Landscaped Back Yard

I purchased my previous home about ten years ago, and moved into this new one two years ago this month. My old home was quite small and basic and the backyard was a vast expanse of weeds with no lawn and absolutely no decent soil. It was an unusable space that I wanted to make into a welcoming oasis, and give me some privacy from the neighbours. 

About three years after I moved into the old house, I spent several thousand dollars on landscaping the backyard to make it completely landscaped so that it would be without any lawn whatsoever. 

I'd drawn up a plan to create a large semi-circular path around the middle garden. I had to work with an existing path which had originally led to a clothesline, stuck in the middle of the backyard waste-land, and also there was an old concrete slab right out the back which was completely useless. There was a garden shed close to the house, and other concrete areas which were functional, if ugly. Here's the plan:

The plants used in the left-hand side were to be mirrored by the plants on the right-hand side. Most plants were hybrid bird-attracting natives. On the day we had to remove the weeds and topsoil (what little there was), then put on a thick layer of good quality soil. Then the plants were placed in, and the watering system, and finally the mulch.

It eventually turned into a great timesaver, but because of ongoing drought conditions, the gardens were quite slow to grow. It was only when I was leaving two years ago, that the plants had really starting picking up. Here are some before and after photos:

First we took out the fence between us and the neighbours,
and then began to remove the weeds and topsoil

After removal of the topsoil - revealing mostly clay underneath,
we brought in good quality topsoil to lay over the top.

Then first plants went in, along with the watering system,
followed by the mulch.

The right-hand side of the path and middle garden.

The left-hand side of the path and the middle garden etc

Looking down the old concrete path, and the new
pebble paths connecting up together.

And here was the final product three years after it was all installed, and the drought was finally over:

Here's the right-hand side of the garden, which for some
reason was much slower growing than the rest,
possibly because the next-door neighbour's trees used
up all of the good nutrition and water from my garden.

Left hand path and garden, with the seating area in the rear right.

More of the middle garden is visible here.

Here's the lovely view of the left-hand side from our back porch.

View of the middle garden. I'd planned to eventually put
a shade over the seating area at the rear.

Unfortunately, I have an even bigger disaster area at the new house, and no money to fix it! I know what I would like to do with it, but now it's so overgrown with weeds and so much of it is out of control, that sometimes I almost want to cry when I look at it. BUT I keep on telling myself ... "One day!"