an outdoor firebox

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This last weekend I did a little work in the garden.

Actually, I’ve been doing a little work in the garden for a couple of weeks now. The emphasis is on little… I’ve had a friend helping me and he’s been doing the heavy lifting. I’ve had him help me move some plants, put in new plants and prepare the vegetable patch for planting.

We have a cement slab in our yard which used to hold a water tank many years before we bought the place. Its just a useless concrete slab in between the house and the Hill Hoist (Australian icon, aka clothes line) which tends to collect ‘stuff’. You know the stuff I mean, the kind of stuff you think “I can’t be bothered taking that back to the right shed now, I’ll just leave it here…”

When we first moved here I asked Wayne to build a trellis there to block the view of the clothes line and water tanks. I had visions that the clematis and banksia roses I planted in front of it covering the trellis and providing a gorgeous screen.

Here are a couple of photos of the trellis from two years ago. First a view of from the clothes line towards the house.

Looking towards the corner of the casita – you can see the clothes line and one of the water tanks.

And looking back towards the house from the other side. The plants are more than double in size since then, but still nowhere near the gorgeous screen I envisaged.

Here are some pics taken on the weekend of the same area. In this one you can see the clothesline behind the trellis. You’ll also see the copper artwork I distressed to get the green patina. Its now garden art.

This spot is great for sitting and relaxing in the afternoons, once the sun heads down behind the trellis. You look over the middle paddock towards the hill, the dam and stable, back up the valley behind the house, and all the front yard. So, when Wayne decided to get rid of the big wood stove he had in the garage and asked if I wanted it as a garden ornament, I jumped at it.  Its perfect for my little outdoor relaxing area.

What would an outdoor post from me be without horses and a gratuitous poodle in the shot?

The wood stove is heavy and very rusty. Just gorgeous. Wayne removed the door and side panels so you can see the rusty metal sides in all their glory. I put some potting mix in the box itself and put in some succulents. They’ll get full morning sun there but shade in the afternoon. I added some of my favourite pots: a once red bucket, a once red biscuit tin and an old jam pan. They’re filled with succulents as well. Only succulents will survive that position in pots in summer as it gets full sun almost all day long.

While I was at potting up succulents, I did a few more. Here’s another favourite of mine. The old mop bucket!

Oh boy, I used to hate those things when I was growing up.

I love spring. I love looking at the garden and seeing the flowers bloom and what new flowers pop up that I don’t remember putting in.

z

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1 thought on “an outdoor firebox”

  1. Your trellis will eventually be all that you envisaged – patience! love the stove – I would love stuff like this for our garden but we have no interesting junk 😦 Love the mop bucket but I would still be using it – I hate modern mops and buckets made out of plastic which break and go brittle.

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