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Costa heads to check out Millie’s renovated house and garden and lends a hand with a little renovation of the hen house. 

It’s been years since Costa has visited Millie’s little garden in Central Victoria.  On his first visit, he helped pave and plant a small entrance garden, on the second they built an ingenious temporary shed.

This time, they are putting a multi-use extension to the chicken run Millie shares with the neighbours.  A curved steel mesh tunnel will also act as an extension to the chicken run and be topped with a timber bench seat.   It will also contain the most abundant planting in the small back yard, lush, abundant, ebullient, and layered. Well, that’s the plan!

The seat-top of the tunnel is made of salvaged macrocarpa sleepers (Hesperocyparis macrocarpa) cut into 500mm lengths.  To create a curved top with straight timber pieces, each must be carefully cut into a wedge, so Costa has prepared some cardboard templates.  The timber pieces are then fixed to the mesh at multiple points using a 30mm washer and a screw.  Every 3rd piece is hinged, to allow easy access to the tunnel beneath. 

The tunnel-seat sections off an area of garden, and Millie wants to fill it with plants including some that she has propagated herself such as native flax, everlastings, fan-flowers and bulbine lilies.   

There is nothing like working on a project in your own garden with someone else, knocking together ideas, collaborating on creative solutions and more than anything having fun.  And once you’re done, make sure you take some time to enjoy it!

Filmed on Taungurung Country | Central Victoria

Costa takes a look at Millie’s ‘Treasure Garden’ – a small immersive area that has been filled with many magical wonders that maximise the space beside the house.

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