I Forgot my Camera

At the risk of overdoing it with garden photos - here's some more. I forgot my camera so had to use my phone. We were back at the farm today, one of us a little more under the weather than the other. One of us went to town yesterday to the footy tipping comp breakup and to watch the game, then moved on to a poker game then had to walk halfway across town to find a bed when the taxi didn't turn up (was it ever actually ordered)? Guess which one of us it was?

I'm trying to get maximum output from my offsider before the party arrives. I suspect that once it's over, his enthusiasm for all things green (plants and lawn), smelly (manure) and itchy (hay) might diminish greatly and I'll be left holding the....wheelbarrow. We've actually achieved more than I ever imagined or expected to and if I was to be totally honest, it's been driven more by Gibbo than by me but of course I've embraced it wholeheartedly. If not for the party we wouldn't have done any of the work that we've now accomplished so we're way ahead which is fantastic.

We moved on to the last of the two round gardens. I forgot to take a before photo of this one - it was full of daisies, geraniums and tufts of grass. First the manure,

then the bark chip mulch. I left the log and block of concrete there because I unearthed a skink and a cute little wood gecko. 

 On the right you can see the pile of plants that I pulled out.

Then I got into the bigger one. This round garden has a very long tail to it that is planted with trees - it leads down towards the road. We didn't get this garden manured or mulched. My offsider left by this stage, after spreading hay in the rest of the big garden. I think last night finally caught up with him.

We're not doing too much with the tank garden. There'll be a strip of blue metal along the house edge and I'll keep this little area shown below as a garden and a little patch to the right as well. We'll put in a second tank behind this one (where the 3 palm trees used to be) and just keep it fairly simple. The bathroom window looks out on to the area behind this tank; I want to plant something sweet smelling and pretty so that when I lay back in my yet to be chosen/purchased/installed magnificently indulgent bath tub I'll be totally relaxed.

Finally, another couple of shots of the big garden and lawn area. The lawn is a bit rough at present but I'll fix it with a fork and a lot of selective weeding. The garden area is so open now; the soil will love the manure and mulch and we've had 11mm of rain on it since we started. By the time I get around to planting into it, it should be just about perfect.

I intend making the garden as self sufficient as possible. The size of the garden here where we are and the effort required to maintain it has totally cured me of wanting anything like it at Woodlawn. I have a list of plants that I want to plant out and basically walk away and leave; ones that might require a little attention here and there but nothing too demanding. Any effort expended will be in the vegetable garden, not the house garden.