All about me....

The December issue of The Age [Melbourne] Magazine featured a 2 page spread all about me and my home. My friend James Braund took the photographs.

ps. imagine the bathroom tiles being a million shades lighter, more a faded teal green, Not turquoise... that would hurt my eyes in the morning!

Garden up-date- Dickens St vege pathway

More before during and after photos, this time of the garden pathway. Used up all the bricks by making chunky squares seats with thyme planted in them.

Garden up-date- Dickens St vege patch

This is the new extension of the vegetable patch, the sunniest spot in the garden.

The zucchinis are loving life and grow so fast it is scary, got to be quick to avoid the dreaded marrow.

Fitzroy Garden revival -side view

We took the fences down and pruned the lemon and lime tree for more sunlight and better growth of fruit.

Fitzroy Garden revival -front view

This is the view from the back terrace. Amazingly the compost bins were completely full of ready-to-go gorgeous compost, good to get excited about soil huh?

Fitzroy Garden revival -back view

This is the latest garden make-over I created for a friend in North Fitzroy. We had a bit of a working bee, so I got to boss 4 others around, to create this gorgeous new growing space. It always helps when there is a great base to start with: we removed old fences and added alot of compost and poo before we popped in the new steps for easy weeding and picking, planted heaps of yummy vegetables and herbs and mulched deeply. So so so satisfying.

oh how I love a good series of before, during and after photos.

Photo shoot @ home!

Too excited to have my wee home photographed today for The Age's Melbourne Magazine December issue, wow.

The rule is really not to invite any kind of camera crew into your house, oh the mess!

Nah not really, it was all pretty organised and smooth sailing. Strange to have a stylist style my house tho.... we negociated!

Sara, Indi, James in action.

Spick and span.........

Lord of the Rings: Hobbiton oak tree.

I worked on all three of the Lord of the Rings movies way back in 1999/2000 and spent a glorious late spring month in Matamata [just south of Auckland] on the outdoor set of Hobbiton dressing the exterior Hobbit houses and making the place looked lived in. The Greens dept and Construction dept had already spent 12 months creating the hobbit holes and the hedge rows, vegetable and flower gardens. While I was there they erected the Oak tree that is above Bilbo's house. It was created from dissecting [and numbering each piece] a real oak tree, travelling it to the site and assembling it together, stunning to watch. A bunch of local uni students spent 3 weeks 'leafing' the branches with fake oak leaves before they were erected.

Spring is good

The trellis is up and the peas have sprouted, in fact most of the garden is planted out with greens, just waiting for warmer weather for the tomatoes and basil and aubergines.

Spinach, beetroot, and corriander seeds sprouting.

California poppies taking over the pathway, love it.

Dickens St back garden vege patch

This is the other end of the vege garden, a work in progress and the sunniest spot in the garden all year....plans for peas and beans and lots and lots of basil and eggplants. More photos later.

Dickens St back garden

The vegetable garden at the back of my apartment block had an area full of rubbish, weeds and vines... so I dealt to it. It is a kinda shady spot, except for mid summer sun, so shade loving leafy greens are going in there and perhaps a pumpkin and a zucchini plant. Lush plant photos later.

Woolly winter cushions

Finished the cushions, so cosy, so satisfying.