Back yard musings

One of the advantages of having a good-sized back yard is being able to make a bonfire to burn off any woody garden rubbish. 

In recent years many urban councils have banned back yard fires - even the use of incinerators - but here we are still lucky enough to be able to light open fires in our back yard.   (This is, of course, excepting in the exceptionally hot and dry summer-time when fire bans are in place.)

With a number of mature eucalypts and other native trees on our block and the adjoining land, we have a never-ending supply of dead branches and heavy woody prunings to dispose of. 

This bonfire is ready to go, but it's too windy to risk lighting a fire today.  In the photo you can see the results of the last fire that got away - the burnt trunk on the melaleuca behind the wheel-barrow.  That was quite a heart-stopping event as I was in the garden alone and needed to fetch a couple of long hoses to bring water from the house in a hurry.  Most of the leaves in the bush around here are highly flammable and this patch of bush could have gone up within minutes.  Our use of dry sugar-cane tops as mulch adds to the risk, as this material is also highly combustible.

But, despite the risk, I must say it is satisfying to be able to stand out the back and poke at a bonfire - and then later scoop up all the cold ash to use as needed on plants.

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While talking of back yards ... I've just finished reading a fascinating new book called Australia's Quarter Acre, by Tasmanian, Peter Timms.  He traces the history of the Aussie house block and its changing use over the years.  Every reader will recognise some of the iconic features he recalls from yards in the past.

The author looks at different attitudes towards weeds and weeding: To the Romantic, weeds are a symbol of wildness and freedom.... To those of a practical bent ... they suggest disorder and decline - the triumph of wild nature over culture - which makes eradicating them a civilising mission. 

He finds weeding his own garden a meditative and immensely satisfying task.  But he draws attention to the more serious environmental weed problem and urges all gardeners to be responsible about disposing of unwanted plant material, and not allowing exotic species to escape into the bush.

Perhaps I should I be eradicating this healthy clump of mother-in-law tongues growing just outside our star picket back fence!

They must have been planted in our garden in the past, and now, having jumped the fence, they are happily established among several of the other more conventional 'weeds'.

With single plants just the same as these selling in the local nursery for around $15, perhaps I could be digging them up potting them for gifts or for sale.

Comments

[Val]

I am intending to read that book too, Jude, especially now that it seems that the quarter acre is under siege, being covered with McMansions from fenceline to fenceline.

Re your bonfire: hope you don't light it when upwind of someone who has washing out on the line! Nice tie-in with my blog post, eh?!

[DellaB]

It must be spring... I have been waiting for Noel to go back to work (he has had 3 weeks off, goes back today) - to get started on my back-yard spring clean. For a small yard we have a lot of BIG trees, and I clip and trim and make a big pile of rubbish in behind where it's not visible, then I need a young strong man to come in about twice a year and do the heavy cleaning up.

I can't wait to get started, but today is NOT spring, at least not down here, it's very wintry, cold and wet -

We nearly came up to Tambourine on the weekend, I'll have to find out where your stall is Jude, or are you only there sometimes?

[Jude]

You might be confusing me with someone else Della. I'm not from Tamborine and don't have a stall - although I love going to markets. I live further east and it's cold and windy here too today.

[DellaB]

Hi Jude, I think it must be that 'old lady' mixing things up. I know 'somebody' sometimes has a craft stall in Tambourine, at least I think it was Tambourine - I'll have to go back through the blogs... sorreee...