Backyard Blitz - Ep 7 Shanti's Secret Garden - 21 April

Shanti's Secret Garden

Australian viewers were first captivated by six year old Shanti Woodend when she broke out into spontaneous song one morning on a TODAY telecast from the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Despite every setback, every operation, and every fear she and her family have faced, Shanti continues to charm and enchant all who meet her. The Blitz team make an unexpected appearance in her garden, and create an inspiring space for this special little girl.

Design

Shanti was the inspiration for this new garden with a brand new outdoor dining area, new outdoor table and bench seats, beautiful stone steps leading up to a grass courtyard with a built-in barbecue and a circular water feature surrounded by stone. A fairy princess cubby and a multi use pergola/stage in the centre of the garden so Shanti can sing to her heart’s content. We planted a lush garden of bamboo, oyster plants, calathea, tradescantia, alocasia, ginger, cycads, hosta and star jasmine – a beautiful garden for the whole family to enjoy. Backyard Blitz - Ep 7 Shanti's Secret Garden - 21 April

Adapting these plans to your garden

Make a detailed scale drawing of your backyard (eg 1:100) showing the location of the house and major features then incorporate the desired elements from our makeover. As your garden will be a different size you will need to estimate the amounts of materials you will require.

Note: On your plan show the locations of any services (water pipes, sewerage, power, phone, etc) so you can avoid damaging them during the makeover.

Permits and approval: check with your local council regarding regulations about earthworks and drainage. If you are changing existing levels or installing drainage ensure no water run-off is directed toward neighbouring properties. Any water entering the storm water system must be free from debris and sediment.

Getting started

Because the only access to the garden was through the house, protective plastic was laid through the walking areas of the house with 12mm bracing ply laid over.

We removed a large liquidambar tree but cutting the main trunk and painting the wound immediately with glyphosate.

Blitz Tipz: Most urban councils have Tree Preservation Orders that require council permission for the removal of trees that exceed certain specific dimensions.

Garden elements Backyard Blitz - Ep 7 Shanti's Secret Garden - 21 April

Pergola/stage for Shanti: Scottie attached a wall plate to the masonry wall using galvanised dynabolts. (This eliminates the need to put posts in ground at that point).

Blitz Tipz: Dynabolt anchoring can be reinforced with a chemical like Chemset for extra strength.

Then Scottie set out his H4 treated pine posts and concreted them in using rapid set concrete.

Blitz Tipz: An alternative to posts in ground is to use post stirrups to protect posts from damage by moisture and pests.

Scottie then bolted (galvanised bolts) bearers 145x45mm H3 to the posts and then laid 90x45mm joists at 450 centres, nailing them with galvanised nails. Finally the merbau decking boards were nailed using twist shank stainless steel domehead nails.

Blitz Tipz: To minimize costs with hardwood decks, use treated pine posts, bearers and joists 190x45mm H3 roof beams were then bolted in place. Scottie cut a decorative rafter using H3 treated timber 145x45mm for a professional touch.

Blitz Tipz: Decorative beams require bracing above to minimize warping and distortion. Backyard Blitz - Ep 7 Shanti's Secret Garden - 21 April

Bench: Jamie built a timber bench using brick piers as the support for the seat. First, he mixed mortar 4:1 brickies sand to cement and using either a string line or a water level, made sure the first course was level. Make sure you use a spirit level on following courses both horizontal and vertical. Jamie then adhered a light weight wall cladding to the brick piers. The timber bench was bolted to the brick course using dynabolts/ or a good quality construction adhesive.

Retaining wall for water feature: Nigel first laid a concrete footing, trying to keep the footing as level as possible even though the first course of bricks can be adjusted with thicker layers of mortar to achieve the same result. We prepared a level for the pond by using riversand screeded carefully before the fibreglass pond was placed.

Blitz Tipz: Before laying a pond, screed with river sand making sure there are no stones to damage the base when water added.

A spirit level was used across the top of the pond to check it was level. Nigel laid a limestone quartz capping around the water feature and onto the steps.

Blitz Tipz: Choose a good quality outdoor grade flexible adhesive

Barbecue: Using hebel block we prepared the support walls for hardwood bench tops and Scottie then cut an opening into the timber for our Beefeater barbecue. Backyard Blitz - Ep 7 Shanti's Secret Garden - 21 April

Garden: Jody assessed the quality of the soil and decided to add an organic mix. We used many foliage clumping plants in this garden because they are good for filling up spaces and can be divided to be used elsewhere. We put turf underlay to a depth of 60mm, raked flat and laid our Sir Walter turf on top.

Blitz Tipz: Always add a little fertilizer to the top of the turf underlay before laying the grass.

Plant details: yellow stem hedge bamboo (Bambusa multiplex ‘Alphonse Karr’), acanthus (Acanthus mollis), giant elephant’s ear (Alocasia x portora), native ginger (Alpinia caerulea red back form), calathea (Calathea zebrine), ctenanthe (Ctenanthe ‘Greystar’), cycad (Cycas revoluta), hosta (Hosta ‘Big Daddy’), (Hosta ‘Colour Glory’), (Hosta ‘See Saw’), rhoeo (Tradescantia spathacea ), star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), dwarf papyrus (Cyperus prolifer), tassel rush (Baloskion tetraphyllum often sold as Restio tetraphyllus), arum lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica). Backyard Blitz - Ep 7 Shanti's Secret Garden - 21 April

Cost and availability

We used mature plants in our makeover to create an instant effect for television. As a result, our total cost for plants and materials was $22,229. The use of smaller plants would have reduced the cost to $21,295.

Product details

● Most of the plants we used are readily available at, or can be ordered from, nurseries. Nurseries can also advise on similar varieties suited to your area. You may need to contact specialist nurseries for some plants. Your local nursery should be able to provide you with contacts. ● Most other materials are available from large hardware stores or building or landscape suppliers. ● All timber supplies and information supplied by Midcoast Timber Centres; www.midcoasttimber.com.au ● The Eldorado stone veneer, a light weight wall cladding, was supplied by C & M. The profile used was limestone in pasedena blend. Available Australia wide. For your closest stockist contact C & M in Sydney (02) 9822 6822 or visit www.cmbrick.com.au ● Our Yurt was supplied by Yurtworks, 12 Copford Road Bradfordville Goulburn NSW 2580. Phone (02) 4821 5931; fax (02) 4821 6999 or visit www.yurtworks.com.au ● Beefeater 4B S3000s Stainless steel barbecue (LP version) with roasting hood and gas cylinder was supplied by Woodland Home Products, 3-5 Birmingham Avenue, Chester Hill, NSW. Phone (02) 9724 3322 or visit www.woodlandhp.com ● Cobb and Co limestone quartz is available from Eco Concept stores in Sydney and Melbourne;phone 1300 131 413 or visit www.ecoconcepts.com.au ● Pond and fittings available from Contour Ponds and Pumps; phone (02) 9690 2600; fax (02) 9690 2655

Backyard Blitz - Ep 7 Shanti's Secret Garden - 21 April

Holiday details

Accommodation

Paradise Resort 122 Ferny Avenue, Surfers Paradise, Queensland 4217 Web: www.paradiseresort.com.au Phone: (07) 5579 4406

Seaworld Sea World Drive Main Beach, Gold Coast, Queensland 4217 Information Line: (07) 5588 2205 Administration Phone: (07) 5588 2222 Fax No: (07) 5591 1056 Web: www.seaworld.com.au Web: www.theme-parks.com.au

Sling Shot Corner Gold Coast Highway & Palm Ave, Surfers Paradise, Queensland 4217 Phone: (07) 5570 2700 Web: www.funtime.com.au

Quiksilver Pro, Gold Coast Web: www.aspworldtour.com Web: www.quiksilver.com

Acknowledgements

Our design by:

Osmosis Design Phone: (02) 9344 4154 Web: www.osmosisgardens.com.au

Construction by the Backyard Blitz team (all gardens are gifts from Backyard Blitz).

Many children with VATER Syndrome have serious kidney problems. In order to help children like Shanti, The Children's Hospital at Westmead has established the Kidney Gene Bank to find better ways to treat these children. If you'd like to help these kids, please call 1800 770 122.

© CTC Productions 7 2006

Backyard Blitz - Ep 7 Shanti's Secret Garden - 21 April

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