How I spent my Sunny Sunday

I woke to a beautiful sunny Sunday on the weekend with intentions of spending the day at the beach - until I heard that Gold Coast beaches were closed from the ginormous swell. So I did I spend my day instead you ask? Landscaping in 30+ degree heat! I honestly didn't realise it was so hot outside until I picked up the shovel and started digging up my lawn. Let me rewind for a minute...

When we bought our house, there was no gardens, just random trees and brick pavers. We set about building a front garden, back garden to enjoy when we are on the deck and a poolside garden. I must admit I felt a little disappointed when they were all built and planted out, there would be no more trips to the nursery or choosing tropical plants. So yesterday morning when we decided that to give our prized pandanus the best chance of life, we had to dig up the lawn surrounding it and plant out a garden around it, mulch the area to keep the moisture in and watch it thrive, I was a little excited. Okay, I was a little more than excited. I was overjoyed with excitement that I forgot just how hot it was outside. So wearing my patriotic Bunnings straw hat, high-vis outfit, gardening gloves and a heck of a lot of sunscreen, I started the grueling task of digging up a lawn to create a garden bed. I must admit, I didn't do too much digging, I left that to the manly muscles of the house. Instead I did what feels like 1000+ squats, picking up all the mounds of grass Mr Muscles dug up and put in the trailer. I didn't get any progress shots of the grass digging, as I was deliriously hot and working like a robot, telling myself the quicker I do it the quicker I can get in the pool. Let me tell you. 48 hours later I can still feel the burn in my things. Landscaping is better than any gym workout that's for sure!

This is the prized pandanus we were wanting to give a better chance of life. Its taken a few beating in life so far - its been rehomed twice in the garden, been run over by a run-away-trailer that developed some serious speed when I was meant to be keeping an eye on it and lastly having to compete with its surrounding grass that is enjoying all its water each time I give it a drink.

We firstly marked out the area to dig, which didn't look so big at first, but two hours later I decided it was actually a very big area and next time we will do a project like this we wont be so spontaneous and plan to do it in cooler weather!

We had a lot of left over timber supplies and screws from other DIY projects around the house, so the project only ended up costing us $30, for the three treated pine timber sleepers we used as the garden edging foundation. We were able to use some hardwood timber roof battens we had lying around as the garden edge pickets, cutting them down to size ourselves using a saw. We then used some of the leftover kwilla timber from our front deck construction to use as garden edge toppers, which you may have seen us do before with our pool garden transformation.

Using the nail gun to secure the timber sleepers in place. Notice the thongs, safety was not high on the priority list. Getting the job done and cooling off in the pool was!

The finished product, there are the pickets made out of hardwood roof battens - as they have to sit in the dirt, they will last alot longer being hardwood

The treated pine sleeper garden edging

Securing the Kwilla timber to the treated pine sleepers

Using the Kwilla timber as a topper on the treated pine sleeper

Now I just cant wait to plant it all out. I think we will take some cuttings from our newly established gardens, most likely the cordyline's and agave's. You can see in the photos, I may have already bought two red trunked bottle palms, yellow kangaroo paw and soft leaved yukkas! Now let the planting and garden deigning fun begin!!

For now though, I am laying low with my ridiculously sore and tired leg muscles, so I am feeling pretty accomplished and may just give it a few days before I get back into the garden. I will share the finished result with you when its done! If you have any plant ideas that will do well in a hot sunny position, let me know - leave a comment below! :)