The New Rubbish Arbour

Which is not to say that the arbour is a rubbish arbour, but that it's for putting the rubbish bins in. We've planted (that is, the husband has) Boston Ivy at each corner, which will eventurally cover it completely, making it like a hedge with doors. Clever huh?
It's hard to make out I know.
The bobbles are polystirene which is rendered in concrete and painted to look like rust.

I made some hessian curtains for the verandah. Yesterday in the 46 degree heat (or whatever it was) we hosed them down occasionally. I love the mood it creates. Sitting in the loungeroom and looking out, it seems to enlarge the room. Noice.

The Hedge Shed

Top view.

One side will be for rubbish bins, the other for wood. We've planted a Boston Ivy to cover it, so it will end up looking like a hedge.

We love bling.

The Apple Arbour

Our favourite material for the minute... reinforcement steel bars. Twitched together, then covered with a smidge of chicken wire and ferro cement render.
Note the path. The bottom path has thyme planted around the pavers. All of the pavers were free cast-offs.

We added pigment render to the top. The reo will rust and the pigment will fade, together.

It doesn't look this fake rust colour in reality.

The tops of the reo here are covered first with polystyrene balls and then ferro cemented. I like them this colour, they look like garlic flowers before they shed their cowl.

My Christmas Shed (Ala The Bus Stop)

This is the shed at the top of the block. It's the best shed you could possibly ask for, especially with a ribbon and a card for My Christmas Present! Unbelievable.

The back part of the roof is glass, to enable Begonia's to flourish. We've since decided to put an old tank inside too, for sea-weed-juice manufacturing. I'll take a photo when it's done. You'll see it's perfect. The paint Ross made with cement oxides (pigment)t and lime and Bondcrete. Very cheap and has a gorgeous patina. Prettier than it looks here.

Inside view. Note the old safety hat. Begonia's. The brown pot on the shelf was cast concrete inside an old woven basket.

The thing hanging there is an old, dry Durian skin.

Garden Update

 

Ross's pot

Before and now (below), with the planting

 

Home made posts with debris from garden

You can't say he's not clever. I help but that's about it.

The Garden, Feb 2013

Before the arbour went up

They got even bigger than this!

From the other side of the road

Fish tank, protected by beans and pumpkins. Another two babes this year too! In spite of slimey water (that we can't seem to fix)

A fern tree trunk for the orchids.

Ferro cement pretend branches (inspired by a Victorian aviary we saw years ago).

Topped with Polonia tree branches we have been cutting from Dad's trees. Every year we coppice them and get these long shoots. Light, insect resistant wood.

Not gonna use the bamboo.

Shed No.1, or The Cubby Otherwise Known As The Bus Stop

Here it is! Our first of many sheds on the property. The tin came from a bloke down the road who was re-tinning his own shed and throwing this away. Notice the ends of the roof-caps. Cute huh? We did one each. I did loads of the lackey stuff... carrying stuff up the hill, cups of tea, holding the thing in the right place... important assistant things. The One True did the thinking, the planning, the cutting and the knowing. It worked out well between us.
This is at the centre top of the block and is the perfect place to sit and have a cuppa. We were already doing that, on the concrete base (which was laid some time ago, you may remember our hand-prints and RM2 in a heart).
We felt all secluded and hidden there, but when we popped over the road to look up, we saw that it's the first place you look. Your eye is drawn straight there! Ha ha ha!
It'll be ok when the garden grows up.
I'm lucky to have such a great gardener/builder/cook. Not sure how even we'll be once the place is finished. I've been smug because my investments bought us the house in the first place but I'd better get cracking with the best-seller if I'm to feel like I've contributed as much by the time it's all built!
Go Gumby!!

Sunday's Efforts and How To Use Old Drainiage Pipes Most Effectively

Planting our first apple tree. One of 8 to go along the arbour. This one is Cox's Orange Pippin.

This came to him as an obvious solution. Ag pipe, cut into lengths and picked up free via Gumtree, concreted in place and then filled with concrete and water pipe shoved down the middle. It's to hold the wood off the ground to avoid rotting. We're using the Chinese Sapphire (Polonia) wood from Dad's tree, which we  have been coppicing. The wood is quite dark. After we stripped the bark off our hands were stained purplish for a week, and the wood white... but when we went to check the wood under Dad's house, it had gone dark.