There has been a lot
of progress in our garden since I last wrote about it in the entry of 4th March 2014. The baby plants have grown steadily, the creek beds are finished on
both sides of the drive way, and we finally have mulch!
It has been a stop and
start process, but I am really pleased with the oasis that we have created in
our front yard.
The last time I wrote
about the garden I had just put in the plants – a wattle, a knobby club rush, a
black anther lily, and a pig face. They were tiny, as you can see by the photos
below. I was quite harsh on them. We had a week or so of hot weather (around 40
degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit)), but I didn’t let that deter me from
strengthening up the plants. I watered them three times a week for about two
weeks and then they were on their own. And they thrived! All of the plants are
indigenous to our area and so they are perfectly suited to growing on their own
with little assistance from us.
I ordered the mulch
about a fortnight ago. When I ordered mulch for our front yard at our old house,
before we sold it, I made a mistake and ordered enough for three gardens…so
this time I gave the dimensions to the supplier and asked them how much we
needed. Two metres cubed of mulch was delivered to us on a Thursday afternoon.
I had ordered forest mulch instead of bark chips as I want our front yard to be
as natural as possible. The first thing I noticed when I went out to greet the
delivery person was how much the mulch stunk. I thought I had made a big
mistake.
Not to worry though –
the smell was due to the mulch being compacted and in the sun when stored at the
garden centre. The smell went away once the mulch was placed over the garden.
I set about mulching
on the morning following delivery. I thought I would get it all done by
lunchtime and then I could do other things in the afternoon (like take a long
bath with Epsom salts in it!). I have a tendency to underestimate how long
things will take. I started at 9.30am and finally finished at 4.30pm…
Laying newspaper under
the mulch took the most time. Newspaper is brilliant at stopping weeds growing,
and along with the mulch I do not envisage much weeding in the front yard in
the near future. Yay!
It was quite an
enjoyable day. It’s nice to get out in the sunshine and do some physical work
when most days I sit inside writing or editing. Our neighbours were having pavers
laid on the same day, and mid-morning I wanted coffee so I offered them a tea
or coffee too. They didn’t want to be a bother, but I was putting the kettle on
anyway, so they accepted. One of the men is from Vietnam and the other is from
Afghanistan. The man from Afghanistan was hesitant to tell me where he was from
when I asked. I find this very sad as it is very likely his caution comes from
negative experiences he has had here. To me, he is a person, but I know there
would be people who would immediately assume because he is Muslim and from
Afghanistan he must be a terrorist. It’s ridiculous. I said how sorry I am
about what is happening in Afghanistan. He said that most of the people want
peace, but there are men who like to fight and he doesn’t understand it.
Later on, when the man
from Afghanistan was having a break, he came over to our yard and offered to
help me for a while. I had no expectation or even thought that I would get help
from him, so it was a pleasant surprise. I have only recently learnt to accept
help from others and realised that I don’t have to do everything by myself. It
has been a tough lesson because it has meant letting go of the need to try and
control everything and also letting go of the belief that I have to do
everything on my own to prove that I am good enough. So, I accepted his help. I
laid the paper and he brought wheelbarrows full of mulch to the sections of the
yard I was working in.
It was a lovely time
of neighbour helping neighbour and neighbour sharing with neighbour.
So, the garden is
looking great, if I do say so myself. Have a look at the photos below which
show the changes from August last year to March this year to now. We have created a place for life from the dreariness that our front yard once was.
I can’t wait to go to
the nursery and buy more plants this weekend. Yay!
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| The creek bed August 2013, March 2014, and August 2014 |
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| The side creek bed and ponds August 2013 and August 2014 |
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| The front yard August 2013, March 2014, and August 2014 |
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| At one stage I thought we would lose the Black Anther Lily, after planting it in March, but it is a determined little plant |
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| The Knobby Club Rush was barely visible in March, but now it is a healthy grass and has tiny flowers on it |
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| The Pig Face has grown from a spread of just a few centimeters to more than one meter since March |
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| The Wattle now almost covers the stick that dwarfed it in March. I can't wait til it flowers... |
