It is always very satisfying to have a good clean up in the garden, regardless of where we are, either in the United Kingdom or in Australia. The environment is a little different here, I know, but a good clean up, is a good cleanup anywhere.
We wore thick gardening gloves, in case we encountered 'a red back spider', but I think the spiders all scampered away before we started. They knew it was cleanup time.
Darren found a barbeque, discarded outside a house. No doubt the owners hoped someone would take it home. And Darren did just that. I gave it a good scrub and it worked brilliantly. Darren's old rusty barbeque went out with the rubbish. No one took it. People knew that it had gone beyond its use by date.
Darren and Walter made new doors for the shed. Now Darren has a nice dry shed, plus one that is not full of leaves and dust that have blown in through the open front door.
They also moved the clothesline onto the lawn area.
We made many trips to the giant hardware store, Bunnings, which has heaps more stock than its equivalent in the UK, B & Q. I love visiting Bunnings, to look at all the gardening equipment that one cannot buy in the UK. How one makes a choice, I do not know, when there are twenty or more hedge trimmers waiting selection. And most appear to be reasonably priced.
I bought Darren and Donna a lemon tree each. Hope they grow quickly, as they are very small trees.
We planted zucchini, cucumber and pumpkin plants in the spare piece of garden. They are enormous plants now, with plenty of flowers, but not many vegetables due to the rotting down of grass clippings around the plants. We have had three cucumbers.
Darren's new barbeque area, once the clothes drying area.
Darren's revamped patio, with new table, chairs and marque. The paving slabs were at different heights due to the roots of the tree next door pushing them up. Darren chopped the roots off, and relaid the paving slabs. He planted clivias along the fence where once there was a line up of barbeques.
The clivias and Darren's garden bed, filled to capacity with lettuces, basel, parsley, chives and tomato plants.
Dave gave Darren some advice about the best way to cook the lamb chops.
The trailers, finally empty of used building materials, old appliances and furniture. Darren just needs to get rid of the trailers now. However, rusty trailers appear to adorn the front driveways in the southern suburbs. What is a rusty eyesore to me, is someone else's trusty trailer that is used often.
The green bin, full of weeds and tree prunings. Green bin collection is now monthly rather than fortnightly, which is very annoying. The bin was finally emptied this morning.
Councils here collect hard rubbish for free, about twice a year. There is a bin for items that can be recycled which is collected once a fortnight. Beer cans, beer bottles and drink bottles are taken to a depot where they are exchanged for money. I love this idea. Unfortunately taking rubbish to the tip here is extremely expensive. I very much appreciate being able to take garden rubbish and building materials to our local tip in the UK, for free. All part of our council tax.
The sorting out of everything in the shed on a very hot day. I think the temperature was about 35 degrees when the photograph was taken. Darren in sensible boots and Walter in his trusty rubber flip flops.
Jespa gave the bikes a good clean.
Barbeque time again.
A very happy group of people.
That was the night we saw the large but beautiful huntsman spider. I thought you would like another look at the spider, Margaret. I think it escaped the cleanup by coming into the house.
And the redback, under a piece of cardboard in the trailer. It was found a couple of weeks before the cleanup. There were no more spiders in the trailer. Not that we saw, anyway.
We have all been enjoying sitting out in Darren's revamped garden and Darren loves his very clean and tidy shed.
I especially enjoy looking at the empty trailers in the front driveway.
No comments:
Post a Comment