When we first moved onto the Ponderosa the gardens were a mish mash of the previous owners creativity and as time has progressed, we have placed our own personality with some of the gardens.
I blogged about one in NEW ROSE GARDEN and another in HAMMOCK GARDEN, but I truly think the one garden that's taken the biggest transformation at the moment is the back garden which has now turned into our vegetable garden.
The original garden was a combination of flax, roses, lavender and hebes and it's fair to say was an overgrown mess tangled into a trellis fence. After a year of thinking about what I wanted to do with the garden, one thing was sure. I knew the bed of miniature flax had to go as it was a breeding ground for rabbits and mice.
Both my husband and I weren't feeling digging them out by hand so I asked my brother in law very nicely if he could do it with his digger. He's a drain layer and watching him work on a digger is like watching a baker delicately ice a cake.
As we peeled away the layer of flax we found it was concealing the old stone wall used to retain a raised garden. As the digger cleared more away, the original footpath to the outhouse became exposed. I immediately started thinking that this garden has more potential than I thought.
Weed mat was placed down, then four raised gardens created to house the beginning of our vegetable garden. My husband made them from fence palings so not only are they perfectly square, but it kept costs down as well. We planted vegetables relatively quickly and began to reap the rewards.
The roses were entangled with trellis so just like the rose garden, down it came, replaced with used iron from our farm. A good paint with karaka to blend into the native garden behind it. The garden was transformed instantly!! We did decide to keep two roses which sit above the fence line.
The stairs leading up to the outhouse have been lined with rosemary and the idea is that it will grow into a hedge that will frame and define that space better. At the top of the stairs is a beautiful hot pink hibiscus that takes centre stage when it's in bloom. At the bottom of the stairs I've planted thyme and bay trees.
We are still undecided on the stone retaining wall as it hasn't been put together very well so we either have to take it to pieces and then put it all together again, or replace it completely with something else. It's for this reason that I haven't permanently placed any plants between the bay trees and the existing roses, but planted vegetables in vegetable mix bags so we could cope with the volumes I wanted over the summer period.
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| The flax removed along with some trellis revealing the stone retaining wall and pathway |
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| Raised gardens and Gig replacing the trellis with the used iron |
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| Gig starting to paint the fence |
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| Fence painted and vegetables starting to grow for summer |
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| A look from the outhouse deck |
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| The view from my back porch |
The garden is still a work in progress as I'm still not decided on what ground cover I'll put down around the vegetable gardens or what the decision of the stone walls will be, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks at the moment.
I don't believe that the photo's really give it justice and once the garden outside the outhouse is completed, it'll all put everything into perspective.
Happy living peeps!!
