While I sit here, very impatiently, waiting for my internet connection to get hooked up (sometime late this afternoon apparently), I'm very seriously considering giving the gardening a go.

I am not a gardener. I tend to kill plants ~ something about them needing water?

But I think in this case I should be ok because I'm not trying to grow anything, I'm actually hacking away at things so we can begin our veggie garden.

Our Garden

One of our goals is to become self sustainable. Just in case shit hits the fan we want to be able to live at our house off our land, with everything we need.

Obviously we would need solar and water tanks, but to be totally self sufficient we need to grow our own food.

Our land is just a little over 1000sqm, roughly a quarter of an acre. We have a deep front yard, and a half flat, half sloping back yard.

Having a decent land size was always on top of our priority list for this purpose but with Blue Mountains properties if you want flat land, most times you won't have a view.

To have found this land with it's half flat, half sloping backyard and great views (in our price range), was a miracle.

Here is the flat side of the backyard.

Here is the sloping side.

As you can see from both photos, it's gone wild.

Whatever that climbing plant is, it's taken over that whole side.

From a distance it all looks fine. It's green, therefore alive, and there seems to be flowers there somewhere and those are pretty.. But if you look closely, you'd see it for the total schmozzle that it is.

The Vision

The vision is to clear all the plants along the retaining wall and use that as our veggie garden section.

With the fence already up, it could come in handy if we find we need to enclose that space to prevent animals from eating our crops.

Over on the slope side are where the fruiting trees will go so when they grow tall, I can stand on the hill and pick my fruit.

We'll also be leaving a space between the deck and the veggie garden to allow for stairs when we re-do the landscaping.

Yesterday's hack job

After it cooled down a bit yesterday I decided I couldn't take the mess anymore and hacked away at the bush and found we had Rosemary and Roses.

Still don't know what that bloody climber is, but I still hate it.

I also began clearing the slope side.

See how much neater it is?

This isn't just so it's nice and neat. It's actually because I found the plant was intertwined with the fence and I couldn't just pull it all out. I had to cut it all in segments and then pull, then cut some more.

Here's a closer look at yesterday's work.

Rosemary is free! And the sad plant you see next to it is Lavender, and beside that, a hidden Rose bush.

Further along, you'll see how much more hacking I need to do.

Imagine what it will look like without the dead tree in the back ground and all that growth.

I think it will be like a bigger viewing deck but with grass. There's some gorgeous views from the backyard, it'd be amazing to have an infinity pool here somewhere.

Our Plants.

Next door told us we had an Apple and a Plum tree (still haven't found these!) at the front yard,Hubby also reckons we have Passionfruit in the front yard.

In the backyard we have another fruit tree we can't identify, the Rosemary and Lavender, and these!

We also have our 6 year old Calamansi tree (Filipino Lemon), it's the one in the barrel pot and we bought this from Bunnings the other day.

Isn't it glorious?

It is 30 degrees over here at the moment and with the Sun right above me, I think I'll wait a couple of hours before I get stuck into the gardening.

Also... We have our final inspection for the old house this afternoon.... Please wish us luck.

Happy Tuesday!

💗 Arly