Our garden is generally pretty easy to manage. There's only a small amount of lawn (including a sprinkler system which we have no intention of using), the beds are more mossy than weedy because the soil is so poor, and the hedges and shrubs are mostly of slow growing varieties like juniper.

Having said that, we've been busy on garden stuff mostly this weekend - necessary haircuts on some of the hedges and the lawn, fixing up some highly suspicious wiring in the garage, and putting up some bird feeders and so on to bring birds into the garden (it's something for the cats to watch at least - they don't go outside to go and look for such entertainment themselves). It was a really warm weekend, too, so it was hard work pushing power tools around outside in the heat (about 27°C yesterday afternoon). Apparently I've forgotten how to work outside when it's hot.

The reason why our garden is so manageable is because about a third of it is wild... when the lawn and actively managed areas were being laid out, a large triangle in the southeast corner of the plot was fenced out - it's behind some low hedging, but isn't accessible or even visible from the main garden.

We want to reclaim this lost triangle by fencing it off from the road and taking out a chunk of the fence between it and the main garden so that we can get through there easily. At the very least we want this as a kind of sanctuary area.

So I spent a little while yesterday measuring this up, and I was rather surprised to find that the triangle is right angled triangle with two fifty foot sides, which makes it much much bigger than it looks from the road. It's amazing what a difference foreshortening can make.

Not that we're planning on fencing this until next year, what with the downstairs going this summer, but knowing how big it is gives us some necessary information to let us decide when we can afford to have it fenced.

The moral of the weekend is: Don't expect quick results from DIY projects.

But you do get results - I mentioned the roof space vent fan a few months ago, which I needed to get to from inside and check out why it was buzzing. Well, it definitely works, because while mowing I heard this whirring noise of the fan doing its venting magic with the sun beating down on the roof. Rather marvellous. Getting up there was a pig and a half, but knowing that I was right about what was stopping it before is tremendously satisfying.

Posted by Dunx at April 12, 2004 05:16 PM