With the building phase all but done, apart from a couple of fixups and the appearance of some sunshine, we’ve advanced the start of the garden up the list of things to do.
First is the vegetable garden. It has been there now for some 5 years but it has been pretty haphazard and only partially usable. However, each year, we harvest a lot of produce from that little plot.
This week, I have used the last of the old corrugated iron from the lean to verandah area of the old house, to make the final three planting beds. Four loads of soil have been brought in with one to go, to fill the beds with a good quality soil mix.
Garden beds
Another view
The corrugated iron sheets have been sliced lengthways and then screwed together with sheetmetal corners to form the beds. Star pickets keep the sides in place. We can see that the new beds do not have their black poly pipe protective edge installed as yet. A job for next weekend.
Ok. Now to the front yard. It will comprise mainy Western Australian native shrubs and ground covers, whichy are particularly resilient to the salt and winter storms.
We have had a blackboy planted in the middle of the front yard. We are hoping that it will thrive and be the centrepiece for the natural garden.
Blackboy
Maryanne has added a few plants since then.
We have also been busy with spreading some natural mulch all over the fron yard. The aim is to stop the soil washing away under the house, each time it rains and stop it ending up down the street, every time the wind blows.
The front yard
I mentioned fixups right at the start. Well, Rick and brother Ray, of Vander Constructions, paid us a visit and rplaced the top balustrade rails with solid Jarrah ones that we had custom made at West Coast Timbers, our local sawmill.
Rails.
They are a vast improvement on the previous rails. One is able to balance a full glass of Shiraz on the rail now and be confident that not a drop will be spilled.
