It's been a while since I tended the garden let alone take a photo of it. I feel kinda sad I fell off the gardening wagon. It all stopped around the time I got really sick a few months ago when being in the garden triggered dizzy spells and then it got cold...

Fast forward a few months and this is where it's at. A wild bushy mess.

The Backyard

The colder months pretty much guarantee the slow growth of grass so this lawn has not seen a mower for a while. Considering how long it's been, it's actually not too bad.

What it does need is a trim around the borders, weeding and a hella lot of pruning.

The calamansi tree has not made any progress and the alfalfa seeds I planted around it were eaten by magpies as soon as they sprouted. Im also doubting it's position in the back yard... Bang on centre.

PROS

• Would make for a great obstacle course...

CONS

• It's right in the middle...

I need to have my friends from psychic class to come around and gauge this tree for me.

Overall though it's looking pretty sad.

After taking in the gorgeous blue skies and weather I got to it!

Trim & Tidy

I'm not allowed to use power tools. Hubby worries, not surprisingly since I'm a big baby and I have a cry over paper cuts. So I used the shears to tidy up the edges.

I dont really like having the whipper snipper (edge trimmer?) by the veggies because I'm worried it'll get all my plants. And this doesn't really take that long so I don't mind doing it by hand. It also gives me an opportunity to have a closer look at what needs to be done while I'm down there like random weeding on the lawn.

Taadaa! All done and looking pretty.

I also tidied this section up, removed the grass poking out and added more news paper over the top of it. As you can see, for the most part, the newspaper has kept grass from growing through.

Prune & Mulch

BEFORE

AFTER

The pruning took most of my time. I wanted to be as thorough as possible and make sure I got all the dead leaves out and gave everything breathing space.

I trimmed the rocket down so its not a wild bush anymore. I was going to pull out the lettuce, but it's seeding at the moment and I want to collect those seeds. The chives feel like they're stuck in the trenches of the salad section and needs to be liberated so it can be all it can be. (I'm thinking of planting it with the Calamansi tree)

I also pulled the dead flowers off the cosmos and marigolds to harvest the seeds.

After all that it was time to put the mulch on, in my case we use sugar cane for the veggies.

Front

Just when I thought I was done I decided to give the front a bit of love.

I tackled the front yard weeks ago and was surprised it remained tidy since I did it.

With a big gum tree at the front, there's really no escaping the little twigs or leaves that fall off it. But the weeds haven't grown back yet, and the hedge seems to be doing alright after my hack job.

Presentation wise though I felt it could use some mulch.

(Here's me halfway through one side before I remembered to take a photo.)

It took 4 bags of mulch to get the job done, could have used 5-6 tbh as it's light in some places, but it still looks good and tidier than it did before.

Bounty

Of course I couldn't go around the garden and not observe the fruits of our labor.

BEHOLD! Broccoli!
I cannot flipping believe we've got broccoli AND it hasnt been attacked by critters! Don't they look awesome?

TOMATOES!
We're having a Goldilocks moment with our tomatoes. The black russian is too huge and the tommy-toes are too little, so we'll be getting rid of these plants and putting new ones in in spring.

MARIGOLDS & COSMOS! These are the dried up flowers I collected months ago and the ones I grabbed yesterday. I'll be harvesting the seeds soon and hopefully have a few packets done up for our friends this weekend.

You know like, welcome to our home, here's some seeds from our garden to plant in yours, sort of thing.

These are the rocket (arugula) I pulled out while I was pruning. Unfortunately they too are huge and way too peppery to consume happily.

We'll be replacing this with the kind we do eat in spring. It seemed such a waste considering it grew so well but we don't like it so I've been chucking the cuts further down the garden adding to the half done lasagna layer.

FINALLY.. These things..
I noticed they were growing weird for grass the other week and thought perhaps it's corn.

How tf did I get corn growing in the middle of the yard like that? Could be that time I was feeding the birds with seeds and I tossed the seeds on the grass...

Not quite sure what to do with this. Do we let it grow or do we nip this shit in the bud and pull them all out now before it gets hectic?

Thoughts?

---

To-do

Time escaped me yesterday and before I knew it Hubby was on his way home, I'd just finished the front yard and badly needed a shower.

I didn't get a chance to melt down the candle and re-set it, so that's getting done today.

The choices are making tea lights (approx. 3 hours burn time) but I reckon I can make about 10 tealights from one pillar OR make container candles (approx. 8 hours burn time) but I'll only have 2 from 2 pillars, maybe 3.

It's not that we need citronella, it's pretty cold and there's no mossies around. But ambient wise... It's always great to have candles everywhere.

Well folks. Sister girlfriend has to go do a deep clean of the house now, on my 1 year Steemit Anniversary no less. I will celebrate with a glass of wine after.

To all my friends, communities, followers and supporters.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH.

I wouldn't have lasted this long on the platform if I didn't have you guys xoxo

STEEM ON!

❤ Arly