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Sunday, May 13, 2012

Make-grow-thrift...

Here we are, it's Monday again! So, as per usual, I'm joining in with Jodie's feature, 'Make-Grow-Thrift here. This week, Jodie has shared a number of sites which have ideas for 'up-cycling', 're-purposing', recycling and re-using items around the home.
My contribution this week could be classed as re-organising and tidying up as well as using what I already have available. In a post last week, I commented that I was going to tidy up a bit of an eyesore under the front steps. This area had just become a weed 'paradise' and didn't look too good right at the front entrance.



So firstly I crawled in and pulled out all the weeds. Then I dug over the soil which was a bit awkward in some places. I then divided up some bromelaids that were growing up the back and I also had some syngonium cuttings from a friend. These cuttings had been in water and had nice strong roots growing. The syngoniums will spread out and make a good ground cover and they certainly won't mind the dappled light. The bromeliads will also spread out so I'm hoping weeds will be kept to a minimum.






So far I haven't spread mulch around the newly planted garden. The company that monitors our yard for termites recommends that mulches be kept away from the house. The last time the man came to check the monitor boxes he mentioned that the termite swarms are not as prevalent in our older suburb at the moment. There is a lot of termite activity in the newer suburbs further out. But he did warn that because they 'swarm' the termites could be back any time. Stones ' mulch would be nice and safe but I would need to do some work to 'contain' them as in wet weather the water rushes through there. Something to ponder on...

A thriving syngonium plant; photo from the internet

4 comments:

Jodie said...

good on you, it looks great

Anonymous said...

Maria, Termites don't like cyprus, so maybe you can get some mulch after all. Speak to you local nursery man and he could recommend where to get it. Sue

Maria said...

Thanks Jodie and Sue for your comments. Sue thank you for the suggestion about the mulch. I'll check that out as it would solve that problem with mulch and termites.

Jodie @ The Haby Goddess said...

It always feels great after a tidy up. Even though it was probably only bothering you as no-one else would of notice :) Thanks so much for being a Make Grow Thrift regular Maria xx