This week we finally stopped watching grass grow. On Monday a tractor arrived and cut it. On Wednesday, it reappeared and turned it over with special discs with prongs, whisking the hay into the air. On Thursday a different tractor came and baled it up. And by Friday most of it was gone! At last! Ebbi was also thrilled.

Meanwhile, at the start of the week, the wallabies decided that the beans and peas were ready for nibbling down. Even the radish that had been “protected” by  fleece took a hit: on Wednesday evening someone made holes to get to some radish tops! By Saturday, they were getting under the fleece despite the timber planks holding it down. We are clearly running out of time if we want to eat out of this garden!

So the hay bales marked the official start of a multi-day fencing festival. For a professional, this would surely take less than a day. But we are not professionals, as our neighbours have surely noticed. As with everything else, the advice in Youtube videos made more sense after we started … and made mistakes. We’ve only pulled out one post so far but we’ve left imperfections as souvenirs of our steep learning curve (who knew that if you tighten a fence wire the star post could bend?). Sunday night was scheduled to be the last day of fence-building but wallabies have been granted a 24-hour extension due to golf, visitors and our general tiredness. Attention wallabies: on Tuesday your snack bar is really closed for business!

As things progress, new questions and issues arise. What bug is eating holes into the radish leaves? Why won’t our garden beds absorb water even though we are making the beds from compost, which should enhance water-absorbing capacity. The top couple of millimetres gets wet but there was dust underneath, which leads to sad-looking seedlings even if we water every day (a downside of starting up in summer). Over time organic matter will build up in the soil and so it will retain and absorb water better. But we need a solution now! More internet searching and I learned a new word: hydrophobic. In an attempt to remedy the situation we started making holes to water into in all the existing beds. For future beds we will mix two 10-litre watering cans worth of water into the compost in the wheelbarrow massively improves water absorption later. It also makes the wheelbarrows 20kg heavier… good for biceps?