The weather yesterday was warm and sunny. I’d already wasted most of the morning trying to get a stable internet connection so that I could take advantage of my new skype subscription to landlines in Aotearoa; fingers crossed that the new Windows 7 drivers achieve that consistently - so far, so good.
I’ve been mulling over what to do in the garden but indecision is worse than making a mistake so I've decided to experiment. I want to do raised beds for better drainage but lack the materials needed. I do have lots of cardboard boxes however so have filled some of these with claggy clay in the hope that some vertical drainage will occur. I’m hoping that the cardboard will last through the winter but who knows. I have some silverbeet seedlings arriving soon and will try raising some of my own seedlings too – the garage gets nice and warm and could be a good ‘potting shed’.
 |
| Garden from north end |
One of the deer has been grazing between the house and garage (ie vege garden area) so a fence was required. I brought a roll of plastic netting with me and put some to good use at the north end of the garden and then moved the dog kennel to seal off one of the southern ends. I think I’ll put a gate in on the other side of the tank, just in case.
The overflow pipe from the water tank ends by the steps to the garage with a large puddle forming every time it rains. I’m going to extend this down another 10m or so but need to get some flexible pipe; in the meantime I dug a drain yesterday and used a plastic bag to channel the water from the pipe and away from the steps. It rained overnight and it was great to see that it had worked better than nothing at all.
The rest of the afternoon was spent sawing up the branches that I’ve been gathering on my walks. The woodshed is looking better stocked now but I’m not sure if it will last all winter. Next time I walk to the quarry I’ll take my trolley and bowsaw and get some of the bigger branches that were cut down when they trimmed vegetation back from the road last year.
One last photo - kiwi tracks through one of the puddles on my drive.
Have a great week...
