My Journey to Eliminate Debt

Well today the gardening reclamation begins! I've got my garden plans organized, I've just been out and taken a heap of before pictures and I'm kitted up, covered in sunburn cream and ready to get stuck into it. I still can't believe what a mess it all is, but there are still remnants of the lovely garden I used to have. Anyway no point thinking about the past now, time to move on.


Here are some pictures of the back garden which is the current zone.! And as I work in each section I'll show you the changes I make. I plan on doing 15 minutes a day in the zone for that week and then on the weekends about an hour each day on a project or a detailed task.

This first picture shows where there used to be a huge flower bed, it was full of plants to attract butterflys and it was lovely to walk out and have butterflies everywhere! Now there are a few shrubs and perennials left. The plan is to plant all fragrant plants here, probably jasmine so that the scent drifts into the house and pergola area. At the top left , byou can see some overgrown shrubs in what used to be the vegetable garden. On the rightottom corner is part of the area that we had ripped up a few years ago and never got to finish.













Below is part of the backyard that is going to be turned into a herb and flower garden under the apple trees. This is my first project, to take down the wooden fence, get rid of grass and plant it. I want put hellobores under the trees in with the herbs and a little bench to sit on with forget me nots. The view from here is really nice, you can see out to the mountains.











This picture below just shows more of the old vegie garden, the roses survived nicely. I want replace the retaining wall, plant vegies and clean up the overgrown shrubs. In front of the garden I'm going to dig up some of the grass and plant bulbs.











Basically I'm a cottage garden, farmyard person living in suburbia, so my garden looks pretty out of place compared to the neat and tidy ones surrounding us. But I think gardening is soul work, at least it is for me. And the freedom and randomness of a cottage garden is where I feel most at home. An hour in the garden is probably worth about 10 hours of therapy for me! So there is minimal order and lots of spontenaity here.

When I'm in the garden or in the house I don't feel like I live in surburbia at all. I have huge windows with fantastic views in every room, I wanted to create the effect of being outside even when you are inside. Here's a few picture of the views from the front windows, we are quite high up. Enjoy!