Last year (about this time), I started work on a very rough patch we have in our backyard. You couldn’t have called it a garden, it was weeds knee high and one very sad tree that was growing sideways.

I had grand plans for the garden, but found the results were not as easy to get as I thought. It turned out to be a lot of hard work and it only started looking good towards the end of the summer. I lost interest over winter, but have now turned my attention back to it. I’ve noticed a lot of things have come back or have popped up – in particular nasturtium flowers.

I’ve now got another section of the garden cleared, but because the soil is clay and has not been cultivated in a very long time, I’ll use planters. We had these tyres lying around, so after watching a few videos I felt inspired to paint them up. They are very strong tyres, so no chance of cutting them or doing anything fancy.

The paint I used was pre-primed so was awesome to work with, and I suddenly starting painting a few other things as well – such as the chair (though I ran out half way!).

Any way, onwards and upwards. Our house will be completely rebuilt with part of it going onto this section photographed – so the garden is temporary, and the goal is to be ‘shabby chic’ and use what ever is on hand around the house. So far, I’ve found, Oamaru stone blocks and schist rocks – not too shabby.