Gardening 101

Hello folks! Long time no post, I know.

Unbelievably, we've just hit the 6 month mark of living in the Ogura Mansion (aka "The Palace"). We love living up here so much, and the house has already stood rock solid through two earthquakes, one of which didn't even wake me up!

The garden has been a bit of a challenge. I'm no gardener, but I'm trying to learn. I go to a gardening class once a month, which has been really inspiring and fun. We've also bitten the bullet and have hired our builder to terrace the mound at the front of our house, and build a wooden wall around the parking. The terracing will be part random/part veggie garden when it's done, and the section around the parking will have some small trees planted soon. Here's a couple of pics:

The wooden border around the parking area begins.

Surveying his work...the landscaper.

Recycled wood. This will eventually be painted dark brown.

The back cinder block wall will also be painted soon (by us). Grey is too depressing, no?!

Here are a few pics of what the garden looks like at the moment - we'll compare over the next few weeks!

Stone stairs down to the compost bins.

Looking towards the house.

The wooden wall, two days later.

WKB!

The wall, two days later.

Materials for the terracing arrive. These are stone from England. Looks like wood, but won't rot.

My precious compost bins.

ooops! How did that get in there? Yummy beer...

This umbrella pot broke, so I turned it into a flower pot.

The first thing I ever made in gardening class.

My little garden outside the Japanese room.

Just bought these little pots today - went to my favourite nursery. Dangerous!

These very old Octapus pots will be filled with something soon. Not sure what yet...

This garden has some more growing to do - one more section will be added later.

Cherry tree.

The start of the bulb garden. These are irises I saved from our last place. One day this will be a thick iris garden, and have loads of other things in it too.

As of next week, the mound of weeds behind this pot will be terraced. Yay! In the foreground is a bunch of stuff I have planted, including Australian paper daisies, a cranberry bush and thyme.

Why we need to terrace - uncontrollable soil erosion and weeds.

In the foreground is the momiji I planted at our old place 5 years ago - now it has a permanent home. But the weeds are getting kicked out!

My attempt to stop the hill sliding down in the rain. A temporary solution!

We love our house, but think the first landscaping people were a bunch of useless "&&@IU F . Enough said.

Retro 1970s kitchen flowers? Ha! I love them.

OK, will report back next week and show you new pictures. Until then!