Challenge #3 - A grand entrance-It shall be

I wonder how everyone is going with the cleaning challenges I have set up...Have you cleaned your washing machine? Or what about your oven?  If you haven't been following the challenges, or maybe you haven't had time to take anything else on lately.....that's ok....we all have different lives, some more busy than others too....

If your up to it; I have a new challenge for you...What is the front entrance of your home like? Does it scream Welcome!? or does it curl up and cry out for help? My front door and the state it is in..well; it is not very welcoming...and frankly it has recently started being a dumping ground...Many things get dumped on the front veranda...I want it to be somewhere I can sit in the summer...somewhere to showcase some lovely plants if they are out in flower.....no-one sees them if they are in the back yard, and Mum certainly can't get down there to admire the orchids or cacti when they are out in flour.....I have already started sorting the front veranda,...so my challenge for myself is to finish what I started.

I have moved some Zygo Cactus out from the back yard to display...and when mum comes over and sits in her chair, she is able to see them....Mum has a love for all that is colour in the garden, and until recently I just didn't get it at all. Sure I like flowers, but I don't need them, at least that's what I thought anyway.....I do need flowers in the garden, Flowers attract bees to the garden, and bees pollinate my edibles...So bees, if your listening...come summer; you are all more than welcome to come visit my garden.

Now here is what I have already started with...the smaller pots are new Zygo Cacti from Bunnings...when I seen the new colours I had to get some of them...they really are lovely.

On the table that my DS16 made last year in school; you can see the huge flowering Zygo Cactus in the front....it sure is going to  be a lovely display if they all bloom at the same time.....behind them are two orchids that need re-potting badly....I have to get around to that too...Another thing to add to that never ending, forever growing list.. I think this corner looks much better now...Sure there is still room for improvement, and I have the other end of the veranda to finish yet, but it's a start....AND Mum can view all the coloured plants from the lounge-room when she comes over (Mum lives out the back in her own little unit)

Here is the other end of the veranda....yep! there's lots of room for improvement here....We dont sit on the bench seat either because when all the kids in the street used to hang out here, they used to unscrew the bolts....so I guess it's time for a re-vamp so the seat can be used again......

Some of you may be wondering why I have a nappy box...No, it's not because there are grand-babies around that I haven't told you about..(hubby says we are too young for Grand-babies yet) .........it's almost full of persimmons, which I picked off Tammy's tree when I visited her in Canberra.....but that's another Challenge in another post, but first they still need to ripen more before I can do anything with them....but I haven't forgotten Tammy....The persimmon challenge is still on!

Challenge #3 to finish cleaning up the front veranda and make it more  welcoming.

 On another subject....I took a peek under the cardboard today....and it's starting to happen....all the cardboard that I collected and held onto was finally used to mark out a new garden bed for the front yard.....

The plan is to have all the Kikuyu Grass die off, over how ever long it takes....As part of the prep for the new garden bed...I want to eliminate all the grass underneath....without chemicals or pesticides. Kikuyu grass is awfully hard to chip away....Regarding starting a new garden; I have heard that it is better to kill it off, I hope to illiminate it completely, then I can begin building the garden bed.

2 weeks on and the grass is looking
pretty sad underneath the cardboard.

Part of the prep work for the new garden bed is gathering plants.....Today I re-potted the fruit trees I bought not long ago.....While I cant plant them out into the garden yet...I can still make them happy by giving them more room for their roots to spread. Happy plants means healthy plants.

Hello Rusty!