Marshalls Walkabout: The first steps to creating a garden

The first steps to creating our dream garden is to sort out the land which was overgrown with scrub and sapling trees, as well as several mature trees, a couple of which were causing us some concerns. We also had to find someone who could fence it and build in a couple of gates, so that we could secure the block.

A first thing first was to find someone with a slasher to slash the block. The initial guy we found did our first cut which was hard work as the scrub in places was up passed our knees. It was at this point we found out that our new neighbours also had a tractor with a slasher, and he would be our future man. With the scrub cut, and the sapling slashed, I decided to build some compost bins to house all this lovely waste. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

It was also around this time that I took ownership of my trusty workhorse, my new beaut ute (Rov), all new and shiny like a new pin. This proved just the ticket as I trawled St George for old pallets (especially the tip), with which to build my compost bins, not just one bin, but a whole raft of bins. At this point I am as happy as the proverbial pig in $#*@! Happy Days!

Sandy, mean time kept himself busy developing a presentation he was to give to Rotary about his aviation days, both in the military and also in the civvy world. The presentation proved to be a great success, with a good turn out from Rotary, and plenty of questions asked. Sandy spoke with confidence and humour, and kept the pace moving along, there was not one closed eye in the audience, nor a yawn to be heard! I just went for the free feed....oh yes and for moral support for Sandy.

So August was a busy month for us where we achieved a lot and settled a little deeper into life in St George. September showed no signs of slowing down. The compost bins were built and filled, the block was slashed again, and the science project continued. We still needed to fence the block, get rid of the 5 huge rubbish piles which contained rotten trees and old fencing left there by the previous owners. We also needed to tidy up the trees we were keeping, and chopped down a huge tree, which was threatening to come down in the not too distant future.

The beginning of October saw Sandy and I armed with a Fire Permit (scary) to burn off the rubbish piles on our land. With strict instructions to adhere to, (wind speed, number of people to assist, telephone numbers to call) we were all set to go, that first weekend in October. We planned to do the burn, early in the morning on Saturday before the winds go up at midday, so at 7am the biggest storm we had seen since we were in St George arrived and dumped 30mm on rain on us, so much for that plan! Throughout the day we checked the wind speed (too gusty) and how wet our rubbish piles were (still soggy), by 4.30pm we decided to give it a try. Once again our neighbours came to the rescue, offering man and tractor power, and years of experience doing burns! I have to say at this point, St George was under at severe fire risk, no not because of Sandy and I, but because of a very dry autumn and winter. So it was with some trepidation that we lit the bonfires, ...... Granny you would have been proud!

Sandy getting some instructions on how to use a fire bug.

Sandy lets rip!

Hot & Thirst work - one of the helpers.

There she goes, this was just one of five that we lit!

Tractor power, what a godsend!

With the fire lit and made safe we celebrate a successful of with a sausage sizzle. Mind you it was going to be a long night as Sandy and I stayed to keep an eye on things until midnight.

The next day we came back to see how things were going, it was all still burning (smouldering) and would for four days.

Once the fire had burned out we were able to take the old fencing (using the trusty Ute) to the tip and level out the huge ash piles (neighbour and his trusty tractor).