I moved into my newly built first home in March 2015. Before I could start creating my very own garden, I first needed fences installed. Then concrete around the house, as per my building contract because the area is full of rock and reactive clay. That means it shrinks and cracks in summer time, and then swells and expands in winter time.
Anyone with clay soil can testify that any amount of moisture all tends to make the clay sticky. This in turn means you get 1-2 inches of the stuff stuck to the bottom of your shoe every time you put a foot down.
Mix this dense sticky clay-mud with building rubble and concrete slush, then throw in some overgrown weeds, and you get a good understanding of why I decided to focus on setting up the inside of my house first, and why I didn't often venture outside much that first winter. I had my ever-growing collection of potted plants set up on my alfresco which was the only shelter I could afford them from the unusually bitter cold Melbourne winter (coldest on record, we learnt later), and it stayed that way until September.
I do remember spending an entire day weeding once the weather produced a decent day of sunshine, yet not managing to clear even half my property of weeds. I did end of horribly sore all over from the muscle effort involved.
But it wasn't until late September that I put out a call to friends willing to help me to ask for their time and assistance that things really got moving. I'd hoped to get my side fences up to prevent anyone just walking into my backyard. By the end of the long weekend, I had three garden beds ready for planting.
My garden of wellbeing truly began with that weekend.
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