Fellow Food Garden at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens (RTBG) volunteer K has been working hard to develop a new garden area at her house.

She sent me information attached to a few pictures of her planned front annual bed which progressed a few weeks ago. In the absence of a ‘before photo’, here are a couple of old ones that give a birdseye view from last year with the viburnum still standing.

‘Front yard birdseye. The top of pic is pretty much North for reference.’

‘Front yard birds eye – red lines show rough boundaries, yellow dotted line is the space I’m converting to annual beds, finally.’

Last year looking towards the Peter Rabbit garden from lower down driveway – Viburnum and mirror bush still standing at top of driveway.

At the time of sending these photos, K told me, ‘This week Viburnum comes down. I already removed mirror bush a few months ago and tried to plant potatoes to deter the runner grass coming back into the bed  – but they were eaten down by the wildlife’.

‘Contemplating the stump removal from the top of the driveway.’

‘Stump and border rocks removed and  “in between” garden cleared. Cleared runner grass and oxalis bulbs (as much as possible)  from top section today and top bed frame installed. No pic yet. Hoping to have the second bed in place and soil combed for offending grass and bulbs by end of weekend. Irrigation and fencing will follow.’

‘Phase two will deal with realigning and extending the Peter Rabbit bed to follow the lines of the new beds and to make better use of lawn space adjacent to driveway. Stay tuned!’
A day or so later K let me know, ‘We have the frames of two almost finished but need a couple more posts to brace before I can finish filling. Frustrating! I went to the Tip Shop’s yard where I was the only person there besides a staff member and found some old timber pieces there that should do the trick. It felt both essential and non-essential at the same time but definitely 100 times safer than a trip to a supermarket! ‘

Even the smallest garden patch takes a lot of work and planning and then more work.  Our gardens are always a work in progress so I look forward to seeing future developments at K’s house.  Thanks K for this story.