My poor neglected garden

As the past few weeks have been quite hectic with the renovations being carried out and a family member moving out, my garden has had to take a back seat apart from being watered. Before the renos began the CEO removed the kikuyu from the front garden which was quite high and, as he didn't want to use Roundup it proved to be quite a big job. Of course it is an ongoing procedure as it is such an invasive pest in the garden. At the same time he dug up some of the hundreds of dahlia bulbs he has planted over the years and replanted some of them and now they are starting to flower so hopefully we will have a few showers in the coming week to help them along. Firstly though starting tomorrow we have two hot days in the mid thirties before it cools down mid week. Our northern friends have been doing it tough with 40C days on the coast as well as inland plus there are currently 120 fires burning and to top it off it looks like a cyclone might be forming off the Queensland coast.

So far we have been spared from the extreme heat and the bushfires here in the south east of the state. I took a walk around the garden this morning to see how everything was going as we lost a few plants when the restumping, painting and other outside work was being done. I did move what I could that was growing in pots but some of those plants got quite a lot of dust on them as well as the odd bit of paint.

 I asked the builders when they were putting up the new stairs to try and save the hydrangea which was growing beside that area and although the bush is now a little smaller it has survived and is starting to flower. It did need a good prune anyway. LOL!

 This is what is left of my herb garden. That is rosemary under the wood in case you are wondering. I had hoped that one day the house would be painted so had most of the herbs growing in pots which I removed a number of times to get them away from the workers. Most have survived and eventually when all the work is done I will put them back in the same area as they get the shade in the afternoon in that section. I just put shade cloth over some of my plants and moved all the pots into the shade in preparation for the heatwave of the coming days.

 Instead of trying to sort out all the 'stuff' I have put in the pantry I had some down time today taking photos of bits and pieces. My friend Sally painted this magnet for me years ago and it fits in really well with the colours in the new kitchen.

I planted a number of roses this year that I bought at BigW around Mother's Day and this one really didn't like the wet days we had one week and the leaves were covered in black spot etc. the flowers looked terrible and I thought I would just pull it out and buy another one to replace it. I gave it a good talking to and said I would give it a second chance after cutting off the damaged leaves and now it is looking beautiful. That's what happens when renovations are being done....you start talking to your roses. LOL!

I am not the only one though as I noticed on Instagram that Meg from A House in the Hills who by the way grows the most beautiful roses, is also having difficulty coping with her kitchen renovations. I think it is because we are used to living the quiet life and it feels like an invasion when strange people are wandering through the house and the powertools are going and so on. I am finding that I can't cope with noise as I get older as well.  Of course we are privileged to be able to afford to get renovations done in the first place and, as everyone has said to me, it's a case of short term pain for long term gain. We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel but now I believe the laundry is going to get a revamp, more painting needs to be done and the floorcoverings are in dire need of replacing before I trip and fall. Good grief!

Have a great weekend everyone and please pray for our northern neighbours in the firezones.