This (above) is where I park my car. I'm going to fringe this whole area with something flowery and pretty, but as yet I'm not sure what. Notice the 3m high clump of canna lilies, moth plants and weeds over the fence. I intend to rip all this out and plant an orchard here.
This is the path from my mailbox to my front door. Spot the 5m tall mass of ivy (it's clinging to dead willow stumps) and bamboo on the right hand side, and the lovely cracked concrete path edged by weeds on the right. I think a hedge here might help.
Out the back, I have this small square bed hedged with griselinia that's just begging for a water feature, I think. I need somewhere for the turtle to swim and sun itself.
Some parts of my garden are taking shape. I've put in lots of boardwalks but this area is very shady. I'm hoping the newly planted hydrangeas will save the day. Not sure what to do around the palms yet, but that's a hedge of coffee on the right!
This is my main sunny vege garden or potager. These raised beds aren't too shabby, apart from the sprawling plants and weed-infested limestone chip. You can see this part of my garden over the front fence and it's going to be the easiest bit to pretty up.
This is my shady vege garden. It used to be lawn but I dug half of it up. It's shaded on the right by elderberries and avocados so not much will grow. On the left is my potato patch: seven rows right now.
Ah, challenges aplenty from here: Pictured here is my olive and citrus grove (actually, I should technically call it my weed grove as there are far more of them in here than olive trees or lemons). I need to finish painting the house too.
On the right is my new maple tree garden. This area is absolutely infested with onion weed and I've just finished pulling out a bunch of other stuff. I want to build a small deck around the maple tree because this part of the garden faces west and soaks up the afternoon sun. And it's next to the potager, so I can pluck fresh strawberries...
I've got a lot of work to do out the front too... as far as first impressions go, my place literally screams "potential".
And I've got to do something about the compost situation. I have one small bin nestled into a virtual mountain of compostable material....
8 Comments: Click here to add your thoughts:
Lynda, thank you for showing us your garden! Like many avid followers of your self-sufficiency adventure, I have been dying to have a gander. And again like many I suspect, I had imagined a pristine, neatly-ordered, perfect-growing oasis. To see that like my garden, you have good bits and bad bits; tidy bits and messy bits; pretty bits and overgrown bits; has made me realise I don't have to have garden perfection in order to grow my own edibles. Once again, thank you. You are an inspiration. Leigh
Wow, you have got a year ahead of you. Still, I'd swap your sprawl for my two by one metre blacony anyday! Good luck!
Kate, feel free to come over anytime you feel the urge to pull weeds!
Some parts of my garden aren't too bad actually. I'll take a few more photos over the next month to show the rest of it. I've just realised that I forgot to add a photo of my lawn... or should I say my clover and dock patch. It's quite something. It's well over knee high and it's first on my makeover hit list. I'm getting a man in to deal to it!!
Good on you - we farm 30 mins. north of Kaitaia - ostrich & emu -
we turned a swamp into a productive patch, so you can do anything! Go girl - look forward to following your progress!
I have just tried a very yummy choc. brownie receipe made with zucchinis - want the receipe? Has no eggs or butter, but lots of choc. & zucchinis (and you can't even tell they're there!)I'm sure you'll have a glut of them soon!
Raewyn
Wow! I feel a bit better about the state of my section now... :) It is much worse than yours though - you can feel thankful yours is on the flat. We have a huge sloping bank covered in every different kind of unkillable weed imaginable, with a full grown peach and plum tree in the middle of it all! It is a nightmare. Yours looks lovely! I really like the boardwalks surrounded by lots of different plants. Looking forward to seeing your progress over the year.
Lynda - obviously a work in progress, as are most of our gardens. Your weeds show that it's very fertile, which is good, and the plans sound wonderful! I'd happily swap your wild area for the gum trees in my Kapiti section which some idiot 30 plus years ago thought would make a great windbreak/decorative feature(instead they drop leaves the size of giant butcher's knives over absolutely everything!). Looking forward to your evolving estate photos, it'll motivate me to keep on picking up the gum leaves!
Given your busy career I think it is incredbile what you have achieved already. You have so many different areas to develop, I feel quite excited looking at it all. I did not expect an urban lass to have so much land area to work with. Looks like a fantastic ongoing project. I think your willingness to share your experience brings back a sense of everyday realism to us.Sometimes we can look at magazine pictures
of gardens and feel that our patch is not much when in reality it is a huge success of passion and pleasure. Weeds will always come up and there will always be work to be done. I have learnt to use the word "rustic" to describe an area that needs work! Look forward to seeing the progess you make. Thanks so much for these photos!
Gina
Linda thankyou for showing us your garden.
its going to be wonderful once youve tackled your to do list.
I have spent the past two years getting a garden in all around our home and im really proud of what ive done so far. As evry gardener knows a garden is always in progress it is never finished. I so look forward to seeing your
Post a Comment