And now the hard work starts…

Last Wednesday was my last Bizness Babes class.  I’m a little sad about that.  I have loved meeting up with my new group of friends, all on a mission to carve out our own little piece of the business world.  The inspiration and support we have provided for each other has been immeasurable, and I know that we will all be there for each other as our business journey continues.

What will that Journey be??? I’m not a big fan of the term “Journey” I think it’s been a bit overused by reality TV, every contestant on Masterchef or The Biggest Loser is heading on a journey, as they wipe their running mascara tears during their straight to camera outpourings.  Good grief, even the Big Brother contestants who travelled absolutely nowhere, were on a journey.  It may have been to find the biggest bogan, but according to Gretel, they had all undertaken an amazing Journey.  Being a huge reality TV junkie (it really is like a car crash, you can’t look away) apparently I have travelled their journeys with them.  I have travelled so many journeys that I’m feeling a little jet lagged!

If I'm heading on a journey I want it to look like this. Photo: creativedoxfoto

So, a journey I might not be on, but another analogy I desperately need to find.

I might be a little bit like Mary Mary quite contrary – How will my garden grow?  Or will I be Jack and Jill heading up the hill? no, tumbling down the other side isn’t in my plans.  Maybe I’m just on a countdown ready to blast into infinity and beyond (thanks Buzz).  I’ll have a little think about that one and get back to you, and yes I might be spending a little too much time with the Munchkin’s books!

Did the Daredevil's birthday cake hold more meaning, are we ready for take off??

I’ve taken the last week to sit and think about what I’m doing, how I’m doing it and how the hell am I going to get this business plan together so I can graduate in July.

I have a name for my business and a bit of a vision, I know how it feels, but am having a little bit of trouble working out how it should look.  Being such a visual person, this is a HUGE problem.  I need to sort out the look of my business, my logo, my identity and I know that I will power from there.  So it’s time for the hard work to start.

I’m really proud of the achievements I’ve made so far.  Thanks to Bizness Babes I’ve managed to work through my head verses heart decisions and have come out with a really strong business idea.  I’ve never really had much of a problem coming up with ideas, it’s just picking one, sticking with it and doing the hard work that comes with making an idea a reality.  So now I’m in the hard work stage I’m getting a little bit scared.  I have registered my business name, purchased my domain name and started my business plan.  This is a great start, but the next couple of weeks will involve a lot of list writing, sweat and I’m sure many many tears!

Wish me luck!

Sam

How do we measure up?

Finally we had a break in the rainy weather and a spare day to spend together in the garden.  Not that much has changed, don’t get too excited, it was a baby step kind of day.  There is so much to do before we actually get started with the creating part.  Lots of dreaming and designing, and redesigning and redreaming until we get our ideas straight.  Plus, we need to remove the telegraph pole Bangalow Palms.  If we had a huge garden these palms would be fantastic and we could work with them, but given our limited space and their size, they just look like huge telegraph poles, and unfortunately for them their days are numbered.

It's only when you look up really high that you can tell that it's actually a palm tree and not a telegraph pole!

So, instead of turning soil, digging holes and planting plants, we took the first tentative steps in the design process, which are much more important than any other.  We undertook a site inventory.  It was a team effort.  The Drama Queen was the boss, Mr Perfect was strictly under her instruction, and the Daredevil ended up with a lumpy grazed head!

The Drama Queen and the Daredevil working hard

What did we do and why did we do it? or Landscape Design lesson number 1

Before you start any landscape design process you need to take stock of your site and undertake a site inventory which then leads into a site analysis.  There is no way you can design something new when you don’t know what you’re working with. On a large site, this might be easier done by a professional surveyor, but if your site is small and simple, like ours, you can do it yourself with a tape measure, a scale rule and a bit of time.

A site inventory needs to collect all the base information about your site.  You need to know the following:-

The shape and size of your yard – if you have a site survey use this as a base – it’s better to use information at your disposal than to recreate everything.  The aerial photo function on Google Maps is also a great place to start if you’re in an area that has good resolution.  We had nothing, so measured the whole yard from scratch.

The Drama Queen and Mr Perfect measuring the yard

Any site features – do you have any stairs, taps, retaining walls, slopes, seats, paving, cubby houses – basically anything.  You need to know what they are, where they are and what condition they are in.

Any existing vegetation – Are there trees, gardens, shrubs, lawn?  Is there anything green and is it worth keeping?  If you want to remove any trees you will probably need to start talking to your Council about getting permission to remove them now.

What is the topography? – Is the site flat? Is there a slope? How much of a slope.  This is a tricky one to measure without a dumpy level, we were lucky and could set a level on the bricks of the house.  You could also set up a string line with a spirit level (similar to a brick layer) and measure the difference.

What is your soil like? – Sandy? Clay? loamy? The best way to tell is to dig it up and have a feel, get your hands dirty.  Can you feel the sand in it?  Is it really heavy and sticky? or does it have a lot of organic matter in it?

What is your aspect? – which way is north? This is important in terms of solar access and deciding which areas of your garden are to be used for what.  You don’t want to put a vegetable garden in an area that gets no sun.

When you’ve collected all this information, you’ll have a pretty good snap shot of what you’ve got to work with.  This is your canvas. It might not be blank, but it’s your starting point.  It might look like a huge mess of information on the page until you take the time to tidy it up and draw up a base plan, but you have what you need to get started.

Yes, it looks like a mess, but all the info is there to get started.

Now, to go and make that mess of information real pretty!

The Drama Queen's seeds have sprouted, now we need to work out where to plant them

Oh, and find a home for the Drama Queen’s seedlings – she’s so very proud of them!

Sam

One, two, miss a few…

I was doing so well with my Monday, Wednesday, Friday posting schedule, but slipped up on Friday.  I have a really good reason, and I can get a note from my Mum if you’d like.  I had my post planned, had taken the photos and was generally ready to go, had even started a little bit of it, but other things were more of a priority.  Friday was Pop’s funeral.  I thought I might have caught a few spare quiet moments to get a quick reflective post up, but with my extended family around, there is never a spare quiet moment.  Who was I kidding?

Pop had 3 daughters, 8 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren, and too many friends that felt like family to count.  The funeral was standing room only, and the party continued at his place until very early in the morning.  Unfortunately we had to get the Drama Queen and the Daredevil to bed, so we missed the Tequila shots, Zumba and planking (or plonking as Mr Perfect calls it) that will be the things of legend.

So today you get to see, what I though might be a fitting final tribute to Pop, a tour of his garden.  It’s a perfect example of embracing what was left behind by the previous owner and adding things you love.  As Pop’s dementia was taking hold, Barb, his wife would catch moments while Pop was in the garden, raking and weeding, to do her day to day things like having a shower.  She knew Pop would be OK in his garden, providing nothing caught his eye that needed a ladder!

The wombat at home in Pop's garden

The front pathway

The front garden is more formal than the back

water feature statue and constructed formal garden beds adopted from the previous owners

The swaggie keeping watch by the stairs

The possum proof vegetable garden

Pop planted the beetroot with my Mum just weeks before he died

herbs in pots

the view looking up is just as impressive

Pop was such an avid vege gardener, that the floral tribute on his casket was a mountain of vegetables.  I bet the florist loved that job!

The vegetable tribute - looking a little wilted at the end of a very long day!

I think Pop may have left his green thumb behind for someone, the Drama Queen’s seeds have sprouted – she is so proud of her baby broccoli and snow pea plants.

Sam