Back Garden Plan No.3

Recent activity on the surrounding properties has made us realise that we need to allow some space along the fence-line in our back yard for privacy screening. After much discussion, and somewhat reluctantly, we have opted for clumping bamboo: it is fast-growing and it is reasonably attractive (especially the black-stemmed varieties). This reduces the amount of space and light for fruit trees, vegies and herbs, chooks and sheds.

Also, the recent arrival of our new Airdale pup has made us realise that we need to allow un-paved, un-decked space in our back yard for said puppy to run and scratch around in, poop etc., until we finish both the front fence and deck-extension. And finally, the recent realisation of just how much god-damned time and money is gobbled up doing the smallest thing in the yard has prompted me to simplify our plans.

The upshot is above. It starts simple: first**: three steps made out of 2.4m sleepers, to hold six half wine barrels (left). These are for citrus trees and blue-berry bushes. Then the three square vegie boxes made out of 2.4m lengths of redgum sleepers (middle). Then the retaining wall for the bamboo (all edges), with ag-pipe drain to the left of the house. That is all I plan to do this summer: enough to get the bamboo planted and growing—though I might lay the cement slab for the top water-tank too.

Over winter I'd like to work on the side and front deck, but we should be able to do that and finish the second retaining wall along the central path (with ag-pipe connected to the storm-water) and erect the posts for the fruit-cage cum chook enclosure (top). This should mean M. can lay the central path and we get to plant all the flower beds and fruit trees by spring so that next summer I can put in the second water-tank, link the two tanks and the drainage.

By the time all this is done—by the end of next summer—the bamboo will have been in the ground for over one year and will have reached the hight we want (four to six metres) for us to be able to enjoy the space with a measure of privacy. We can then think about the chook house, shed, the pergola, seat etc.

Actually, first is weed (again) and mulch. *sigh*

Midsummer Eve etc

Midsummer Eve has come and gone, but tonight is the night for food and wine, family and festivities. With this in mind, here is a Christmas photo for everyone featuring our favourite avian friends! (And yes, that is the 2011 fledgling on the top of the Christmas tree!)

Three Flying Teeth

I begged my very talented sister to make these for me after attending an exhibition of her work … last century. I have been carrying them from house to house ever since. Now I have the perfect canvas to hang them on!

And in case it isn't obvious, they are supposed to be a twist on the classic theme, popular in 50s kitchens, of three, ceramic flying geese.

Alternative Uses For 60's Tub Chair

A beautiful left over from Monash University's 60's office furniture has been in our possession for a while now. It has been in need of repair since we got it but we have only recently taken the broken base off to be repaired. The tub part of the chair has been resting on the newly arranged shag pile (a gift from the world's best sister in law) in the study. Hardly noticed by the girls before now, the tub has become the preferred home for "she who must be obeyed".

SekhMet at leisure!

New/Old Ceramic 70s Door Knobs

We bought a small box of glass and ceramic 70s door knobs off eBay over a year ago. I uncovered them when tidying up the laundry and put the ceramic ones on the four doors that had had the original timber handles "renovated" (i.e., replaced with dull, cheap, new plastic crap).

[2010 silver plastic crap (left), 70s orange/brown ceramic awesomeness (right)]

This is a process we would like to repeat all over the house, un-do the cheapo "renovation" and replace low-end 70s fixtures and fittings with high-end ones.

Laundry shelving

We bought a flat-pack shelving unit to go into the laundry last xmas, but it has taken a year to find the time to rip out the crappy and broken shelving and install our new free-standing shelves.

[before (left) and after (right)]

Of course, the old shelves were cross-nailed to the wall with four inch nails rather than being screwed to the studs.

By the time the shelves were off I had dozens of nail holes to fill. it took three layers of plaster to smooth out the mess—so I needed to repaint the whole wall.

Once the wall was painted (a terra-cotta colour called "tawny copper"), the flat-pack shelving needed modifying and reinforcing to fit around the water-heater.

Now that it is done, all the tools which were stacked on the floor are on shelves. It isn't pretty but it holds everything, it is sturdy, we can use the sink and open the back door.

[tools which were on the floor (left) are now on shelves (right). The clothes racks will hang off hooks on the front of the shelves. The kitty-litter is still on the floor, but now we can get past it to the sink and out the door.]

Adding Links Using Classic Template on Blogger

Blogger / Google really want to make it difficult for the average Jo/anne to personalise their blog, like we have here—even just to run their blog. It is now hellishly difficult to add links if you are using Classic Template (perhaps only on a Mac?).

This is what I see if I go to Page Elements to edit the Links widget:

No widgets! To get the widgets to re-appear you have to:

1. Design>Edit HTML>Copy existing HTML
2. Old Templates>Revert to Classic Template
3. Customize Design>Upgrade Your Template
4. Select Template [Watermark]
5. Edit HTML>Paste existing HTML
6. Page Elements [widgets re-appear]>Links [which you can then edit]

Of course, there is nowhere online that sets out these six steps, but trial and error eventually led me to the discovery that this will make the widgets re-appear: fraught trial and error, since there is the ever-present danger of loosing everything in your blog.

Having gone through these six steps again I have added a few more links. Thanks to J. for the two great mid-century design blogs. The others are bookmarks I have accumulated looking for materials for the house. I will add another batch when I am feeling particularly brave!

Crafty Renaissance

Recently I had purchased for me the one 70's item I had been lusting after for such a long time. The macrame owl! A wonderful lady I work with purchased this magnificent orange owl from an op shop in Heathcote. Perhaps the CWA needs to get good with macrame and ditch the scones! This gorgeous owl came with two others of darker hues which haven't found a place yet but I claim this bright species for my orange and red study. Happy now!

Macrame Owl from Heathcote

My second piece of beautiful craft to add to my study has been a more personal and special item. My gorgeous sister made a Halloween gift for us. It now has pride of place on my shelves above my desk so I can admire it everyday. (judging by the cat hair on it I am not alone!)

Crochet To Rock Your Granny!

Mushrooms and Fungus

Here are six different varieties of mushrooms that were growing in our yard on 16 May of this year. I think this was almost every variety we have seen. But, if I spot others I will add then to this post. And as I identify them, I will add their names. At least one of them—the yellow one—is probably not indigenous to the Dandenong Ranges.

UPDATE 30 Dec 2011:

UPDATE 19 Jan 2012:

Who Wants a Naked Phone?

We don't! And Milstar wants us to have a decently-clothed phone too. In fact, they want to make everyone's phone "just about the most fashionable item in [the] home"—just about. So get a 70s "Dress-a-phone" today! (Tardis and Guide-dog required).

The Nesting Magpies Show

Our Maggies built their nest at eye level, about twenty metres from the house, directly in front of the kitchen window. So, for the last two months, we have been able to see their every move. The nest in huge, so it was quite a while before we could see the chick(s) that we could hear so easily. But then, in no time at all, we could see the fledgling(s) on the edge of the nest, flapping their wings, getting ready to leave the nest.

It is still not clear to me whether their is/was two chicks/fledglings: M. thinks two, I only got to see one. But since I can't see twenty metres without my glasses and I often don't wear them, I have been prepared to take M. at her word.

Anyway, this morning one of the chicks/fledglings left the nest. As I write, this fledgling is sitting, very awkwardly, in a thin and low branch of a tree (closer to the house). There are three other Magpies feeding it, one of which is the youngling from last season. None of the three older Magpies are returning to the nest to feed or care for any other chick, and so, if there was a twin (we have been calling them "the twins" for a few days now) it has died.

I wondered whether the youngling from last season was the second bird M. has seen in the nest, but she is adamant that it isn't. And, until we can have a look under the nest without disturbing the fledgling, there is no way of discovering whether a chick fell out or died and was pushed out.

I will try to get better photos of the whole family of Magpies. Unfortunately, the nest is too far away to take a happy snap any better than the above with my new digital camera, but now that they are out of the nest I should be able to do better.

Birds that Visit, Birds that Stay

[Australian Magpie—drenched and bedraggled after a storm]

There are lots of birds here, unlike the last place we lived.** And the longer we live here, and the more time we spend in the garden, and walking around the neighbourhood, the better we get to know the residents and the more chances we have had of catching a glimpse of occasional visitors.

As a way of keeping track of all the birds, I thought I would start a list and post photos as—of if—I can take them (and replace crappy photos with better ones as I can). The order and the numbers are taken from Ken Simpson and Nicolas Day's The Birds of Australia: A Book of Identification, 2nd ed. (1986); but I also used this site to identify birds. For visiting birds, I have added the month of the visit. (When my coz J. visits in November I am hoping he can correct and extend this short list!)

124. Pacific Black Duck. (Single visit.)
339. Galah. (Occasional visitor.)
343. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. (Regular visitor.)
354. Australian King Parrot. (Regular visitor, spring.)
366. Crimson Rosella elegans. (Resident.)
401. Southern Boobook. (Irregular visitor.)
409. Tawney Frogmouth. (Irregular visitor.)
424. Laughing Kookaburra. (Regular visitor.)
465. Blackbird. (Single visit.)
608. Red Wattlebird. (Regular visitor.)
749. Australian Magpie. (Resident; nested.)
753. Australian Raven. (Regular visitor.)

Also, a sparrow or finch of some description. (Resident.)

[Pacific Black Duck]

[Galahs]

[Sulphur-crested Cockatoo]

[Australian King Parrot (male)]

[Crimson Rosella elegans]

[Crimson Rosella elegans (juvenile)]

[Tawny Frogmouth]

[Laughing Kookaburra]

[Blackbird]

[Australian Magpies]

[Australian Ravens (calling but invisible in our Eucalyptus regnans)]

* * * * *

** Where we lived previously we only had two types of birds that were long-term residents: pigeons (aka, the flying rat or avis rattus) and Indian Mynahs. There were also two types of visiting birds: the Common Blackbird and the Wattlebird. I spent years throwing things at the pigeons, removing nests and cutting down roosts to try to get them to nest and roost somewhere else—with only moderate success. We got to like the Mynahs (Heckle and Jeckle) who took turns in scrounging food from B. The Blackbird would regularly throw leaves and twigs out of the garden beds onto the paths, and we only occasionally got to see the Wattlebird.

**There are a few birds that we have seen very close to the yard, but not in it, such as Indian Mynahs. The most interesting of these, for me, was 182 Buff-banded Rail which I saw on the path a few doors away. Of course, in the National Park—which is just around the corner—I have seen lots of birds that don't appear in the yard …

[Last updated 15 October 2011]

Crimson wattle

This is the crimson wattle M. planted about 6 months ago: it is over a metre high now and it has bloomed almost exactly a year from when we first moved in. We are looking forward to putting in even more of these.

Moving Rocky

[Arrow pointing to the tip of the boulder-iceberg]

These photos only tell part of the story. We started set to work on the terracing a few weekends back, and began the day by picking up the loose rocks. Two of the larger rocks didn't want to shift, so we dug down and discovered that they were not large rocks, but huge rocks. We kept digging and discovered that they were not huge rocks: they were freakin' boulders.

[Arrow pointing to the edge of dry part of the rock, which had been above-ground, and wet part of the rock, which had been below-ground. NB also the crowbar and the slight gap (visible at right) it has created between the stone and the earth]

At this point we would have buried them again except we discovered (by jamming the crowbar between them) that one of them moved a little, indicating that this was not bedrock we were excavating, but two enormous boulders. Since the boulders were located exactly where we want to plant a flowering gum (where the number 5 is on the planting scheme in my last post), we figured we'd try and dig them up. Foolish, foolish people.

After many hours slaving away, we managed to excavate the dirt, rocks and clay from around the first boulder, but were unable to get it out of the hole. We tried wobbling it back and forward, and trying to jam stones underneath to lift it up, but failed in this and everything else we could think of.** Until it occurred to me to drag the boulder out of its hole with a car, chains and rope.

The weight of the car and a little acceleration heading down hill was enough to shift the rock, but also enough to break four strands of rope (breaking strain ca. 1.2 metric tonnes!)—which sent me whizzing down the drive toward the Burwood Highway. Realising that we were going need a bigger boat stronger rope, we went and bought a 4WD rescue tether with a breaking strain of 4.5 metric tonnes.

[Out of the hole. All of the rocks in the fore-ground—and many more—were in the ground around the boulders, and had to be dug out of the hole]

The light having faded and the rain coming down, we had to wait until the next day to have a second go at the boulder. When we did, we managed to pull it free and most of the way along the lower terrace. At this point I switched positions and tried to drag our 350kg block up the slope, but the angle, the weight of the car and the boulder was too much for my little Civic: the clutch couldn't cope.††

[Along the terrace]

After a week of thought we decided to use simple and very old methods: we levered the rock from side to side, pushing one block of wood after another under it, wiggling it forward when we could, until we inched the rock up about two metres of 45 degree incline, so that it now rests on the edge of the drive. From here we can move it fairly easily—but we are content to leave it there while we consider what we use it for.

[half way up the slope]

Of course, we didn't move it in the first place without some idea of what we might use it for. My preferred option was to set it up as a standing stone in the middle of the herb garden we plan for behind the house, aligning it to North. Our 6hrs on the weekend, moving Rocky up a 2 metre slope showed me that there is no way we can get it up a 4 metres of curving steps into the herb garden, even if I can get it up the drive and along the path to the bottom of the steps on rollers.

[Almost completely up the slope]

The second option is to use it as a massive first step off the deck, above M.'s grey water feature—which also requires it to go up the drive along the path behind the house, along the path on the side garden (not built yet) and then lowered down the slope. Not easy, but do-able. A third option is to use it as a massive first step up from the turn around along the path that heads up to the deck. A fourth, is that we set set it up as a standing stone in the front garden aligning it to North, but we'd have to drag it up the drive and then slide it down through the garden, doubtless mashing a few new plants as we go.

Whatever we do, it is out of the way now and we can tackle the second boulder. And if that one proves difficult to dislodge we will bury it, even if we have to change our planting plans!

* * * * *

** This is a technique I recalled seeing in a landscaping book. Of course, the example was a perfect sphere: ours was a tombstone-shaped slab (80 x 50 x 30cms) which could only be rocked along its thinest edge.

†† It did occur to me that tethering my car to a boulder and then burning my clutch out trying to drag it up a steep drive was probably not covered by my insurance.

Some Progress; Or, Plum-Be-Gone

[Last week]

[now (after a very long day digging in the garden)]

[what we are aiming for]

[1] Callistemon rugulosus (Scarlet Bottlebrush)
[2] Callistemon citrinus (Crimson Bottlebrush)
[3] Callistemon rugulosus (Scarlet Bottlebrush)
[4] Corymbia ficifolia (Red flowering gum)
[5] Callistemon viminalis (Weeping Bottlebrush)
[6] Acacia leprosa (Cinnamon wattle)
[7] Acacia leprosa (Cinnamon wattle)
[8] Grevillea (Robyn Gordon)

The stone retaining walls will have to be at least partly rebuilt. When we rebuild them we will put in foundations/supports for a brush fence. The fence is made of panels of Melaleuca uncinata branches between steel posts. The picture below gives an idea of the look (though, after a while, the fence will be obscured by all the plants) and what it will look like rising straight out of a wall as it will on the other side of the drive.