Two days later

We pulled our sleeves up and slogged through the remainder, went up to Quality Farms and bought two tractor scoops of bark mulch then ferried it back to the house with the trusty Acura (which really does need a good wash as it's covered in pollen dust).

Anyway, phase one at the front of the house is done, shrubs and plants to be added, along with the missing stepping stone.

Number Seven

Another week goes by and there is less grass, Karen pointed out that it's a big reverse number seven at the moment, but we'll continue filling in the blanks with landscape fabric and mulch, and a few shrubs.

But will it make toast?

We bought the weights bench from a good friend of ours, Bill Sutherland, who was happy to unload all this stuff for a twenty dollar bill and the promise of a good beer down the line.

After stopping paddling, we had noticed over the year or so that our upper body strength was falling apart, so we both need to do something about it, and pottering about in the garden isn't enough.

The middle bedroom is converted into a miniature gym, all we need to do now is use it....

Progress

A couple of weeks on, progress in the front garden :

There would have been more progress yesterday, but I ended up breaking our sixteen year old lawnmower height adjustment lever, so the rest of the afternoon was spent salvaging a part from the recycling depot and then modifying it to fit.

Lawnmower fixed, digging will resume at some point in the near future.

Planting - Part Two

The very real threat of drought again this year has encouraged the pair of us to replace our useless grass with some shrubs and drought-tolerant plants.

While Karen was planting her seedlings yesterday, I was out wrecking my elbows and knees in the rock ridden front yard, stripping the turf and weeds away to start fresh.

More joint deterioration planned for today...

Planting - Part One

A year ago we were just starting to build the greenhouse.

Yesterday, the first home produced seedlings, carrots and parsnips, went in. Today we plan to obtain some tomatoes and peppers and maybe something else we've not thought of yet.

Let the growing begin!