March 29th, 2018

Our front yard is divided into four sections.  We have two driveways. One leads to what was our garage, which we have made into another room, and the other leads to our carport, where we keep our cars (including our Ferrari – picture of it on my timeline somewhere).  The garden has the two sides, the centre section, and the area near the front window.
Our front yard used to be all grass and it did look good (though it never looked as good as the sales brochure made it look.  Sales folk are still at it, as the place next door to us is for sale, and the lawn looks unbelievable (actually, it is unbelievable, as we know it does not look as good as the advertising makes out.)
I was not satisfied with a lawn like most have, so I set about building a “bush garden.”  Basically I did not want to mow.  It turns out I need to weed, and that is worse than mowing.
For the front edging I was going to use pool fencing.  I dug the holes, and levelled things up, but decided it was too much like hard work.  I settled on low garden edging from Aldi.  The trouble with this stuff is, folk in cars don’t see it and they turn too early.  The edging near the driveway has the “crumpled” look.  It does not affect car tyres but it makes a mess of edging. I have a clever plan for that, which may or may not happen.
When looking at our house from the road, the area to the left has trees and contains our water meter.  I have built a little path to it.  What looks like a community service, was me putting stones down, so I would have a level place to walk. Oh it does serve a dual purpose, which is good.
I have made paths in the centre section as well.  For me it is all about safe access.  I have planted many trees, most of which are natives.  I figured if I don’t want to water, then plants that are used to this environment would be good.  I also have planted succulents, which are hardy as well.  We do need to occasionally water, as in the wild, even with things used to this environment, death occurs from lack of water.  My mission – which I have chosen to accept, is to ensure that does not happen.  The trees we have planted are ones renowned for attracting birds and butterflies.  Thankfully they actually do.
We also have in the centre section a non-native area that has climbing roses, and a magnolia tree.  The roses have gone mad.  The magnolia tree is hanging in there.  It unfortunately was impacted by a falling bird perch I had there.  It is showing signs of life.
The area on the extreme right, is planted out with different varieties of Lilly Pillys’.  The object is for them to grow and hold the soil together.  So far so good.  I also needed to put an underground drain there leading from the back.  The changes I made, had led to next doors yard flooding, when it rains really heavily.  The neighbour has reported the drain fixed that.  We also noticed water flowing into our yard from a property above us.  I think I have fixed that too.
The area near our front window consists of a hotch potch of native plants.  The birds we call “quark karks” because of the sound they make (they are actually Little Wattle Birds) seem to love that area. I also have there a very modern rustic old fashioned looking basin.  It holds some water plants which bloom every so often.  No one would know it was there because the plants have taken over.  I used to have cold water fish in there but birds seem to love fish – in a “I’m going to eat you” kind of way.
Anyway, the front is a work in progress and it keeps me off the streets – though I am very near the streets.  As I heard someone say “I’m satisfied with an unsatisfied satisfaction.”
​(I have pictures (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlhUVlDLfmQ – though it has changed a bit and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuvk6w76sHU) on my You Tube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1LuRrW9mbTjsC5580aLHMA) also. (I need to press on “uploads” to see all my uploads.)