And the Other project is ...

I am so glad our Garden looked a treat in January for DS#2s Engagement afternoon.

Today you would not recognise it!
A chance comment to a Tradesman at the Home Show gave us hope that a 50 year old problem could be solved.

From the day we moved in we have not been able to put anything on the floor of our Garage without it causing the underground water to leach up, drawing the Lime out of the concrete with it.
It is a mess.


To fix it, they can treat the concrete floor with special paint to reverse the process - but of course in order to do that they actually have to have access to the floor!

It is only a little garage, which I park my car in.  But it also has 38 years of Stuff plus DH#2s Fiance's excess bulky items stored in the back of it.

Time to empty it all out - onto the back deck and waterproof it for the next 6 weeks while the restoration is completed. (The actual job will only take a week - give or take the weather) but they tell me IF anything is going to go wrong it will happen in the first 6 weeks, so we are not keen to repack too soon.

Keeping everything dry on a 'Fair Weather Only' back deck involved pulling out a recollection and tracking down the store that sold "Rare Earth Magnets" which were perfect to attach some black polythene to our Steel Posts.

This Polythene is Industrial strength and I defy any raindrops to get through it!

So all we have to do now is wait - and watch a perfectly dry/sunny week pass us by.


While we waited we cleaned up, and repaired the rusted parts of the garage walls.
It is amazing just how much we found around the place to do the job -
We actually used some of that "One day it will be useful" stuff you don't throw out.

We patched the Corrugated Iron with leftover steel that came with our verandah roof.
Laid pavers, that were here when we moved in, on their side to protect the Steel.

And found stepping pavers that were the right size to go between the fence and garage to keep the weeds down.

In the process of cleaning and levelling the small area between the Garage and the Fence we uncovered  FOUR KILOS (8 lb 13 oz) of broken Glass.

And many, many Rocks, Bricks, Stones, broken crock.... and assorted bits of rubbish

We always hope to find something interesting but usually it is just glass and rubble.

This time we found an Essence bottle, several pens, a ring pull from a drink can, a couple of Spark plugs an old bone and a tin of Gloss Paint.

It was one of those jobs that we were 'always going to do' 

but never made it to the To Do List....

The tradesmen finally turned up yesterday - and so did the rain! 

What is STILL happening here...

Well, the fencing contractor is MIA and we have a whopping hole in the backyard where the old Paling Fence used to be.

With the removal of the Large Prunus tree next door and the onset of Autumn we have been able to have a good look at our Japanese Maples.
Sadly we feel that they are going to have to be removed as well - They are so damaged from years of struggling for light and nutrient as well as infestation by Borers.

It looks like I will be working with a "Blank Canvas".  

Time to sharpen my pencil and get the graph paper out!

DH always worries when I do that - but this time it is 'just' the garden.

It is the perfect time of year to be working on a project like this.

I think - maybe some more Native Grevilleas to bring in the birds. And perhaps we will finally get that Jacaranda we have always wanted.

What is happening here ..

As I said to someone recently - "Photos of a back fence that isn't there - isn't very interesting"

We have several projects on the go at the moment - all of which seem to be relying on each one being finished before you can start on the next one.  Eventually it will become the "Roundabout Scenario" - Someone has to break the rules before anyone can move!

The Tree on the other side of our rear fence was planted by a Bird well over 20 years ago and unfortunately the neighbours - who are NOT gardeners left it there until it became so big that it was overshadowing half of our garden.

Some 'Tree People' came and generously removed what was overhanging our backyard before disappearing through the hole in the fence muttering about how much they hated this kind of tree.

Fast forward a year and successful divorce (neighbour not me) later and the tree is once again under discussion. 
This time a 'proper' Arborist is called in and his verdict is "It is Bifurcated, so not a matter of IF it will fall but WHEN!"

So - with a huge amount of "Love/Hate" discussion it was decided that in the interest of safety, the Tree must go.

We gave the Arborists all the help we could by removing the fence and garden (yes, my new back garden!) so they could have good clear space to work in.

And that new term we learnt? 
The Bifurcated part? 

One meter from the ground the trunk split into FOUR large branches, complete with bark - growing so close together they ALMOST fused.

It was down in less time than it took me to make them a batch of my "Burnt Butter Biscuits".

(They still got their Cookies -
Hot from the oven to go!)

The team did a great job and as a Thank you for our part in making their life a lot easier they left us with a lovely stack of firewood for next year.