Front Garden

Out the front of the house is the area where the black water trench is. The ring road had been built around it. You can see the weeds growing well at the right side from the black water seepage. It is planned to be a Zen rock garden with an old canoe converted to a herb or flower garden. To the right of this picture and uphill a little is the front veranda of the house. So the view would be over the Zen rock garden to the dam on the other side of the fence, down to the left of this picture. The two eucalyptus trees to the right were cut down for firewood and mulch for the trenches of the new vegetable garden (on the left side of the house, see below).

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Moving the rocks etc out, so it can be slashed and shaped.

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To the right and downhill a little of the garden above is a cricket pitch which had a large eucalyptus tree growing near it. It was felled for firewood and branches mulched.

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Back Garden

Next is the children’s cubby house. It is behind the house and to the left. Now the children are teenagers, they don’t use it. It was used by me while I implemented the design with my brother over two months.

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Below the hut was a lot of junk which I cleared out and eventually put a hammock for afternoon naps.

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The hut had gutters already, so behind it we installed a 1,500lt rainwater tank.

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Height = 1130mm. Diameter = 1420mm.

Left Garden

The left side of the house had to be cleared of various things. First an old truck was moved closer to the front of the property, near the cricket pitch.

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Rocks were cleared from around the tree that was next to the truck and moved to the front yard for the proposed Zen rock garden.

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Metal stands were moved to the top of the property temporarily.

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After clearing of debris

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Four tree stumps had to be removed. The first one, near the new chicken pen had been dead for years.

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Other debris was wood from trees lopped from other properties and a wood pile was established up the top right corner of the property between the existing shed and the new chicken pen. I saved a native bee hive which was in a section of tree trunk from other properties. I found plans online for them to build a hive so they could harvest honey. Four eucalyptus trees were cut down of this property which added to the wood pile.

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Then the vegetable garden could be dug on contour, trench and mound. The grey water was diverted from the back of the house to the trenches of the vegetable garden.

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In the picture below, left is former chicken pen area. The former chicken shed is shown moved onto an unused concrete slab to the right and is now used as a garden tool shed. A small greenhouse was built onto the side of the shed using discarded damaged flexible tent poles. This area is fenced, so the horse cannot get to the herb and vegetable seedlings.

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Below right is the beginning of the new chicken pen. It is to the right and downhill from the original one. The new one is uphill from the planned vegetable garden, so rain will wash any manure to the first trench.

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Next is the completed new chicken pen with uncompleted earthworks uphill to improve drainage. The mound of dirt uphill was graded and a passionfruit vine was planted in the middle of the fence to eventually give shade from the hot summer afternoon sun. There is no straw in the straw yard because my brother’s wife took it out as she thought the chickens didn’t need it. Wood logs with ants in them were introduced to the chicken yard as another protein source for the chickens.

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Next is a damaged former soccer goal frame, which will be used as a chicken tractor to allow chickens to browse on grass and ant’s nests.

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Right Garden

The slab had been dug out for the large shed, but the dirt had not been graded. So there was a ledge about half a meter high and a mound on top of that about a meter high. This was used to make mounds on contour to the left of the shed for fruit and nut trees and to improve drainage. A shallow trench was dug by the right side border to divert rainwater.

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The right side of the shed had various building materials stored and also needed grading. The building materials around the property were consolidated to one place at the back of the property. After grading on the right side of the large shed, another large rainwater tank was installed to catch the rainwater from the right hand side of the shed’s roof. This tank would be used for the bathroom in the shed, which was yet to be built.

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The cricket pitch was only a cement slab when I arrived. During my stay I helped with placing the poles and attaching the wire. Only the run up to the pitch needed to be done when I left.

About four loads of rubbish were assigned to the tip and the neighbour said the place had never looked so tidy.

We originally thought to get a windmill, but that turned out to be too expensive. A diesel water pump which had sat in a shed for six years and which was bought for future irrigation was serviced and installed at the dam. High pressure pipe, which had been salvaged from rubbish at a building site, was used to lay an irrigation system around the top back half of the property. Now water can be pumped up to the back right corner of the property to two 1,000lt tanks when there is not enough rain. It took 20min to fill one tank. A small water pump was bought for these two tanks so the water could be used for cleaning cars, watering the garden etc.

The pump near the dam can also be used to fill the trenches of the vegetable garden directly when there is not enough rain, or to water the fruit and nut trees when they have been planted. This is suggested to be done weekly. The dam has ducks, so their manure will also be in the water.

I found out about free native trees yearly from the local city council and gave details to the owners.

I found out about the local city council’s requirements for growing bananas non-commercially and gave details to the owners.

Preferred vegetables were identified and heirloom seeds were purchased from www.diggers.com.au and put into trays in the greenhouse. They had sprouted by the time I left.

That's all for now.

Best Wishes