I hope you are all well and have had a good weekend. I had a busy weekend and am happy to report that I have finally conquered the 2 worst areas in my home for clutter - my garden and my garage!
My garden...well...its meh. After years of trying to like gardening and trying to learn more about how to garden and grow things, I have decided to accept that I just.don't.like.it. Not sure why - you'd think that with my love of outdoors, gardening would be something I'd easily take to.
But nah. So my garden gets overgrown, messy and weedy regularly. And when things become messy...that's when the clutterbug makes its nest (well, it does in my case anyway). Mess always seems to breed more mess.
So I happen to mention in passing to my neighbours that I am having trouble keeping my garden under control and wished that I had a low maintenance garden. I had 2 particular type of plants in my garden that are high maintenance (a very thorny hedge made out of miniature carpet roses and 2 trees that have poisonous berries, which I can't remember the name of) . These plants are just outside my fence line. I mentioned to them that I am saving up to get a gardener to get rid of these plants.
Then yesterday morning, I woke up and lo and behold my high maintenance plants were GONE! The garden fairies (aka my neighbours) had cut down the trees and hedge for me while I worked late on Friday night! How cool was that?!!
Their act inspired me to then clean up the rest of my garden. I trimmed all the plants right back, got rid of other (much smaller) high maintenance plants and ripped up the weeds. My garden fairies helped me finish the job of cleaning up and generally decluttering my garden.
Then I borrowed my dad's van (thank you Mum! I promise I won't tell Dad - lol) and took all the garden waste to the green tip. I ended up going there 3 times because I figured I might as well take the garden waste of my neighbours as well.
Funny thing about cleaning up what had seemed like a HUGE job, it also inspires me to clean up more. Just as how mess breeds mess, in my case, neatness breeds decluttering.
So I decided to tackle the other place where the clutterbug has made its nest....my garage. Long term readers of this blog would remember my rant over the state of this house when I moved in. You will note in that (November 2010) post how I said
My house is now clean and the inside is unpacked and organised. (Just the garage to unpack and organise!)Um...well...the garage kinda got unpacked but never organised. And once it got messy (due to unpacked but also unorganised state)...well it got even messier. Until one day it just looked like a messier version than this:
The state of my garage at 9am this morning - note that I had already started clearing this out at 8am!
Yep, I had just enough space to put my car in. Ugh. But by tackling it bit by bit, this is my garage now!
My garage by 5pm today
I ended up taking not-quite a van load to the hard rubbish tip. Amazing how much I have collected in the garage in 1 year!
So here I am now, relaxing and feeling wonderful that I finally conquered the two clutterbug nests in my house! I'm also feeling especially grateful that I have such great neighbours
P.S. I would've take pics of the garden too but currently its boring and empty. Once I've found low maintenance plants (your advice most welcome!) to stick in there, I'll take pics and post here!
I wish you all a good week ahead.
4 comments:
horrah!
and lucky you for having such lovely neighbours : o )
If you're looking for low maintenance (or no maintenance) plants for Canberra, you can't go past: agapanthus (for year-round greenery, tough-as-old-boots-ness and summer flowers); violets and alyssum (same reasons); rosemary (prostrate form is great) and sage for good foliage, pretty flowers and culinary use. Easy peasy!
Oh dear, I fear you've only made your garden problem worse. As overgrown as those 2 poisonous trees and rambling rose bush were, they also created competition against weeds. Now they've been taken away, your weeds will spring up, causing more woes than the original plants did.
Weeds grow faster than an unpruned established tree or shrub. Next you'll be wishing for the Round-up fairy to pay a visit. ;)
Forget the fact you don't like gardening. You've just learned to garden the hardest way ever, and that's for you or some other human to make everything tidy. When a garden has enough plant competition, nature will keep the growth in check for you.
I suspect most of your garden is severely underplanted. It's not that low maintenence plants take away the maintenence chore, in fact, they probably demand more tidiness, because they'll stand alone. Any weed that pops up, will be immediately noticed.
What you need is a lot of plants and you need to accept that gardens need clutter to establish their natural balance. If you have issues with clutter, that is probably because you're use to pavement and garden parks your city council keeps perfectly manicured. That's not a garden. That's an abomination to ecological lifeforms. It serves only humans.
It's possible the rambling rose was a nesting site for many smaller birds to raise their young. It protects them from the butcher birds which are very common in suburbia. Those little birds will eat your pests, and collect dead grass, cob webs and branches around the house, to make their nests with.
The more "natural" your garden is, and I mean according to nature not City Council green deadscapes, the less work you'll have to do.
I recommend reading Jackie Frenches, "Wilderness Garden". You will find a copy at your local library. I thought it had a lot of good throughts about suburban gardens, and how they can be productive without too much interference.
I won't lie to you though, the initial work won't be fun, but afterwards your garden will look after you, not the other way around. If you're after a low maintenance kind of plant though, you cannot go past your indigenous local species.
Native plants, in other words, and plant lots of them. They create their own competition, retarding their own growth and ensuring weeds won't get a foothold.
These sites all relate to Canberra gardens:
http://www.aila.org.au/canberragarden/creating/inspiration.htm
http://www.aila.org.au/canberragarden/plants/intro.htm
http://nativeplants-canberra.asn.au/
http://canberrabirds.org.au/AttractingBirdsGarden.htm
There is some great information specific for Canberra. I actually believe every suburban garden should involve "less" work. I'm sure in your job in Canberra, information is the key to any kind of success. Well you may not be a born gardener, but information will lead to your eventual success.
You shouldn't have to live in a yard that's under planted or dependent on you to deliver all the water. If you read the book I recommend, it demonstrates how lots of plants create their own moisture and makes the most of mizzle - which is described as a cross between mist and drizzle.
By the way, this isn't a criticism of wanting to declutter your home. I think it makes sense for all our man-made stuff to be organised. We have to control that environment because "stuff" can't organise itself. But "nature", that's a different story. It's been looking after itself (and every living thing) for millions of years. ;)
^
I'd prefer weeds over poisonous trees though?
Anyway to the OP, great neighbours you have there!
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