Patra's Other Place

I started out with Patra's Place, primarily dedicated to my linen collection and stitching projects. But I kept getting side-tracked, so I decided to create Patra's Other Place for anything not related to embroidery topics. So you now have a choice. If you are interested in me, read this. If you only want to see my linen and stitching, visit Patra's (original) Place! (Please note that by clicking on any of the photos, they will be enlarged to fill your computer screen.)

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Location: Melbourne, Vic., Australia

I was married to Ken for 43 years, but he died in October 2022. So I am now alone with two cats, eight hens, and a few finches and parrots in one aviary.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Latest photos of the front yard upgrade.

Today I went to the Quilt and Craft Fair with my friend Connie, and she asked how our landscaping was going.  I said "Did I tell you about that?" and she said no, she saw it on my blog.  So I promised I would post some more photos to show what Tony has been doing.  I got home from the Fair to find he had been very busy, finished the brick steps, and moving rocks around to hold the soil on the slope up to the wall.  He has pretty much finished that area and all that has to be done now is plant it out.
 There will be areas of gravel and grass around the circular bricks, and plants near the walls.

The  area where the wheelbarrow is at the moment will be gravel, as Ken wanted somewhere to park a car if need be, it will also give us room to manouvre cars in and out of the garage instead of backing down the driveway which can be perilous at times when there is more traffic up and down our street.  The areas on either side of that will be mulched and planted out.

Saturday, July 04, 2015

Front yard upgrade.

When we first bought our house it was only six years old and the gardens back and front had been nicely landscaped.  But as time went on, plants died, things became untidy, and Ken did quite a bit of work himself, putting retaining walls in and moving rocks around.  Then we got a professional landscaper to redo the front completely and it looked great for about 10 years or so.   Again, it started looking untidy, but by then Ken wasn't up to digging it all up and starting again, so we had a few gardeners come and go, doing bits here and there.

When we had our back yard fixed up (again!) last year, the man who did that job (Tony) said he would like to have a go at the front yard one day.  He turned up on the doorstep last month and said  "I'm back!"
He and an offsider have been hard at work ever since, and Ken and I think it is going to look very good indeed by the time they are finished.  The photo below was taken last year, and you can see the rocks along the side of the driveway.  At the footpath end, they have been a nuisance when people are backing their cars down the drive, as they are hard to see, and I hate to think how many cars (including ours) have scraped against those rocks over the years.

Tony hired a back hoe and reefed all the rocks out and repositioned them further away from the side of the driveway.  He used pavers (recycled from the stack in the back yard) to pave the area where the rocks were, and while it is obvious where the concrete drive and the pavers meet, it has made it so much easier to drive in and out.  He will be tidying that area up later on with a few small plants and rocks to hide the edges.

The photo below shows the steps up to our front door.  There are also some steps up to the back gate, which are very rarely used, as if we go to the back yard we always use the path on the other side of the house.  So these steps have been neglected over the years, and were starting to fall apart and become dangerous to walk on.




Tony has removed all the old steps as well as the agapanthus and all the plants that were there except the mature flowering gum and Hibiscus.
The little path at the bottom of this photo has gone too.  Ken put that in about 30 years ago, and we were a bit sad to see it go, but Tony has grandiose plans for the yard and said it wouldn't look right with the new landscaping.  He is going to build steps to the gate with bricks, and have a circular brick area at the foot of the steps.   A retaining wall will be build with the bluestone rocks he pulled out from elsewhere. I am very pleased that he is big on recycling what has been used before elsewhere!
Here he is placing the first level of bluestone rocks, before they finished up for the day.

The magpies thought it was wonderful when they dug up the whole yard and disturbed all those worms!  Enough to feed the magpie family for a few weeks!
My bloggy friend in Scotland will be shocked to know that all the geraniums have been pulled out and taken to the tip.  Sorry Pam!  I know how you admired those big bushes, but they had got very woody and untidy despite my regular pruning, so they had to go.  I picked a few bits off and planted them in the back yard, so it won't take long before they shoot up and start flowering again.

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