About the Block - Gordon

It's been pointed out to me that I haven't explained what the land around the house is like. I've been asked to describe the block of land in order to give a better understanding of what the garden and conditions are like and what I have to deal with to achieve my goal of self-sufficiency.

Well, here goes...

The house was built right in the middle of the parcel of land which measures approx 990sq metres. The block of land is retangular in shape with the front and the back of the block being the narrower sides. There is more garden at the front of the house than there is at the rear.

Below is a rough sketch of the site.

The person who lived in the house previously was a biologist - You'd expect a varied selection of flora but no not in this case - the garden was quite bare. The house was surrounded by only a few trees and by old wooden fencing: 

Two  beautiful ornamental flowering cherry trees, a crepe myrtle and a large tulip tree in the front of the block;


Front of block looking towards the street

Two well established olive trees, a native pine and a young Canadian maple in the back;
  





and a Japanese maple, a pine tree and a robinia along the south side of the house.

 

The entire garden was covered in wood chip mulch only occasionally intrerrupted by a few shrubs (9 in total). Under the mulch there was (a still is) hardly any soil. Most of what is under the wood chip is clay and rock.

The shrubs must have been particularly selected for their ugliness and annoying traits - they are all Australian natives for arid areas, are spikey, have no or minimal small ugly flowers and lose leaves that prohibit growth of any other plant around them due to oils contained in their leaves, a bit like eucalyts. I can understand that these plants may be beneficial during a drought and may attact native wildlife and birds, but they don't. There are so many wonderful native varieties available which explode with colour or have interesting foliage and flowers.


As like many other Australian natives, these shrubs need a considerable amount of water until they become established, you can't move them or they die, too much water and they die, they don't show you any signs if they're sick or diseased, they just die.


I've noticed that birds seem to prefer the nectar of the robinia flowers and of the two shrubs of exception - two beautiful large pink proteas which I have since discovered are not native to Australia but to South Africa.






The best bit to top it all off .... it's all on a slope. Yes, that's right... A steep slope! One you can abseil down. Well, that's exaggerating a bit - but nonetheless, it takes quite an effort to get around the block.

Visitors often reach the front door panting heavily (unless your fit) and on a few occasions pranks have been played on people - The person has been given our address by some (not very nice) friends or acquaintences and these poor persons have turned up to our doorstep sweating and gasping for air to only find out that 'their date or new friend' did not really live here. At least the view would leave them breathless, in a good sense that is.

Not than Matthew and I are fit, far from it, but we must have become accustomed to the steepness. However, after working in the garden for some time, my calf muscles become sore. I must learn to routinely stretch before and after working in the garden.

My initial stage in gardening was simply to make an aesthetic transformation. During the past year, I have been trying to improve the soil and beautify the garden somewhat with bright coloured flowering plants.