I guess it’s high time I mow the lawn. Believe it or not, our lawn hasn’t been mowed since the beginning of Autumn, that’s like 3 months ago. No the grass didn’t grow very high because it kinda withers during winter.
It’s just that so much had taken place in the time leading up to Autumn that since it was already Winter, I just let it be.
But now that the weather is warming up, the grass will be growing tall. Got to mow it before it becomes an eyesore around the block.
For the longest time we have been contemplating on getting a shed to store the lawn mower, hardware and gardening tools. We like the metal buildings we saw at some places specialising in sheds and storage.
The only problem is, we haven’t the space for it. Our backyard is rather small. If we were to place a shed in it, there’d only be a tiny bit of lawn space left for my girl to play in.
It’s really a headache. Wish we had factor in a storage shed when we built the house.
We have an area of approx 3 to 3.5 metres in length and 60-80cm in width where the furthest section consists of solid clay which does not drain too well after lengthy spells of wet weather. So finding the right flowering plant to grow in this section had been elusive to us.
So while my parents were here, I asked them for their opinion. Mum had tried to persuade us to place pots on top of the area and simply grow succulents in them. This option was our least favourite. We ended deciding upon and buying some Azaleas (3 plants) and Agapanthus (1 pot).
These were all purchased from Flower Power, in Prospect.
Last year, in November, I planted some Cupheas at the front of the house and for a good while they flourished and bloomed very colourful small flowers. But as of recently, they’ve been getting sick – with some “branches” turning brown and twig-like, as if it had it’s life juices sucked out.
So we decided to transplant these into a new location, with preference, in these potting trays we had bought a while ago. So after buying 4 bags of potting mix from Parklea Markets, I dug up the Cupheas and transplanted them into the trays. It was during the digging I discovered a likely culprit for the damage done to the Cupheas – and it was none other than the lawn beetle grubs! Probably dug up around 20 of them – with 8-10 around the Gardenia tree, alone!
Anyway, the Cupheas have been transplanted and we’ll monitor their progress and hope they can recover from shock to resume florishing, again.
We bought 3 Camellia japonica “Debutantee” (80-100cm tall) plants for the spaces we intentially left for them where we had planted the ‘Lemon Squash‘, along the fence to the rear of the house.
This is the most ideal location because the fence faces a northely direction meaning it will provide shelter from heavy winds, provide shelter from the sun (with exception in the late afternoon), and is least likely to suffer from frosts: the ideal position for this variety of Camellia.
As these plants prefer acidic soils, I mixed in some milled cow manure into the soil before planting the Camellias. Also planted them in a slightly elevated position (like how I had with the Lemon Squash) and covered with mulch; this will allow excess water to drain away easily and to ensure the soils maintains its moisture.
Now we just have to decide on what else we would like to plant … to fill in the void on the west-facing fence adjacent to the rear of the house. The problem is it slopes down slightly, as it nears the rear north-facing fence, so the water tends to collect into a pool; it eventually drains away but not quickly enough because the soil is still quite mushy.
Last weekend, we bought several Chrysanthemum paludosum plants and also some mulch to spread. I took the opportunity today to spread the mulch – as it has been too dark by the time I return home from work, during the week days.
Here’s a close-up photo I took of the ‘Daisy’, this afternoon.
In retrospect, I should’ve taken another photo after I had spread the mulch. Nevermind, next time perhaps.
