from the front

April 26th 2010

June 29th 2011

Same view, Just waiting for as thick a fog. This is the closest we've had so far since the new house went up.

Orchard and forest view to the south.

Certainly better than looking at someones over grown suburban backyard.

We bought yet another gargoyle today. This one's a concrete "limestone look" one and we also purchased an Emperor Mandarin.   The gargoyle looks very much at home perched on a corner of the limestone retaining wall at the front of the house.
We've ordered both a dwarf granny smith and a dwarf pink lady ( pinkabelle) apple tree  from the small, in town nursery. They'll call us when they are in.

                                                      Trying to decide whether to fertilize or cut the lawn perhaps?

Quick update

We've added a few plants to some bits of the garden but not a lot.
We've been investigating adding a front gate near the garage and at this stage we have started considering pool gate type fencing as it would be the lightest option.
Had a win last weekend as I discovered one of the pool and spa companies in Bunbury stocked zeolite as a filter medium for some of their pool filters( zeobrite) so was able to get 2 15 kg bags.


Wednesday we went and purchased half a tray of seedlings for a hedge. We now have some people who have bought the property 2 from us and want to get a hedge started. The area is so rocky that the only way to do this is to buy small tube stock and let it find it's own way through the rock.
I've also started on some chicken wire to cover over the post and rail fencing so try and keep the rabbits out. It's hard going. My fingers are soft and they get very sore wiring up the 2 fences with wire. I've gt at least 70 more metres to go. I hope they don't come exploring tonight . My back is sore and I need to stop. Hubby spent almost  3 hours of measuring and digging with a crowbar produced holes big enough to plant small tube stick seedlings.  34 Pincushion Hakea's have now been planted. So now we have a hedge planted. One plant every 1.5 m. The last 3rd became steadily more and more rocky as you can see.
We have one left and 4 other plants to go in later in the week.

Time to get into it

We've been back a few weeks now and the rains have finally come. The garden bed is swamped by weeds, the roses in desperate need of pruning, veggies need pulling out and new soil put in. New veggies need to go in.
I've pulled up the tomato bushes and as of today, pulled up the carrots.  Not a success as the ground was too poor and hard. What we've ended up with has multiple roots and having left them in disgust, today when I finally pulled them up so I can start again, many are split. Still had to get a photo though.  If I get lots of improver  in I might try again with normal sized carrots but not for a while. (I planted baby ones.)
 On Mothers day I planted garlic from a friend. At almost 2 weeks in these are looking pretty good.
Garlic after 13 days.

Snow Peas

Capsicum

Baby Carrots. I didn't enrich the soil enough and make sure it was friable. The seeds germinated and everything looked promising until I started to pull them up. They all had multiple roots.  So I left the rest to rot in the  ground. Today I decided to pull them up anyway. The results were as I expected, pretty awful.  You can see what happens to carrots left in the  ground too long.  

Time to get organised for the day.  I'm off to buy new pruners.

Rain

We've been so looking forward to rain I had forgotten about the down side.
 Back three days now. The garden is covered in green. Not good green but weed green. There are weeds everywhere. Far too many to weed by hand. I will be getting the rake and hoe out and  working on clearing them.  The drive still looks great but I notice there is some of the white sand mixed through it. Not too happy about that as I think it spoils the look.
Plants in pots seemed to have survived our 8 days away thankfully. I suspect the ground is still as rock hard as ever for digging but I'll need to get into it  and plant the hedge. At least one of the grevilleas is looking almost complete dead in it's pot.  I have some spongolite and zeolite to collect from a store in Bunbury to dig into the holes for each planting so it depends on whether or not the stock has arrived . Calls to make.
Also need to decide what veggies I want to grow over autumn and winter, buy some soil improver and veggie seedlings. ( or seeds)
Loved all the tropical looking plants around our accommodation in Bali. Took a few pictures but not heaps. Will upload later.