Tag Archives: Garden

The right side of the table

June 20, 2012 8:41 am \ 2 Comments \

Sometimes you just have to start the week off right.

For the first time in months, the B and I had an actual relaxing weekend. No anxiety, no stress, no shadows. It was just…relaxing.

We spent a lot of time annoying the animals, watching the ID channel (B is convinced that all women are deadly now) and reworking my coasters. I even managed to (somewhat) surprise the B with a Digby-day trip to Krispy Kreme on Sunday, to celebrate. The weather was absolutely gorgeous all weekend long and while I spent some time in the garden, Digby spent some time learning how not to play with a frisbee.

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He’s got the chasing and catching down pat….somewhat. We’re still working on the whole ‘don’t-chew-bring-it-back-let-it-go-good-boy’ side of things. At one point he was running after the frisbee, catching it and launching himself up onto the retaining wall and running for the back of the garden to chew in peace. Goofy Goober #2.

Monday was back to work…but it started off on the right foot again with a parcel from Nana Margie!

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Yum! A book on mod podge (my whole house is going to be mod-podged soon….i wonder if i can mod podge the dog to the cat?), a knitting mag and the latest gossip on the dingo from back home (he definitely ate the baby, just in case you were wondering). No lollies this time though…perhaps the postie ate them? You sent lollies, right mum? Hmm…

Headed back home after work to clean up and watch the B cook a delicious meal for Mr Jordan and Maniha. As with every nerd-meal, dinner was followed with a rousing game of Cards Against Humanity. I am pretty sure we are all going to end up in a handbasket at the end of our days for playing this game…but its just too much fun…right Poppy Jack? Don’t worry – we’ll bring the cards at Christmas!

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Posted in: Crafty, diy, home, mac-time \ Tagged: , , , ,

Backyard

June 16, 2012 9:50 am \ 1 Comment \

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My little Day Lillies are all beginning to bloom :-)

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Backyard dreams

August 29, 2011 8:30 am \ Leave a Comment \

One day the Strewth Tiger backyard will be a place to relax and do some SERIOUS day dreaming..


Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Leanne on Pinterest

Currently, it looks more like a big fat mudpit (can you still make money with mud wrestling?)…

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but a work in progress always gets worse before it gets any better. The imminent arrival of Hurricane Irene delayed some weekend plans to dive headfirst into the backyard, but we have all the supplies in place ready to go. Edging to keep the pea gravel in place, more edging to mark off the grass line and eventually pavers to extend the small paved area that is currently peeking through the mud bath.

When the backyard is done it will look absolutely amazing…and perhaps the stinky puppy won’t make as much of a fuss about getting his paws dirty. I mean…honestly.

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Plans..

August 24, 2011 8:03 am \ Leave a Comment \

My mum is a master gardener, ever since i can remember she has always had a beautiful garden. And of course, my parents being who they are, even though they are on holiday here with us, they want to work and help us make our house beautiful.

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The front yard (or massive lack thereof) is first on the list. My mum came up with the awesome plan to create a garden bed at the front of the house. We have an incredible boring house front – lots of siding, no windows and just blah. But by creating a flower bed out of bricks and pots we can breakup the boring siding and add a little pizzazz to the front.

And seriously….who doesn’t like pizzazz? I mean, other that Jem…

So we have:

1. Mulch – and lots of it. After the “bed” is created, we can fill in some of it with old planter pots to take up some room and then fill in the top with mulch to create the look of one long planter bed.

2. 2′ Long planter boxes. These bad boys will get planted in the garden bed aswell. We can fill them with different annuals to give a splash of colour. These will be placed so that the tops are level with the mulch. Its all about the vibe.

3. Edgers! My mum is going to use these bricks to create almost a fake retaining wall/raised plant bed around the front length of the house. It will be about 3-4 bricks high to allow enough room for the pots to sit and the planters to be hidden. Poppy Jack is going to use heavy duty glue to make sure that they don’t move after they are all in place.

4. Whiskey Barrels! As i always say….fake it till you make it. These are actually much better looking in person :)  The plan for these guys, is to have them at the front to break up the edges a little bit. We will have four of them total around the front and the current plan is to have them filled with some sort of conifer that can handle loads of sun.

5. Potting Mix. Don’t forget the small stuff! This is for both the whiskey barrels and the 2′ planters, to make sure that our new plants are happy as larry in their homes.

So thats the overall plan. Now we just need some ‘before’ pictures and a load of ‘after’ pictures. Also, Jamie Durie if he is available (call me – we have tim tams!)

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You don’t pocket mulch?

July 11, 2011 7:57 am \ 1 Comment \

So one of our projects this weekend was to create a compost bin. We headed out to Big Orange to pick up some supplies (yes, yes, including paint for the Living Room) and while we were there, we snagged a Rubbermaid 32G rubbish bin for $16.

For the past couple of weeks we have been using a little ceramic compost container in the Kitchen, which I must admit has exceeded my expectations. There has been absolutely no smell emitted from that bad boy….other than when you take off the lid to dump in more goodies!

pcpwm-6011023v300x300 Ceramic Compost Bucket – World Market

So…onto a bigger and better composting unit. As we are total DIY-ers, we can’t really afford to dump $$$ on a barrel composter, so we decided to make our own version. Insert rubbermaid bin, drill and hot husband..

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Lots of drilled holes later, in went our kitchen contents (gross) and lots of brown goodies – leaf litter, etc. There’s a list of compostable materials here…and now all we need to do is to head out to the yard every week and give the bin a good roll around the backyard. Well that and adding more materials. Hopefully by the time the back yard is done we will have some delicious compost to add to the mix.

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backyard b(l)i(t)z

April 15, 2011 7:34 am \ 2 Comments \
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So i have been discussing ideas for the backyard back and forth with my parents for a while now. My mum is the go-to green thumb in the family and she has helped me with each one of my little gardens so far…and this bad boy is no different.

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We have a couple of ideas for the backyard, but without knowing what we can do, what we can afford and how we go about it….we are at a stand still. We have a small (yet very annoying) slope in our backyard that is gradually eroding away at the base of our trees, every time it rains. So this is number two on the ‘figure-it-out’ list – some sort of retaining/landscaping wall.

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The first thing on the fio list is to call Miss Utility to have them come out and mark the utility lines in our backyard. We have some kind of box buried along the side of the fence so we know that there are power lines of some sort running along the back of the yard, but the exact placement of these will be a major factor in working out what it is we CAN do and where we can do it.

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Then it’s decision making time. We know we need some sort of wall so that we can level out the bottom section of the backyard and at the same time keep the trees standing for longer than 5 years. Railway ties? Landscaping bricks? Stone? I love the look of each, when done correctly…but as we are not staying here in this house forever, I guess the deciding factor will be price. We want it to look great and to have an actual functioning backyard that we can enjoy, without investing thousands and thousands of dollars.

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Yes…im pretty sure my neighbor loooooves me taking photos. Also…can you please nail that board back up?

Kthxbai!

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