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02-28-05 I've been telling Nita about how I have used the digital camera to take lots of pictures of the back and front gardens. I overlapped them and printed four to an A4 page on plain paper (way too expensive on photopaper and for no particular need). I did this for two main reasons: |
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1) I now have a record of what it looks
like before I begin major renovations (subject to Landlord's approval,
of course, and that should be no great problem. As I have
mentioned, they're very nice).
2) I can use the photos to plan exactly
what I want where.
I plan to find out as much as I can about
the local gardens, particularly the difference that a closed-in
backyard makes. I believe that if people have a lovely frontyard,
the backyard will also be a thing of beauty. I also want to talk
to the local Nurseries, and see whether what I have in mind is viable.
Roughly, what I surmise is this: the front
is exposed to high winds laden with some sand and salt. It faces
southwesterly, which gives us some incredible amounts of sunshine in
Summer.
The back is heavily enclosed by both the
house and the double garage (which also acts as a buffer for the house
in terms of noise, or as Brian so aptly puts it "Doof-doof music
from the Uni. students renting elsewhere."), and both are fairly
large stretches of couchgrass, with occasional garden beds and rather
horrid plants both native and introduced.
On the positive side, we have two figtrees
growing up pergola supports, with a third on the way. They have
obviously been chopped back viciously in the past, judging by the
trunks. Figs are very hard to kill. Praise God for that,
as I love eating figs and they remind me of the Bible.
I believe I have managed to get rid of all
of the boxthorn.
The soil seems quite good.
We have a lavender hedge which I am trying
to extend to where the boxthorn bush was. Lavender, as most of
you no doubt know, is excellent as a clothes moth deterrent.
The clothes line is getting to be a dead
loss. It looks, um, "interesting". It hasn't
quite managed to tilt and it still rotates, so I'll wait a bit before
asking the Landlord for a replacement. He's being very good
getting the hotwater service replaced as it is.
I would like to get the Landlord's
permission to take out the wretched New Zealand Shiny-Leaf/Mirror
Bush. They seed in plague proportions. They're the ones I
have been paying Alice to remove, but she's a trifle busy lately.
I think I'll do some major damage, at least to the seedlings, one
nice, cool day.
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Word has it that although it is a declared
environmental weed, the Council will not move on private tracts of it
because then they would have to eradicate masses of them from
their parks. I would never subscribe to such a disillusioned
view of our wonderful local governing body of course.
At the front is a bed of some sort of
ground cover daisy whose name I have forgotten. I want to plant
more out the front. I have in mind a couple of sweeping beds of
striking scarlet and white flowers in ground covers and another of
deep purple and sunshine yellow.
I'll probably put in some sort of hedge to
give the frontyard a break. I'll have to find some species that
is quick-growing, gorgeous, salt and wind tolerant and hopefully, food
bearing. Not that I want much.
Out the back, there will be plenty of
plants brought from Koroit, the roses, the herbs, whatever is in the
shadehouse that can be rescued and, I hope, some large cuttings or
whole fruit trees. I might do a fair bit of espalier work.
Having just been with Brian and Mowgli to
pick up Alice from the busstop, I checked out garden beds on the way
back and have come to the sorry conclusion that at some time in the
past few years some enterprising fellow has come through our suburb
and offered bulk lots of barkchips for a low, low,
never-to-be-repeated price. There seems to be a proliferation,
almost, one would say, an epidemic, of bark-encrusted beds.
I'm hoping that getting back to the
old-fashioned living mulch of pretty ground covers.
I've just had another idea: going through
the back issues of gardening magazines at the local library.
There's bound to be more ideas there.
We've had a very hot day here, and Nita
has told me she has been suffering similarly in Texas. How very
odd. I suppose given the Global Warming, End Days and the
overlap of seasons, it's to be expected.
Coastal Collusion
Each night I hear the waves
as they beckon from the shore
Their mighty tumbling forces
become a muted roar
I long to run down to the beach
and feel the cooling sand
I long to throw myself down flat
and run it through each hand
To watch the wild birds soar aloft
as they keen and call the sun
then settle in their rowdy flocks
their hunt this day is done.
I love to watch the waterfalls
in rockpools filled with tide
the scurry of a tiny crab
as it finds a place to hide.
Brightest sparkles of little fish
will always catch my eye
chasing tails in invisible mazes
I look at them and sigh
I wish that I could join the game
they play from shore to shore
but they frighten oh-so-easily
a threat they can't ignore
So I wander without purpose
from one rockpool to another
delighting in each new find
there's no place that I'd rather
But I'm so busy now,
I do not have the time
to wander down a sandy lane
and fill my heart with brine
Each night I hear the waves
as they beckon from the shore
Their mighty tumbling forces
become a muted roar
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