August is for - taking new ground

It's the first day of Spring, and I'm SO excited. We all know that winter is not my thing, which might be part of the reason I haven't been motivated enough to write the August post until September... oops. But that doesn't mean nothing is going on!

We've been up to our eyeballs in snow peas and sugar snap peas, with plenty of kale to go round as well. Cabbages and broccoli haven't matured in the strange winter weather, so I'll give them a bit more time to see if they do anything, and probably throw them in the compost to make room for summer tomatoes.

The veggie beds have benefited from the compost, with a scattering over followed by a good layer of Lucerne mulch to keep in the moisture and hold back the sneaky spring weeds. The last few weeks have brought some great rain and everything has grown beautifully.



Earlier in the year we added the new native garden, and I loved the effect but felt it just didn't sit quite right in the yard. The square edge jutted against the lawn and it seemed like there were so many different areas that didn't connect. Our solution was to extend the garden to meet the pool area, with a large curve that swept around the clothesline. Here are the before and after shots:

Pool corner

 

 
Garden corner

 

 

I can't believe how much it's grown!

 

 

 We sprayed the grass and built up a layer of garden soil from the landscape yard after it started to yellow off. The plants are similar to those in the native garden, with a few new favourites and some from the pool area to tie the two together. Think more Poa, Westringia, Brachycomes and kangaroo paws. Hopefully they come up as fast as the others, and it'll be a complete garden in no time!