The Best Laid Garden Plans...
Sometimes we look at the back garden and wonder what we'd do differently. We built it in a very haphazard way, starting from the vegetable garden which I insisted was right outside the back door. I wanted a kitchen garden so that I could walk out the door in bare feet and pick spring onions and lettuce, herbs and silverbeet. There was nothing that was going to change my mind about that!
In 2015, the central garden was established. Beyond the first gate are six beds. I can see the red flowering gum and pomegranate on the right that are no longer there because the tree fell down and the pomegranate never bore fruit. You cut your losses with gardening. Ruthlessness is needed!
Over the years the garden took on exactly the look I wanted. The grape grew up in the summer to protect it from the worst of the heat, as did the natives planted on one side.
We put a path of pavers down the middle, and wicking beds on one side, then raised beds. Beyond is the chook house, the compost, the worm farm. There are beds everywhere it seems - a kind of organised chaos. It's just perfect.
From the air, you can see the lower field, colourful with grass and a path mown around and through it so we can walk down the acres. The trees are clustered around the house, providing shade. Can you see the polytunnel against the fenceline? The white roof of the bus? The yellow of the elder trees? The silvery olives in the front garden? The walking track into town?
The Creative Garden challenge asks us what we'd change. The only thing I'd change is the location of the chook shed and the polytunnel. The chook shed is too close to the garden and chickens make a mess - whilst they are mostly contained I wish they wouldn't scratch up my native beds and kick mulch onto the path. The polytunnel can't be planted unless the plants are in pots, because there are pine trees on the neighbours property which steal into the soil there. But still, it's nice and protected from the westerlies by plum trees gone wild, and it's nice to see chickens. A garden isn't the same without them.
I love our garden. Kids love our garden because it's a bit of a maze, with so many things around corners. There's no straight lines in my garden, that's for sure.
It's absolutely impossible to draw this as the #creativegarden wanted. I tried six times. Everything kept pushing out of scale. For example, I couldn't fit in the seating area or the plum and mulberry and apple and quince that all fit next to the chook enclosure, and the chook enclosure is bigger than it looks! I should have added two sheets of paper to show the plantation and lake in the lower three acres, and the olive trees and natives in the front garden! This was a super hard task!
Hopefully you can do better than me at this challenge! It closes Thursday night AEST - go check it out via @gardenhive. It runs every week, so look out for a new challenge on Sundays or choose an old prompt to write on. It's a good one for those who are headed into winter and might not have a garden to speak of!
With Love,
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Everything about your garden and outdoor area looks gorgeous! One definitely cannot be thin skinned where gardening is concerned. Some plants thrive. Others die. One year's harvest is better than others. Or worse.
I really like the idea of having grapevines on the grounds.🍃🍇 Never tried those yet. You and I have the same chimenea! @riverflows🔥
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! help(no space) to get help on Hive. InfoOh really? I love our chiminea! I am yet to try cooking on it - soon!
You're damn right - in a garden, things die! And you have to be fairly thick skinned and ruthless!
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Your garden looks lovely and the seating area is so inviting. A perfect place to sit and reflect! The chickens just add more life to the garden and is a perfect depository for any plant eating bugs you come across lol
I don't like the concrete slab of the seating area actually - we can't affordit yet, but pavers or proper decking would be lovely!
What a great aerial view of your place, it really lets one see everything that you folk have going on. I never realized that you were situated on such a big piece of dirt.
I love the fact that you have created a maze with your garden and property. for those visiting for the first time, I can see them getting lost in the beauty.
I'm not familiar with a chook shed, what is it?
The sitting area with the Chiminea is where I would be spending many evenings with a cocktail in hand and a little something to smoke.
The drawing of your garden is well done even if you couldn't fit it all in. I could see how putting it on paper would be almost impossible. What you have drawn had to take a considerable amount of time.
A chook shed is a chicken coop. We call chickens 'chooks' here.
It didn't take me long to draw - that's probably why it's completely off scale haha.
You know, I wish I sat by that chiminea a lot more than we do. We're just so darn busy all the time. Sigh.
Heck. I'm retired and I'm almost too busy for my liking. With the winter approaching and the garden almost wrapped up, the hectic hobbitational pace we've been going at will slow down big time.
Winters a great time to slow down. There's always indoor hobbitising!
I drew my whole yard which is about 3/4 acre at this point. It took 6, or was it 8?, 17" x 11" sheets of graph paper. I got it (mostly) to fit properly where it should be.
What would I change? Well, if I could change life events, there'd be no $30K mountain and we'd still have trees... And if I'd known it would be so hard to find 14' 6" rails, I'd have gone with the standard 10' rails... But mostly, I like the gardens as they are. :))
Life events, sigh! But yes, your place is pretty amazing!
Love the aerial view and map. Kind of pulls everything together that you post about your garden. Are those solar panels on the roof?
Here's an aerial of our house courtesy of Google 🙄 really shows that we do live in the woods. Except for everything I mow lol Our garden is across the little creek on the far right almost in the shadows. We also have lots of flower beds along the drive and in front of the house (too dark in the shadow of the house to see)
Wow that's amazing - what a wonderful site for your house! And to have a creek as well, that's a real boon!
Your garden looks very beautiful. from the air your house and garden-area looks great.Understand why this is your fav place. Nice drawing for garden plan. sure you will make it. Good luck. : )
Hahaha it's a terrible scale drawing!
You have a bigger place than I had realized!
Interesting garden layout.
Yeah , five acres is a lot to handle!!!! I didn't convey the layout well .. I could do with a mini trainline!!!
Wow, that's a great garden size @riverflows. You're so lucky to own that property that you can also decide everything you want for your garden arrangements.😍
I am truly blessed. I think of it every time I hear of your garden space troubles!
Yup, the worst thing is that I don't even own that property. It's the in-laws. Unfortunately, I don't even have any small inheritance from my family. That makes me want to work harder maybe one day I can buy my property if God's well.
This is a top-notch explanation of the gardening you did with this project. The fireplace is so attractive to behold. I hope to begin to design a cemented walkway in my garden too.
Another thing here is the fruits, they seem quite different from where they are here in terrestrial West Africa. Perhaps, some of those fruits may not survive here because of the soul type. But in all, it is quite an excellent job you have done with your garden.
Kids love garden. The garden look awesome and so, to me there is no need changing the look.