Happy New Year!!

Well there goes another year!!! Amazing that in a month and a half it will be a year since we moved here. In some respects it feels like we have been here forever and then it also feels like we have only just moved here.

When I look back on older photos I can see that we have actually changed things since moving in, and looking at the old real estate photos looks almost like a completely different house. I can remember coming here and looking through the house with the real estate agent and yes its still the same house but now we have made it our "home".

We have put in a garden shed. I have created more "garden" areas, with a native garden and fruit trees, there is intentions of having a veggie patch but for the moment that is on hold, manly due to my indecision of where to put it and lack of time and energy, and as I have told myself, wanting to see a year out to observe the yard though all the seasons (well that's my excuse anyway)

Along one of our fences which we share with the neighbours I have planted around 6 tubestock Acacia Argyrophylla (which is also known as the golden grey mulga) with a myoporum parvifolium as a groundcover. It should look interesting as the myoporum is a purple leaf variety so should provide a nice contrast to the acacia. This variety of Acacia is the same as one which I planted at our last house near Port Augusta and it grew fantastically, with very little water, reaching higher than the fence within a couple of years. With lovely silver grey foliage making a good screening plant.

I am yet to get tanks hooked up to the house to collect rainwater so that a) we can use rainwater instead of mains water to water the garden and b) we have water on the other side of the house. Would you believe it in a back yard which is around 2/3 of an acre there is only one outside tap, which is on the side of the house.

I have decided that where I originally planned to have my herb garden will probably bare the brunt of a bit too much sun, and also be positioned in a spot which is not often passed by, and hence will be likely to be forgotten about. I now want to get one of those colourbond raised beds to put out the back, in front of a 22,500L rainwater tank which we want to put in and hook up to the carport and house, this will be just off the lawned area, within eyesight of the kitchen window, and hopefully make a (slightly hidden) feature of the rainwater tank.

I also want to get a few passionfruit vines to cover what was a shadecloth covered play area for the previous owners kids. The shadecloth didn't last long with some of the windy storms we had, so we decided to pull the shadecloth off, but the actual structure is still there.

So as you can see there's still lots of plans and hopefully now that we have a better feel for the house and yard through the seasons we will start to put some of these plans into action. I should apologise for not blogging all that often anymore, but real life just seems to be taking over and I have been trying to not spend much time on the computer, as I was finding that time was just disappearing and I really wasn't achieving much at all sitting on this thing.

So until next time take care!

An update from October

This is what I am creating as a herb bed, if you look closely there is a Rosemary in the centre, clumps of garlic chives along the edge and if you look really closely between the rosemary and the chives is a little oregano plant

This is where I am creating my native garden along this fence, if you look really close (and you know where to look) you can just make out the little tubestock plants I have planted, they are mostly acacia's and bottle brush's, with flowers varying from reds, to pinks to creams and yellows. I am hoping this will end up being a nice cheery colourful area with lots of bird life.


The other side of the garden shed a Thornless Blackberry (planted over our rescued galah who passed away)

The three deciduous fruit trees that were planted in late July/ early august.
Granny Smith Apple, Moorepark Apricot, Elberta Peach
The apricot and peach both have a couple of fruit on each which I am hopping they stay on the tree to ripen, so we can have a little taste.

Citrus Trees
Eureka Lemon, Washington Naval orange, Lemonade
They have taken a bit of beating this year with all the windy weather we have had, but considering that they have been subjected to they are still going fairly well

I have changed the posted date on here to reflect when these pictures were taken

Morning pictures

Well this morning when I woke up it looked like a lovely day, albeit a bit chilly outside, there was frost on the lawn, I think I now know why this section of the lawn is looking a bit sad, it is the area which gets the brunt of any frost that we get, so until we get out of the frost risk time it wont be getting mowed. When look closely I can see that it isn't dead, there are new shoots underneath but their is a layer of dead stuff on top, a mow would probably tidy it up nicely, but then leave all the green shoots vulnerable in the next bout of frost.

The citrus trees are still surviving even with having some of their leaves blown off in recent very windy storms. I am yet to find out what the problem with the orange tree is, it has rusty coloured areas on the underside of some of the leaves. I am thinking it is from winds or cold because it is all from the same direction

This photo I took because the sun glistening on the morning dew on the leaves just looked wonderful, but as good as my camera is I don't think it quite captured the moment

And here's evidence of my recent weeding activities

Cold gloomy wet days

Well yesterday it was lovely, sunshine blue skies, even warm enough at times to take my jacket off. I spent quite a few hours out the front pulling up knee high plus weeds out of the garden beds and reclaiming a few dieties plants which had become engulfed in grass and stinging nettles. I am wondering if it is possible to build up an immunity to Stinging nettles. I remember as a kid being so itchy after running though a patch of them (before I knew what they looked like) and it was a solid learning experience not to go anywhere near them.

Well that was before we moved here and they started taking over the garden beds. Thinking I was doing the right thing, with gloves and long sleeved shirts but the little buggers still managed to find any little exposed part of skin. When I started pulling these up a month or two ago I would try to be as gentle as possible grabbing them from the base but pointing the rest of the plant away from me as I pulled them out of the ground and straight in to the wheel barrow to avoid any unnecessary double handling. Even with doing this I would still end up with stinging itchy lumps between the ends of my sleeves and my gloves, which I would put up with until it just got unbearable and I had to give up, go inside wash my arms and turn to the trusty Neem oil or bepanthen or any other anti-itch stuff I could find.

Yesterday I noticed that yes the little buggers still manage to sneakily attack me, and yes it does sting, and itch but after the initial sting it seems to go away, leaving a little bump and then it disappears all together, am I getting tough or are the nettles just getting weak in their old age.

Today I think the rain has set in for the day, yet again, so it is a lazy Sunday inside, although as I sit here I think of all the things I want to (or need to) get done outside, but then there are also many thing that should be done inside too, and how sitting on the computer is not getting any of them done, So I am going to engage some self discipline and sign of for now and enjoy the cold wet gloomy-ness from the comforts of inside.

Rain = Weeds = New mower

Well I'm not sure if this year is a wet year here, or if I am just really not used to winter with rain after spending three years up near Pt Augusta, but everything seems to be rather soggy around here.

The weeds are absolutely loving it, so much that we decided that we would buy ourselves a ride on lawn mower to try to keep it under control, so as owners of a John Deer we are now propper country people!!! LOL!!!! It has definately made things a lot easier, taking just over an hour to do most of the yard, which I think we spent close to that doing the little bit which is out the front with the normal mower (and almost killing the poor thing).

Now our huge patch of weeds could almost (well with squinted eyes and a lot of imagination) pass as a nice lawn area (well green and tidy area).

Since I last posted I have put in the citrus trees (Eureka Lemon, Washington Naval orange and Lemonade) These were planted around the 12th June, I am hoping that they have not been affected too much by the few frosts we have had or the few windy storms that have come through, I am looking forward to spring when they will hopefully start to grow nicely.

You can see from the pictures that the weeds are growing really quickly, and this photo was taken about a month ago. I also got the apple (Granny Smith) planted last week, now to get the Moorepark Apricot and the Elberta Peach inthe ground.