Down2Earth Gardens & Landscapes in Darwin, Northern Territory | Landscape company

Down2Earth Gardens & Landscapes

Locality: Darwin, Northern Territory

Phone: +61 404 516 801

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• Home improvement
• Landscape company

25.01.2022 What a day! Thank you to everyone who has chosen to work with D2E. We appreciate your confidence in us and we look forward to building some beautiful gardens and outdoor spaces with you soon!

25.01.2022 Here are some before and after shots of a little garden makeover we completed last year. The garden wall is an unmortared dry stack relying on friction/angle for strength Hope you like it!

24.01.2022 2 years ago Taylor (@taylord_designs1 insta) put the finishing touches on our sons digger bed Now its our daughter Edens turn for a Down2Earth Fairy Princess Bed Big thanks to Taylor the Grafitti Ninja!

24.01.2022 The next plant in the Darwin International Laksa Festival garden is ..... chill! Heres the info from Taste of the Top End Chilli (Capsicum frutescens) is a shrubby plant originating from Central and South America and grown in many different varieties. Chillies are in the Nightshade (Solanaceae) family along with tomatoes and potatoes and many varieties grow really well all year round in Darwin. These shrubs can stay planted for several years and still produce frui...t. Some varieties do much better than others, including birds eye chillies which are extremely hot, and the plant is so hardy it needs very little love. Did you know ? No Laksa is really complete without chilli and gives it that hot mouth tingling kick; that kick comes from Capsaicin, the main bioactive plant compound in chili peppers. This binds with pain receptors, which are nerve endings that sense pain. This induces a burning sensation but does not cause any real burning injuries, in fact many humans associate the eating of hot food with pleasure as there is also a pain stimulated release of endorphins and this release of endorphins locally make chilli also an effective pain reliever. Columbus sailed to the Americas from Europe in 1492; which marked the start of the movement of plants around the world via sailing ships and explorers, this included the domestication and then exchange of many chilli varieties across the world; including to South- East Asia, where today we could not imagine cuisine without them.

23.01.2022 How about some fun news for a change ... we built a playground this week! Forpark Australia are leading manufacturers of playground and outdoor exercise equipment. All their manufacturing is undertaken in Australia; a rare and increasingly important thing these days. We are very proud to be an approved installer for their equipment. We had our first crack at putting up a playground for Holy Family Primary in Karama. A big thanks to Rob Lowndes from Forpark who flew up to give us a hand and a massive thanks to Matty Hansen for the opportunity to represent your familys fantastic products here in the NT.

23.01.2022 We really enjoyed our long weekend after all this heavy lifting last week! We are building a set of stone stairs leading down the side of this pool. Some of the stones are likely 1 tonne+!!

22.01.2022 Just finished another small garden makeover. FYI: the client propagated most of the plants herself! This is the time of year to be doing cuttings! Well have a quick how to video on simple propagation techniques for you soon

22.01.2022 Breaking Laksa Garden News Emma Lupin from Taste of The Top End and GULP NT is collaborating on the Darwin International Laksa Festival Garden. Many of you will know Emma from her extensive work in community and her culinary ingenuity; her spiced cane toad legs will forever stick in my mind! Emma will be available to speak with at the festival to talk about how easy the laksa ingredients are to grow, but most importantly how to use them!

20.01.2022 Knocked up a bamboo A-Frame for our beans. The bed previously had tomatoes growing through it so we are replenishing the soil with a peanut ground cover and a combination of purple and green climbing beans. Looking forward to seeing it flourish!

18.01.2022 What a week! Been busy transforming gardens and trying not to melt in this heat. Definitely ready for a beer after this transformation

17.01.2022 From one waterfall to another! We try our best to make them look as natural as possible. We use local granite for the rock (Finlay's Stone) and because it is so hard we have to go with the flow so to speak. Hope your weekend flows the same way!

17.01.2022 Today we decided to do some swale rehabilitation work. I am digging out the trench around the swale and returning that nutrient rich soil to the top. The trench helps with capturing water as well as nutrients that can be leached/eroded over the wet. So far in one year this swale has had a crop of mung beans, peanuts and corn as well as kang kong (pictured). We are getting it ready for another round of corn now that most of the geese have gone!

16.01.2022 And.... plant number 3 in our Darwin International Laksa Festival garden is the gorgeous lemongrass Taste of the Top End tells us more Yes lemongrass is a grass, in the grass family (Poaceae) which grows exceptionally well in the tropics, including here in Darwin. Lemongrass is one of the key ingredients in Laksa paste, and also features in many other curry pastes and sauces throughout SE Asia. This plant loves the wet season and being well watered and once establis...hed into a clump it makes a wonderful border plant, enjoying full sun. This plant grows easily when dived from the roots and then trimmed at the leaves and planted straight into moist soil. Did you know? Lemongrass originates in India and is full of essential oils including citral, geraniol and nerol. It contains vitamins A, B and C and is high in iron, chromium, magnesium. In Ayverdic medicine it is used for coughs, colds and it is a good digestive. This plant is also know as a good insect repellent. Research has shown it has anti-fungal and anti-microbial properties.

16.01.2022 Are you applying for a Northern Territory Government Home Improvement Scheme Voucher? Did you know you can submit two quotes, by up to two businesses, as part of your application? So... 'think outside the block' what amazing projects do you want to see in your backyard. An outdoor shower? Incredible lighting around your plants? A sustainable patch to get you through? Get bang for your buck, we can put you in touch with some other NT businesses we recommend and package something special. Just flick us a message.

15.01.2022 All done. What a mission Time for a swim and a fresh shirt. Looking forward to meeting you all at the Darwin International Laksa Festival and sharing some tips for growing your own laksa ingredient gardens alongside Taste of the Top End!

14.01.2022 Time to THINK OUTSIDE THE BLOCK The weekend is here and it looks like well be spending a lot of time at home. Here is a fun and functional project for you to consider! We have designed and installed numerous 3 bay composting systems for suburban backyards over the years. This is our standard backyard design. We have always managed to source the necessary materials from the tip so its quite an inexpensive project. A 3 bay system of this size is designed to accomodate the... bulk of your garden green waste so it reduces the amount of time heading to the tip and you are making bigger volumes of compost! One bay is your active bay and once that is full you close it off and move to the second bay. As 70% of your compost should be brown waste the third bay is to store your things like pizza boxes, cardboard, shredded paper, dried leaves etc. This way you can layer your composting and reduce the need to turn. Please feel free to share and you are welcome to call me if you need any further advice on this project or composting in general. Peace, love and happy gardening!

14.01.2022 Mates. Is there better weather for projects? Well answer that one for you... nope! Heres our recent dry stack wall effort

14.01.2022 Doing some heavy lifting! A massive thank you to NT Shade for providing the crane truck and support on getting these rocks into place. Thankfully the stencils worked a treat with the rocks slotting into place perfectly!

13.01.2022 With the reinstatement of the Northern Territory Government Home Improvement Scheme we will be highlighting some great ideas to consider with THINK OUTSIDE THE BLOCK posts Thinking outside the block is about considering how we use our outdoor spaces and - in these strange times - how we can better connect beyond the boundaries of our property. We want to help foster family and community resilience and provide ideas for fulfilling things to do in our backyards. Watch this space and if youd like some more information please get in contact

13.01.2022 Just finished a job for a client who wanted a retaining wall around an existing garden bed. We agreed on a dry stack wall using porcenilite stone approx 400mm high. The dry stack method means you dont need any mortar and instead rely on angle, the friction created between the rocks and the use of an aggregate or filling to back the wall. In this case we used cracker dust as well as packed earth from the excavated trench. Hope you like it! And how good are our filmmaking skills

13.01.2022 Before and after of a native garden. Whilst it may not look like it, the new garden is densely planted. Common DIY mistakes are 1. To over-plant an area and not take into account the finished height and breadth of plants and 2. Thinking that bigger plants are better. ... With native planting in particular you will get far better results in terms of vigorous growth if you go with tube stock. If you are interested in growing a native garden then your first and best port of call is to speak with Territory Native Plants

12.01.2022 Finished job photos! Check out the series of rock walls we built into the existing bedrock of this garden to create little beds and control the water that would fly off the bed rock. At the bottom is a little pond for the owners ducks to play in! #nailedit

12.01.2022 Jeezz.... not sure how Im going to get my camping chair out The Darwin International Laksa Festival garden bowl is certainly a spicy challenge!

09.01.2022 Here is a quick video demonstrating an easy (and edible) way to deal with those pesky self-sown Carpentaria Palms Did you know that most palms have an edible heart. The common name of cabbage palm to describe the Livistonia genus is derived from the fact that the palm hearts taste a little like cabbage and were a common staple for early colonialists and indigenous alike.

09.01.2022 Friday reflections... Flick through to see some pretty stunning transformations. Were pretty proud of this work

09.01.2022 Yes this rain!!!!

08.01.2022 Quotes coming in left, right and centre this morning! The NTG Homes Improvement Scheme closes today at 5pm. If you havent made the most of this opportunity to upgrade your garden give us a call TODAY! Feeling grateful for the ease of Xero, the Northern Territory Government for looking out for tradies and the shit load of work thats going to be taking place in the beautiful dry season!

08.01.2022 Our stone steps turned out a treat! What an entrance for a little pool sanctuary

07.01.2022 Almost the weekend mates. Solid opportunity to work on the garden. Sure, its hot out there but nothing makes you appreciate aircon more then sweating it out first

07.01.2022 Oh Darwin you are beautiful. But it’s bloody hot work out there at the moment

07.01.2022 Building a cascading waterfall for a client. Great to cool off in a pool whilst working! And a perfect final project for a massive week

07.01.2022 Another day another dry stack wall!

07.01.2022 We recently had a go at building dragon fruit trellises The end result looks great... but there was a fair bit of head scratching as to how best to build them. Thank the garden gods for google!

06.01.2022 Yesterday we attended the Territory NRM NT Soil Symposium! Very interesting content delivered by some incredible individuals doing great things in regenerative agriculture. A key driver of healthy soils is the symbiotic relationship between plants and microbes. By cultivating organic matter and not using chemicals and heavy fertilisers, we can revive our soils!

06.01.2022 LANDSCAPING TIP Have roots lifted your pavers? Rather than cut the root out and potentially kill the tree how about you turn it in to a bit of a feature. All you need is a concrete cutting disc, some rocks and some mortar #nailedit

06.01.2022 Awww its better than a Jenny Craig before and after Happy weekend! Enjoy the cool weather - ... There is a lot of detail thats lost in just before and after photos; the rear garden is a rain garden designed to capture and slow down water and mitigate the flooding of the backyard that would happen every wet season. Plants have been added that enjoy the extra water such as the crinum border, elephant ear and the feature piece; bird of paradise

06.01.2022 Now onto the next job; installing out favourite edging product, core-ten steel from our friends at FormBoss Steel Garden Edging

05.01.2022 We've been looking after Amy and Paul's place in Wanguri for a few years now and they've just had AJF Electrical & Air Conditioning, Darwin, NT add some lights to their tropical paradise. Plus the new pool from Concept Pools and Spas .... and yeah, they are living the Darwin dream It's awesome seeing these plants that we put in a couple of years ago looking so healthy and celebrated. And the rock walls with wine bottle lights are finally shining. Get in contact if you want to create something like this at your home. AJF are awesome with the outdoor lights and we love working with them.

02.01.2022 In this "Think Outside The Block' post we are highlighting the value of chickens and demonstrating our integrated chicken villas. When well set up, chickens are easy to care for and provide you with fresh eggs, manure, compost turning and activation and a feathery companion to cuddle. Here are a couple of photos of our integrated chicken villas showcasing the integration of a three bay composting system within the run, fodder cropping (in this case we used sweetleaf to gr...ow against the fence as bother shelter and food). We made the Villa from pallets and the compost bay from materials collected from the tip! Three chooks is a comfortable amount to accomodate for a suburban backyard and will provide you with plenty of fresh eggs. Perhaps enough so that you may share these with your neighbours. An even greater concept is to pool together and build a larger shared chicken villa! A lot of blocks have a neglected corner of their backyard that has two or three neighbours adjoining. By working together you can create a truly palatial villa and a more resilient future in the midst of all this crazy uncertainty!

02.01.2022 Today is the big day - the Darwin International Laksa Festival and the unveiling of the first ever living Laksa Garden Bowl! Want to know more about it? Have a listen to the yarn we had with ABC Darwin. See you at the festival from 3pm with Taste of The Top End.

02.01.2022 That’s an entertainment spot! Bit went into this. From ripping out the old timbers, restoring the existing steel frame and extending it to the pool to finally laying the new scrub mahogany timbers! We put on the final coat of Sikkens and she has come out looking great and ready for the weekend. Huge thanks to Ben from Weld it Wright for his expert advice and steel fabrication work!

01.01.2022 Morning friends! Heres a small stone wall and garden we did last year. We set some stone shelves into the wall as candle holders for some natural garden lighting! Cheap but super effective for those after an impact fairy garden wall