The Wilderness Garden - Part 4

Next installment :)

Nesting Box for the chooks.

Believe it or not under the lily leaves are two gardens - #1 & #2 in my garden diary. The bulbs of the lily are at least a spade depth deep, possibly more.

This is a peach tree, that grew from a stone, that came from the tree, that grew in Ma & Pa's backyard. I just realised that sentence has a, "This is the house that Jack built!" ring to it  :D  He gave us the seedling and it has grown quite well over the years. It seems to be naturally espaliering itself along the fence. Last year we even had a small peach from it :)

A close up of the blossom. I'll have to read up on how to prune it.

 These Arum Lily's are growing behind the greenhouse. I can see there are also the other lily's too.

This shows a better view of the area I want to make a small retaining wall and path - photo-bombed by a chook!

The children's playhouse we built. Well used by ours and many visiting children.

The playhouse even has a trapdoor inside with a ladder down to this path below. A bit overgrown at the moment though.

The patio area we created a few years ago. Lots of work needed here, I have plans though!

A wider view of the patio. It's quite a big area. I'd like to replace the picnic table at some stage.

The light in this shot isn't so great. We built the pergola a number of years ago and did have seats under it. At one point they were old church pews we carried all the way up! The trailing pieces are a rambling rose with lovely white blooms. It would be lovely to sit here again but . . .

. . . the chooks roost above here at night and this is the result. That's not dirt but chicken manure! Great for the gardens, not so great for the head :P  There is also an ivy plant that grows freely and tenaciously.

Hiding in the shade of the playhouse are some worm bins.

No, not a hole, the goldfish pond. There is even still one goldfish alive!

Beside the pond is a sycamore tree, which may have to come down soon as it is getting quite large. Although the rest of it looks like a bank there is a walled garden under there. I think that Boar has been dumping weeds there. I know that the latest lot are ones form Butcher's weeding efforts. And, yes, there is more of the horrible lily!

The Wilderness Garden - Part 3

The days pass by pretty quickly and sometimes there seems to be too much to do to find time to blog! I thought about an entry about the last week . . .and then decided to continue on with loading these images of "the hill that is the backyard!"

So . . .

One of the chooks doing her job, in "Garden #7" according to my diary. The cross bar is part of the frame and will have bird netting over it when seedlings are planted.

Random garden art I guess you would call it. Boar put this here as he liked it. I think it is part of an old transformer - the kind to do with electricity. Beside it is a seat . . . grass a bit long at the mo.

The outside of the greenhouse, with it's own rainwater tank. And more of the horrible lily! Beside the tank is my coaster . . .very important! I often take a cuppa up to the garden.

Fennel grows pretty freely here as well. I know it has culinary uses . . but I don't use it for that. Compost will probably be it's destination! The tap is part of our watering system. As this part of the backyard is up about 25 steps and a couple of paths Boar put in a two way tap adaptor by the backdoor of the house. So we can turn the hose on there and then direct the flow up to this tap as a hose would not reach all the way. And if it did it would be pretty cumbersome!

The outlet to the tank outside, hiding in the horrible lily! Some of the garden tools hanging up. Saves carrying them up from the garage, which is under the house! So add another path to the 25 steps! Boar mentioned on Sunday day he will build a small shelf to sit the watering can on while it is filling :)

An inside shot of the main part of the greenhouse . . .hmmm needs a good sort up! Grass clippings in the green bag for mulch. 

Some of the bird netting we use on the frames. You can just see the top of the blue bin that contains chook feed pellets. Hanging in the plastic bag are old pairs of tights we use for tying tomayoes to supports.

Down the side of the greenhouse. I want to clean this area up and build a small retaining wall so it is easier to walk around the outside on this side.  The chooks head under the bushes on the left and roost in one of the trees!

Sunflower windmill, I've had this a few years and got it because it makes me smile. And on cold, dreary winter days it's a bit of colour :)

A brick path and steps we built a few years ago. Has grown weeds very well! I will be salting these soon to get rid of the weeds and if I do it regularly it will hopefully inhibit them.

This is a Camellia. I got it probably around 25 years ago. It had no tag and so I have no idea what it's name is. Perhaps one day I'll be able to search the web or take it to a camellia society to find out. I love the shade of pink this is! It's hardy and always flowers well.

I think all of us in our family enjoy feijoas. A number of year ago I planted three feijoa bushes. You have to have a couple of different varieties for them to bear fruit. We have had a some blossoms, and even some tiny fruit last year. I need to read up on them and more than likely prune and feed them. This is one and the next two photos show the other two.

You can see they are two different types, slightly different shapes.

This is another view of the last feijoa bush which is being encroached on by a Karaka so I shall have to cut it back - the Karaka that is.

That's it for today. I've been trying to find out how to add Smileys in the body of the text. It involves HTML code and what I've found and what I see in the code don't quite match up! Perhaps I'll have another try one day soon :)

Update! Took another look and found this blog which had a very clear, easy explanation and a less-than-proficient-techie like me managed to do it no problem  :D  So a big  =D>  to Snow Cone and  :-h  from me! Couldn't resist!

The Wilderness Garden - Part 2

More photos of the "hill that is the backyard"

Manuka bush. I planted 5 of these in 1996. Three remain today.

A close up of the manuka flowers. They're in full flower at the moment.

I could hear a native bird singing and snapped a quick photo. Pretty hard to see from here, just a black blob!

A tui! In full voice, you can see the white feathers at the base of it's neck. I tried to move closer to take another photo but it had flown away.

Matai, this is still in it's juvenile form. This is one of two I planted, again in 1996.

The deck from the back. a nice place to sit, have a cuppa and look at the view, even though it is a bit of a climb!

This photo is taken when I am standing at the fence at the back of the section. The greehouse is the small roof, and the house roof is the large one just below the archway.

A lone bluebell I found growing in the grass. I've marked the place so I can uplift the bulb and replant it!

Another of the Manuka bushes.

This just caught my eye. A moth or caterpillar case on the fence.

The foreground is scrubby, the trees in the background have grown from seeds most likely dropped by passing birds!

Gorse, grows like a weed. Brought over to make hedges but it liked the NZ conditions too much and did too well. Although it makes a nursery plant for the native trees.

This chook seemed to like my company and kept following me!

Some of the steps up the back. Rather overgrown at the moment. I made these to make it easier to get up the back. When we moved in it was just a bank, like a piece of farmyard.

A close up of the liquid compost bin. This liquid tea will be well matured!

The Wilderness Garden - Part 1

I'm going to load a series of posts about our garden or more to the point our backyard, which at the moment is a bit of a wilderness. I took the photos over a few days. Most of them were taken last Sunday, the rest on the Tuesday of that week. I have begun work on the garden, again, and these photos are to remind me of what I am trying to improve on. In the main so we have a lovely place to wander. Also because one day we will sell this property and when that time comes I do not want to have a massive job to do. Especially If I'm significantly older than I am now!

These are the before photos, showing what happens when I pay no attention to the "hill" that is our backyard. And the front areas.

A Nurseryweb spider Butcher found when he was getting rid of some weeds.

Halfpint "helping" Butcher pull some weeds up on the side path :)

A strawberry plant in the side garden.

Believe it or not more strawberries in this garden patch up the back. Butcher and Brains had just pulled a whole lot of weeds out and Butcher took some strawberries home.

The cherry tree that grew from a seedling around 20 years ago. Not edible cherries though.

Cherry tree and part of the deck, with a bin containing liquid compost/tea.

One of the gardens. We've used long run roofing iron to make raised garden beds. The frame has windbreak material to protect the plants. . .or, in this case, weeds! Two of the chooks!

Some drainage pipes. I plan to grow something in them but not sure what yet. Lots of weeds and long grass here too.

Another of the garden beds, number 7 according to my garden diary! This is one of the shorter frames. We cover the top with with plastic netting to keep the chooks out when veges are growing.

There are two garden beds under here, covered with an invasive lily which takes over at this time of year!

The greenhouse, again lots of the lily growing!

The chicken coop, although the chickens prefer a tree. Some turnip weed growing out the side.

Another garden bed, I can just see the frame, with lots of grass growing inside.

The back corner, I'd like to grow some wildflowers up here.

The trampoline. I think the hebe bush in front of it needs to go. There is a platform on the left side so children can get on and off easily.