A touch of Dad

There's a bit of Dad in this photo. He made the arch of stones for me, carefully drilling each one and shaping the steel. Then there's the lemons and the feijoas behind it.

I have a very small crop of lemons because my tree is young. Hopefully over time I'll grow lemons as good as his.

Dad also grew amazing feijoas. This will be my first year of feijoas. I have high hopes as there's a lot of fruit on both trees. I wish I could ask Dad things instead of google.

Oh, and look carefully and you'll spot the quirky pineapple lily flower :-)

One of today's jobs was to replace the rubber feet on the legs of an old retro outdoors chair as the metal chair legs had worn through the rubber.

I bought the feet on the way home on Friday along with 4 very small metal washers to push inside the rubber feet. They should stop the ends of the chair legs wearing through the rubber. Dad would like my thinking.

I spent happy hours in the garden this afternoon mostly improving soil and drainage. Twice I filled the wheelbarrow with heavy soil/clay. I used a bucket and trowel to mix the soil/clay with compost, sand, 20 year old horse poo, and sheep pellets.

I dug out a small area of garden beside one of the outdoor areas to improve the drainage. I think it's a combination of land compaction during building and the dreaded Rolleston clay pan.

There's a heap of gypsum at the base, and a lovely mix of the above. In theory it should drain better. I carefully added back in the few worms I found and hopefully they'll chomp away, multiply, and poo.

The rest of the enriched soil mix I added to the dry nutrient poor strips of garden against the north side of the house. They are improving as the sedum and day lilies are looking healthier. It's all about the soil.

Digging, carting, and scrambling asked a lot of my toe. It's a little grumpy but really it's a champion healer.

Next weekend I need to tackle the soil in the middle garden at the front. It resembles a dust bowl and I'm not sure how anything lives there.

Today's gratitude: For the the last of my peaches. What a taste sensation.