Rock A Fellas

There is never an end to the things we can learn. We thought that with a combined experience of over 70 years on earth between us, there is nothing that will faze us. But building our first house in Australia has given us that opportunity to feel like a little confused child again. Our latest crash course now is on  'Landscaping'.


In Singapore, landscaping was never an agenda for us. We kind of take it for granted that it will be there when we move into the HDB or condo estate. That timber deck, paved footpath, lush green lawn and stone benches, it's all done up nicely by the developer. We walked around and on them but have we ever wondered how it was made? Here in Australia, we're learning for the first time how to turn a piece of muddy ground into a garden. Where do we even begin? 


Apparently, the land has to be 'prepared' first. Like before putting on make-up, you have to clean your face and put on moisturiser first. The land has to be excavated by a bobcat and the trash soil taken away. Then you can put on the weed mats before you pile on top soil (which you got to buy). Only then do you plant the grass or turf. 


And if you want your garden to be more than just grass, a space that is both decorative and usable, which in our case consist of some timber decking, footpaths, garden beds and paving, the jobs add up. And getting landscaping done here is not cheap. The labour cost is high and can make up 60% of the total cost. We have gotten quotes ranging from $16,000 to $50,000. Which makes us think that it makes a lot of sense to DIY some parts of the landscaping ourselves. But how?


Unlike most Australian men who grew up watching their dads doing gardening and handy jobs around the house, my born and bred in Singapore husband is a total green horn when it comes to such tasks. And I'm even worse, can't tell the difference between a rake and a fork until recently. We are both very willing to take on the labour, especially if it saves us so much money, but our lack of technical and practical knowledge is a major setback.


So that's why currently we are on a steep learning curve. No doubt we will have to get the professionals to do some jobs like preparing the land and setting the concrete base, but I feel we should attempt to do the timber decking, garden beds and paving ourselves. There are some friends we know who has done theirs and we are hoping that we can learn from them. In the meantime, we have visited a few places that sell pavers and stones to learn more about the different materials available and their prices.


The range is mind boggling. Pavers comes in all sorts of shapes - rectangle, squares, irregular... and thickness, colours and feel. Even rocks are not so simple....Basalt, bluestone, sandstone....The strangest part is these rocks that comes freely from the earth are not cheap. One shop quoted us $80/cubic metre. Sure, some of them had to be mined and broken down but you know what, when builders build your house, they make you pay like $16K to excavate and remove rocks (called site costs) from your land. The rocks are taken to factories to be broken down and then sold to landscape suppliers...for you to later buy them back for your garden. 


I'm pretty sure that even with research and theoretical knowledge, we'll never be able to fully understand landscaping until we sink our hands into the mud. I just hope to be able to carry them rocks when they arrive.