Skip ahead with me to December 2006 for some glimpses of our gardens, beginning with the vegetable patch.

We decided to make use of the oddly shaped corner up on the highest point of the block, an area cut off from the rest of the property by the right-of-way to the neighbours' place. The soil proved to be an interesting puzzle and challenge, as it had a high proportion of both white and red clay, a liberal scattering of rocks, large and small, and also contained much ash and garbage. Evidently this area had been used for burning off. A vigorous crop of blackberry canes also had to be removed before the garden could be dug, so tons of roots had to be removed - and are still a constant battle. The earth was also very compacted.

Because of the unfortunate composition of the soil, we had to dig it over completely, quite deeply, unload a couple of trailer loads of cow manure onto it and just leave it for a while as the manure broke down and started the process of re-balancing the soil components. After that we planted sunflowers (their roots would help break up the soil), tomatoes (we eat so many), broad beans, pumpkins, beans and zucchinis. Actually, the pumpkins might have been self-sown from our compost. In hindsight, we should have piled on at least twice as much manure. A load of fine green waste or straw or something probably wouldn't have gone astray either.

This photo, taken through the sunflowers, looks down the hill from the highest point on the property.

This photo was taken from the right-of-way, looking back up to the veggie garden. We grew lots of pumpkins and zucchinis that year.

And from the other angle, still standing on the right-of-way, just about where it exits our property and becomes Mangold Lane.

The steps and flower garden.

The steps from the bottom.

Looking toward the steps from the higher level again.

And from further back still.

We grew lots of pumpkins that year. The mulch was very fruitful!

We seem to have developed a habit of setting ourselves near-impossible goals and then busting ourselves to reach them. This method gets lots done in short periods of time - and appears to be the most efficient way for this family to work - but it can be stressful and annoying! This is where our tried and true List comes into play. Let me introduce you:

 The List.

Reader, The List (yes, that's right - the board angled away from us, to the right); List, the Reader.

This photo was taken on Saturday, October 13th, 2006, and you're right: I don't look very impressed or enthusiastic. None of us do. As per our usual (unfortunate and awkward) habit, we were undertaking not only to organize and host a sports day (involving the usual hosting-in-a-small-house-during-renovation major scrub and tidy campaign), but also remove the big sliding glass doors from between our living area and the now-enclosed veranda area. We needed to cut these doors out so that we could shoehorn in fifty-odd people and feed them, after we'd run them around after various sized balls, wearing them out and honing their appetites.

Enter The List, all tasks recorded down the whiteboard, each tagged with the name of the person responsible to complete it. The Writing of The List was (and is) essentially General Slick outlining the battle strategy while the lower ranks stand around negotiating or advising according to station. For most of us (in the pictured instance above, anyway), The Writing of The List was our last chance to express our reluctance, sleepiness, dissatisfaction with life in general and assigned tasks in particular, and/or injured dignity at the inference that work had to be assigned to one in the first place! Moments later and we would be scattered to our various tasks and further complaints promptly squashed.

However, there is this gorgeously satisfying sensation to be experienced when wiping a task off the whiteboard that almost makes up for having it written there in the first place. Seriously, scratching items off any list gives one a good feeling, but whiteboards offer extra as you can literally wipe it clean - no messy scribbles! Okay, you're right: it's harder to see just how many things you've completed, but on the flip side, it's easier to see exactly what still remains.

The doors coming out. Thankfully we were able to mostly leave that to Dad while we busied ourselves cleaning house. The doors were actually quite heavy, as they were double glazed.

It seems like a very insignificant space to add to one's living area, but I can assure you that this made a huge difference to the way we were able to use the space in the house. (And to the logistics of feeding fifty-odd hungry people!) As we didn't end up making any major change to our living space for another eight to twelve months, this ended up being an important move for the sake of our sanity in the days to come.

I'm glad to report that everything came together (the battle won), the sports day was a rousing success and the house space worked better than ever before - despite our morning attitude!

These photos were taken on September 16th, 2006. I ought to have posted them in chronological order - that is to say, that is what I aim to do - but I somehow missed them. I'm sure you will bear with me - just this once!

Slick working on the lamp posts. The roughly scrubbed rocks lie scattered on the tarp, shapes and sizes exposed for ease of selection, and (theoretically, at least) in a position to remain dirt-free for a day or so.

 

The left post is actually the inner corner of upper property boundary line, which, if you have hung around for a while, you may remember being rather unusual. A triangle is cut out of the top of our property, the inner tip of which is represented by the left-hand lamp post. (Note that I say 'top' in terms of topography, as it is the highest end of the block. The images I have previously posted are aligned around the other way.) A basic visual can be seen here, and a more recent and up-to-date, here.

One might be able to see a piece of metal in the shape of a 'T' sticking out of the ground in the distance. The lumps around the bottom of the metal pole are the base rocks of a future gatepost.

Before the mortar completely dried, the posts were lightly scrubbed down with a coarse, wet brush so that the rocks wouldn't end up stained. These were the first two of seven free-standing posts.

Unfortunately I can find no photos from earlier, when we dug the trenches and laid the cables that we now drew up through our stone columns / lamp-posts. One of the columns even sports an outdoor powerpoint, which is linked directly back to the power box. It is on it's own circuit. Unfortunately, again, I haven't any pictures; however, as the powerpoint is installed later, I may come across photos yet!

On a different note, take another look at the top photo and notice the little bushes along the top of the rock wall. This was our newly planted hedge of Pittisporum. Don't hold your breath - I'm not exactly the most regular blogger - but eventually you will come to see what a difference this hedge makes!

Just because some of the widgits (such as the Principles of Design quotes) have reappeared on this template, doesn't mean that we've 'decided'. We are still playing, and may try another template yet. Don't be surprised if things come and go a bit, or switch around. Comments are still welcomed, especially those that specify what people do and don't like!

Hey folks, so what do you think of this template? I've been playing around with the idea of a little more interesting look. After hours of trawling through pages and pages of templates I managed to narrow my selection down to this one and a couple of others. I have already adjusted this template a lot, and if I end up keeping it I promise I will get my widgits back on board. Comments would be appreciated! Thanks.

As things stood, on the 4th October, 2006, we had a front gate, a kitchen door and nothing except grass in between. This was about to change, and Blick was the energetic instrument...




...with a little help.

As can (hopefully) be seen, we didn't dig the path, we dug gardens for Mum (she can always use more) that would eventually define the shape of the path. The yellow lines on the grass indicate the path space.