In the beginning was the mess

Sixty years of accumulating engineering equipment, truck parts, car parts, steel, hoses, bolts, nuts, tools, wire, chain, timber; in fact anything that could be even slightly useful at some time in the future requires a bit of space. A quarter acre isn't really big enough for a dedicated magpie. By definition, that sort of collecting generates a bit of mess and weeds and a generally overgrown environment.

This is what happens when one woman, after 10 odd years gets sick of looking at her old man's junk out of every window and, with a lot of help with the heavy stuff in the early stages, sunburn, lots of pills and a burning desire to fix it if it kills me, does something about it.

These pictures span approximately from November 2007 to October 2008.

PART 1:

In mid 2007, I was getting sick of looking at junk vehicles, weeds, rubbish, paraphernalia and privet trees. The harder one looked, the worse it got. Something had to change; Project Eden was born.

This is where it all started...


The front lawn

The cars


The van, last junker off the property. The back axle was seized - it had to be dragged up onto the truck.


A lovely example of a once water-lily trough, overhung by privet, honeysuckle, convolvulus and bidibidi, only visible after the van was moved



and a carport you wouldn't park under even if you could fit


Dealing with the backyard grass and the decrepit carport





The front lawn where the van had been in the early stages of resuscitation (note the low trough buried in the ground in the centre of the pic, one of two we dug out. One now lives next to the water bore).



The side "lawn", dumping ground and burn-off site - note the lovely garage doors leaning against the plum tree and the particularly fine Woolly Nightshade specimen at right rear



The arbor with 20 year old grapevine in residence

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PART TWO

With ground level established and boundaries retrieved from beneath the choking convolvulus vines and fig trees, it was time to really kick ass







One of the two troughs dug out from underground. This one was a bit broken up so we tied it to the fence while I decided what to do with it


After a few months of sustained attention, we got to this


and sorted out the reserve fenceline



and cleared back beyond the nightshade, gaining a few extra metres of usable space




We built a new arbor





I painted the yucky corrugated iron fence



We cobbled a pathway



and I cobbled the corner meditating seating area



(the grape crop was a ripper)



cleared the plum tree



and decorated the area around the clump of giant bamboo


then I needed a big cuppa

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PART THREE

Nearly a year on, it looks like this




















Part Four - Late 2009

More vege and flowers







My favourite place on a nice day






And the arbor extension - The 'Cabana/Bahama Hut' that Steroids Built.