We moved all the shed stuff into the rental house. Then we hired a truck and moved our larger items last Monday. It was hard work, and I’ve told Paul that for the next move we really must hire a removal company, at least for the big heavy stuff. I don’t mind hiring the truck, like we did this time, one with the lift on the back, and moving the smaller items and the heavy plants. Things like double fridges, front loading washing machines, and big latex mattresses though – that’s just too much to ask of two old codgers. The fact that neither of us sustained an injury was sheer good luck rather than good management, although I do have to give it to Paul, he does think things out carefully to minimise the risk. He’s a bit of a ‘do it yourself’ type person, but there’s sometimes when things are definitely best left to the professionals.

The house we’ve been lucky enough to pick up as a short term rental on a periodical lease, has in fact been leased for years. Consequently, the gardens have been badly neglected. It’s rather sad that tenants don’t put a bit of effort into maintaining a garden. We’re not like that – I can’t ignore a garden, and this garden has so much potential. Since moving in almost two weeks ago we’ve trimmed the worst offending overgrown branches off the beautiful old, but very neglected rose bushes, we’ve weeded the beds, and we’ve given them some wetta soil, a bit of fertiliser and lots of water. Almost overnight they rewarded us with a few buds, and have been providing us with roses for our dining room table ever since. I love old roses. They reward any TLC threefold.

The bare garden in the centre of the rose garden to the west of the house has given me a place to leave my potted succulents, rocks, driftwood and garden critters which are awaiting their next permanent home.

The rose garden is adjacent to what is supposed to be the alfresco area. The air conditioning unit is in the alfresco area, and it gets the hot afternoon sun from the West, so we’ve chosen a verandah at the front of the house on the north east corner for our outdoor area. The dedicated alfresco to the west makes a good shade house though for my shade loving pot plants.

To the south of this area is another patch of lawn. The whole garden is wonderfully laid out into lots of different ‘garden rooms’. Whilst this area to the south of what I’m using as a shade house for my plants is just plain lawn, it has me dreaming of a better use – a fire pit area for in the winter. If it were my house this is what I envisage in this area.

To the rear of the house on the south side is a pink, double hibiscus, much in need of being cut back a bit. It’s quite spindly and has lots of dead wood. I made a bit of a start on it today, but it’ll take a bit of time to get everything into any sort of shape. Underneath the hibiscus are the most gorgeous pink centred bromeliads. The soil was as dry as a bone, but a bit of wetta soil and a good soaking has that on track. The flowers dropping from the hibiscus is providing good mulch so that’s probably helped keep the bromeliads alive.

The garden to the east is perhaps the most neglected. I don’t know if we’ll get to that while we’re living here. We’ve pulled some creeper out that had been choking the two frangipanis, and we’re making sure they get some water, but apart from that I’m not sure what I could do with this garden as a short term tenant. Saying that though, we’d absolutely love it if the owners had a change of plan and decided to sell the house. We’d buy it in an instant. It’s just the type of place we could sink our heart and soul into. We can see so much potential in the garden. A bit of love, and a lot of hard work could transform what is a rather neglected garden into a virtual paradise. This bit of garden to the east is just begging for raised vegetable beds.

We’ve done a lot of work this week in the front garden to the north. All of the gardens were choked full of couch grass. It’s been hard work to get all the dead plants and the couch grass out, but I think we’ve broken the back of it. From now on we should be able to keep on top of it. We’ve rescued some almost dead agapanthus and have dotted them around the garden beds, and have added some white vincas, and blue salvias. In a month or so I imagine they’ll start to put on a bit of a display. Our potted blueberries have found a temporary home in front of our outdoor table and are helping to fill the gap until the plants start to thrive. There’s a lovely mature olive tree in the front garden with a mass of Elk Horn Ferns attached. The Elk ferns were almost dead when we arrived, but they’re starting to look good now.

It’s a lovely place to sit in the late afternoon with a drink after a hard days work in the garden. As I look out at the now well cut and fertilised lawn, the freshly weeded and planted garden beds, the elk ferns on the olive tree, and the little space I found for my much loved Buddha, I realise that I can make almost any place home. However, this particular house – well this one really has me day dreaming…..