08/08/2026
Whipped up a 4.4m x 2.2m garden bed in a day!
First we had mulch to move to the garden bed in the dog yard (so that one is also completed!). That freed up this corner in our pumpkin patch and we had three trailers, a garden trolley and a wheelbarrow of mulch left for this bed. I’m calling it the mower garden bed.
Rikki brought more hardwood timber sleepers from the back paddock and I’ve been busy buying up retaining wall stakes from Bunnings across South East Queensland the last few weeks (aisle 1, trade section and pay in the tool shop so no need to walk the entire store!)
Between the two of us, we had the mulch moved, space cleared, sleepers set up, stakes hammered in, clay drilled, gypsum sprinkled, cardboard laid and one dog meet and greets and two drop offs and a Bunnings visit all before the premium soil arrived from Gardenscapes Landscape Centre just after lunch. Then it was shoveling and leveling the soil, turning in cow manure, adding paver sand and pavers for the old mower to rest upon and pouring the mulch on top. The plants are in position but not yet planted. That is tomorrow’s task.
Plants are - Callistimon sweet burst and icy burst, French marigolds, Salvia Marine blue, Salvia rock rose, Salvia Mulberry Jam and Salvia African Sky. All part of Claude’s plan (although initially this was to be an L shape but rectangle turned out easier and faster).
Still to purchase Lomandra grass, alyssum and pink salvias. Have had an issue with Nursery Near Me sending Salvia Hot Lips (red) instead of the Lake Garda (pink) that was ordered so trying to source these or similar elsewhere tomorrow.
About the mower - The vintage ride-on mower now sitting as garden sculpture in the middle of it turned out to have a story. The nameplate reads “Manufactured by Owen Cox & Co, 61 Ipswich Rd, Woolloongabba” — and it’s marked “patents pending,” which places it right at the early days of the Cox Mowers company, an Australian brand still trading today with over 60 years of local manufacturing history behind it. So this rusted-out old workhorse, moss and all, is likely 50-plus years old — probably built not far from where I grew up watching Brisbane sprawl outward.
It was keeping our chickens company before this but so much more exciting to see it front and centre in our garden as we walk out the door.
