Lately I have found that rather than play "catch up" I long to simply document the day to day. I find myself feeling guilty that I haven't written up the last trip to Canada (almost 5 months ago now, yikes!) or the most recent school holidays and then, because I don't actually feel like writing about either of those things, the blog just gets ignored. I am wondering if, rather than feeling guilty about not documenting my life in calendar order, it might be a better idea to just write about whatever I feel motivated to. That way I might actually end up writing something on the blog, something is surely better than nothing!
Inspiration today lies in documenting the continuing work on the garden at our "new" house. When we purchased this property the garden was virtually a blank slate and even featured a travertine path that quite literally led to nowhere. As Ross and I are both passionate gardeners the unloved state of the garden actually appealed to us! We both saw it as a welcoming challenge and have really enjoyed working on the transformation of the garden.
One of the first things that we addressed in the garden was the problem of the foot path that led to nowhere.
It is the front path that leads directly out from our front door to the street, but it just ended at nothing at the start of the nature strip! It drove me mad as the letter box was on the other side of the driveway at the corner boundary of the property and there was no front fence, hedge or anything else installed to define the perimeter of the property or to make sense of that bizarre front path.
We deliberated for some months about whether to plant a hedge as a front border, install a traditional wood picket fence or to do a sandstone and picket fence combination. The sandstone combination won out in the end. We both felt that the sandstone/picket fence had more of a beach house feel and would ultimately be the easiest to maintain. Picket fences are hard work, they need regular painting and hedges need frequent trimming.
Ross installing the frame for the wood "pickets" before the sandstone cladding went on.
The pickets going on post-cladding.
When we installed the stone fence we also relocated the letterbox and chose one that could be integrated into the fence itself. As someone will invariably ask, the letterbox is the Mr Kelly Integrated Front Open Letterbox from Robert Plumb . Please ignore the front of the house and the rest of the front garden, that is all still a work in progress!
In the rear garden the most recent gardening work has focused on building a garden bed that runs almost the entire length of the back of the house and deck.
We have clad this garden bed in the same stone from Eco Outdoor that we used for the front fence. We also intend to use this stone in the landscaping that is currently taking place around the pool and to clad an indoor/outdoor fireplace that we have on the back deck/living area.
Ross put a lot of thought into the plants in this garden bed. Amongst hardy and drought tolerant succulents we have planted lots of sanseveria, cardboard palms. philodendrons and rhoeo. At either end of the planter box have we selected two mature plants, a multi-headed dragon tree at one end and a frangipani at the other. We placed the dragon tree at the deck end of the planter box as it is quite a statement plant and will look amazing once established.
The frangipani came from our next door neighbours garden and already looks like it has been there for decades with a lovely aged patina to it's trunk. The planting of this garden bed has completely transformed the back of the house and I am thrilled with how it has turned out.
Meanwhile, work continues elsewhere in the garden, the pool truly is a construction site at the moment and another stone garden bed is about to be constructed further along the deck. I am looking forward to sharing these projects once complete also!
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