The busy week we had planned last week, was not so busy after all. We did manage to put in a few big days in the yard. I will share a little as I believe I’ve discovered that gardens are never finished, but simply a constant work in progress.
The apprentice and I, put in a solid 4 hours on Wednesday, trying to free the plants of the dreaded cats claw vine that was choking the life out of them. This vine, grows so quickly and covers everything in it’s path, horrible stuff that sticks to even your bare skin. I’m told we’ll be fighting it forever, so much so, one of the neighbours, has just let it grow right over her fence.
The gardens are full of beautiful bromeliads, once the horrible weeds are gone.
A few trips to the dump later, and we were ready for Adam to help with the chainsaw. That was the end of productivity though, as we had the state of origin to attend. We don’t travel into Brisbane much at night, and I forget how beautiful and vibrant the city is. We had a wonderful night, though a late one, that did nothing for our preparations for the next day.
We uncovered this beautiful pathway, that we will turn into a running stream.
Thursday saw, Adam, the apprentice, our eldest Racquel and myself all in the garden for the day. More work was done on clearing out the cats claw, Adam spent the day cleaning up the scrubs by cutting away the lower branches, and the apprentice, Racquel and I cleared out the rubbish. We were so lucky to get through this process, which then gave us the opportunity to do the most exciting job so far, fill the garden beds.
This is where some extra sleep would have come in handy. The back yard is on a hill, and only has paths and garden beds, there was no way for a truck to “dump” the soil down the hill, so we had to move it. Phew, this was exhausting.
Racquel and I shovelled 5 cubic meters of soil onto a tarp, that the boys then carried down to the garden beds and tipped in. It was long, hard, dirty work, but what a sense of achievement. Once this windy cold whether is gone, we can plant our first vegggies. Yeah!
That’s about all we had time for this week, we were lucky to be able to get those few days in the yard. It’s the busy time of the year now through till Christmas, with lots of jobs due back from council approval, architects and quotes to be finalised. This will again slow progress down, but with the new cabinetry coming for the library, we may get another little spurt in.
How was your week? What have you been up to? Did you manage to fit in a little DIY?
Nicole xxx
Oh I love the look of a freshly tended garden!! I also love gardening though I’m not so good at the manual labour *ahem*. That Cat’s Claw sounds nasty!! What are you going to put in your garden beds? Wow they look so well made with the timber sleepers! I cannot wait to see that pathway you discovered turned into a running stream. That will be beautiful! Imagine the relaxing sound of running water whenever you’re in your backyard! I have some DIY planned but admit the cold windy weather has made me put it off. I’m planning on giving our pool fence a bit of sand and then painting it a new colour. It’s currently a very daggy 90’s green colour and I’m going to be painting it a more pleasing dark charcoal colour ? xo
Thank you Min. I do love gardening, it sooths my soul. I can’t wait to get out there with my new camera and show you just how beautiful it really is, these photos do nothing for it. I know the exact green you are talking about, yep painting is a great choice! xx
Oh the dreaded cats claw vine!!! We have been battling it ever since we moved here two years ago! Did you want to send the apprentice down the road to tend to my overgrown yard??? You can take some pumpkins and passionfruit with you? lol!
I think that sounds like a good deal! I love home grown produce. Cats claw is the worst thing I’ve ever found, though there is another one that has spikes all over it that is a very close second. xx
I love those planter boxes, think I am going to have to show to the handy hubby and ask him to make some similar. I’d love to get some greens in the garden, now that our renovation is pretty much done the garden is next, well parts of it that the builders aren’t touching with the new build.
They are great and easy to make. It was one of the apprentices first big solo jobs and he did a great job. A new build sounds super exciting! Good luck xx
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