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Drizzling Blossom

Intro

Drizzling Blossom is our main outdoor living area, where most of our ideas and energy have been spent over the years. The project includes 2 phases: a DIY patio with cottage vibe at first, and later a more formal outdoor living area with semi weather protection.

Phase I (2017-2020)

2017 (Before)

It started as a small patio in the front yard, exposed to the prevailing wind from a mountain range to the west, Kaimai Range. (The mountain itself protects this area from most of the extreme weather. But as a result of high pressure on the sunny days, there's usually wind.) 

The challenges we tackled include a sloping land, a pie-shaped contour, a stretch of un-defined flowerbed, a variety of neglected plants (a lot!), and of course a half broken trellis fence.

2017 (In progress & After)

  • The outer flowerbed : We first did some clean-up (lots of transplanting, pruning & digging). Then had a new trellis fence built in a "crazy" contour (to work around a retaining wall, the uncertain boundary line, and several established trees).

  • The patio : We removed the the sad hedge and trellis, repainted the old posts, and then added 4 aluminium panels with original artworks as a wind barrier. Also levelled the ground next to it, turning it into a pebble bed, as an extension towards the new garden gate. Nothing fancy, but quite cozy. Cute too, especially as a photo backdrop for the cats.

2018

  • The dog has alpacas nails. That won't work well on soggy lawn during the raining season. So we covered the path with white gravel.

  • More roses! (At the time there were 52 roses in total in the property.) 

2019 & 2020​

It basicly stayed this way. After a professional pruning, the tree produced bi-colour blossom in that spring, in both white & pink (usually it's towards white). Flowers were more established as well. This has been the most beautiful period of the zone.

Phase II (2021-2022)

Dec 2020​

After using this patio for almost 4 years, we had enough of the mountain wind. Time for an improvement! Initially the thought was a conservatory on an enlarged concrete patio. After checking council rules and other drawbacks, we opted for a deck. 
Just like last time, there was some tricky planning around the contour and sloppy land. The contractors were a bit confused and even disapproving about our crazy design... Well, I can't blame them :D

  • So we had the deck (technically two, a big one & a tiny one) built just before Christmas. 

  • There is a "hole" in the central area, reserved for our favourite climbing rose - Pierre de Ronsard. This was the crazy part - It wasn't recommended, because "Plants die and the hole needs to be plugged eventually." But look at the photo, how can you take it out?

  • Due to the mismatch in height, we didn't want the deck touch the existing fence. So a space was reserved for a new path, as a leading line from kitchen window towards the blossom. 

  • "Quickly" assembled an aluminium gazebo

  • Re-surfaced and strengthened the remaining half of the old patio

  • Added two tree stumps as extra steps for the small floating deck

2021

  • Finetuning

  • "Sit back and enjoy"

2022

  • Weather-proofing

  • Lights! Lots of lights!

  • And multi-cultural decoration for holidays

  • How about glamping with the zoo?

  • Remember the rose hole? The rose didn't die. But we did transplant the rose somewhere else, for different reasons. So there's a water feature now. No regret here. LOL.

After Words

At the time of writing this journal, we don't have the rose path any more. And the cherry blossom suffered from bad weather during last spring. We waited for a whole season, just to realise there weren't many flowers produced by the tree.

 

Sometimes life doesn't go exactly the same direction you want it to. And those are times in life that all we can is to respect the cycle of life, appreciate what we have, and be hopeful towards the future. Actually, shouldn't this be the default attitude for each day of life?

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John has said many times, that he'd never thought there would be a cherry blossom in his own garden one day. Indeed, the poetic view created by the white path leading towards the cherry blossom, with roses by one side, and hydrangeas & clivias by the other, is definitely a beautiful memory to keep. And I guess that's all that matters - to create beautiful memories with the important ones. And share too :)

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Hope you enjoyed reading our story, of this garden. More on the way!

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Photo taken in 2020, right after the first lockdown

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