7 December 2019

I got up to the garden today after we had been out to Porirua to do a few jobs. When we got home I found a parcel I'd been waiting for had arrived. It's for a commission I'm working on so I'm happy it is here.

Going up to the garden/backyard isn't just a matter of popping out the back door. There are generally a number of steps.

Step 1) Put on my gumboots. Earlier in the year I got a pair of these boots - Grubs. They are great and have made such a difference to me. So much easier to just pull them on than to do up my old tramping boots. They also support my feet really well and the neoprene uppers keep my legs warm and creepy crawlies out!

These are my somewhat muddy ones. They're also great for walking the pup in wet grass.

Source

This is what they actually look like. They cost a bit but will last me a long time.

Step 2) Grab my handy clear case that I put my phone in. It protects my phone and is easy to see. No risk of my phone dropping out of my pocket and me having to spend ages searching for it! I found it at Bunnings, where my older brother bought one last year.

Step 3) Once we've headed up the first set of steps to the patio area I tie up Paddy briefly. Full name Paddington but Paddy is easier for everyday use. He's 8 months old and a Mastiff cross - and hasn't quite yet learned to leave the chickens alone! Or to come down when called. So the last couple of days I've put this long lead on him. It also means I can get hold of him easily when I've finished. One day he'll be an old plodder, but not yet! He's large too, 40kgs already so not a pup I can pick up any more!

Step 4) Head up through the gates at the archway because these girls come down when they hear someone coming. Get them some chook pellets, they follow me to the coop and I shut them up till I've finished what I've decided to do. Paddy romps around while I get some things done. Then repeat steps 3 and 4 to let the girls out again!

I suspect these girls are laying but most likely it's in the long grass somewhere. I need to replace the lid on their nesting box and then shut them up each night, because otherwise one or two of them sit in the nesting box overnight which means it gets messier quicker.

Today I wanted to clear at least half of this path. This time of year all the weeds seem to go crazy, as though they shoot up in a few weeks if you don't pay them enough attention! The fennel is doing wonderfully. Apparently the fronds and seeds are edible but I haven't tried them. I want to clear this path so I can request the temporary fence is taken down by the developers. That's the waratah's, boards and orange mesh in the photo. The other side we haven't been able to access for months.

I pottered away, and in about an hour got one side mostly clear. I chopped it into pieces as I went so it took a bit longer than if I had chopped it down and just laid it somewhere.

The after photo. I can see most of the path and tomorrow I hope to clear the other side. Not long after I got up the back and began cutting the fennel it started to rain . . . but thankfully it was just a sprinkling so I was able to keep going.

A closer photo of another patch of the arum maculatum, which will also be for the chop tomorrow, the seed heads at least.

It's a bit hard to see in this photo and I didn't think to get a close up but these are some forget-me-nots I sowed earlier in the year. I saw a few leaves come up so watched them and weeded round them carefully hoping it was what they were. I'm hoping they will self-seed and there will be more next year. It's the small things like this that bring me joy and give me hope that I can eventually have the whole place looking better.

Lastly I took a photo of my Compassion rose. I did what you are not supposed to do and cut it right back to the two main stems as it had become very sparse. There was another strong shoot off to the left but a certain puppy broke it off leaping round. Usually it will have flowered by now but it's going to be next year before it gets any I suspect. Need to weed and mulch too.

After a bite to eat I did some work on the commission then we went to have dinner with our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughters which was lovely 😊