A productive week of working in the garden together with my wife whilst my kids hid inside in the air-conditioning... This period in January is sort of the lull before the storm in our lives... and if we are going to get things down, this is probably the best time to do it!
So, my wife wanted to put up these metal borders in the lavender garden area... and after a bit of hammering they were mostly in... but we did wait until the wet and windy storm to finish hammering them into the hard clay earth... as soon as the clay gets wet, it gets quite soft which makes life a lot easier!
She also had to scrape out the rocks and lay down some weed mat as well... same error that I made in with the river gravel around the carport... which is a project that is MOSTLY done... but has been waylaid by a host of other small projects. I really should get moving and tick that one off the to-finish list!
With the tulips and daffodils all done for the season, some other ground cover has gone into the front part of the area... not sure if they will take hold, but at least they should hold their own against the grass and weeds... especially if we keep preferencing them!
And a different sort of ground cover for the stepping stone pathway to the garden water tap... We had toyed around with the idea of having these little green ground cover for a larger area near the kids play area... My wife's parents have them in the back and they are a nice and soft carpet to step on, but they aren't recommended for a high traffic area... so, probably not the best for there... but we will try them out here where we can avoid stomping on them with the stepping stones!
... ahhhh, and this little tree was stripped bare by spitfires last year. This year, it is looking lush... I'll have to trim it back again soon!
Meanwhile, I was setting up the chainsaw on a stick for some pruning and tidying up of fallen and dead branches. And some other things that my wife just wanted gone completely. I think I'll have to really consider a small battery chainsaw that has a larger surface area and isn't about 2 metres away on a pole... this little thing does the job, but it can get quite heavy when the bulk of the weight is on the opposite end of a long lever! Even with a harness!
... so, the thing that spurred me to get the chainsaw out and to swap the whipper-snipper attachment out. A large fallen gum branch that needed to be chopped up into easier to manage pieces and then shredded or placed on the side for firewood.
... also a few of these smaller trees that are getting overshadowed and outdrunk by the larger trees... some are completely dead, others are just looking pretty crap... so, down they come!
I also trimmed a few of the little overhanging branches on the larger trees... this is definitely what the stick part of the chainsaw is great for! When this piece came down, the main part bounced up quite a bit... it was quite astounding how much weight it was applying to the main branch and causing it to bend quite badly!
... and our little friend, the magpie family were following me around... as I was cutting things and dragging the boughs to the shredding pile, I must have been uncovering a few grubs for them to pick at!
... lots of shredding to do! A few hours worth, in the hot sun... but it was all finished in multiple stages. Phew... now we have a small pile of wood mulch that can go down in the corner to help finish off that mulching project!
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Looking good! I'm sorry it is so hot there. We are finally getting a bit of a warm up and the temps have been close to freezing this past week. It's been a nice change from the sub zero temps!
Hot was good... now it is just stormy and raining... much worse!
Brrr... sub-zero, it just seems like a completely different planet.
We get a good range of temps through the year here!
Seems like a pretty productive day✨
Cutting and shredding seems the most fun of the garden works😂😂
It is pretty fun... but gets old after a couple of hours!