My gardens ( 6 )

My gardens ( 6 )

Posted on 3 Sep, 2008 8 comments

There were some things about the house in Darwin we didn’t like, but the most important thing was that it really was too small for us. We had misjudged the space inside and had fallen for the lovely gardens. So after 3 years we were looking at a new place, perhaps a smaller garden as this one demanded a lot of work, and heavy work at times too, but a bigger house. We could not find such a property, land had become incredibly expensive and houses to build too, so that was no option. We’d been to Cairns on holidays in the past and loved the scenery. So we flew there again for a week to make sure we still liked the area. We had searched the internet and found it was cheaper there. So, after some consideration, we decided to make a move. We painted the house and renovated the bathrooms and had add on a guesthouse. We had put in a new kitchen already when we just moved in. We put the house on the market. It was sold within 6 weeks and we made a profit, thanks to all our hard work, in the house and in the garden.
So we found ourselves one morning packed and ready to go, dogs in the car of course. I felt a bit mean taking Cully from her birthplace, but she just wanted to be with us. Our dogs love car rides and this one was going to be 3200 kms long! We did the journey in 4 days, first going South and then going East, most time driving through the desert. It was a wonderful experience, despite the fact that the roads in QLD are definitely inferior than the ones in the NT. Not until we reached the Great Dividing Range the landscape changed colour and it was greener than we expected. The mountains looked blue and the trees were dark green. We had nowhere to go yet, we had no house to our name and all our belongings were in storage. A very strange feeling, I can tell you! It took a few weeks to find this place we are now and 6 weeks before we finally could move in. Once we found an acre with a house and a lovely garden, although somewhat neglected, we played the waiting game and decided to go further North to Cooktown to have a little holiday.
In August last year we got the keys and the work began. Unpacking, fencing the front garden, so the dogs had more room to roam around, and cleaning up the garden. It was a great job, I love tidying up. The weeds had thrived and they were sky high and in between all the heliconia’s, in the borders, in between the hedges, under the trees. It took at least 3 weeks to tidy up. I found all sorts of lovely plants underneath the weeds. I also found lots of little sprinklers from an irrigation system, fallen over, burried by weeds, stuffed with dirt, disconnected, bitten off etc. I even found taps on stands, which had been covered by weeds. A bit like you would find in the Sleeping Beauty.
One section had once been a vegetable garden, all fenced off and with a garden gate. On the other side was a whole area fenced off, but with a very low fence, don’t know what they’d tried to keep in there. Perhaps chucks, but chucks can fly and there was no roof over it. Behind it was a jungle with lovely palms, costus heliconia’s and aspidistra’s but you could hardly find them for the weeds. We took both those fences away and I weeded, and weeded, and weeded. But every day I got a section done and everyday I was keener and keener to see the final result. The front garden was no better than the back. There were at least 20 small native rainforest trees, many syzygiums, ironwoods, a Cassia fistula, then at least 20 grevillea’s and another amount of bottle brushes. The garden was very well designed, paths meandering between sections of borders and small forests, jungle, an area under shadecloth with fragile rainforest plants. There must have been at least 200 trees and 50 shrubs, all those heliconia’s; people must have spent a fortune getting a garden established. There was a concrete path leading to the shed right at the back, where you could drive a car to. There also is a double garage attached to the house, with concrete paving in front of it, and edged with large riverstones and then a fence. These fences are just posts with ringmash.These are the see through fences and we can see the lovely shrubs and palms the neighbours are growing on the other side of the fence. When finally we had things under control we organised for the swimming pool to be build. They came at the end of November and the pool was ready mid December, in time before Xmas. With two shady veranda’s and the pool plus plenty of shady trees and nooks in the garden, we would be well prepared for the hottest summers. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened yet. Summer was mild and wet. The winters are supposed to be fine and dry, but that was not the case in the last few months. We are hoping for warmer weather, well, it has arrived, but I also want to see the sun!
We’ve been here for a year now and the garden is up to scratch. I planted 4 clumping golden cane palms in front ot the pool, to make it more private, Calathea’s under the shadecloth, a Foxtail palm in the front garden instead of terrible prickly bromeliads, and shifted the roses to a sunny spot. We are pleased with the results and it is just a matter of keeping it up now. Mowing lawns, checking sprinklers, watering in the dry, pruning hedges ( of which we have many, and tall ones too ) and cutting off the dead stems and flowers of the heliconia’s, gingers and costus. We have made this place really lovely. It is a surprise to see what flowers next and in the first year there were many surprises. The only thing which is not working too well is the fishpond. But I suppose you can’t have everything! The dogs have a wonderful life, they get walked twice a day. In the evening round the block and in the morning to the river, to the park or to the beach! They get a car ride every day.

More blog posts by Marguerite