Around the Ground

Things came to a bit of a standstill here for a while, and eventually in June (after having our gas booster stolen off our hot water service) we put up fences. We had to end up paying the full costs because council would not pay half for the end of the court as they deemed it frontage, behind us Vic Roads wouldn't pay because apparently it is a road (yet there is no access) and the neighbour didn't respond (for the second time) and has since refused to pay because "we didn't consult him prior to putting it up". I mean seriously, his share was $500 - it's not like we were asking him to pay the full cost like we did (rolls eyes).

So, here is a pic after we put up the fences:

Since then we had a lot of weeds, a bit of mud and not much else... but we had some privacy, although it was still open to the street.

Fast Forward to December and everything is happening. We have decided to fence the backyard (with the help of the parents) and as a result we decided it was best to plan out the backyard before limiting the access.

Saturday December 12th, we hired a post hole digger and set Matty to work...

6 hours and 5 post holes later we had 5 posts set in rapid set concrete to a depth of 600mm.

Saturday December 19th, we had 91m of treated pine edging, 75 hardwood pegs, 3 cubic metres of Lawn Mix soil and 2 cubic metres of Tuscan Rocks (half 20mm, half 40mm) delivered and set to work installing the garden edging.

I had sprayed the ground where the garden beds were to go using the chalk spray, but decided that 600mm wide was too narrow, so we decided on 800mm wide for the backyard around the perimeter. This will allow us to grow shrubs close to the fence and grassy plants in front.

Matt pegged and screwed the boards on. Who knew that driving wooden pegs into the ground would be such a hard job? No matter what poor Matt did, they would twist so he ended up driving a metal stake in, then replacing it with the wooden peg so it was already started a bit - which did help to an extent, but doubled the workload.

Sunday December 20th, back at it again. Lots more shovelling and barrowing soil, but still not finished...

Monday December 21st, and again... I spent most of the day digging out the front garden beds and filling them with the rocks. They were very dusty but after a light sprinkle with some water the true colours came through. Dinner time the boys (Matt and Brian) set to work to finish the last of the edging - all 86m of it.

Tuesday December 22nd - more rocks... scraped some soil out of another garden bed and filled with rocks... which is where we are up to now. The wood has been delivered for the fence this afternoon (240LM).

Plans are to put up the fence Saturday (Boxing Day/long weekend) and finish the garden beds to the front and back of the fence.

Hopefully more to come soon :)