The biggest creative
act I thought I was going to do in this life of mine was to have a child.
Whoops! I guess that didn’t go quite as planned!
For a few years after
we realised we weren’t going to have children I felt torn away from my
creativity – I thought I was completely empty of a creative life because I
couldn’t have a child. It took a while for me to realise that I can be creative
in so many other ways. My garden is one of them.
When we bought our
house, our front garden looked like this…
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| Our house when we bought it |
It had an ornamental
olive tree, daisies, a formal square of bricks, stones and bark (with no weed
prevention measures at all), and some daisy type bushes which like to reseed
themselves around the place.
This was not a good
garden for our area for many reasons, some of which are:
- It is hard to maintain
– we are continually have to weed, remove the plants that reseed (especially if
they end up the neighbours’ yards).
- Watering is a
nightmare – we live in southern Australia and water is by no means abundant. The
plants are not indigenous or even native to our area and so require watering.
- The plants are bad for
the environment – this especially goes for the olive tree. We live near a
wetland and across from a small waterway that feeds the wetland. Water hens are
everywhere and like to come across to our yard and get the olives. This is
dangerous for them as they have to cross a road and could get run over, and they
also they take the olives back to the waterways where it is very easy for the
seeds to travel with the water to other locations and grow. Olive trees grow
very easily around here.
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| The wetlands |
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| The waterway across the road |
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A water hen
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So, I (we) decided to
change our yard completely. Gone are the olive tree and the daisies. Out came
the formal square of bricks, and the stones are in a pile of sorts in one part
of the garden.
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| Knobby Club Rush |
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Ruby Salt Bush
|
Our plan is for a fake
creek bed to run from one part of the yard to another, three fake water holes
along the driveway, to paper under the bark to help stop weeds, get fresh bark,
and plant only plants that are indigenous to our area – knobby club rush, ruby salt bush, a bottle
washer, pig face, wattle, creeping boobialla and maybe even a nodding chocolate
lily. I’ve already dug the creek and water holes and Felix and Frankie (two of
our cats) love running up and down the creek - it is a whole new adventure for them (they
are easily entertained!)
I feel really good
creating what I know will be a beautiful front yard. I may not be able to have
children, but I realise I can put my creative energies into other things –
including my garden.
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| The removed pavers... |
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| The creek bed... |
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| The creek bed again... |
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| The three waterholes... |
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| The three waterholes again... |
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