New Garden Guru

Woofs! I was watching a re-run of Domestic Blitz recently and saw a fellow called Don Burke, who the presenter introduced as a 'garden guru'. Now I love my gardening so I watched his segment closely - and I can tell you Don's gardening skills aren't a patch on mine. Check out what I've been up to recently ...

Hello, and welcome to Toby's Backyard. 

Although I am only young (8 months) I have considerable expertise in caring for gardens. My specialty is back yards - mainly because I can't get into the front yard. What's truly impressive is that I'm entirely self taught! As you browse through some of my favourite photos (below) you'll be astounded at what one young Airedale can achieve unaided and without formal training.


Recently I have been concentrating on my favourite section of the garden. This was originally a formal path between a Buxis hedge and a line of pencil pines. Pavers, carefully spaced at human stepping distance, were interspersed with twin clumps of mondo grass: this modelled on historic formal Tuscan gardens.

... found no evidence that historic formal Tuscan gardens ever existed, so I applied a reality check ...

After significant research I found no evidence that historic formal Tuscan gardens ever existed, so I thought I had better apply a reality check. Even though it took a lot of time and effort, I have now removed each of the mondo grass plants. I'm having a little more trouble with the pavers though - it's quite difficult to move these because I don't have hands.

You'll see in this image that I have carefully inspected the Mondo grass and laid it out neatly for inspection by Craig and Jude when they come down to sit in the garden.

You'll also note that I have gone to agreat deal of trouble to back-fill the holes in which the Mondo grass was previously planted.

... I take a great deal of pride in my garden ... 

I take great pride in my entire garden - I don't just focus on one section of the back yard . I'm also quite partial to the Acacia Cognata. It's overhanging canopy gives me a great hiding place - I often lie under it's branches waiting for a Magpie to land in the backyard. As soon as one lands I'll silently leap out from under the bush and chase it away.

The photo on the left shows me sitting beside my favourite Acacia Cognata. This bush is also very handy for the secure storage of some of my most precious belongings (an old Pepsi Max bottle, a bedraggled toy that has 'migrated' to the backyard etc). It's ver secure - trust me - you'll never see Craig or Jude crawling under my Acacia Cognata bush! I've been here for 6 months now, and they have never shown the slightest interest in crawling under and waiting for the magpie with me - the pikers!


Here's where I've been trimming some of the lower branches, so I can make a speedy magpie-chasing exit. I think you can see where I'm headed artistically huh?

... I have some of my toys stored in the garden ...

I have some of my other toys stored in the garden too, in case I need to have a quick play. The toys make a very satisfying noise when I drop them down the stairs (inside) and they bang into the downstairs toilet door. Somehow I never seem to have enough toys to play with upstairs. By the way, the blue spiky looking ball is made by a company that makes toys for lions - it's tough and heavy (quite hard to carry back up stairs).

I am also keen on flowers. These are some Pansies and Paper flowers that Jude planted. She's had them for a long time (even back when they lived in Geelong) and she really likes them a lot. I do the best I can to keep an eye on them. It's strange how a bald patch has opened up in the pot there - I might need to ring Don Burke to find out what has caused that!

... I like to keep the Yukka plant trimmed up ...

I also like to keep the Yukka plant trimmed up - but it's a bit high for me. You can see how hard I have to stretch to keep in well shaped (I'm standing on my tip-toes - it's a pity that my photographer didn't capture that!).



Finally, I just want to say that I had nothing to do with this pot being smashed! It is tall and thin, and it blew over in the wind. You can trust me can't you?
(Editor's note: Funny how that pot never blew over in the two years we lived here before Toby joined our family.)