Deck Reno #9

The boys have been around again, this time laying black plastic to stop any yucky smells and water marks coming through.

On top of that is the rio.

Slab is being poured on Thursday. Fingers crossed the rain stays away.

New Plants

My new Claret Ash which will replace our broken Leditsia. Beautiful new rose.


I bought up big at my local Bunnings from the clearance trolley (not sure why these plants were on there). Lots of gorgeous roses and crepe myrtle trees :)

So Unfair!

We had gale force winds in our suburb earlier in the week. We 'had' one established tree on our block planted by the builder. It hadn't been pruned particularly well over the years by the previous owner and had a funny shape to it. I guess it must have caused it to have a weak point.

Play spot the Amber Cat!

The poor tree: a Gleditsia 'Sunburst tree" was literally blown to pieces in the wind. Admittedly it was planted in a windy spot but wow! So much damage. I have the stump grinding guy coming out out on Tuesday, so that I can replace the tree.

I will be buying something ornamental that can withstand a windy spot ASAP. The front garden looks so empty and stark now :(

This tree with alot of TLC had grown a truck load and I don't have a photo of it in full leaf. Wasn't really expecting this to have happened.

Skink Fun

We found a skink today sunning itself in our garden. String Bean, being a critter kid, couldn't wait to have a hold of the little guy. Had to convince her to let him go again!

Transforming our 'Garden' #1

Before and after: front garden.

Since our move, we have been busy transforming what the house's previous owner thought was a nice garden. His idea of gardening was to cover everything in pavers and pebbles. He also enjoyed planting succulents and Japanese box, what a contradiction!

So far we have blitzed the front yard, as it is much smaller than the backyard. We had to start by lifting pavers and moving pebbles.








Before and after: front garden.

We had to demolish a wonky mailbox that had been run over and rebuilt twice. We replaced it. The top garden bed is now pebble and paver free and mulched. We've planted a Nandina hedge along the front and have continued the box hedge around the retaining wall. The living mulch is spreading nicely and hiding the creative retaining walls :0

This will be the first in a LONG series of posts (you should see the backyard!)

Flowers from my Grandma.

I've not been at all well this last week and my lovely Grandmother (Abuela Paqui) sent me these beautiful blooms from her garden. Apparently it is from the rose bush I gave to her when she first moved into her new townhouse and was establishing a garden from scratch. It really did brighten up my day. It seems so old fashioned to firstly grow your own blooms and then give then to someone who is feeling under the weather.

Made me feel like Jane Austen for a day. Especially the scene from the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice where Jane and Lizzie are picking flowers in the garden.

From Small Beginnings...

I planted a blueberry plant about 2 months ago and it has already produced some fruit.

Totally delicious. I can't wait to get a much bigger crop next year. Now I'm tempted to plant more into that bed. I'm really keen to try growing rhubarb, so I've got some on hand for make yummy cakes. Apparently it freezes really well. Will have to go see if now if an OK time to plant it.

I've also had a bumper lemon crop this year and am going to try making lemon butter. I love the stuff and the store bought variety is so ordinary and just bland. I will post about how that goes later on.

Potting up

Well it would seem that Fuzzy Wuzzy has a green thumb. At school on Thursday the children had the opportunity to pot up some plants. Fuzzy potted up 6 pots! A mixture of flowers and some vegetables and herbs too. "I planted parsley Mummy!"











He is so proud of his plants and is watering them regularly. Last night he had to check on then 6 times before finally going to sleep.

Things to eat...

Grosse Lisse Tomato plant. My Rosemary cuttings from last year.

Here are the few edible things growing in my garden at the moment. I am thinking about making a straw bale bed in the back garden in the next couple of weeks. I was also drooling over some gorgeous blueberry plants at Bunnings today. Crone would you plant a blueberry in a straw bale bed? Or should I try and find a spot in my garden beds?

My strawberry which is just flowering.

A lovely day

Mummy & Squealy.

Well after getting the heads up that Floriade was fully packed by 9am we decided to forego our planned trip there and headed to Cockington Green instead.

It was just beautiful and very much like Floriade anyway. The venue was full of perfectly manicured and maintained gardens, full of flowering annuals and bulbs.

We decided to let Squealy out of the pram. He was so well behaved, sticking to the paths and staying out of the displays. So proud of how grown up he is. Seems that now that his second birthday is just a around the corner he's lost his baby looks. He is such a little boy now.

Squealy fixated by the train.

One for The Crone

Here are some pictures of my 'pretty garden' taken on Thursday last week. Fuzzy Wuzzy and I were just mucking around on a glorious, soon to be Spring day (well it felt like it, even though it isn't quite September.)