Photo Update

Since I'm so lazy, you get the photos from the previous post all stuck in here. Plus, they're not even particularly good photos.

Enjoy then!

Way back when we removed the big tree from the side yard, we put up these lattice panels to grow some privacy-bringing vines on. We planted some Orange Trumpet Vine, with the promise that it would go great guns. As you can see, it hasn't done real well. What HAS done well is the cucumber vines that we planted only 4-odd weeks ago.

Despite getting watered pretty much every day, the trumpet vine isn't going so great. So much for restoring the lost privacy. The cucumber vines, however, are growing really well, and we've even got a couple of baby cucumbers starting to grow:

Where the big tree was, we've put down a lot of crusher dust, and made a nice smooth ramp from the side yard up to the back yard. Realistically, it could still do with some more dust to smooth out the bumps and high spots, but I figure we'll leave it until the grass gets established, then top dress it and fill in the low spots.

The grass is growing well, but it's taking longer than I'd like.

It's a bit patchy in spots, no doubt due to the fact that Badger finds the grass seed quite tasty, and that the crusher dust seems to be a fine place to bury a bone. So we often end up with "freshly tilled" patches, shall we say, and that's not good for the grass that was growing there. But some spots of it are coming up nice and thick and tall (over near the fence, say) - I just wish the rest of it would follow suit. It's certainly not for lack of water, since they whole area has been watered every night for the past month.

The grass on the flat section in the back yard is going well:

But there's a lot of weeds and other miscellaneous garbage growing amongst it. It needs a spray with my good weed-killer solution, but I'm afraid that it would kill the young grass as well. I'll give it a mow this week - hopefully that will take care of the higher/larger weeds, and give the grass a chance.

As you can see, the blue paint on the fence is holding up nicely, and as the grass start to encroach on the reclaimed dirt, the whole lot looks better and better.

We tackled this back corner a few weeks ago now, and turned what was jungle into a clean, if unimpressive and wasted corner space. But at least we can get in there now and keep it cleaned out. And not having 2 feet deep of rotting palm fronds on the ground makes it much more pleasant for everyone, Badger included.

Since this is eventually where my shed is going, I don't really care that it's currently wasted space - it doesn't really lend itself to anything, so we'll just keep it as clean and tidy as possible for now, and worry about what to do with it later.

All in all the backyard's looking a fair bit different than it did 6 months ago! Once the grass comes on and we manage to level out all the bumps and ditches in the yard, it'll be a much nicer place to spend time and easier to keep tidy. By having the car access into the back yard now, we can bring in ute-loads of mulch for the gardens, which will help to keep the weeds down.

The other big job from this weekend just gone was to sort out the fountain in the front yard. The base was full of rotten water, and the mozzie people were concerned that it was breeding dengue mozzies. Whether that was right or not, it still had to go, just because it was disgusting.

We pulled it all apart (after discovering it wasn't made out of styrofoam or hebel block, but actually cast concrete) with the help of a couple of litres of bleach to kill all the strange and gross "things" living in the permernantly-wet spots, and drained the tub by belting a hole in it with the fencing bar (best tool I've ever bought). A couple of hundred litres of black, stinking water drained out, and let us then remove the submersible pump and the besser-blocks that was supporting the structure.

After getting it all apart, we decided to re-assemble the top part of the fountain back in the garden, and just keep it as some garden art.

It doesn't look bad, and adds some interest to the garden. All that's left to do is shape the dirt around the base so that it won't collect water there, and to use some expanding foam to seal up the ex-fountain-outlets on the top of the concrete balls, so they don't fill up with rain in the wet season. The big tub base has been thoroughly washed (it still stinks), and is living around the side of the house until I can arrange to get it to the dump.

We salvaged the besser blocks (no, we didn't just leave them in the front garden like that!), and after being thoroughly washed down and left in the sun to dry, they'll come in handy some other day.

Now, all we need to do is get a spare weekend to clean out the remainder of the front garden, and make it all presentable, and we'll be laughing. Maybe in late September, at this rate...