Chirp!:

    Monday, September 24, 2012

    Intermission: The Backyard..

    Yes, I know, I totes promised an updated pic of the boy's room .. but instead Spring happened, and i've been living outside in the Great Australian Sunshine.  Awesome.

    This is our 7th year of 'save a bit, spend a bit, fix a bit and work a lot' on the garden. 
    We can't afford to do things in one big bang, but that's ok.. it allows us to muse on what we want, what works, etc, and the garden grows organically.  Some plants have been transplanted and moved, oh, about a dozen times?  Some have travelled with us in pots from rentals past, and some we've bought anew.

    I love gardening, and most people know the only gift we actually like is a Bunnings Voucher. 
    For my 30th birthday, all I wanted was a pretty watering can, for my 40th I asked for a tree. 

    Take me to a nursery and let me buy a couple of plants, and I will love you forever.


    backyard-hbfotograficlogoweb


    Things we have done:
    - built a deck
    - built a "boardwalk" .. the design which came to me in a dream and my husband made for me as his
      first ever job as a builder-carpenter ( not bad, huh? )
    - made the kidney-shaped lawn area using old bricks from our old front fence
    - made the pebble path
    - painted the fences
    - greenhouse pretty-ing up etc
    - installed the vege gardens
    - lots of plantings ( in the backyard we have a Japanese Maple grove, a Paperback Birch grove,
      roses, Viburnum, Lilacs, Weeping Lilly Pilly, Dianellas, Ornamental native grasses ( forgotten
      the name atm ), Gardenias, Ornamental Pear, Hydrangeas, English Box, a Mock Orange standard,
      a Ficus standard, iceberg roses, a Virgina Creeper ( love that monster ) and as of yesterday, a brand-spanking feature tree in an Autumn Blaze Maple!
    )



    And of course, the other stuff, like removing a disgusting compost heaps made from an old
    inner-spring mattress ( what? ), a broken hillshoist and all the 'paving' under it .. unearthing massive blocks of concrete from under the lawn ( we think maybe old garden borders? ) .. cutting and poisoning all the ivy that covered a back corner, the compost heap and our neighbour's trees ( he loved us for that ), and removing the few ugly weed trees ( Privet ) the property came with. 

    I wish i'd kept count of all the Skips we have hired, but i'm pretty sure the one we hired this year was skip #10 :/

    Further up the sides of the house where you can't see, AB also built me brick garden beds for all my citrus
    ( lemon, mandarin, Thaitian Lime, Kaffir Lime and Cumquats ) and rosemary hedge ( again with reused bricks ),
    and built us a new side gate, and paved the driveway. 

    And then there's the front yard..  hello, future posts..
    7years.
    Home straight.
    ( Underplantings next year .. i'm excited already! )

    2 comments:

    Frogdancer said...

    That boardwalk is amazing!!

    Julie-Ann said...

    Your garden is stunning:). I lot of the plants you have chosen are my favourites. Some of them just don't grow as well here in Perth. You have to love that chill in Melbourne for gardening:)

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