Spring! Birds and Gardening in our 100 acre garden

brand new - little Gertie

Spring is sprung!
Spring is finally here! I have always been a winter/autumn person. I love the cooler weather. I feel relaxed and happy. But Tassie winters are very different to the winters we had in The Blue Mountains for 20 years. I'd sit out in the garden under the cherry trees in the crisp, cool sunshine with my friends with pots of tea. Winters were dry and mostly windless. Tassie winters are often wet and windy. It's very cosy inside! When the sun comes out it's quite glorious and we do need the rain, it's just taking a bit of getting used to.

the rye grass has come up beautifully in this spot

Formal among the informal
In other news I have finally been able to get my small circular garden done. It's a little formal bed in amongst the rambling garden and the desolate vegie patch. The tiny Viburnum windbreak hedge plants which border it will hopefully protect it in a few years' time.

I am proud to say I did the carpentry myself - cutting the stakes and borders with the dropsaw and measuring the exact centre of the space so that the urn sits proudly in the middle of the circle, to be surrounded by lavender and bordered by a trimmed English Box hedge. The lavenders are in, the gravel path is done, my two paving stones I made (with inlaid glass designs) and the urn is planted with Cornflowers. The Box plants should arrive at the nursery on Friday so I can plant them out on the weekend. Yay!

Windbreak walled garden - not so English
We've also nearly finished the windbreak I designed to provide a sheltered garden room off the side of the house. We've used recycled wood wherever possible. The first gate is huge, to allow the quad bike to go through, in case I need to bring in something heavy like dirt or whatever. There will be a matching one the other end. It's not an English stone walled garden, as I dreamed of. I've had to design for this environment and according to our budget. And most importantly, because it's a high wind area, a solid structure would create turbulence on the inside, which kind of defeats the purpose. Sadly, sandstone just wasn't a viable option. This windbreak allows air to flow through, with the ratio of 60%/40% between wood and gap between planks. It's all very scientific.

I have always wanted to have espaliered apples on a wall, so here's my chance! I bought a bare rooted Red Gala and a Red Delicious.  These will be on the eastern wall. On the western wall I want to have a climbing rose. I'm thinking 'Buff Beauty' but I need to research to see if it is scented or not. Otherwise it will be a David Austin rose, possibly William Shakespeare, which has the gorgeous olde worlde rose scent.

Wilty Dam crossed lambs

New lambs!
Yesterday we were blessed with three more lambs, all singles. Alas, one got stuck and died halfway out. The other two are fine. We're breeding with crossed Wiltshire/Damara  sheep, (Wilty Dams for short) which are also self shedders, but apparently very hardy and gentle natured. I find their stick-our ears a bit comical!

The winds have pretty much gone lately. Our neighbour Jane said it has been uncommonly windy this winter. So that gives me hope for next year...