December 17, 2011

Garden Update aka All You Need Is A JCB.

Quick warning - my garden posts usually consist of photos of flowers, Farmgirl in cute outfits and lovely verandahs.  This one has a slightly different theme.

We have started to work on our Farmhouse garden.  Various events have occurred to our headers (just the usual breakdowns, fires and other stuff we won't talk about because it is all a bit depressing) which have meant that they have not all been fully operational.  This has left us with several tractor drivers hanging around while we worked on the header situation, which I am calling "headergate".  So The Farmer put them to work on our garden.  Complete with a mini JCB front-end loader thingy.

Look.

JCB Telehandler Reducing Unwanted Garden Structures To Rubble

After an incident with a tree falling over in what wasn't even a stiff breeze and narrowly missing a vehicle, we also got the boys onto a bit of tree removal.  This has resulted in a lovely pile of trees at the edge of the house paddock which will need burning or cutting up for firewood. This won't happen until well into autumn.  Tree loving people please relax, we only took the trees that were about to go anyway, planted too close together or way too close to our house.  To be honest there are still so many trees surrounding the house you can hardly notice the missing ones.

Trees


A skip was required for lots of the extra stuff that we couldn't do much with.  This is the third skip we have had.  We take cleaning up very seriously here on The Farm!

Now That's An Exciting Photo...

Although these changes don't look super exiting I am very excited.  The next step is reticulation and then I can start planting next year.  Every thing we do is a step toward restoring this lovely old garden to its former glory.  And then my photos will be all pretty again.

Oh, I almost forgot.  We have had one more addition to our garden.  My parents have just moved house and couldn't take their twenty year old outdoor setting.  I grabbed it.  The outdoor/verandah/patio area on The Farm needs some work but this won't happen for a while.  I don't want to get a new outdoor setting until I know exactly what the outdoor area will look like and what will suit.  In the meantime Mum and Dad's wonderful old setting is doing a brilliant job.

New Old Outdoor Setting

It's a wonderful place to sit and have a glass of wine while thinking about the big issues in life. Like why our very expensive, brand new headers keep breaking down....

Diversionary Activities

Take care everyone.  Enjoy your weekend.  Try not to get too caught up in the pre-Christmas madness....

12 comments:

Jo @ Country Life Experiment said...

Love the farm way to garden. My Father in law loves his tractor so much, he tries to do everything with it! He keeps trying to get us to pull out trees to make it easier to get the tractor into our yard!!

Domesblissity said...

So how do you manage to have such smooth, hair free legs Farmer's Wife? That's what I want to know! LOL

Anne xx

Bungalowgirl said...

Nothing like a good dose of heavy machinery to distract me from the fact that I have not yet started my xmas shopping. BTW is your little man watching Megabuilders on ABC at 7.30 pm WED and Thurs nights? It is fab and last week they had the biggest shovel/digger thingy in the entire world- boy heaven! melx

A Farmer's Wife said...

Jo - There's a lot to be said for having a tractor accessible yard...

Anne - Laughed at your comment. I am a big believer in not letting yourself go just cos you live on a farm! Plus I garden in long pants and boots due to the snake risk!!

Bungalowgirl - Thanks for your comment. Haven't watched Megabuilders - Farmboy is normally conked out by then as he wakes up ridiculously early.

Pauline said...

Love the way farmers attack gardening. I asked my son to dig me a hole and he turned up with the post hole digger. All I wanted was to plant a little tree. I'll never again ask me to help with the pruning after I had to stand in his path as he approached with the chain saw. Hope your machinery problems are now over!

Fiona said...

Sorry to hear of your header issues, I'm sure it's a frustrating time for you. Hope it doesn't mean working Christmas Day.

A Farmer's Wife said...

Pauline - I'm not even going to show photos of the "pruning" that has been done...

Fiona - We won't work Christmas Day but will have to get going again straight after. We had planned to join my family on the south coast for Christmas for the first time in many years however we have had to can that plan. I will fly down to them with the kids on Boxing Day for a few days and The Farmer will keep working. At least we will have Christmas Day together though without farmwork. I will also cook lunch for the staff that are remaining on The Farm for Christmas (there is only three of them and I couldn't bear them trying to be festive in the quarters!)

Mummaducka said...

I'm loooving those diversionary activities. My hubby like his gardening with a bucket on the tractor!!
WE too have many stragglers invited to christmas lunch. I can't bear the thought of people being alone and not involved in a family dinner somewhere. We usually have so much food that a few extra souls makes very little difference and makes for a more interesting fun party.

Donna said...

I feel for you with the harvest delays - we didn't finish until 9th of January last year so I know where you're coming from. At least you can put your workers to some good use in the down time! Don't you love heavy machinery to do the work for you!

Renee said...

Oh I love your style of gardening! I can't wait to see the end results.

I have recently stumbled across your blog. Refreshingly lovely and normal! Love it.

Mummaducka said...

We've had mooore rain here overnight!
I have given you the Liebster award today, I hope you haven't already received it! Cheers, j

Maxabella said...

Now THAT'S a garden! And a bloody nice pedicure too. x