Now that the garden area is a complete blank slate (and in some cases... really seriously blank...), it is time to start making it our own. Of course, these things will take years and seasons to finish... but the best way to get there, is to just start doing things. Some things will be a touch more urgent than others, but as long as things are progressing then we are going to be on the right track!

One of the more pressing issues is to rebuild some of the rock retaining walls down the back. All of these walls needed to be taken down as the excavator needed the space to dig the trenches. However, if we plan to have two seperate levels for a long period of time (especially after rain!), then there will need to be some way to keep the soil back and up on the higher level.

The timber walls remain but might need to be upgraded and renewed anyway... but that can take place at some point in the future!

So, the wall creeps forward a metre or so a day. Those bloody rocks weight quite a bit... and I'm not a big guy, so I'm trying to keep to a manageable amount... or I know that I will hurt myself. Along the bottom layer, I dig a little trench for the largest rocks to get wedged into... and from there, I just try and complete the jigsaw until it looks complete. I'm hoping that that will work... Hopefully, when the ground cover regrows at the top, it will also help hold the soil at the top layer as well.

The back area will still need to have the soil brought back down from the top level to the ground level again. I probably should attend to to this a bit sooner than later... as I don't want it all to wash down in a heavy rain. On the other hand, going down a level will be where I'm planning to put it anyway! In the meantime, I needed to take a few barrow-fulls to the front to fill up a few holes...

Now... back to the front area... we have three of these native plants that are on the street side of the garage... the garage used to be shielded quite heavily by several large fruit trees and a thicket of larger trees and shrubs. However, the pipework needed to go through this area... and we are currently left with a bit of barren patch that will need something to fill it up again.

The plan of my wife and mother-in-law was to put some hedge-like shrubs down that will screen the garage again for privacy. So, these are the three that will be planted there... but it will mean that I will need to remove the existing native ones...

... the plan is to move them to the denuded street corner, to help bolster the top section of the retaining wall... and to give a second layer of screen between the rock wall and the garage screens.

... I have no idea what they are... but they are supposed to also produce some really nice clowers as well!

... fast growing hedges...

Our mother-in-law also gifted us a few starter herbs (two rosemary, two thyme, and one parsley) and two gardenias to start populating our garden beds that will be close to the house. No more large shrubs and trees butting up against the house... just small things. The herbs should form a nice bush patch at the entrance of our patio which will hopefully be a nice smelling entrance to that side. I am hoping that the other side of the stairs will be lavender bushes... but I will have to get that one passed by the girls, but I don't think that there will be much in the way of resistance to that!

So, to the clay problem.... the thing about clay-like soil is that it is tough for plants to get a foothold and the water drainage problem. The soil of Canberra is pretty clay-like... and rocky as well. So, we will need to treat the soil a bit to help break up the clay and improve drainage and the ability of roots to take hold. Funny that roots got us into this pickle, and now we are trying to help them out...

Apparently, the thing to use is gypsum... which will help break up the soil. It is hard to believe, but my in-laws said that they had to do this when they moved into their house so many decades ago. Now, you wouldn't know that the soil had been a problem! So, I'm hoping that the long term outlook will be as successful for our little patch of land!

This will be the garden bed that the herbs will go into... at the moment, most of the soil near the house is decent and fairly rich, but I figured I would just sprinkle a bit of the gypsum just to be sure... and to practice to see how much I would need. So, just a few handfuls per square metre, and then gently mixed in with the pitchfork. Easy enough to do... as I mentioned, the soil here was quite good and probably didn't need the extra help... hopefully, that experiment won't kill the herbs!

However, this is one of the more problematic patches. This bit gets pretty waterlogged when it rains, although, now that the stormwater system is working again, it shouldn't be collecting quite so much water from off the house... so, perhaps over several months, it should dry out a bit. However, it does mean that this area is completely solid... mud and clay, with a crazily thick consistency. Even with the pitchfork, I was finding it hard to break up... so, I ended up leaving most of the gypsum on the surface, and will aim to be breaking this up slowly in batches... perhaps the top will break up sooner, and every day, I can mix it in a little bit more!

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