Progress in the garden

Cool and overcast today after a week of heat, so we did some planting. In fact, 34 plants went in, I counted them. Well over a hundred plants in the ground now and you can't even see them, this garden is big!

The most exciting garden development this week was (fanfare) The Driveway. After three months of mud being driven or walked in from the gravel driveway, we made the tough decision to shell out for a proper asphalt finish. I was expecting one or two guys and a truck to arrive, but an entire road crew appeared! Here they all are, with enough machinery to entertain a pre-school full of budding earthmovers. I wished we had a small person to share the fun with. I remember how fascinated Wim was as a little boy with what he called "fuks" (trucks) compared with his sisters who were only mildly interested.

So for the small boy in all of us, here's what they did. First this machine scraped and graded and flattened.

Then the culvert area was realigned, widened and strengthened and had cement mixed into the gravel. The area next to the garage was given the same cement treatment as it was inclined to be boggy, suggesting a spring under there. They did a beautiful job of extending the pipe at the front entry and finishing it with rock work a bit like stonemason Cliff's rock walls. They all knew Cliff. Not as good as his, they said. Don't tell him who done it!

Then the surface was rolled.

Meanwhile the water truck was keeping the dust down and also activating the cement.

A final bit of levelling of the surface.

Next step, spraying the bitumen.

Following the sprayer was a very clever device that scattered gravel onto the hot wet surface.

This part of the process was quite quick.

Here is the gravel-scattering device in close-up. The gravel is scooped up into a wide bucket and as it is tipped out the red brush part rotates and scatters the gravel evenly in front of itself. This machine is difficult to turn, designed to go in straight lines, so there was a bit of manual scattering to be done around the edges of the turning circle. Then the whole thing was rolled again and it was done! Stinking hot day, so I got them all big glasses of iced water as they were packing up to go. Five grateful blokes. They did a great job.

The next day, John came again and topped up the rocks around the new settlement pond in the new creek bed. The new pond is always full and appears to be spring fed. David planted some waterlilies into it from the dam.

David tells me this is the end of the heavy earth moving stage of proceedings. The land is shaped, ready for the next phase of garden establishment - lots of planting and mulching.

I looked out the study window this evening and spotted a baby bunny that emerged from under the deck.

Then I looked again and there were two baby bunnies.

And the next time I looked, guess what? Three baby bunnies. Hmmn. A dilemma. New plants vs rabbits. How compatible is a breeding colony of bunnies with our garden plans? But they're so cute! I could never do them any harm. Any ideas?