{"id":14862,"date":"2014-11-02T01:15:24","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T23:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lauramccullagh.com\/blog\/?p=14862"},"modified":"2014-11-02T14:27:12","modified_gmt":"2014-11-02T12:27:12","slug":"garden-revamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lauramccullagh.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/garden-revamp\/","title":{"rendered":"Garden Revamp"},"content":{"rendered":"
October
\n2014<\/div>\n

It’s been my mission this year to fix up our family’s long-neglected garden, and this month I focused on the overgrown weed field that was our back garden…here are some before, after and process pics (and yes, the cats feature quite a bit too – this is a full-on old lady post…)<\/p>\n

\"Hypoestes\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Kira,<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The area behind our house is an odd patch of land\u00a0– it’s\u00a0up some stairs and on quite a slope,\u00a0and once upon a time my brother and I played on a swing up there. Over the years we’ve kinda left the plants at the back to their own devices which has been okay on the far end,\u00a0where our washing line is, but the other side is basically an overgrown lawn where traditionally the most exciting part about summer has been devil thorns and\u00a0dandelions.<\/p>\n

Now as much as I truly do like dandelions, the fact that we use that area constantly means that livening it up with some new plants and flowers should have a great effect on us every day and would make the area one in which we’ll actually want to spend time. Here’s what it looked like\u00a0this time last year, in full dandelion\u00a0(and cat)\u00a0bloom:<\/p>\n

\"Kira<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"Olivia<\/a><\/p>\n

and here’s the best ‘before’ pic I could manage from this year, (that brown pile in the middle is the ivy I ripped off the back wall, a cathartic activity if ever there was one):<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve been spending so much time at Stodels Milnerton this year that many of the staff suppress mild giggles when they see me and my family make constant threats of therapy and intervention…and I admit, they may have a point. But as far as addictions go, it’s not the most unhealthy one to have.<\/p>\n

\"Stodels<\/a><\/p>\n

So I’d been amassing plants over the last while with a view to planting them at the back, all\u00a0from Stodels (and many from the ‘sad’ reduced-to-clear\u00a0table of wilting office plants and drooping seedlings – which is actually probably where my real addiction lies but anyway…) and then my mom and I spent some time in the sleepy town of Tulbagh, only to discover it has the most amazingly beautiful nursery…I haven’t even gone through all my photos of it yet, but until I do here are some\u00a0for some examples of the place’s ridiculous loveliness:<\/p>\n\n\t\t