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Hubby and I have decided that we've turned into retirees. We bought a
house where the previous owners were really into gardening. I don't
want the gardens to turn to shit - they've spent a lot of time,
effort and money on these lovely garden beds - so I'm trying to learn
all about how to take care of all these plants.
Oh - I watched Gardening Australia for the first time (normally I
change channels whenever I hear Peter Cundall's voice and now I have a
total crush on him (yeah, I know, he's like 80 years, and I really
need to get out more!)
We spent a great deal of the previous two weekends browsing around
garden centres. We've also been having arguments about what to plant
in the front garden (it was full of gardenias which didn't like the
sandy soil and weren't thriving at all so I replanted them lower in
the garden and some of them are flowering! So now there's loads of
bare space at the very front.)
I've been reading up about native plants and Hubby's been getting all
frustrated because he's a "do it now" person, whereas I'm a "we're
totally broke at the moment due to buying this house, besides, what's
so bad about doing things gradually?" type of person.
The house is in pretty good condition, but of course there's things to
do! There will always be things to do.
I have ideas in my head of what I want to do with the place. It's a 50
year old weatherboard cottage. I want to respect the type of house
that it is - I am not into trendy renovations - it's a homely, pretty
place. Very cosy, complete with fireplace (I know, not the most useful
thing in Sydney, but it looks nice!) My favourite thing is having
dinner on the back balcony - there's so much sky as we're looking down
a hill and have district views. I never noticed the sky so much at
sunset - it's lovely.
Anyway, I think there's way too many renovation disasters in Sydney,
so I don't want to rush into anything. I have no respect for people
who built those horrid "McMansion" project homes (new and big is not
better!) taking up all available land, and it's such a shame when
people try to update old properties by being all trendy and end up
with something that just looks dated within 10 years. (We were at
Narrabeen yesterday, and were walking past waterfront properties. The
nicest ones seemed to be older houses that had been tastefully
renovated. But there were way too many rendered new ones with glass
and metal and I dunno, this real "90s" look about them. Not that nice.
The cosy beachhouses were so much lovelier.)
So eventually, I'd like to:
a. Polish the tiles in the front porch.
b. Re-paint the window-sills, frames and eaves.
c. Replace the fence with a white picket fence like a lot of the other
original cottages in the area (they tried to do something trendy with
stone brick things and it doesn't work).
d. Plant lavender, rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano in the front,
plus a few native shrubs (the rainbow lorikeets love the honey gem
grevillea in the backyard - I'd love to attract more of them into the
garden.)
e. Put down white tiles on the floor in the main bathroom to replace
the peach-coloured monstrosities (eeek!), replace the vanity, paint
the upper walls white, and replace the shower curtain with a proper
glass screen.
f. Polish the floorboards, re-seal the slate floors.
g. Seal and polish the wood on the balcony.
h. Build decking around the pool (there's a great deal of land around
the back of the pool that's not being used) and add glass fencing.
i. Name the cottage. We have a few ideas, but like our babyname ideas,
we're not giving anything away!
To me, this is a 2-5 year plan. Not an instant thing.
Unless we win the lottery.
Actually, that'll be good - I wanna win the lottery and have no mortgage!
Then I can spend all my time gardening and cooking and going to
interesting adult education courses on pottery and film and will just
have this part-time job that I do just out of interest and not because
I *have* to work. What bliss.
Why is living in Sydney so expensive?!
5 comments:
I've totally got a crush on Peter Cundall as well. If you've got to watch gardening shows, that's the way to go.
Why on earth do people decorate with peach, it's such an offensive colour!
Owning a home just does that to you. I was much more into flowers and how the yard looked when we first bought our house than how I am now that I am working on my PhD. I hope it will get better when I have only one job someday...
I watched an episode of The Simpsons last night with a joke that you'll totally appreciate. The family was at "Wordloaf" (spoof on Breadloaf), and it showed these man feeding ducks breadcrumbs in the park. When he threw them out, all of the sudden, this group of people came charging out and chased the ducks away. Then, they began crawling on the ground, picking up the breadcrumbs and eating them voraciously. Then, this older man ran out and chased them away, much like they did with the ducks, as he shouted, "Grad students! Grad students! You are not allowed to eat anything until you grade at least 4000 papers!"
As I sat entering data into SPSS for a paper survey (that I could have EASILY made electronic) with over 70 variables, taken by over 60 people... one that had NOTHING to do with my research, I thought, "Yep, that's about right."
Ha! Too funny... I swear I'm inhabiting a parallel universe to you.
The sweet old dears we bought this house off (2 years ago) had fully nannerized the back yard... garden beds, concrete turtles, gnomes, roses... the whole deal. It was impossible to manage and became an utter mess... so we suddenly had to get up to speed on the whole gardening caper. Anyway, last month... bulldozed it! Started from scratch, used heaps of recycled material, done on a mega budget... and finally more "us".
Been doing the nursery bit too, also sticking in cheap Aussie natives to attract the honey eaters and wattle birds. Emperor's Torch is a good one ( not too expensive, big red flowers ), also your Gravillia should do the trick!
As for Big Pete Cundall, he's a ledgend! I used to think he was a bit of an old coot, then I saw him interviewed. The dude is a goddam WW2 flying ace. Crashed his Spitfire behind enemy lines and lived.
He's definately on the "ultimate dinner party" list!! ;)
First home improvement, then gardening...next thing you know you'll be shaking your cane at passing kids telling them to stay the hell off your lawn!
That's the progression. Knowing the warning signs is a good thing.
I can't wait to have a garden of my own so I can kill off some more plants :) Seriously, plants in the last few years have just died left and right on me. I don't know why. I'm The Grim Reaper of Plants. It didn't used to be this way when I had a house with a little herb garden I tended. It just happened since I moved into the apartment and tried to grow things on my porch.
As far as home improvement goes, I can't have a house that needs much work when I buy it unless I can totally afford to hire other people to do the work. I'm not so good with my hands (unless it's cooking), and I don't know what I'm doing with home improvement tasks. I considered it a big deal when I changed out my switchplates to new and pretty ones in the old house ;)
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