Front Yard

Our front yard was the same as most.  It was all green grass.  Ok it looked good but it really seems like a waste of space.  We so could not use it.  It was really only good for mowing.
So I set about making it into a “bush garden.” Merril has been really good about everything.  Doing this has kept me occupied and we both love native stuff.  It is looking ok but I am not satisfied yet.  It still needs weeding! 
I am told the mulch has to be really thick.  We had so much mulch from a big tree that had to go but apparently I need to make it thicker still, and I will.  However these things take time, but it will be worth it if I don’t need to weed.  A neighbour across the road saw me weeding and said weeding never ends.  I do live in hope though.
I have added garden edging to the garden.  At first I was going to go with old pool fencing bought at the “Treasure” market, but Aldi had a special on “garden edging.”  It is really low and pliable.  Just as well it is pliable as folk turn off our drive way too soon and run it over.  It does not wreck car tyres but the end of the edging looks cactus.
My brother moved the letter box a few inches for me.  It is one of those big heavy ones made of brick.  It has a space for the letters and elsewhere for a couple of plants. Stuart needed to use a crow bar to lever it and shift it.  Needless to say it stays where it has ended up.  Fortunately no one looks at it and says “that looks so crooked.”  I guess that is because it is straight! (well I hope it is)
I have put a bird bath in the garden and I cannot believe how hard it has been to get level.  Water does not lie.  If the bath is not level the water lets you know.  The water has let me know.  To try and get it level I built up and up.  It looked like some sort of monument.  It is still not level but it is much simpler now.
We have a sitting area with a table and a couple of chairs.  I recently added an umbrella.  It blew over taking the table with it.  So I tied the umbrella up.  It blew over again.  I am at a loss right now but in 3 months I might have thought of something.
What to plant has been an adventure.  I am trying to plant stuff that is self-sustaining.  That is, I don’t need to water it!  Our native plants are hardy and used to “droughts and flooding rains.”  There are some plants that are not native.  We have a couple of climbing roses that are doing really well.  We did have a magnolia tree.  It is a different variety that “looks” native.  Unfortunately we had a bird perch that fell over and snapped the Magnolia.  So we will see if we can get life from the Magnolia and if we can’t, we will get another.
For trees we have gone for grevillea’s which really seem to like our place.  Well most do.  We had one grevillia that was rare.  It is even rarer now.  We have gone for different coloured ones.  The birds love them.  We had one that was a real plain Jane.  It did so well it was a tree in no time.  Digging it out was a real challenge.  We also have different types of Callistemon’s, Banksia’s and a couple of Kangaroo Paw’s.  There are also other trees but we have forgotten the names of them. Sure we were told, but we just know them as “tree.” We also have some other “lower” plants we bought at the markets.  They generally sell them when they are flowering, and they are so beguiling when in flower.
I bought a kids bike at the markets in an attempt to be “artistic.”  I painted it and put a couple of pots on it.  The pots have succulents in them which seem to be doing well despite me.
Not counting those pots we have six of them out the front.  A neighbour across the road gave us a couple when they were leaving.  Another neighbour who’s property adjoins ours gave us some plants.  He is no longer there.  We wacked the plants in a pot and they are thriving.  In fact one of those plants broke the first pot.  That was no mean feat as the pot it was in was really big and strong. (why does everyone seem to leave after we move in?  We are not noisy or intrusive. I am putting it down to coincidence).
We have one native tree and its days are numbered.  It looked great and shot up.  It looked like it was going to produce a mass of flowers.  The trouble is, a microscope would be needed to see the flowers.  It has done that for a couple of seasons.  It dwarfs everything in the yard and extends over our driveway and across one of our paths.  We would make adjustments if it did something but it doesn’t. It just stands there, promising so much and delivering so little.  Nothing finds it attractive.  Of course in the right place it would be great.  Our place is just not the right place.
We have four paths (five if you count the one to the water meter).  They are made of either mulch or stones.  One is destined to become cement.  Merrils dad is a whiz at cementing.  He has loaned me his mixer and wooden supports.  He was a firey, and on his days off would cement.  I will do it all under his guidance and direction.
The reason it will become cement is that it will be like the path to our original driveway (we will need to swap the door around too, so it opens the correct way).  We now have two driveways and the second leads to our car port.  The people doing the cementing for the car port discovered a wasps nest in a bush.  We did not know it was there but they discovered it through experience.  I do not wish being stung by wasps on anyone, but having been there, I am glad it was not me.
Wasps love our place.  A friend of mine dealt with one nest out the front. I was asked to be well away as it involved running and that is not one of my strong points these days.  Well it never was really, except I was very fast over incredibly short distances.  Anyway, we have another nest in a pot out the front.  I always give that pot a very wide birth.
The front yard, like me, is a work in progress.  I look at pictures of it when it was just lawn, and it did look good, but I know I could not have lived with what I considered a waste.  People say the front looks good. One lady delivering pamphlets even said she was admiring (her words not mine) our bush garden.  In talking with her, I found out she is right into such things, and is doing research and all on it.  All the feedback has been positive.  Maybe I need a reality check but I am persisting.
We will get there, and right now I don’t feel like I have bitten off more than I can chew. However it is work, and I might be finding I have an allergy to that.