Rainy day

The lovely lawn is now rather dandelion infested, I pull them up occasionally, but the dandelions so far are winning the battle for dominance.

Today it has rained and rained.  My garden will be happy as it has been quite dry for most of the summer and it needs water.  I have just planted some grass seed on a large patch that the kids had squashed with the water slide and killed with washing up liquid so they will be getting well watered as long as they don't wash away.  

The garden is a work in progress, we have completely re-landscaped it over the last 2 years, from slopy, bumpy section.  We were lucky in having rocks around the section which were useful for path edges, little walls etc. We also used lovely rugged old railway sleepers ( I use "we" in the loosest terms as my husband did all the sleeper work ) which are just fab.  

Also recycled some Fan Palm trunks for a retaining wall around the top of the lawn. We must have wheel-barrowed in about 15 cubic metres of soil/compost to level out wonky areas. It now has a flat lawn and lots more planting.

I'm trying to put in New Zealand natives as much as possible, partly to encourage native fauna and partly because they don't need much taking care of, and also because I love them, all the different textures and colours.  I get a bit distracted in the planting as there are so many plants that I like, and I can't get them all in without it all looking a right mess.  These pictures were taken about a year ago and it all looks quite tidy.  It does not look quite so tidy now, the plants are growing and filling out well, but so are the weeds.  I will post more photos when it is a bit tidier.  

The blue decking in the corner has now been painted grey/brown which looks much nicer. 

I made this driftwood circle all by myself using a post hole digger ( manual ) I rather like it but my husband is not convinced.  As he is annoyingly right about most things we shall have to see if it stays or not.