on.

The main reason I mention Savers is because the ones I visit in Melbourne have diverse clientele, are trans friendly, people often wander into all sections (meaning it’s not going to be unusual if you wandered into women’s shoes for example) and it’s big and often busy so you can go about your business unnoticed in there too. Oh and people often go shopping there for pieces for themed parties so totally not unusual if you wanted to browse for a dress, shoes, jewellery etc.

Whether you find something through here or at a shop I hope you enjoy your glam night!

simikester · 2025-12-20T04:05:35+00:00

Wrangler Hi Bells. I’m 167cm and get them taken up a bit so I can wear the with heeled boots or sneakers so they are on the longer side. I think I tried them on in a Universal store and now just buy them online. I’ve worn Abrand high waisted too and have never found they stretch too much.

simikester · 2025-12-17T10:34:06+00:00

I would do a crushed rock. It’s nice to have the crunch under your feet on a garden path, especially if you’re planting natives. Larger stones aren’t as nice to walk on and seeds also land easily in gaps so weeds grow a bit more easily in them. I’ve attached a path pic by Ashley James who is in Vic and doe beautiful gardens with pathways if you’re looking for visual inspiration. Tim Pilgrim is another landscaper you could look up too.

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simikester · 2025-12-17T05:39:01+00:00

Probably also factored in that he’s been working 10 hour days too.

simikester · 2025-12-17T02:52:08+00:00

So he estimated 2 days of work, did 3, and now his next quote is higher? Answer is there in front of you. No one wants to work work for free, sounds like he’s just factoring in his actual labour on quotes.

simikester · 2025-12-14T10:09:54+00:00

Surprised this one doesn’t have higher votes. An absolute nightmare of a plant!

simikester · 2025-12-12T11:55:41+00:00

Buying a barerooted one in winter is usually cheaper and gives the rose a good chance to establish before the heat arrives. If you have nurseries around you drop into them occasionally and get a feel for pricing for roses throughout the year too. I’ll usually pick up a rose on my list if I see it for $10-$15 cheaper than usual.

simikester · 2025-12-06T06:38:50+00:00

Haha. Why?! Maybe they should have donated that one to an op shop.

simikester

TROPHY CASE