Some before shots

Looking towards Spring I am in garden bed preparation mode. It's kind of exciting knowing that on return from a forthcoming holiday I can play with plants a bit more after recent weeks of digging, spreading, mulching and shifting rocks.

 

Here we have future herb, lavendar & rose garden along the house:

 

Ready for star jasmine along the pool fence:

A rock garden awaiting some grasses (dianellas & lomandras) plus a couple of kangaroo paw next to the cubby:

An added bonus is everything looks rather neat, tidy & cared for!

Pommes are planted



Having taken care of the rabbits, the apples and pears have finally got themselves planted in the ground at a 45 degree angle and the central leader bent onto the bottom, K, wire of the KNNN espalier.

 

I have planted three rows of 5 trees according to their fruiting time. Ideally the first row will all fruit first, followed by the middle row and then the last. Theoretically, one bird netting will suffice and can just be moved from one row to the next as they all conveniently fruit when requested(!). Sounds so very attractively organised. We'll see.

1st row: Apples - Gravenstein, Early McIntosh & Pears - Williams, Packham's Triumph, Faccia Rosa
2nd row: Apples - Cox's Orange Pippin, Jonathan, Golden Delicious, Snow & Pear - Corella
3rd row: Apples - Tsugaru, Rome Beauty & Pears - Nashi 20th Century, Buerre Bosc, Doyenne Du Comice.

Fighting back

We're taking on our furry friends. One small section of proper, permanent rabbit-proof orchard fence completed:

This trench needs to be backfilled but it gives the idea of how we have buried the nettin about 15cm down and then folded 15cm out to stop those pesky diggers.

One small section of temporary fence also completed:

Hopefully the rabbits don't discover they can probably frosby-flop over the small white section.

15 apple & pear trees can now be safely planted!

A sign of Spring to come

A bud on the quince tree. The most promising sign of life so far from all those sticks I planted  a month back. The simple pleasures of a garden.