With the worst of the inside rooms now painted, we’ve put the remainder of the painting on hold and have spent most of the past two weeks tackling the garden.

I don’t know if you’ll remember the front garden bed when we moved in. It was overgrown with daisies and whilst were clipping them back we realised they had completely surrounded some very nice rose bushes. We found eight in total. With a bit of TLC they’re responding beautifully.

We found out about a wholesale rose nursery that sells particularly good roses for a very reasonable price. It’s a bit of a trek to get to it, but we decided we needed a few additional roses, so we took a drive to check out what they had on offer – BIG, BIG mistake! They have a huge selection of the healthiest roses I’ve ever seen in a nursery to choose from. We now have an additional twelve bushes in the garden bed purchased over two trips, and I’m absolutely positive I’ll be able to find some space to squeeze in a few more.

When you find a rose nursery as good as this one, it’s very easy to find oneself developing a bit of a rose OCD…. I can’t wait till the Autumn flourish comes around and they’ve had time to establish. I wonder if there’ll still be only twenty bushes!

I only realised today that we have neglected to take any photos of the huge and very ugly orchid/shade house that was occupying almost half of our back garden. Shame, as I can’t post the before pictures of that area, but please take my word for it – it was very big and very UGLY.

It took Paul about three days to dismantle it, and we’ve both spent several more hours each day clearing the debris and getting the soil watered and ready for planting.

We were very pleased when our lovely neighbours, Brian and Kay, approached us to ask how we felt about replacing the dividing picket fence with colour bond fencing. The fence has now been replaced providing a lot more privacy than that which was provided by the pickets, and best of all, it’ll never need painting.

Our side gardens were equally as choked with plants, many of which have been planted in totally unsuitable places. We’ve thinned out some maiden hair ferns in a side garden adjoining our shady morning coffee area. From the same area we’ve removed a flame tree – why on earth would someone plant a flame tree only a few inches away from a fence, the mind boggles! And we’ve transplanted two birds nest ferns into the garden beds. Once they’ve had time to settle in, and when we’ve added a few Elephant Ear palms to the area (Alice is bringing us some on the week-end), it’s sure to be a lovely tranquil place to sit and contemplate.

Paul’s built a raised garden bed with the bricks removed from the foundations of the shade house. This will be our herb garden.

We’ve divided the garden from where the shade house once stood into three. The middle section has been sectioned of with a defined border of white alyssum (sweet Alice). Inside the defined half circle garden I’ve planted a blue plumbago, with a few blue salvias surrounding it until it can grow and can fill the space in it’s own right. Tomorrow we’re picking up some blue agapanthus from someone nearby who has some to spare, and in time, these will form a solid border around the lacy plumbago.

Into one end we’ve transplanted two trees (also both from in-appropriate places in the front gardens). One is our favourite back yard tree, a Chinese Tallow, and the other is a Chinese Snowball tree. It’s absolutely the wrong time of year to transplant both trees, so, it’ll be good luck if they survive rather than good management. We transplanted them yesterday, and so far, so good. With a cool week looming, maybe they stand a chance. Along with a few other perennials and annuals that end of the garden is now showing promise.

The third section of the area is currently vacant awaiting three Frangipani cuttings Alice is bringing down on the week-end. Our sturdy, useful, but ugly shed is in this area. We have a couple of jasmine creepers for that. Paul is going to try and put the framework up for them tomorrow and we’ll let them ramble over the shed to cover up the not so good paint job. The rest of that garden area is yet to be decided. I suspect it’ll be a nice place for some golden cane palms and perhaps a few ferns. We’ll wait and see if the Frangipani’s take first though, as ferns will need the shade from them to survive.

It’s been a busy week. But we did take time out for some walks along our beach. What a pleasure!