The Backyard (Front yard)

We have a block of land behind other houses (battle axe block) so when we built our house we put it as far to back of the block as possible.  This was to give us more room at the front and move our house further away from our neighbours.  In 2010 we built and extension and this further reduced our usable land.  This was great in a couple of respects :- it reduced the amount of lawn to mow (hubby thinks this should always be my job) and allowed us to travel more freely as there is less garden to maintain.  One downfall has been the lack of space for a vegetable garden.  I have tried raised bed against a western facing fence (too hot) and pots (have to remember to water those apparently).  Yesterday I decided that I'd had enough and out came the clippers and shovel.

I thought I could plant some vegetables amongst the existing plans if I just gave them a slight prune.  After sitting back and looking at this result I decided it still wasn't enough so out came the plants.  I was able to throw the rooted part of the plant into my bin for collection and all of the clippings got run over by the mower.  This gave me a wheelbarrow full of mulch that got spread on the garden along the driveway, reducing our amount of waste!  It did take me a good 20 minutes of continuously going over the clippings with the mower before I was happy.

Then it was off to my local nursery for some seedlings.  I wanted to plant, zucchini, cabbage, lettuce and some beans or peas.  I managed to pick up all of these and then bought them home for planting.  I also wanted to put in some English spinach, bok choy and beetroot - I had seed for these, therefore making it cheaper. 

This is my teeny tiny garden!

The next garden project we want to undertake is to remove some of the overgrown shrubs from along the drive and plant some fruit trees!  It would be so exciting to be able to grow our own fruit.  I am thinking mainly citrus at the moment, along the likes of lemon, orange and maybe even a kumquat.  We'll see how we go.

I also have some potatoes that are sprouting so I am going to have at planting them.  I have done this once before and forgot about them but when I dug over the garden I was given a nice surprise.  I have nothing to loose so might as well try it!

As mentioned in my last post I thought I would show some pictures of some bags I have been making.
These are both my designs that I have adapted each time I have made them.


This one was made for my daughter for Uni.




A large quilted bag with purple flower made as an order.

I have decided that making bags is something I really enjoy.  Over the years most of my friends have received bags as gifts for their birthdays or Christmas.  I have a few more ideas in the pipeline for some more patterns as I enjoy the challenge of designing them also.

The wet weather over the weekend might mean more time in the sewing room and making more bags!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend where ever you are.

Take care

Andrea
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