One of the things we love about the mid north coast is that it is always green. Annual rainfall is around 1200mm and it is evenly spread. So the grass grows green all year. It soothes the eye and calms the soul. I'm not bored with it. I don't think I will ever be bored with it.
However, on our particular patch of land in the mid north coast, there is rather a lot of not-green mud and dirt. The building process started by scraping off the green grass and ended by smoothing over the bare dirt. There was a huge expanse of barren soil (which became mud when it rained) when we moved in. So much that in the earliest days I just felt overwhelmed. How would we ever turn all this mud into a garden? This is what it looked like a week after we first got the keys in September of last year.
I can remember feeling the similarly overwhelmed by the enormity of the task before the Fadden garden was created. But we did it. And we are underway on this new garden. Mostly thanks to David, so far. He is working like a demon. He's loving it. I'm inside wondering how on earth to get on top of it all, and he's outside solving problems and sorting things out. Key word: drainage.
He has dug and plumbed and shaped and directed and controlled the slopes and surfaces such that now, when the skies dump 3 or 4 inches of water in 24 hours, it is managed. There were no major washaways after the last big rain, last week. It has been many, many hours of work, a lot of thinking and consulting plus some fairly major earth moving. Here are a few of the major projects completed so far.
(Above) The dam wall was reshaped and strengthened and its top built higher.
A land bridge was created between the house and the dam so you can walk onto the dam wall. The outflow from the dam must pass under this land bridge, which has taken some adjustments to the piping, but it seems to be right now.
Lots of mulch has been delivered and spread. This will keep happening for years to come.
Most of the land downstream of the dam was boggy and unusable, choked with weeds. So David had a drainage creek dug.
Then the creek was lined with rocks and planted with reeds to impede the flow of water so it didn't erode further.
After months of driving in mud, we had a bitumen driveway installed.
The dam wall was mulched.
A propagating area was set up and David grew dozens of plants from seed collected on field trips. We have planted over a hundred plants, but you can't see them yet. It's a big block.
Meanwhile, the land has begun to green itself up with wild grasses and weeds, which David mows down to produce a manageable, walkable surface.
Last week we had some topsoil delivered and spread.
This week, some buffalo turf was delivered.
Yesterday, we heroically laid it all.
This is taken from the deck, looking south towards the dam
At the end of the day, absolutely knackered and covered in mud from heaving those turves around.
The gumboots tell the story.
But now, we have some actual lawn. It's a beautiful sight. The green, green grass of home.
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