Screen, trellis & vegie gardens

The two screens I purchased from Stratco have been welded to a steel frame & concreted in about 3 feet down.  A cyclone wouldnt blow it over!!  Doesnt look that great at the moment but with some greenery around should blend nicely.

This little trellis which has also been well & truly concreted in, I will grow a creeper on to semi hide the man cave, thinking a mandevilla, I dont want anything too large or aggressive at the trellis only measures 2m x 2m.  The shade cloth structure belongs to our neighbour & covers his aquaponics vegie garden.

Two beautiful home built raised vegie gardens have been installed along with a small movable trellis for growing peas or beans.

We were going to buy them from stratco but they were about $250each, these were built out of left overs from the man cave at no cost. Its nice to have a win!

I am waiting to go and get some sheep poo from my mother inlaw's farm to fill them up further, but my wonderful husband has done a marvellous job along with the help of No 2 son. Well done guys!

The retic helper!

Bella getting the sprinkler fittings in place!

Way too much to say & totally unwilling to give up her sprinkler raiser, so in actual fact no help whatsoever!!  But the butt of lots of jokes, providing endless entertainment, poor old girl, we do love her!

Ready for the good dirt!

We have dug out tonnes of roots & raked, shoveled & finally we have it level enough to order the landscape mix, 20 cubic metres of it!
But because I just couldn't wait any longer I had to plant something, so in the far corner I have planted a Bauhinia variegata purpurea (Orchid Tree). This tree grows to approx 8m with a width of 6m, it is partly deciduous, although we shall see as it still has lots of leaves at the moment. It has beautiful fragrant, magneta, orchid like flowers - a tropical looking tree.

Heaps of pot plants eagerly awaiting planting, some I dug out of the garden & others I have propagated & even more I have purchased.

Bella sunning herself in the warm winter sun, still lots of roots around, but hopefully they will break down under the new soil.  Rusty screen leaning against the pavers, which we will attached to a frame & erect across the entry way to the patio, it all looks outstanding in my mind!

Pruning

We have green waste pick up this week, so good idea to get rid of the dreadful bottle brush branches overhanging our fence from a neighbours yard.

There are three of them & they are all riddled with scale, most unfortunate for me, I will have to be vigilant with my plants.  Neighbours are not gardeners so couldn't care less.

Bella helping with the removal of the prunings.

one more day of sand carting & we should have all the yellow sand done, then we will move onto some paving I think!

Lawn Gone!!

The muscle men dug out the rest of the front lawn

and the back lawn as well!

and put it all in here!

now we shouldn't need to get too much fill.

I pulled, cleaned & stacked all these pavers, big job & I was wrecked afterwards, still more to go!

and Bella did nothing but watch & offer advice!

"It takes courage to grow up & become who you really are"

EE Cummings

I cant believe it was the spring  2013 I last posted!
I suppose what happened was that the internet in Northam was so appallingly slow I just couldn't be bothered anymore, also work got really busy & then we decided to shift (again!).
but anyhow Im back, along with another new garden, & heres hoping this is where I will stay.

I love my Northam garden, it was just starting to look good & we put sooooo much work into it, but shit happens & we decided to move once again.  I am more than happy in my new little house & the garden is going to be awesome!! These photos are from 2014 Northam garden, just to remind me of it.

Aloe garden in Northam

By the way the caption at the top is because I had a significant birthday this year & its a reminder to just be me!

Spring gone, winter back!

Well we had a few lovely spring days & then winter came back in full force, day after day of high wind & sleety rain, we have had our wettest September in 42 years.  Some farmers are saying they haven't seen a season like this since they were kids.  The crops are looking amazing & we have had 3 planes working, which is wonderful, following 4 years of drought & semi drought.

below my youngest skybax with his faithful hound, not at all impressed with the invader!

A fearless feline has come to stay at our hangar.  this male moggy turned up about a month ago, he greets the pilots every morning & actually strolls onto the tarmac to greet them again on their return in the evening, while the planes are still roaring! not even the slightest bit afraid of Bella!

Im loving my new little Genista yellow imp, its flowering happily away, despite the miserable weather.

Conospermum triplinervium, smoke bush. I have been wanting one of these ever since I saw them flowering in the bush, they are outstanding on mass & a little bigger.

gorgeous little margerite daisy I struck from somewhere.

This margerite, I actually bought, which goes against my grain as they are super easy to strike.

wisteria just starting to break out, I moved this from the verandah a while back & thought Id have a go at a standard (sort of)

freesia's & snow in summer



not sure what this is, some sort of native hop tree maybe, but I love the new golden growth.

Good things come to those who wait (and wait, and wait)

This cactus was bought 25 years ago as one of those fun novelties, the ones with eyes & glasses.

it never flowered, just grew & grew.  I shoved it outside and out of the way as I felt quite disgusted with it,

 

so it grew a few more friends to keep it company.  I could never quite bring myself to leave it behind when shifting house.  Anyway whether conditions were perfect or it just needed to grow up, it has decided to honour my patience with my favourite coloured flower and a few more to come as well!

 

stormy weather threatening, but thats all it was, weak effort in the end

 

Lazy photo's taken from my chair, well it was wine oclock!

Bella the clever talking dog, but only if she has something in her mouth.

 

beautiful agaves, sad lawn, perfect evening for some good cheer!

"An optimist is the human personification of spring"

(Susan J. Bissonette)

 

 

Bella enjoying a lazy spring afternoon on lovely newly mown, clean lawn.  Which wont stay clean for long as this dog poo's more than any other dog I have ever come across, I swear more comes out than goes in, and she even manages to poop a couple more times on her evening walk!  She also kills the lawn wherever she wee's too, we are trying those doggy rocks in her water from city farmers at present, which they promise me work, but I'm yet to see the evidence.  Apart from that she is a loving faithful creature, I just wish she could dig a hole somewhere, (not in my garden) & ablute into it, covering it up nicely when finished!

A boy & his dog

At 5.30am this morning we awoke to the sound of hail & thunder, the gutters & the pool were over flowing & there was water everywhere, the hail didnt last long on the ground before melting.  I lay in bed while CP had to venture out & start the pool pump to relieve some of the flooding, it was lovely just listening to the rain & knowing it was a giving all the plants a good soaking.

The park at the end of our street filled up with water, which quickly drains away, but S4 & the dog were just as quick to race down there for some fun & games.  Racing through the water & mud I managed to get a few shots before I was asked to leave (by S4 - not cool)

We ended up getting 25mls (1 inch) of rain, in about 3 hours, so hopefully a bit of run off into the dams before the long hot summer hits.

Bella

This Bella, she is S4's dog (skybax number 4) & is a retreiver/labrador cross. Bella is 2 & 1/2 years old & has the most endearing personality, although she does annoy me while I garden. She is a talker, never stops, she grumbles, growls, whines, whimpers & yaps all in the never ending quest for attention. When I have my head down, bum up gardening she is forever trying to get her head under mine, I growl & send her away, this lasts until I move or look up & this is her signal to have another go. When my sons bring girls home, she will lie on her back with a ball between her feet balancing it. I think she's jealous & trying to get the attention back on her, but S4 just says she loves to perform for anyone who will watch. The relationship Bella & S4 have is astounding, they are completely besotted with each other & when he is in the garden I am unceremoniously dumped! As she is getting older she has the typical labrador trait of putting on weight & S1 has taken to calling her "chubbsy", so S4 is flat with the excercise, I think he takes it personally! Saturday is the big day for us S1 is flying a Cessna 210 down to Perth from Broome for servicing, he is a pilot up there, & he gets to stay at home until Wednesday, its quite a journey as Broome is at the other end of WA to Perth & he is leaving at 2am sat. morning to get in some instrument flying. He has been in Broome for over a year now & is building his hours & experience up in order to apply for airline jobs. At 23 he is having some wonderful experiences in the outback & learning so much, it has been just the best thing for him.