Washed Away

We have had so much rain in such a short space of time that the water can't run off quick enough. If you look at the pictures in my last post and imagine it all underwater with a mini creek running through it then this would give you a good idea of who our garden looked yesterday. The mulch from the beds along the garage washed away as the drains became full of silt, mud and debris running off the vacant block to our right .The area that contains the proposed veggie patch filled up with so much water that we had to but a submersible pump to get the water levels down. I back washed and released water from the pool on 5 occasions (twice standing there in my gum boots and pyjamas, lots of lovely green tree frogs though!) as it was full to bursting.

Today thankfully it has stopped raining and we are left with a muddy, boggy squelchy mess that we will have to address, oh well at least its a public holiday. Happy Australia Day!

We also received the quote for the hard landscaping works including the addition of two very much needed land drains.....now for the ouch moment. The quote has come in at $15,000 which is around 5 grand more than we hoped for but the work needs to be done especially the drainage and I feel that once this happens the issues with impromptu water features and lakes appearing should be resolved. There is a lot of concrete, gravel and pavers included in the quote so I guess we were simply naive about how much square meterage there actually is to be worked on.
It also looks like it would be wise to get a bigger and better land drain added along the path by the garage as the small drain provided by M just can't cope with the work load. I am also baffled as to why no drainage was provided on the laundry/kitchen side of the property?

Here's to a dry day and hopefully some sunshine.

Lush

Malay Dwarf Bamboos and Cubby Area In Background

The Feature Garden Bed - Water Feature Or Steel Art Frames To Go Here

Gingers, Cordylines, Crotons and More

Black Mondo Along Side Path

New Gate Plus Liriopes

Privacy Screen Fence and Gate

Fenced Off - Shed To Go In Top Right Corner, Then Gravel and Pavers

Steel Planters ready For The Veggie Patch

Plants and Gates

The main garden planting has been finished and mulched along with the area along the edge of the drive. We have more bamboos, cordylines, blood grass, gingers, black mondo grass, liriopes, crotons and some more natives and it looks lovely. Its so great to look out and see the plants swaying in the breeze. The boys from Native Habitat Solutions worked really hard on what turned out to be quite a hot day. Great job thank you. I'm glad we got them in to do this area as the ground was so hard they needed to use pick axes and ended up digging out lumps of concrete kindly left behind by the builders. No way we'd have been able to manage that.

The fencers from Harris Fencing came later in the day and completed the privacy screens and gates across the side gardens. We went for the slated aluminum fencing in slate grey again and we are extremely pleased with the end results. The house now feels complete (well almost as we still have a small amount of hard landscaping to do) and I felt really proud of what we have achieved when I pulled up outside the house last night.

So far I think we have spent around $7,500 on plants, lawn and the gardening team which I think is really reasonable as our initial estimates for doing the gardens was around $15k. Hopefully the hard landscaping won't break the budget and we'll have some cash left over for some fun things like pots, statues, garden lights and a small water feature if we are lucky.

The next project will then be to get the cabinet makers in from Crafted Cabinets to come and do some entertainment units and storage for us. We have used Ross and his team before, they did all the cabinets for both my business premises, the kitchen in our old house plus a kitchen and storage areas in the granny annex and they always do a great job.

Today we will be taking it easy, going for a walk, a dip in the pool (if it's warm enough), play with the puppy and our son then a family BBQ, now that's the lifestyle we imagined when we started this process over 18 months ago.

Photos in the next post.

See How My Garden Grows

Despite the mud the fence posts have been concreted in ready for the side fences and gates to be finished today. This means the garden will be enclosed and secure so no need to worry about our son or new puppy doing an escape act. The fencers are so lovely and its really funny seeing big rough looking burly blokes going all gooey over a 9 week ball of fluff with four legs, she is really cute and social so she wins them over in a split second, sweet.

The raised garden beds arrived as promised and they look really good, plenty or room for some vegetables and still space to move around.

Today the guys who did the planting in our nature covenant and the turfing are back to plant out and mulch the remaining garden beds for us. They will also be bringing in a large quantity of sand to act as a sub base for the cubby house and some gravel to go around the edge of the drive and the side of the house so the main garden will be finished. I can't wait to see how it turns out as Dale from Native Habitat Solutions has a great eye for plants and really understands what we do and don't like.

After the rain we gave the hard landscapers a call and had a chat about drainage, he had a chuckle as he was actually drawing up his plans when we called and was wondering whether to add a gravel pit for drainage or not. Ah I like it when people are on your wavelength and have tuned in to what you require. So we will be getting a gravel pit, some concrete slabs for the shed and steps from the laundry and rear garage door, pavers, gravel and some simple plants to finish it all off - assuming the price is right that is! To save some money we are going to use the left over pavers from around the pool and outdoor room for the steppers in the area outside the laundry. Hopefully it will look really good once completed and then we can concentrate on what we want to do inside the house as we'd like a few built in cupboards in the family and leisure rooms for the TV etc.

The Fencers Are Back

We ended up having so much rain in a such a short space of time that we had to buy a pump to get rid of the lake that was building up next to the laundry as it really looked like we were going to flood at one point. The water was coming up so fast that it couldn't drain away. plus w are getting loads of run off from the build next door as there land level is about 30cm higher than as at present. Also the pool was so full I had to let loads of water out as it was about to go over the edge. Crazy! Now it has stopped raining and the water has receded and we have a huge mudpit. Which would be OK as it would simply dry out over the next few days however, the poor fencers are here this morning skating around in the mud trying to concrete fence posts in for our privacy screens and gates. Good job they are great blokes with a sense of humour otherwise I think they'd have took one look at the working conditions and gone home. We really will have to get additional drainage put in this side before we finish landscaping otherwise every time it rains heavy we are going to flood.

The 3 raised beds for the veggie gardens are being delivered sometime today, so that will also add to the mud fest. In the end we decided to go for the metal for the colorbond type, like the rain water tanks, as they will last longer and need little to no maintenance. These are really nice as we could get them made to measure and pick which colour we wanted so we went for monument to match with our gutters and roof. They will be about 60cm high and around 1.5 - 2m long so we should end up with a fairly large planting area. Now all I need to do is learn how to grow veg.

No Need To Water

It was 39 degrees at a week ago and the grass and plants were looking really thirsty and dry but this morning it is 19 and raining raining raining. The garden is soaked which is great for the grass and plants but for those areas yet to be landscaped its a different story as we now have deep mud and massive pools of water. Hopefully the weather wont delay the guys coming to finish the plants and mulch later in the week as it would be nice to get the formal garden completed.

I have started making a list for the 90 day service but so far it is very short and minor which I can only think must be a good thing. So far we are very happy new home owners.

Goldilocks?

Who's left muddy foot prints and mess all over our pool pavers? Who's dropped loads of dusty stuff in my pool? And....Who's been sitting on my chair? The renderer that's who! Just make yourself at home why don't you then leave your mess for your paying customer to clean up after you! But thankfully we can breathe a sigh of relief as at last .......

The work on the pool is finished. The renderer came yesterday while we were out and obviously had his break at our outdoor table (put your chair back next time dude!). The wall looks great but the pavers around the pool looked like a heard of pigs had been running all over it when we got home, mud everywhere erm it wasn't a wet day so how have you walked mud everywhere. Mucky trades drive me nuts, erm there is a hose connected to the tap tight there you could have washed the mess off before you left. We are both glad it is finished and feel relieved that we never have to have anyone from that pool company here ever again as they just don't respect that this is someones home and not only a job that needs to get done.

So now we can get the final payment of the building loan organised, have the property valued and then switch the loan to a mortgage at a lower interest rate. Cool.

Now what colour to paint the wall?