A Few Updates

Just thought I would post a few updates of projects that have been done.

Back Retaining Wall - Before

Back Retaining Wall - After tidy up

Back Retaining Wall - Now
This picture shows all the Rengarenga in flower, but unfortunately the Kaka beak flowers had already been and gone. Oh and there's our trusty park bench which I made from an old pallet. I sanded it down and gave it 2 coats of Rustic Oak stain.

Our Back Courtyard - Before

Our Back Courtyard - During

Our Back Courtyard - Now
The Rengarenga is in flower and the Piripiri ground cover has grown really well and is just about to flower. The only thing that seems to be lagging behind is the Miniture Toetoe on the far right. Now that the watering system has been installed, I'm hoping it will pick up a bit more. I'm still working on the water feature that will sit in the middle of the garden bed. I'll see if I can get a good picture at night with the garden lights on too.

Spring at Thornley Mews

Signs of spring are here and I thought I would just share a few photos of some of our plantings from last year that have flowered for the first time.

Our first Kōwhai Ngutu Kākā flowers (Kaka Beak, Clianthus puniceus).

Our first Rengarenga flowers (Arthropodium bifurcatum) from the plant in the back yard.

Our first Kōwhai flower! (Sophora microphylla). I was really surprised at this because the tree is still in it's "juvenile" stage. I'll try and get a better photo of this soon.

Letterboxes

It's been a long cold miserable winter here in Porirua so I haven't done much in the garden until it started warming up about a month ago. We even had 2 freak polar blast storms which brought snow down to sea level here in Tītahi Bay. Snow in this part of New Zealand is just totally unheard of!

So... I've been out in the garden again getting rid of all the weeds that have accumulated and after 2 of the residents here in Thornley Mews received notification from New Zealand Post that the letterboxes were "Inadequate", I decided it was time to do something about it.

Here is a picture of the letterbox area when we first moved in.

Back Garden & Fence

Kia ora whānau, again it's been a while since I posted last, it's funny how life just happens and before you realise it, months have past so quickly. After spending so much time and effort on the communal front garden, I thought it was abut time I actually did something with our back garden which was still in a bad state even though I had done some work to it.

When we first moved in, there was overgrown Ivy everywhere... it had wrapped itself around trees, fenceposts, pushed the fence panels off or cracked them. One of the trees in the property behind us was actually suffering really badly because the Ivy was choking it.

Unfortunately on this picture, you can't see how bad it is on the fence on the left.