Front yard ramblings

 After losing my dedicated staff of slave labour (mostly my parents) back to Canada, I have been forced to toil away in the garden day after day alone. Woe is me... *insert dramatic arm gesturing to forehead here* but alas I have been making slow but steady progress towards total front yard domination. Since their departure I've managed to pot and hang my three strawberry hanging baskets along the front porch, and Dave and I acquired a nice cafe setting to arrange on our front verandah so I can watch my plants grow. Another new addition is the front flower bed consisting of a couple of hibiscus plants and a variety of ...colourful flowers. Flowers really aren't my thing, so don't ask me what they're called other than purple (which Dave's mom seemed a bit taken aback when I didn't know all the botanical names for them all, apparently 'ones with flowers?' didn't quite cut it). But I'm hoping they will attract more bees into the veggie gardens which is always a good thing.
I also just finished making the little bed at the back of the herb spiral to hopefully disguise the ugly fencing in time with creeping mandavilla (hah! I do know some flowery names, although apparently not how to spell them as my spell check keeps whinging at me no matter how I spell the damn thing). Anywhoo... that's what's been happening in the great land of my front yard. The great dump truck full of soil is nearly gone and I haven't even started building my last raised bed, so another trip to the soil company at some point may be required. Dave will be so pleased. My blueberry tree is steadily coming back from the dead now that it has been moved up onto the deck so I shall name him frankenberry!
Now for the photos...

Cafe setting, hanging strawberries and frankenberry looming in the corner

Front flower bed under construction

Finished with flowers aplenty

Start of back flower bed behind the herb spiral

Finished back flower bed with plants in place. More to be added as it looks a bit sparse still

Herb Spiral & Pond

While my parents were down visiting us this summer we got up to a little garden DIY'ing to create a herb spiral and pond in an unused area around the side of our front deck. First thing first we had to clear all the garbage and junk that had accumulated along the side of the house we never used. Then once it was clean(ish) we pulled up all the bricks that looked to have been half layed and then forgotten about by previous owners. (see pile in first shot behind me)
Dad had done a bit of planning on his computer ahead of time and worked out how to lay the bricks down, how big it needed to be around etc, and then it was time to start a buildin'! It actually went much faster than I was expecting, with it being completely built by afternoon of day two. Once the bricks had been finished we piled some sand and crappy soil to build up the level in the middle where it was highest, and then filled the top layer with our nice soil we got from the Good Soil Co. in Midvale. Once we had everything in place mom and I planted all our herbs and pond plants we got for around the edge of the water feature. The very last shot is what it looks like as of today. Filling in nicely I think!!
Enjoy the photos. :)

First row of spiral, figuring out the spacing

Dad and me digging the hole for the pond

Placed!

Proud daddy filling the pond

Dave approves!

Progress so far.

...aaaaaand we're back!

Sorry about the long pause in posting. These last seven weeks have been hectic to say the least. A very brief catchup of happenings:
1. Family came down to visit for the first time :)
2. Celebrated my moms birthday
3. Celebrated my nephews 5th birthday
4. Got married!
5. Had a very merry christmas
6. Quiet New Year with family
7. Went down to Margaret River
8. Many many evenings of good food and good company
9. Got lots of help working on trnasforming my front yard into a wonderful sustainable vegetable garden! (more on that in the next post)

But here a few photos from the wedding for those of you who haven't seen any of the shots yet. :) 

Parents and I about to leave for the ceremony

Vintage Holden ride to the ceremony

First kiss

My favourite photo from the ceremony. Dave telling me it'll all be ok when I was a bit nervous before reading my vows. He's a good boy. :)