Seriously thoughtful What's out in your garden now ....

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

My chives are in flower, but somehow we don't seem to eat them. The cats spraying them might be the reason !!!!!

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Still no tarragon, I guess that one is a failure this year.

How odd! The tarragon was my only crop failure this year too! I brought them home as healthy babies about 4" tall and transplanted them into larger pots to mature. They immediately wilted and died off. Same pots, same soil, same location as my other herbs, but only the tarragon didn't make it. The dill is already in flower, we've been dealing with basil, oregano, and rosemary like cutting back the jungle (and eating some delicious meals,) but absolutely no luck with the tarragon! I wonder why.


Stitchawl

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

How odd! The tarragon was my only crop failure this year too! I brought them home as healthy babies about 4" tall and transplanted them into larger pots to mature. They immediately wilted and died off. Same pots, same soil, same location as my other herbs, but only the tarragon didn't make it. The dill is already in flower, we've been dealing with basil, oregano, and rosemary like cutting back the jungle (and eating some delicious meals,) but absolutely no luck with the tarragon! I wonder why.


Stitchawl

I think it must be a conspiracy!

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I think it must be a conspiracy!

Tarragon plants in a global suicide cult!!

[kennyc]

Or due to the oil spill...

[montsnmags]

So now, instead of just leaving the retaining wall to allow a garden sloping down to the front, TL1 has turned it into three stepped garden beds, and leveled a single-stepped bath down the bottom (ready for pebble and stepping stone):



We'll now move the gate (which is currently where photo is taken from) down to behind the water tank you can see, and put some steps down to the new "path". This'll make the area more accessible, move the gate from where it can be seen from the atrium, make it more attractive (once planted - must find recommendations for plants okay with no-to-little light in winter), and just generally stop it from being a "dead" unused area of the yard.

It's coming along.

Cheers,
Marc

[montsnmags]

View from opposite end, showing existing gate and fence:

[recluse]

Good luck with it, Marc.
Hope the end result matches the vision that inspired it.


Jon

[kindlekitten]

does the water tank store rain water? water from your well?

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by recluse

Good luck with it, Marc.
Hope the end result matches the vision that inspired it.


Jon

Thanks, Jon. The good thing is, it couldn't look any worse (it was just a slope of mixed bark and sand, slowly making its way down into that low-low sub-retaining wall bit next to the house).

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

does the water tank store rain water? water from your well?

Rain water. We have pretty much permanent water restrictions (not necessary, but that's a whole political thing not worth getting into). The rainwater tank allows us to fill the gaps during the dryer season, without butting up against the restrictions so hard (we average about 1600-1700mm/63-67" of rainfall a year, with late winter getting about 1/4 to 1/3 the rainfall of late summer, on average).

Cheers,
Marc

[beppe]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

(we average about 1600-1700mm/63-67" of rainfall a year, with late winter getting about 1/4 to 1/3 the rainfall of late summer, on average).

Cheers,
Marc

tropical

[dreams]

I like the change for the tiered beds. Is the wall and new beds something that is fully visible when sitting inside the house? Are you looking to add color to that area also?

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

So now, instead of just leaving the retaining wall to allow a garden sloping down to the front, TL1 has turned it into three stepped garden beds, and leveled a single-stepped bath down the bottom (ready for pebble and stepping stone):



We'll now move the gate (which is currently where photo is taken from) down to behind the water tank you can see, and put some steps down to the new "path". This'll make the area more accessible, move the gate from where it can be seen from the atrium, make it more attractive (once planted - must find recommendations for plants okay with no-to-little light in winter), and just generally stop it from being a "dead" unused area of the yard.

It's coming along.

Cheers,
Marc

Wow, that's quite a project! Good luck with it.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by beppe

tropical

Technically, sub-tropical, according to our Bureau of Meteorology:

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enviro.../kpn_all.shtml

(On the east coast, about half way up, just to the left of the little square that marks "Desert/Hot (winter drought)", you'll see a tiny sticky-out bit of land. That's actually an island (Fraser Island), and we're basically on the mainland not far from the south end of that)

Cheers,
Marc

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by dreams

I like the change for the tiered beds. Is the wall and new beds something that is fully visible when sitting inside the house? Are you looking to add color to that area also?

A little bit. There's a couch in the atrium from which you can look down that way (the back of the atrium, like the front, is all glass). We're not likely to add much colour there...probably going to go with golden cane palms, or lilly pilly or something indigenous (eg. blueberry ash), maybe interspersed with a couple of cycads. We'll probably line the edges with rocks (the ones you can see) backed by mondo grass. So, for colour...mostly varieties of green.

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Wow, that's quite a project! Good luck with it.

Those power tool aficionados will be somewhat pleased to hear I managed to stab (in a minor, band-aided fashion) my right, big toe with the big (non-powered) handsaw. With the two power drills and the jigsaw, all TL1 got was a tad of muscle pain and a small splinter.

Cheers,
Marc