More gardening

No dig starts

wet newspapers (transforms bad news)
spread on mowed ground
add soil and compost mix

more water

top with sugar cane mulch

clear hole in mulch and soil for plants

Eco mowing

We finally bought a motor mower after years of paying someone else to come in and 'do it'. I thought that if we actually went into the garden to mow we might start noticing what was going on there and take more interest in it, and maybe begin to tackle some of the work that needs to be done. So we did our research and bought an eco mower - electric, no cord and rechargeable battery. We were pretty excited by our first attempt as you can see. Our good friend Greg captured the launch event on his mobile, and then he had a go too.

When I lamented to another friend that things must be getting pretty weird in my life if I was excited at the prospect of using a lawn mower, she said "No, creative people like you who live in their heads need to go out and do something like this or your head will explode!". So, I take comfort in that. Maybe lawn mowing is addictive because Mark is already talking about getting 'out there' and getting into it again...

The Wattle tree that fell

This wattle tree fell over perhaps a year ago. It took about an hour or so to cut it up even smaller and clear away. The last photo is what's left, invasive weeds such as Cotoneaster, Blackberry and of course Ivy are creeping their way over the pine needles and around the Rhododendron lot's of hard work ahead. The little red berries of the Cotoneaster get eaten by the birds such as the Gang Gang Cockatoos.

Christmas tree? No strangled tree

This poor tree has been almost totally engulfed by the Ivy! I am not sure what tree it is but will find out and update. We will cut the Ivy at the base and remove as much as we can - I hope the tree will be able to return to a shape of its own making once again. This is definitely a 'before' photo.

Entangled post

A post on the veranda that has traces of Ivy running up it - we cut the vine at the base but will have to watch for new growth in the future as have not used a plant killing chemical to rid it from this spot.

Today in the second week of this new year

We are untangling the garden, after 20 or so years there are areas that have seen little weeding and other areas that have had a string of gardeners. This is a project to live amongst the pine needles and weed out the ivy - already after 4 hours of work a 2 cubic metre skip has been filled to the brim and yet when we look back at the area we have worked on it looks as if nothing much has happened. This is the beginning.

Ivy and pine needles