The Backyard Battle

The next nightmare was the backyard. The fences were full of termites, there was a massive bougainvillea, there was 15 years of jungle lining the back fence, weeds in the gardens taller than me, dead trees, messy gardens and junk everywhere.




From those pics it looks pretty tidy, don't be deceived. It was a fire hazard waiting to happen and at this stage of the works it was being cleaned up to accommodate a potential granny flat.

I love Bunnings, they sold me the chainsaw i had to learn to operate and the mulcher i have come to treasure as part of my family :-D




Everything that would fit in the mulcher went into it and it all went back onto the gardens, so much easier than trying to shift it down the driveway. All the stumps that were too big to mulch were cut up for firewood and a given to a friend. Anything that couldn't be burned or mulched was hidden from view behind my nice new shiny retaining wall.


I started the job in winter which meant the grass had died back some from the nice lush green that it had been, but it grew back nicely.

A few things i learned from this task was do no let anyone plant anything, ever if they do not fully grasp the growth habits and under no circumstances plant anything with spikes unless you never plan on moving it. Trust me, i have the scars to prove it.

The bougainvillea ended up staying right where it was, i had planned on coming back to it at a later date when i had overcome my hatred of all things spiky, but alas the house was sold before that happened.

I also learned that my poor male neighbour was a tad intimidated by a woman with bigger power tools than him :-D