Sometimes we look at the back garden and wonder what we'd do differently. We built it in a very haphazard way, starting from the vegetable garden which I insisted was right outside the back door. I wanted a kitchen garden so that I could walk out the door in bare feet and pick spring onions and lettuce, herbs and silverbeet. There was nothing that was going to change my mind about that!

In 2015, the central garden was established. Beyond the first gate are six beds. I can see the red flowering gum and pomegranate on the right that are no longer there because the tree fell down and the pomegranate never bore fruit. You cut your losses with gardening. Ruthlessness is needed!

Over the years the garden took on exactly the look I wanted. The grape grew up in the summer to protect it from the worst of the heat, as did the natives planted on one side.

We put a path of pavers down the middle, and wicking beds on one side, then raised beds. Beyond is the chook house, the compost, the worm farm. There are beds everywhere it seems - a kind of organised chaos. It's just perfect.

From the air, you can see the lower field, colourful with grass and a path mown around and through it so we can walk down the acres. The trees are clustered around the house, providing shade. Can you see the polytunnel against the fenceline? The white roof of the bus? The yellow of the elder trees? The silvery olives in the front garden? The walking track into town?

The Creative Garden challenge asks us what we'd change. The only thing I'd change is the location of the chook shed and the polytunnel. The chook shed is too close to the garden and chickens make a mess - whilst they are mostly contained I wish they wouldn't scratch up my native beds and kick mulch onto the path. The polytunnel can't be planted unless the plants are in pots, because there are pine trees on the neighbours property which steal into the soil there. But still, it's nice and protected from the westerlies by plum trees gone wild, and it's nice to see chickens. A garden isn't the same without them.

I love our garden. Kids love our garden because it's a bit of a maze, with so many things around corners. There's no straight lines in my garden, that's for sure.

It's absolutely impossible to draw this as the #creativegarden wanted. I tried six times. Everything kept pushing out of scale. For example, I couldn't fit in the seating area or the plum and mulberry and apple and quince that all fit next to the chook enclosure, and the chook enclosure is bigger than it looks! I should have added two sheets of paper to show the plantation and lake in the lower three acres, and the olive trees and natives in the front garden! This was a super hard task!

Hopefully you can do better than me at this challenge! It closes Thursday night AEST - go check it out via @gardenhive. It runs every week, so look out for a new challenge on Sundays or choose an old prompt to write on. It's a good one for those who are headed into winter and might not have a garden to speak of!

With Love,

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