Stay Home Time ... March to May 2020

Warning, Boring, Boring, Boring, this is pretty boring .... but then most people’s time then was.

Gosh, what a time,  unprecedented as we kept hearing from all parts of the media and government, an area not many of us had experienced before ... a whole new ballgame!

Anyway once we realised that it was potentially dangerous health-wise and fines were heavy we decided to toe the line and stay at home.

The garden  - both vegie, back and front yards bore the brunt of our attention.  To date, we’d had a passing interest - planted stuff,  watered, fertilised and waited for the results ... if they survived well and good, otherwise it’d be, resume the process again.  I suppose we lacked commitment and the energy to beat Mother Nature.  Busy doing other things, going places etc.

Anyway on this occasion we had no excuses - we decided to jointly create a productive, functional and pleasant garden.  (first time Dave had been home for such a long, unbroken period)

To start with we worked on the soil in the vegie patch ... planted mustard crops, treated the nematodes with molasses and put some serious attention into the compost heaps ... watering, turning etc.  Next it was all the diseased fruit trees - pawpaw trees were sprayed for some leaf problem, the olive tree was hacked right back to remedy a leaf disease as well (it was too big to spray). Plus we purchased a good mulching machine so we fought over playing with that to turn waste into mulch.

The Olive tree post a drastic prune back!

The citrus trees had been in need of a hard prune so that was attacked with gusto as well.  We discovered  leaf miners, curl and stink beetles so David sprayed regularly for them.

Years ago, I’d planted two variegated White Cedar trees (in hindsight they were a mistake cause I believed I was getting a highly scented flowering tree but because they were variegated they had no perfume). Anyway they were fairly expensive plants so they remained in the garden.  They are fast growers and as a consequence were quite spindly.  I decided to hard prune them to possibly thicken the branch and leaf growth.  So they were the victims of my reciprocal saw (electric saw).

The White Cedar down the front - denuded!

2nd White Cedar on the neighbour’s fenceline

Another thing I’d been meaning to do for years was to use the leftover granite cuts from our kitchen bench.  I’d favoured making a seat and table in the yard but teaming the granite with another weather  proof material was the difficult part.  Finally I settled on the good old Besser block, definitely strong but not the most ‘eye pleasing look’.

My project - garden furniture

I tried to enlist David’s help but he was determined I learn that things are not just a five minute job.

Believe me, I made it all myself - levelled the ground, measured placements and applied the liquid nails!  Now I have a new respect for carpentry stuff.

My seat and table in the bamboo patch.

It’s positioned under a bamboo canopy so it will be nice and cool in the Summer months.  Coincidentally it’s right beside where ‘dearly departed’ Lizzie lies so I can sit and contemplate with my old gorgeous dog.

Garden shed and Norman

It’s a poor photo, taken at the wrong time of the day - it’s not of Norman the new dog but he usually insists on being in the yard wherever I’m going.  The old cubby house-cum-chook house which is now my garden shed has been tarted up by a simple little garden of marigolds and geraniums.  David got all the soil and rocks in for me so it wasn’t such a hard job.

Another easy little garden under the white cedar tree - a cottage garden and when it’s in flower it will be a mass of orange and purple cosmos and orange gallardias.  Relatively hardy plants requiring a bit of water now and again.

New garden bed beside the driveway.

Gosh another bad photo, it was taken at another bad time of the day, it’s in the shadows so difficult to see.  Originally the space was full of the common old fern, herringbone I think.  In the early days it was appropriate as it kept the soil from ending up down the hill.  However I was constantly spraying it because it wanted to take over the garden.  I decided a change was in order so I removed the fern and planted a group of striped dianellas and small ground cover.  It should look more presentable in about 6 months time.

Uphill photo

They were the main changes to the garden area but what was really enjoyable about it all was there were no time pressures and the weather was pretty conducive to outside labour.

A lot of goings on happened in the house maintenance department as well.  The back deck and outdoor furniture received a good clean and oil. Drawers and cupboards were de-cluttered and cleaned, even the oven got some attention.  The occasional meal  became gourmet dishes and  baking became a regular past time.

David had some jobs done in the yard that he wanted done for a while.  A gate put in the back fence so we had access to the bush behind for getting firewood.  Also he had another water tank installed behind the shed.  We cleaned out the mezzanine floor in the shed and identified a couple of things no longer used or needed.  David had good success on Gumtree and sold items so we freed up some room in the shed.

I even got round to playing around with my sewing machine again.  It was pretty simple stuff like cushion covers and some alterations to some clothes and some mending.  The only crafty thing I tried was to have a go at “flower and leaf hammering”.  I got the idea from Jodi, she had tried this with her class at school.  It’s very noisy as you have to pelt flowers and leaves with a hammer onto cloth.  I enjoyed experimenting with different flowers and making all sorts of patterns but at the end of the day I looked at my work and it resembled something that a kid from kindy bought home.  Hence I will not photograph it.  It was fun playing around and I will have to improve before anyone else gets to see it.

I was able to play social golf  (with  restrictions) the entire time so I was especially fortunate.  It was a real bonus to be able to mix with a variety of people, outdoors and in the fresh air.  It made a huge difference to my state of mind.  Dave was able to buy all his home brewing ingredients so his hobby was largely unaffected, he carried on like normal.

Anyway it was a strange period, some days were a bit more trying, other days it was lovely and leisurely.  I noticed children out and about in the outdoors playing different games, lots of people out walking, cycling and generally exercising.  The biggest difference I thought was that the public generally were more relaxed and more community minded.

Glad that things are returning to the way they were, sort of ...