When we bought Casa de Chaos, there was a hideous above ground pool in the back corner. I was all set to tear it down before we even moved in however with the heat in this part of the country it proved to be, well,
the place to
be. We enjoyed cooling swims before school, after school, while the kids where at school, at night & all weekend. But after about 2 years we realised the pool was hideous because it was
old, & falling apart. The side supports had rusted through completely, & it was only staying up with the force of the water. It was a funniest home video waiting to happen. So down it came. Everyone cried, but I had
plans for this site.
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Good boat storage area. Can you see the man over the back fence? He was dancing, & singing
'Smooth Criminal' at the top of his voice. Very entertaining. |
Well, my first set of plans involved a proper in ground pool, until we realised that the neighbourhood sewage lines went under this ground. No digging! The corner sat empty for about 6 months, which is a long time for 2 small boys to play in rubble. I started calling this part of the yard 'Little Kosovo'. Many injuries can be had by throwing stones at each other.
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| 'Super' heros as in Supervisers. No actual work from these two.. |
Eventually, we bought 2 large lots of second hand bricks off ebay. One lot was about 8 trailer loads of back & forth across the city, during which time it became dark & the axel broke on our wheel barrow. Ahh, good times! The other lot was 1 load because we hired a very large trailer, but this added considerably to the cost.
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Teenage Daughter gets into it, while Mr BC negotiates union wages with the supervisors.
There was eventually a stop work situation, but no scabs, & no picket lines thank heavens. |
After unloading the bricks at the front of the house, they had to be relocated to the back of the house. Teamwork prevailed.
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| This attractive pile of bricks was a lovely garden feature for the longest time. |
Aaaaand,, there they sat for a few months. Every day I willed them to turn themselves into a raised garden bed but they stubbornly refused until someone helped them. Needy bastards!
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| Eventually construction started, & continued at a cracking pace. Do you like that new wheel barrow? |
Once Mr BC started, there was no stopping him & he became a bricklaying freak. With a mission. It took a few weeks to get to this stage, with each layer of brick taking about 6 hours. He layed bricks before & after work, & all weekend. What a legend!
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| The main bed & fireplace are finished, & work starts on the small corner bed. |
I had this vision of sitting in the courtyard of raised vege gardens, on a crisp autumn night in front of a fireplace, sipping red wine, snuggled up in a blanket. Mr BC was not happy to hear that he was expected to build a fireplace, but after some internet research we came up with a workable plan. It's not a
proper fireplace, but it is only there to have a small decorative fire, not to roast a beast. The chimney keeps the smoke out of your eyes but there isn't a flue - it is outdoors after all. We continued our ideal of only using second hand materials by using some old slate tiles for the hearth, & a heavy beam of hardwood for the mantle. I have been carting those tiles around the country for several years so it was really good to finally put them to good use! The hardwood mantle came from an old built in bar that we, um dis-
mantled.
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| Hmmm, that fireplace doesn't look finished at all. Mr BC starts to fill the beds in. |
We had decided to use the
layer method of gardening, which we had done before. This means the 'soil' is actually a large lasagna of straw, manure & compost. This method of gardening can be successful in containers or on concrete, so we thought it would be ideal for a raised garden. Also, it would be lighter that straight soil, which would mean less pressure on the brick structure & possibly the pipes underground. We used leftover rubble to fill the beds about a quarter of the way up; we were lucky enough to get as much free manure as we wanted from the local paceway stables, we used a combination of mainly home made & some bought compost, & bales of hay from the feed store. Wow! Free manure!!
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| The fireplace is almost finished, & the beds are ready to be planted. |
We wanted to get planting straight away, so went off to buy seedlings before all of the beds where ready to go. We made the usual mistake of over planting the first crop, but who cares? We got some great tasting organic veges, & we learned alot along the way.
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| About 6 weeks after planting the seedlings. This section has mixed beetroot, purple carrot, mixed lettuce, chinese greens & a volunteer zucchini, which was eventually sent packing. |
What still needs to be done? The fireplace hasn't been 'ragged' like the rest of the brickwork; & the ground hasn't been done at all - this place is horrible to walk in without shoes! Mr BC would like large concrete pavers with mondo grass in between, & frankly I am passed caring - I just want a smooth surface to walk on!
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| The corn field. Have you seen the movie 'Children of the Corn'? MEGA scary. |
When the paving is finished I would like some sort of day bed/ large outdoor sofa arrangement in front of that fire, however the table is a nice place to read the paper & have a coffee. It also comes in handy for potting or planting seedlings, but it is old & perilous with splinters.
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| L-R demon zucchini totally smothering rainbow chard, 4 different cucumbers, yellow beans, snow peas & that damn scary corn. |
That ugly brown fence has not been painted because hopefully it will soon be replaced with a tall, solid, colourbond fence. So we won't be able to see
Cape Fear at all. Yay!! In the meantime we are growing tall crops like the corn, or things that need staking, like the beans, to try & hide him. It works, sort of, but you can still
hear him.
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These 4 tomato plants quickly joined forces to become a triffid. Also in this bed;
capsicum, jalapeno chillies, parsley, chives & lemon grass. |
This tomato triffid has now grown to the top of the stairs, & is growing tomatos just outside the back door on the second floor, despite being so heavily pruned after the rains that it has hardly any foliage left. The lemon grass is huge, soon I will harvest it to make some sort of
Van Van Vodka.
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| Mr BC, still working his magic on the supervisors with a plate of chips. |
Those dead leaves are from the zucchini, which grew so big it blanketed everything yet failed to produce many fruit at all. Shame. I think the rains stopped a lot of pollination. We have had a lot of zucchini popping up throught the garden & it is the same every time - grows so big it smothers the other plants yet doesn't fruit much, & when it does, the fruit fall off when they are still small. Bloody rain!
So, what do you think? We are really happy with this little corner now. It is a lovely place to be, & it's also great to be able to grow & eat your own organic vegetables. We are able to harvest at least a small handful of greens for dinner most nights, & the boys get really excited about eating veges 'from our garden'. Actually, we all do! I've been able to give away some produce here & there, & everyone who walks through helps themselves to a bean or snow pea off the vine. Delightful.
Next time I will have some more recent photos togethor with a breakdown of what we planted, what worked & what didn't.
Mrs BC
xx
