Pumpkins

One night whilst peeling veggies for dinner the husband had the genius idea of keeping the seeds and planting them in the garden bed at the end of the dog kennel. He did it, and we thought nothing of it.

Until a little green plant started to sprout. And grow.

It then took over the wire of the dog kennel and started to take over the backyard. We started snipping its ends then as we counted over 20 pumpkins growing on it.

So now we have five different veggies/fruits growing successfully!

The other things we have are a purple capsicum

A yellow capsicum

Strawberries (and for anyone who knows me, seeing fruit on my plants is as shocking to you as it is to me)

Parsley (can't grow it in a pot, but it grows nicely in the cracks in the pavers)

and cherry tomatoes

We also have a lemon tree, lime tree and orange tree growing, but they are yet to produce any goodies. Not bad for a serial plant killer!

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Garden Beds

Whilst on leave the husband and I recently made some garden beds for the front of the house.

We chose to do a simple design that followed the line of the concrete. I figured it might give a nice formal feel to the house. Probably not, but anyway...

It was a simple cut list, I measured the back of the beds (the veranda), and the sides of the step, and then worked out how wide I wanted the beds to be (30cm) and went from there. We used 50mm treated sleepers, so factoring in that width I had a cut list. It worked out that if I thought about what bits to cut from what lengths, I could get away with only using 2.5 sleepers per bed.

They sat empty like this for a couple of months until we could be bothered getting dirt to fill in the beds. Given the house is in a general state of disrepair, ugly garden beds weren't overly concerning to the look of our house.

We brought extra soil to fill in around the garden beds and to even up our lawn. We have the plants go in them, we want to paint the front of the house and do the roof before we plant them though, so they are sitting in the outdoor area for now.
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I neeeeeeed this...

May have been what I said to a friend recently. Maybe.

But come on, how cute are these little guys?

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What's left...

So, now the concrete is laid, we need to finish the front. On the list, there is

• new guttering.
• replace the roofing iron.
• paint the veranda poles and the surrounding trim from blue to grey.
• put the lattice work back up.
• build garden beds for the front of the veranda and the front of the master bedroom.

Sad thing is that I want this done before Christmas - which is only a few short weeks away!

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Planting the seed

I brought this planter 6 years ago, originally for the garden in the outdoor area, and made it into a fountain. Those plants died a tragic death, and the planter got moved to the front yard. I have managed to replace the plants in it more times that I care to admit, but I love how it looks. This time we have a gardenia surrounded by pansies.

Maybe this lot will last longer that 6 months?

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Mary Mary, How Does Your Garden Grow?

At the start of the year I made an effort to make our side garden pretty, and thought I better do an update seeing as though we are about to come into summer again.

This is what I had in January

And this is what we have now

Bit sad, isn't it! With all the rain we have had recently, a lot of the plants got waterlogged and died :( Not to mention that I only ever got half way through putting the bark chip down before I forgot about it and went inside.

But now that the weather is warming up again, I am thinking of putting in some new plants, some more yukkas (because I couldn't kill those, even with all the water), some more cordilines (same story as the yukka) and maybe some banana palms (which are currently on special at the garden center).

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Point & Shoot - Sunday 25th July

This weekend saw me take it a touch slower than usual. The sun finally showed its presence on Sunday, allowing me to do a touch a gardening without wearing 15 layers (I managed to get away with 4 layers).

So I took the opportunity to do some maintenance on my worm farm, and use some of the castings to plant my new herbs.

We have parsley, sage, rosemary, mint, garlic chives and four lettuce mix. I am wanting to go back for some basil, and lemon grass. I am looking forward to cooking with my new herbs in the coming weeks.

Who knows, it might actually get me motivated to create my veggie patch!

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Citrus Trees

I love it when we get junk mail, especially when it is a Mitre10 or Bunnings catalogue. And today was a special day, there was BOTH!!!

I saw these Citrus Splitzer and was intrigued.

Citrus Splitzer provides you with two distinctly different citrus on the one tree. Double your citrus options using the same space required for one tree.

I think I am loving the lemon and orange combo the most. Or maybe the lemon and lime. At $90 a pop I think I shall put some more thought into it first though.

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A look back at our garden

2005

2010

I was cleaning off my hard-drive today, and found some old photos of our house from when we moved in.

Crazy garden - gone
Ugly yellow house paint - gone
Stupid fence and gate that did nothing - gone
Plum tree - gone
Ugly looking fence behind the garden - gone.
Garden shed built - done (ok, so it doesnt have a concrete base, it just sits on the stones, but its good enough to store our bikes in).

A lot has changed in five years.
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Looking back at our back yard

2005

2010

Looking back at old photos makes me remember how many cars we have had. Not one of those cars is still in our ownership *hides* There has also been several others.

But, 5 years has brought us a side fence, gates, the removal of a garden bed, the creation of a dog run, a 3 car carport, a stone driveway, a whole heap of boring things in the shed, and a (somewhat patchy) lawn. I didn't realise we had done so much around our house, as I tend to focus on the big things and forget the little things.

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Gardening! Part Six

Bamboo Screening for the win!

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Hydrangias

I love hydrangeas. Always have. They remind me of my nanna.

Anyway, it seems they have become quite the popular plant. I have seen them in magazines, houses, and on blogs. And then Melissa blogged about them, teaching me about how the colours are formed in them. Something I never knew.

So, today when I was walking back from lunch, I spied these beauties in our garden at work. I quick footed it to our Works Manager, who said I could take what I wanted.

Which is how I came to have a vase full of them in my lounge. Aren't they pretty! Such vivid colours.

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Gardening! Part Cinq

Plants are mostly in. Now to put up the bamboo fence hiding stuff, and decide between bark mulch or pebbles. Opinions?

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Gardening! Part Quatre

I have plants :D

Now to rotary-hoe all that dirt and dig in the 7 bags of compost and stuff that is in the boot of my car.

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Gardening! Part Deux

Plants are in. Mulchy bark stuff is in. Now for it to grow into a hedge.

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Gardening! Part Trois

I knew I should have paid more attention in French classes, I had to google the number three! And to think I studied French for 4 years and even went on exchange to a french colony!

Anyways...it's time for the third installment of the garden saga.

This is what I am working with.

An ugly (admitadly less ugly than the fence we pulled down) fence, a wide garden bed, and some stupid pebble things that I hate, but can't justify the expense of concrete to get rid of.

The plan is this:
*cover the fence with those stick things designed for covering fences. I am hoping to get the shorter lengths so it will only cover up to the bottom of the lattice

*The bottom third of the garden bed will become a bbq haven, complete with redgum benchtops - I have nothing to do with this, its all the boys planning.

*Give the dirt a good dose of organic shit (I can say that, because thats what it is ;) ) and hopefully improve its condition to a level where something other than a thisle will grow in there.

*Plant some nice tropical plants. The list looks a bit like this

Mini Banana

Cycads

Pony tail Palm

Curcuma rubescens

Anthurium

Birds of Paradise

Spiral head ginger

Birds Nest Fern

That should make it nice and green in there. I considered having some bamboo as well, but apparently bamboo can take over your whole garden!

*Install the pond. I am considering making a rock waterfall, but it might end up being too hard, and i might just give up. Will see how I go with that one.

*Find some little statues to go in there. I saw some little Japanese lanterns in Bunnings the other day which would look awesome if you put a tea light in them at night. I wouldn't mind getting a sitting Buddha for in there as well, but I am yet to find one I like. If you know somewhere I should look, let me know. I remember seeing fiberglass ones that look like sandstone a while back, but I can't remember where.

The timeline for this project? A month to six weeks. I would like to have it all done before the husbands birthday party! Call me crazy!!!

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