Vegetable Garden Guru 3-6 September 2012

Came up for another few days this week - Monday through Thursday this time.

This time I wanted to achieve more than just weeding  - I wanted to do something more lasting.  I had actually wanted to do up the garden room, start mortaring up the holes, filling in the cracks with plaster etc - but Justin was unenthusiastic - wasn't sure about that room.  Thought that if the holes were filled with mortar then if the house moved more it would do more harm than good.  He also probably thought that I wouldn't do a good enough job - especially unsupervised

That said, I decided to stay outside, as less can go wrong there...

I had always thought about putting a  border around the vegie boxes.  We had lots of bricks left over from the new laundry, and also lots of gravel in a pile from the plumber - so waste not not want - and that was my new project.

First I had to clear away the weeds, and try and even it out.  I staked a 1m perimeter around both boxes

pre weeding

post weeding - view from Garden Room

Once the weeds were gone, I added some sand as a bed for the gravel

left over sand from the laundry build

And 3 x slate stepping stones which I found throughout the garden

taking shape now

And finally the the gravel - which was rather heavy transporting in the wheel barrow

gravel mountain!

And finally after a few days - my finished perimeter - carefully raked - and only a little wonky.  I did try and keep the bricks straight - used some string around the sticks and everything, but I couldn't quite manage it.  Anyway despite that, I was pretty pleased with my accomplishment.

Of course I didn't do this exclusively, as it was a bit back breaking, I also added pots around the laundry.  These were very heavy also - luckily we had the old trolley

the 1st of a few pot plants

And I did some washing - taking advantage of the windy, sunny weather

bed linen washing

I had my customary morning coffees out - with Denise - which was lovely - of course going to the different cafes...

Denise also dropped over on my first afternoon here, and gave me some unusual succulent cuttings, which I've put out the front

Denise's succulents

 Enzo also gave me some the next day when we had a coffee at the Royal

And, I couldn't help myself, I had to weed around the poor mulberries.  I would like to make a small bed around them, with a brick perimeter also - now that I got a taste for brick work
 

lots of weeds around the mulberry

found a frog while weeding

Found more asphalt underneath, that would have joined up to the asphalt near the back door - but I'll probably cover this up again - as it's pretty patchy

weed free, and asphalt uncovered

I also used the camp cooking box as my new wood box - and keep it by the wood fire stove in the kitchen

 Last week when I was here, Gordon had said that he would come around with a bottle of red for us to share, and  we made it Wednesday afternoon for 5pm. I was also invited to Jamie Nevin's place for dinner afterwards at 6.30

Anyway, I finished up around 4.30 or so, and had a welcome shower.  So lovely to wash the dust and grime off.

I set up some chairs and table up on the veranda, and organised a few nibbles

pre drinks 

And then Steve and Denise dropped by with a bird of paradise plant which they had divided from their pots. Of course I invited them up, opened a white, and sat and chatted while waiting for Gordon.  He came a little later, and so then we started on his red.  And then Kevin from the Historical Society walked by and we called him up also - all very social - and as you can see from the above photo, a lovely sunny afternoon/early evening.  I did start off in a t-shirt, but  graduated to a jumper as the evening progressed

They left around 6.15, so that I could head off to dinner.  But first I had to pop down into the cellar to select a bottle of wine to take to the Nevins. I thought it was rather grand to be able to do that - and there was only a little bit of water seeped back in there....from our July flood

hmm - which one should I choose?

I wasn't exactly sure where Southey St was, so used the gps on my phone.  Was starting to get dark by the time I got there, and there didn't seem to be a house number either - so I rang him and asked if he had a white 4 door ute parked out the front.  He did, and it was his house.  Incidentally his house number is on the actual house - well away from the street.  I was expecting it on the letter box

getting dark on my walk to dinner at the Nevins

I met Jamie's wife Michelle, and their 2 boys.  Had a lovely lamb dinner - pity Justin wasn't there also - but Jamie said there would be plenty more opportunities

Jamie offered to give me a lift home, but I said that of course I could walk....

Well, on leaving the house - it was pretty much pitch black.  I couldn't find the road, although I assumed it must be just out the front - after all I had walked there along it a few hours before hand...

There were no street lights, but I knew I had to go right to get back home. So I used the small light on my phone and went right - along grass...until I got to a barbed wire fence - at which point I turned around and walked back presumably the way I had come

pretty dark isn't it...

a photo of the ground - in the dark....

It was sort of funny, but very disorienting, I eventually felt tarmac under foot, so assumed I was back on a road, so once there I quickly made my way back home

I went back on Thursday in daylight - to try and see how I could have got so lost...The first large building is Jamie's shed, with the house behind it in the back ground.  I guess I didn't come out far enough to the road and just walked down the paddock?? Who knows?? I want to go back there one night with Justin to see if it similarly disorienting

Bruce dropped by  the next morning (Thursday) as he wanted to show me his farm and his wagon wheel furniture.  He also wanted to sort out the money he owed us for the back veranda that he didn't end up building.  I suggested that he come back on Saturday, as both Justin and I would be there then, He said he would come (but didn't end up doing so)

Sue the arborist also came over at 10am - she thought that the hoop pine looked quite healthy, although she didn't like to see the cubby house platform and rungs nailed into it.  Suggested that a free standing structure would be kinder to the tree. She also discovered the probable remains of the quartz  path under it.  She had a thick wire tool that she was  only able poke in about 20cm deep into the ground.  Upon digging she found large pale pebbles at the 20cm point - and this was probably the original path from old photo that we have.  She also thought that a hoop pine root may have caused the crack in the bay window, as she found a root leading up to it.  She thought that root barriers were useless, and that we should just cut the root. She didn't think we needed to do anything about the  dead limb up the top, thought it added character etc, and that the tree would have cut off sap flow etc to it anyway.

The bunya bunya was another story - quite stunted looking, and with very compacted soil underneath. She suggested lots of mulching, but will write it all up in a report for us

Given that I wanted to save my poor little frost burnt lemon trees, I gave them some fertiliser as per below, and also fed the roses.  Hopefully they'll pull through

I had also planted some more strawberries, and some asparagus in my vegie garden

And the first iris has bloomed.  Unfortunately it's a dirty looking yellow and purple/mauve - but I still think it's great

Anyway, back to Melbourne on Thursday afternoon, as I had to be at Wesley on Friday morning, as Mad was a receiving a sports award for hockey. And we'll all be back on Saturday morning for the weekend