The Rest of October

Actually not much resting until we are finished!

In March the Garden bed at the back fence looked like this..
Plants in pots in temporary positions to 'make look good' for a Party. 

The Garden was shaded by the Neighbours Tree and our Japanese Maples.

Late April and the Trees have to come out - my Temporary garden moved so the Arborists can have plenty of room to work. 

And they DID appreciate it.

But what a mess!

The rest of the fence came down in May and we waited - unable to work on restoring our Garden until the fence was replaced in October.

We raked and tidied.
We raked, tidied, weeded and planted trees in the neighbours garden...

And NOW we can work on our own!

Seeing we had almost a "Blank Canvas" we made a decision that unless it was a Pollinator Plant or you can Eat it - it did not belong.  

So we bought a nice BIG pot for our Lemon Scented Myrtle and planted up our Mainly Aussie Native Garden.

Now that leaves the Corner where the Old Gazebo was parked. 

It was bought for the DD's 21st Party and in fact I really haven't known WHAT to do with it since then.

It can't go back in the corner - so Remove? Re-Home? Recycle? 

Introduce the DH to the new Buzz Word.....

RE-PURPOSE!

We had decided to make a Pergola or Entrance into the Garden and it needed Posts, and Rails and.... 

Why not use what we have literally laying about?

Several Cups of Tea and $20 worth of Screws later - 

All it needs is a Climbing Plant and MAYBE a couple of Gargoyles......

While we were in Re-Purposing mode - Why not find a use for the Red Gum Fence Posts that came off the Old Fence.

These things usually end up in the Tip or Someone's Winter Fire... 

Way too beautiful to Burn.

And I have run out of Bricks.......

DH had fun doing this - a lot easier than laying Recycled House Bricks.

We finally got to plant our Magnolia - and a couple of very nice Black Flax Plants for the "Structural" element to offset all the Pale Grey.

So here we are at the end of October.  

31 Days after we got our Fence and Yard back.

It looks rather bare at the moment but it will grow, and our shade will return and the Birds will forgive us.

And we have somewhere to sit once again with a Cuppa and enjoy the quiet.....

Where has October Gone?

Well, like every other month it started with the 1st and kept Trucking from there!

And on the First day of October our Fencing Contractor finally showed up to install our new fence.

We went with Colorbond Steel this time instead of the  'Replace in 10 years Treated pine' and were happy to let the neighbour choose the colour to match her new paintwork.

I must admit it was worth the wait to get a craftsman who took real pride in his work and was happy to fix a couple of extra bits that weren't really his problem to solve.

But we wondered what we should do with the Plinth board.
Leave it?   Paint it?   Or.....

Remember when Slate Floors were all the rage?
Well, this pile of Slate has been taking up space around our place since my DB couldn't throw it out 3 house moves ago!

What if we used that to face the bottom of the fence?

Hmmm - not bad.
 
A pile of someone else's Stuff is now MUCH smaller and we have a pretty good lookin' fence.

(I just love the way DH manages to look like he does ALL the work - but in fact it is teamwork).

Now it is finally time to deal with THIS.

The Bricks led up to the Bungalow, and behind was a jumble of things stored "Out of Sight, Out of Mind".

The path was partially demolished when the Bungalow was re-stumped and the rest got in the way of a Tree Removal a few months ago.

I do have a recollection that I said I would not ever lay another brick Path again....

Obviously I was not listening!


I kept going until I ran out of Bricks..

This time DH got into the Act.

At 400 mm square these Pavers were too big and heavy for me to work with.

And then -

We Built a shed on top of them. 
It was a bit "Squishy" but we got it in there.

FYI - the sliding door opens to the passage Behind the Bungalow.

Then there are the Wheelie Bins, The Light Green is Garden and now Kitchen waste.
We also have Two of our own - The Purple and Dark Green acquired during the last drought for collecting Rain water and Grey Water from the Washing Machine.

We discovered that the pump from the purple bin still worked so have linked it up to the roof of the Shed and will collect any rain water that comes off it to be used on the Garden.


That part of the Yard is now tidy and has a purpose. (I will continue the path to the shed, when I have more bricks but for now a temporary 'deck' will suffice.)
Also Three of our Five Bins have been given a new more practical home.

Tomorrow I will show you what we did for the Rest of the Month!