Frontyard Blitz

Something I have been super excited about but had no time to share is the transformation of my front yard a couple of weekends ago.

I had been chipping away at the weeding bit by bit, but not got very far as I kept running out of space in the green bin. But a few weekends ago my Dad was doing up his garden and had a few trailer loads of mulch left over, so he brought it down for us to spread over the roses.

My grandparents and Mum came down as well for a visit, and being a gorgeous day and having the use of the trailer to pile everything we pulled out meant we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a working bee! I was quite amazed that it only took a couple of us a few hours to completely rid the front garden of weeds and dead plants and make it look half presentable again.

It is so nice sitting out there on the chairs under the tables now that it's all cleared up. It's not perfect by any means but it's so much neater and now we feel like we actually have some idea of what to do next with it.

And I am all motivated to get started on the back garden next week now as well!

So, to tell the full story, here are the before and after shots, although in looking at the comparisons I probably need to take some more shots that are from a more similar position, I didn't get it quite right I think! But you get the idea.

Right hand side of the garden:

Part down the side:

Another little project

The HTC, Monkey and I ventured out to the markets on Saturday which was lovely. We even happened to meet some friends there and had breakfast with them which was fun! Anyway, I had a look at a little shop while we were there and came upon some organic poppy seeds.

Now I am sure I have mentioned that my gardening skills are less than none, but I have decided to give it a shot nevertheless. I was happy to see that they can be sown between autumn and spring so we will see how we go. I have planted them in a planter box and left them on the table in the middle of our yard, as I think that is where they will get the most sun. It's a bit hard to be sure in our yard as we have these towering gum trees pretty much sheltering everything, but hopefully they will be okay. But of course the problem with this is putting them in a place with maximum sun exposure also puts them in a place with maximum rain exposure! We will see what happens soon enough I suppose. The plan (as given to me by the packet!!) is to grow them to about 4cm and then sow them in the garden. I am hopeful it will work out.

I was showing them to the Monkey the other day and telling her all about them. She looked fascinated I must say, if only she understood a word I was saying!

Confessions of a gardening virgin

Today's work!
Before........


And after!

Let me just say, I am so much of a gardening virgin that I consider pulling a couple of weeds out of the ground 'gardening'! But one of my SP's for this month was to get into the garden which the HTC and I never do - which is exactly why it is in such a huge state. We are so slack with it the weeds are threatening to take over absolutely everything, it's horrible.

Anyway, I had been patiently waiting for green bin day which was this morning, and after spending an hour in there this afternoon the green bin is full and there is another small patch I have managed to clear. I think the key to me getting all of this done is chipping away at it without thinking about how much more there is to do. I have been doing pretty well with this line of thinking too, everytime I walk past the garden now I concentrate on the patch that I have done which makes me happy, rather than the many hours still to do.

I am limited somewhat because I don't want to go nuts and rip everything out and have no way of getting rid of it, so it is helping me to take it at a more sensible pace considering I keep having to wait for green bin day.

And now for a small confession - while I was out there today there was a tiny part of me that actually enjoyed it! I never ever thought I would say that. But the sun was shining, the weeds were so easy to pull out because it has been raining, and I worked out a way to do it without aggrivating my back which is great. There was a part of me that was a little disappointed when I had to stop when the bin was full.

Now I see I am slowly getting somewhere, my thoughts are starting to turn to what we could actually do with the garden once the clean out has finished. I think I will look into some ground coverings which may help the weeds and maybe even some hardy bushes and flowers that might suit the space.

My hate/hate relationship with my garden

The Monkey and I went for a walk to the shops yesterday, and on the way home I walked past our attrocity of a garden and had to sigh yet again. I absolutely hate it. To be fair it's not the poor garden's fault, I hate it because we have been living here nearly 5 years now and have spent almost no time on it at all, even to weed. The problem is, there are about a gazillion things the HTC and I would rather do than garden, it is absolutely last on both of our to do lists, and our garden definitely reflects that!

We have put some money aside to do it up 'some day' (yes, when 'some day' arrives it is going to be one hell of a busy day, with all the things we have planned for it!!) but there is so much to do even before we start that, and we have both been putting it off forever.

I took some photos which are so depressing it isn't funny. Weeds are already about 30 cms high and it looks disgusting, and due to our several huge gum trees there is bark and leaves absolutely everywhere. We both hate it but it really feels like too big of a job to even start, and even on the rare occassions we do get a little motivated, our green bin fills up in no time at all, and then suddenly there is nowhere to put everything we are cleaning up, so we give up again. It's such a vicious cycle!

So as I was pushing the pram past the jungle yesterday, I stopped for a few minutes and pulled a few weeds out. And while I hate gardening (have I mentioned this already??) I did find that even doing that little bit made me feel a little bit better about it - as long as I didn't look at all the rest that had to be done!

So while it is by no means a small pleasure of mine, I have decided to spend an hour a week chipping away at the jungle that is our front yard (and yes, the back is just as bad, but I have to start somewhere!!), because I think it will become a small pleasure to see our garden very slowly becoming less of a weed pit. And then once that is done, maybe we can have a bit clearer idea of what we want done design wise, because at the moment it is way too much of a big job to even contemplate that stuff.

So here is my effort from 20 minutes yesterday, with Mr Frog keeping a watchful eye on my work. I am a bit annoyed as this photo makes the area look about ten times smaller than it actually is, but there was a lot to do as it was all covered in the 30cm weeds that you can see behind.