So! What have we been up to?

It has been ages since I have written an entry: I know I do not need to apologise for that, but for those in the loop - all know that we have not been idle.

So much has happened since the last entry, so here goes....in a snippet!

I love this BEFORE shot of the yard as it just about sums up the starting spot for us. There was a decent canopy of trees throughout the yard, but upon closer inspection a lot were weed trees.

We bought this house nearly three years ago and now we are finally seeing evidence that we have made a difference. We set about cleaning up the yard, ripping out approximately 50-70 weed trees/ saplings and then "Creating!" We brought with us over 100 pot plants, some very large and heavy. We planted most of these just to make them less time consuming to look after and to use them for mother stock in the yard.

The yard then got pretty trashed during the 2011 flood waters coming from overland water flow and in from the river.

This is the council easement that runs between our us and our neighbours on the right. Many plants have washed away in an attempt to make his area work for us.

We received a massive torrent running between our two houses during the 2011 floods. The Brisbane River came up into the front of yard, to within 20 m from the house, about shin high on the street. We then straightened things up, raked beds back together and sugar caned everything that was not lawn.  

We have just completed a phase of stoning areas and improving the areas where water sat.

We have now created a Swale garden bed to assist in directing the water to flow smoothly on to and through the council's easement - which runs between us and our neighbours on the right. Our neighbour's, who are wonderful people, have the same vision as us.....to get the water through and off the block, swiftly, cleanly and without ruining or flooding our garden beds or yards. We have spent time working on the garden beds that frame the water path. This is the garden bed that now flanks our side of the "Creek-way."

Without being a cliché - Life has been lovely. All aspects are aligning and making the ride enjoyable. As some of you may know, a lovely lady Julie, (who I met on line) and I have a Sustainable Swapping Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Poultry.TradeOrBarter/

I have met some seriously beautiful people online. The joys of enjoying cooking and gardening tends to create a bubble of loveliness when sharing this with others. Through the site, I have learned about poultry -which the girls in "Cluckingham Palace" are loving.

I have given away, traded plants, chilli sauce, relish, Mum's knitted wares and much more. I have received numerous plants from people all over Australia. Recently a lovely online friend, Jan sent me what looks like 30ish Skating Iris bulbs to plant in an all white garden bed.

Julie has sent hippeastrums and agapanthus that her father had cultivated. A lot of plants in the garden have a nice tale to accompany - making the garden more enjoyable.

Helena has given me an abundance of beautiful Canna lilies too.

I have met some wonderful people in to Bromeliads and collected some lovely plants.

 I split some of the first five bromeliads purchased and was able to plant 37 of the following plant:- nice work for little effort.

I knew very little about them, at first, but after losing a few to flood, sunburn, neglect while being busy and watching others grow beautifully my knowledge is slowly increasing.  I have bought a lot online and from the Bromeliad Club and at markets. Some could be rare, some could be common and others were purchased simply because I loved them. Another friend, I met online, gave me some beautiful bromeliads from her collection and our long time friends Barry and Jenny came to visit and left a stash of broms from their beautiful garden. Bronwyn, Jane, Jan and Dags, Deb, Mel and Simon, and seriously, a heap of other people, have all added to our plant collection.


My Mum has enjoyed mailing pieces from her garden and enjoys sharing her bulb news and news from her garden. When she was last flew up (September) we went to many nurseries and bought an array of hippeastrums together - on the condition she gets the first set of bulbs produced.

When she was on holidays with us she said she enjoyed spending time in our garden. She enjoys it when our Christmas money is spent on plants for the garden. In recent conversations, Mum asked if we would create a garden filled with plants she loves so that when her time comes, we will have a garden that reminds us of her. We started by planting the hippeastrums and day lillies in a row.

It is funny, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, every garden we create has a bit of Pam in it as she has pottered, she has assisted and she has enjoyed seeing the transition of our garden and the tales associated with it.

Work has been rewarding for us both, the dogs and chooks are great, and life is good. We even have installed Pool Security.

Pool security also has a motto....

And an assistant...

They sometimes need to take a break as it is an exhausting job.

....go to the loo.

.... or have a treatment

We have almost completed the pool yard area. Building decked walkways and mural.

 His water feature was given to me as a parting gift when I left Greenbank State School. I think it is truly beautiful.

 We constructed new pool fencing.

 Built a raised pond with a water feature.

Now it is time to hit each garden bed that had been neglected while we had a different focus on diverting water and building in the pool yard. To be honest with you, I am simply loving splitting our plants, and creating a new look, a look that I did not think would come around so soon. They say never judge a garden until it is in it's third year. Well I have one year to go, thankfully.

If our garden was a clock, we are making over the 12 and working our way around the front. We build a partitioning fence that splits the front and back yard, giving the dogs a lawned area during the day. 

 This happy little chappy waves to us whenever we leave or arrive home.

Miss Maddy watching me in the garden, Mr Spirit guarding the carport.

The pots that we initially had, had grown and have multiplied etc. Having done some beautiful swaps, trades and having been on the receiving end of people's interest and generosity lovely, we are now in a position to apply compost to all of the beds and plant at a rate I was not expecting this early in time.

The joy of gardening is to make it easy, to work for you and to share this with fellow gardeners on a level that only gardeners can. I also will endeavour to make my garden a place where people like to be and where they can relax in a way they may not be able to in their own garden. Please note the size of the massive bromeliad in the garden. Peter found this at the tip. It was unloaded next to him as he was unloading our garden refuse. Somehow it managed to jump in the trailer and land in our garden. A very nice find.

These photos are only of the right hand side of the drive....we have a massive garden bed on the left that we are going to cut back and place stone, or lawn features in a hope to lower maintenance. The back yard is hardly tropical at all, we have planted a frangipani in the middle of the lawn, otherwise it is fairly casual.  

Tiger grass across the back fence for privacy, clumps of canna lillies and that is about it. We have moved the raised garden beds to run across the back of the block.

I was going to fence them off and let the chooks free range in the back yard. We instead built the girls two different runs and we didn't need to fence around the veg gardens.

As a result of hit and miss attempts in the back, it is now time to make the gardens work for us. I am happy to change this area into an area where we are growing most, if not all of our own vegetables. But like all gardeners we often get distracted on the journey.

I would love an urban farm a bit like The Good Life, but without the animals. I am hoping that the bulb swaps and the bromeliad pups will assist in me developing more to give away or trade accordingly - to make the garden pay it's way and become a little self sufficient. I currently supply the owners of our local nursery with two dozen eggs a week for plants and my Sweet Chilli Sauce and Relish gives us great discount at a hardware store and also the Nursery.

I love the hit and miss method to vegetable planting as I tend to get healthier produce if is seeds itself, but I think I need to learn more. Hopefully my next post will be about the Vegetable garden.

I want to get these beds working for us. This will give me the confidence to make changes in the produce area as I learn. BRING IT ON! Sorry for the ramble but, hey...I am on holidays and I have the time to do so.

Until next time. Enjoy every moment!
Stuart.