Sunday, March 18, 2012

The big ugly box


We decided to go with the raised beds plan so I spent Saturday building a very large ugly box beside the garage. It is built around the pohutukawa stump and some concrete that I couldn't put in the skip last week.

A big ugly box has appeared beside the garage

Sunday, I finished the box off with some plastic to keep the chemicals used to treat the wood from leeching into anything that we grow in it. I might try to make a lid for it out of corrugated plastic like what is on the garage roof to help keep it warm inside the box.

Lined with plastic and filled with the last of the garden debris

We have a bit more work to do clearing out weeds on this terrace, then we will try and get some grass growing down here.

Getting cleared out slowly, some more work to be done

The never ending battle to keep the bank free from weeds continues. I hate bark chips, but they seem to work on the bit of garden opposite the bank. So we are probably going to get some to coat the bank and see if it helps any.

Helen weeding the bank

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Aaron's last long weekend

School started this week, so this was my last Friday off. I took advantage of that and the good weather to make one last big push on getting the garden in shape before winter sets in properly. In three days I managed to fill a 4.5m3 skip with the remains of the old deck, garden debris and a bunch of stuff from the garage.

Stairs are finished, well, the tops at least. I still need to do the fronts.

The area behind the garage is now tidy.

And in front of the retaining wall...

There is still a bit of work to do beside the garage.
We have several ideas for what to do with the area next to the garage. They range from the simple - building some raised beds and trying to grow some more veggies. To the more complex - digging it out and making a carport to provide another off-street car park. To the completely crazy - extending the garage into that area and building an apartment over the top.