JANE: I've lived in my house in Melbourne's south east
for over 20 years, and my front garden is a lovely way to greet me
when I come home from work.
I've planted it so that I can pick it and give a lot away.
It's also very drought tolerant.
It's got things like salvias, Jerusalem sage
and all sorts of things that don't need a lot of watering.
But it's my back garden where I do most of my living.
So come this way.
Small gardens and courtyards are how most of us who live in cities
get our green fix.
And with a bit of planning and prioritising,
they can give you everything you need.
My courtyard performs as many functions as a bigger garden.
It's somewhere for me to propagate, to experiment, grow some food,
process compost, but also a space for some beauty, somewhere to sit
and enjoy being outdoors.
If space is at a premium,
well, planning then becomes really essential.
And before you put anything into your garden,
you really should figure out what you want to get out of your garden.
Do you want food? Do you want something edible?
Or is it simply that you want ornamental?
What about sitting and reading?
You need a space for it.
And what about outdoor entertaining?
Whatever it is, you need to think about it and prioritise.
So if I show you my little courtyard garden, I hope you'll get some ideas.
Every garden, no matter how small, needs a place where you can process
the green waste.
I've got a compost bin in the corner
and it's terrific for things like garden clippings.
But for smaller stuff, sort of kitchen waste,
a worm farm is absolutely fantastic.
I am besotted with my worms.
Look at them, look at that.
And there's little baby ones there.
Look at those. They're beautiful.
Even if your place only has a balcony,
you can still find a way of composting.
As important as the work areas are,
I also need colour in my life.
In a small space,
it's a great idea to have a surprise packet.
Just one thing that really fits the bill and gives you an excitement.
And this is the one at the moment.
It's called a Chilean or a Bolivian nasturtium.
So I planted it. I thought, what's going to happen here?
I've never grown a Tropaeolum tricolor before.
And first of all, the leaves came out and I thought
they're very fragile looking leaves.
I'm not sure what's going to happen here, but away they went,
right up and around.
Then they had these little tiny flower buds, small as.
They grew and grew.
And I'd come out every day and I'd look at it and go, "Wow!"
Was getting bigger and bigger.
Even so, each flower is only the size of your thumbnail.
And look at them. They are so extraordinary.
I get excitement from that.
That's done me for six months.
And when that's finished,
well, it's given me such pleasure, but I'll bring another plant out
so that you've got a rotation of things, a succession of excitement.
If you don't have much space,
then you'll want to use as many surfaces as you can,
including vertical.
I have jasmine
because it gives me a wall of green
and when it's in flower,
I just love the smell.
Climbers can, of course, be also useful
to cover up a boring old fence.
Another thing to take note of before you get planting
is check how much sun and light your garden actually gets,
not just during the day, but during all seasons,
because it really does affect the way your garden works.
That's why a deciduous tree, especially a small one,
might be a good option in your garden.
I've chosen this one.
It's a good old crepe myrtle.
I planted it a good 20 years ago
and I really like it,
even though you can see that it's pretty strange looking in winter
because you've got to prune it back.
But look at the little new shoots coming.
Springtime is joyous.
It'll eventually get a beautiful canopy and shade,
all of that part down there where I can sit in the summer,
and yet in winter
it lets the light come through.
It's a perfect tree, the crepe myrtle, for me
because of those lovely trunks.
It's one of those trees that I just give a real thumbs up to.
This is my fair weather vegetable garden.
It's because in winter, I can't grow any vegetables at all.
The sun is too low and that fence there is shading it.
You've got to know where the sun hits the different parts
of your garden.
When the sun is higher, I do grow summer crops, lots of them,
and when I still want edibles in winter, I grow them in pots.
That way, my cool season vegie patch is portable
and I can group the pots together in the sunniest parts of the garden.
Another good reason to position your pots in a cluster
is that it works like strength in numbers.
The pots can easily dry out with the wind and really hot sun.
So if you group them together
so they're like a little collection of friends,
just to help them kick along a bit.
And there's a word that I really love - it's apricity.
Apricity means the sun, the warmth of the sun on your back.
And that's why I really like a table that's movable
and you can put it around wherever the sun happens to be.
My little garden brings me joy every day.
I'm very lucky to see some fabulous gardens throughout Australia
and overseas,
but I'm even luckier because I just love my own little space.
The first step is to remove the old barbecue.
I'll brace the trolley and remove the bolts.
Beauty of this is it's often much easier to pull something apart
than it is to build it.
And how that can go straight to the steel recycling.
Going to use this old hardwood to act as the framework
that I'll screw that benchtop to.
And it'll keep this nice and square and really well braced.
Now I'm going to attach it right underneath this existing benchtop
at the right height for the new timber to fix to,
and to do that, I'm going to remove these smaller bolts,
which only go in about 50ml,
and replace them with those lovely long bolts that I just removed
from the barbecue.
Just clamped that second bracing timber in place,
and I'm just checking,
giving it a technical tap to make sure that the timber finish
is going to be at the same level as the existing bench.
To make the top of the bench,
I've been through my scrap timber pile and I found some bits and pieces
that are really durable outdoors.
These are some old jarrah floorboards that I picked up.
And I think that's what this trolley is made out of.
And this you might recognise.
This is known as kwila or merbau.
Truthfully, I would absolutely never buy this timber new.
It is really cheap and available,
but I don't believe it's sustainable.
But equally, it's so precious.
If I ever see offcuts at the tip,
I always pick it up because this stuff should never go in the bin.
I'm just going to fiddle with these to make them fit,
then fix them down.
Same on the other side.
And even up the edge.
So that is essentially a good, solid bench finished.
But I have done this gaping hole intentionally.
I've cut this on 45 degree angles, and that is because I want
to be able to scoop all the materials straight into that hole.
But when I'm not using it,
fit that piece.
Solid as a rock.
To create a good potting bench,
ideally, you need a really easy to clean and sterile surface.
So, actually reusing what was the cover from the barbecue.
And see, I've removed the handle here,
and then it is a weatherproof surface.
I think it's going to make a really durable cover for me
to pot on.
Just gonna...tap it into place.
I'm just going to give it...
..a little bit of adjusting here and there.
Give it. Go.
To have a really functional potting bench, it pays to have a back
and a side,
which means you can scoop into this corner,
put your pile of mix in the middle.
Now, I've made these out of some salvaged macrocarpa timber.
I'll just give the whole thing a bit of a sand, and there's always room
for a little bit of storage.
This is a 50/50 mix of linseed oil and turps,
which will help protect it from the weather.
I am pretty stoked with that.
Something that was heading to the tip
is now going to be one of the most used things in the garden.
I'll use it every single day and I can wheel it wherever I want.
And really, for me, that is the most fun you can have,
making something really useful out of something that was going to waste.
I'd love to know what projects you're going to do next.