Another Day In The Garden

Remember this photo?

My pot plants thrown in a jumbled mess at our front steps.

Well, I spent yet another day out in the garden, tidying up and planting some of my flowers out of their pots and into more permanent homes.

Just ignore the pile of junk behind!

The pots were neatly pushed up against a garden wall...

And I continued on my obsessive "cover it all in straw mulch" quest...

I trimmed back ferns, and planted colourful shrubbery...

There is still so much to be done but I have shifted my focus from outside to inside and am trying to finish unpacking the last few pesky boxes. When we moved in it looked like there was plenty of storage space for our stuff......

It filled up quick!

My Day In the Garden

Remember this?

This tangled mess of weeds...

Well, I got stuck in!

The other day my father in law came over and did a little weeding, he pulled out most of the big grassy weeds, filling up our green waste bin.

The bin men came and took it away.

Hello empty bin!

I got to work.

I pulled, I dug, I turned.

I got filthy, covered in spider webs, mud and ants.

That was day one.

The next day we headed off to Bunnings with our gift card we received for Christmas (awesome present, I squealed when I saw it!).

We wandered around, I was disappointed by the small vegetable seedling section.

But I was determined!

I bought seedlings, seeds and sugar cane mulch.

We got home, I got straight to it.

Emerging a few hours later, to this....

In it there are cucumbers, capsicum, lettuce, beetroot and silverbeet, as well as some strawberry shoots tucked away up the back.

I couldn't help but feel proud of my hard day's work.

Today I am paying for it.

My whole body aches.

But it was worth it, not only did I get a great workout (for free!), I have started us up a nice patch which will provide us with food for our hungry little family.

I also bought a lovely little rosemary bush which is in a big pot with the rest of my herbs, some seeds for flowers and spaghetti squash, which is very hard to find around here!

I am hoping to get out there later today and turn a little section into a strawberry patch, and plant some seeds so we have a continuous flow of food.

For now though, I'll leave you with these...

I Have A Garden

I have a garden now.

Though I must use the term very loosely.

There is no thick green grass as a lawn.

Only cold, hard concrete, that goes from icy to burning in the Summer sunshine.

Dotted with pebbles, cracks and curves.

There are raised garden beds. From the front there are big steps of these coming down to the main area. They were once filled with beautiful flowers, roses and daisies just some.

Now it is dry, wood chip and weeds, with a few over grown or near death flowers scattered around.

In the centre is a huge raised bed, which was once a glorious pond with fountains and water features, levels of water cascading down into a large pool at the bottom.

Now it is overgrown with grass and weeds.

It has cute characters on display, like cheeky gnomes...

And a lovely lady fountain who has seen better days...

I insisted on bringing along all my pots full of vegetables and herbs, and they lie scattered near the front door, waiting to find a permanent place in the garden...

There is a lot of work to do

We used to live here many years ago, in the granny flat out the back of the main house.

I have many memories of hours spent in the burning sun, pulling weeds and being disheartened to see them all back just a week or two later.

I remember pulling out a big weed and the ground erupted with ants, they poured out of the fresh hole and scattered. This was the first of many ant colonies I discovered.

This time I am being lazy.

I will buy some form of weed killer from my beloved Bunnings and spray, spray, spray!

I have been offered some native plants and trees and they will find a place soon enough.

I want to transform this yard.

From unkempt to lush, colourful and somewhere you would WANT to sit and relax.

I have given myself a little deadline.

The kid's birthdays will start in March and we need every last bit of space to fit in our family and friends. I plan on using the large covered area outside our front door for our big table of food and decorations so having a child friendly and nice yard is a must!

Am I being a bit too optimistic?

Will I get it to match the visions I have in my mind?

Hopefully I will soon have some stunning "after" photos to share with you!