Talking the Garden.

I have talked about the kitchen because the kitchen [or lack thereof] is driving me crazy.  We are camped out in our living room & the mess is rising around us like a tidal wave because our home businesses [yes, we have 2] & our ministry & the need to eat sometimes has not ceased just because our kitchen is unusable. 

It is getting there. We have runners on drawers & doors on cupboards & next time OT is over he will cut out the sink hole & oven top spaces & if we are lucky get the benchtop on & as it is costing us nothing for his labour we do not complain.  We are very grateful ~ though we do think the lad has an ulterior motive regarding youth groups & young adults but so long as I can leave home when the hordes descend I am all good with that.

Meanwhile the MOTH & I have been working on the garden ~ & trust me, that takes the negotiation of the whole U.N council & then some!  We have very different ideas about what a garden should be & as I say, the man has the certificates in horticulture; I just garden.

Over the years our garden became quite a muddle because I wasn't the only one gardening in it.  All the kids, bar ODD, put in their 2 dibs worth at some time or another & as none of us ever had any money things were done from bits & pieces left over from when we first built & it could look like the local scrap yard in winter, when everything was bare & empty.  Now the MOTH is on the job that is changing rapidly.

 First things first.  The star pickets, rusty foundation gridiron, wonky wire were removed from around the veggie garden & the old oyster sticks holding all our really good soil in were pulled apart. While I was happily babysitting the MOTH put in our new raised bed.  It is slightly bigger than the old bed so we need to import soil & I won't be planting any time soon. You have NOOO idea how thrilled I am!

I was less happy about the ginormous bush house the man built but as he points out, he cannot garden normally due to a broken back; this he can do: air plants, orchids, & now established on boards outside, staghorns [which I like & make the atrocity less so] & a variety of tree ferns.

 The tree ferns arrive as frondless stumps requiring tender loving care & at least one is destined for the next raised bed which we are in the process of putting together along one side of the driveway. The man has 3 different sorts of tree ferns & a crows nest he wants to put in here ~ yes, I am happy with that ☺~but in thinking about it I decided there was room to shove a zillion or so freesias in as well.  I do love me some freesias & the man is in agreement so that is another section done.  Behind that we will have multiple bird baths.

 It is all a bit of a shermozzle at present with rubbish destined for the tip accumulating at a truly alarming rate & the tree ferns rapidly growing large fronds.  Aren't they pretty?

The garden itself seems a little confused.  I know Azaleas will spot flower throughout the year here but ours seem to have totally lost the plot & as soon as our super hot weather stopped they began to flower ~ & flower~ & flower... Um, spring, guys.  Spring.