The GardenOwl Audits
Deep-dive diagnostics, design critiques, and visual master plans to solve your toughest landscape challenges.
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Shade Along a West-Facing Fence: How to Get Afternoon Lawn Cover Without Cracking Your Retaining Wall
Perth coastal sand, hot west sun, shared retaining wall. Here’s how to plant natives for afternoon shade over your lawn without wrecking the fence.
Fixing an Awkward Porch Gable: Simple Updates for a Modern Cottage Front Entry
That tiny porch gable over your front door looks tacked on. Here’s how to resize, reframe, and recolor it for a clean modern cottage entry on a budget.
How to Remove a Small Backyard Stump (Without Wrecking Your Fence Corner)
That ugly stump in the fence corner can go. Here’s a realistic DIY vs. stump grinder breakdown, plus how to reclaim the space the right way.
Turning an Awkward Backyard Outhouse Into a Modern Garden Feature
Case study: how a brick outhouse in the middle of a lawn went from ugly eyesore to modern pavilion using slat screens, plants, paint, and smart layout.
That ‘Ugly’ 70s Brown Brick Isn’t the Problem (Your Trim Is)
A 1970s brown brick house looks dated and flat. Here’s how lighter trim, better contrast, and a simple front planting plan can modernize it without bagging.
Weeds in Your Gravel Walk: Why They Keep Coming Back and How to Fix It for Good
You’ve got a gravel strip along a concrete walk and porch post that was supposed to be low‑maintenance. Instead, grass and weeds have moved in and turned it into a patchy mess: half dead, half green, all ugly. You can still see some rock, but there’s a lot of bare soil showing and the edge where the gravel meets the concrete looks fuzzy and overgrown instead of clean and intentional.