Return to the Gardening.

It seems so long since I have been able to recommence the gardening project.

With the Great Vic Bike ride, then busy times with Rapt Up prior to Christmas and of course Christmas and extra visitors it has been many weeks.

Husband David works away, but has a few weeks holiday over the Christmas/New Year period. With all the visitors gone, and the fact that David's time is short, it was the perfect opportunity to try and finish the front garden.

The front garden is a very formal design. David first installed borders to divide garden from paths. We then went and ordered sandstone pavers and a load of river pebbles and the paths started to take shape.




A load of cow manure was ordered and it was my job to distribute it among the garden beds. Not my ideal job, especially on the hot days that we were enduring, but the paver were too heavy for me to handle. By the end of the day though, we had both worked hard and the paths were finished and so were the garden beds.



Next job for David was the watering system, which he had mostly set up last time he was out in the garden so the job was completed.



The infrastructure is now complete and now the fun part of planting will commence. The plants are ordered and I will have great enjoyment in this task.

Back to the Gardening

It seems weeks since I have been back out into creating the garden. We have had a lot of rain over the past few weeks which seemed to appear just when I was all set for a big gardening day. The rain has been wonderful though, making digging easy.

I am sick of the red dirt blowing around the house, so when there was an offer of a large amount of Santa Anna Couch, I jumped at it. With the help of some friends, we dug it up transported it over to our house and now I have started to lay it. It is the perfect time to get the lawn in, and as it's hardy and quick growing. It should cover a good area in no time.



David is working away at present and not here to do some of the larger jobs, which means I have to do tasks that I can manage. Transplanting lawn is one I can do. The list of jobs for David is growing by the day and it will certainly be no rest for him when he comes home. I have been laying a pieces of lawn everyday and now have only one large section to complete.

We had large areas of Santa Anna Couch at our last property, and because we know it is hardy, quick growing and drought tolerant we have decided to use it again. It's also good when you have dogs around as it is very resilient




Although we have had lots or rain over the past couple of months, living with a drought for 10 years, makes you realize that we can't waste water. It is such a precious commodity. All of our garden is planned with that in mind.

Blank Canvas to Green Garden

We have recently moved into a new home ( actually it was the same week as we moved the retail store to online only) so the past weekend has been the only opportunity so start gardening. I love to garden but when you are starting from nothing there is lots of infrastructure and groundwork to do before the fun part of planting starts.

The past few weeks have been sorting out a design, of which I have enlisted help from Margot Mills Garden Design. Margot has come up with a lovely plan that includes all the things I love. In particular I love Paul Bangay's formal gardens, with clipped hedges,straight lines and pleached trees. I do love colour in the garden and I do love my roses, so many have been included in the plan.

In Mildura we also have to be very conscious of our long hot summers and minimum water usage, so plants are being chosen with this in mind. But first we have to tackle the ground work. That's where my poor long suffering husband comes in. He really is quite handy though! He has already started laying paved paths and his next chore is to put in a small retaining wall and watering system and stepping stone paths surrounded with stones.

We are starting in the front garden and working our way around the house and it will certainly be a work in progress for a long time. But isn't that what gardening is all about? Of course our gorgeous dog Diesel has to be amongst the action and I only hope he keeps out of the newly created garden beds.