Backyard Citrus Grove

The previous owners of our house obviously loved to grow their own fruit.

We have had a bountiful supply of Mangoes that were eagerly devoured by the girls, we have had Paw Paw, not a huge fan but it was much better than I had expected.

Freshly Squeezed OJ for breakfast.

In the last two weeks we have had a huge amount of Oranges and Lemons ripen on the trees in the backyard. There were many kilos of Oranges so we ended up juicing nearly all of them. It was the tastiest, sweetest juice I have ever had. So far we have produced more than 10 litres of fresh OJ, it is wonderful to have a fresh chilled OJ for Brekky.  The Lemons are proving a little harder to use, I think we will end up making some Marmalade.

The last of this seasons Oranges.

Amazing amount of fruit from a small tree.

Next fruit to ripen will be Mandarins, we have a small tree with a small amount of fruit on it, however it is still quite some time from being ripe. 

Mandarins not ripe yet.

The pool build is still going, it is frustrating to hear from a neighbor that they started to build their concrete pool seven weeks after us and have been swimming in it for a month! That being said, our pool fence has been certified and I have been told our pool will have the pebble applied on Monday. It should then be filled and chemicals added by the end of the week. Hopefully we will have a functioning pool for the change of season and the onset of winter! We will call ourselves the Pullenvale Penguins and we will be swimming in the pool the first day it is ready - come hell or high water we will be swimming in the pool on the first day it is ready! Photos of the first swim will be provided.

The filter, chlorinator and pump set whilst being top notch good gear, is not terribly appealing to the eye. Hardly the sort of thing you want to adorn your backyard to add visual appeal. So how do you screen such a beast? As you can see the filter is a large black orb with a couple of VSD driven pumps, salt chlorinator and associated PVC pipework. Noice different unusual...

Pretty hey...

I had the idea that a stone Gabion wall will give the desired screen and add some visual appeal to another wise pretty ordinary looking piece of kit. The next few photos and notes will hopefully illustrate the construction phase of aforementioned backyard art.

Structural posts in place.

The first step is to add some posts to give the Gabion some stability, it is possible to make them without support but the base width must be one third the height of the Gabion. A 500mm wide base was too much for my design so two 50x50 gal RHS posts provide enough strength to support the wall. The design incorporates three walls with a sloped corrugated galvanised iron roof to keep the sun and weather off the gear. The three walled set up should also allow easy service access to the pool equipment and the AC unit.

With the posts set it was time to cut and set up the wire frame that houses the stone that make the Gabion, I was initially going to wire the mesh frame together, but have since decided to weld the mesh together and paint the welds with cold gal. The welds should provide further strength to the wall. It took a little more time than I had expected but I am pleased with the results.

Mesh frame in place.

I learnt an import lesson very early on in the rock filling process, there were not enough lateral supports to keep the sides straight (as Karren had suggested). We had to remove all rock and add more supports, then start again.

Doesn't look much better yet.

Lower section complete.

I am pleased with the results, there are plenty of different colours in the rock fill that are even more pronounced when the rocks are wet.

About half finished

Getting there.

 It was a pretty successful day, I ran the conduit for the power to control the pool cleaner as well. All is in readiness for the pebble coating. Could really have done with a swim when I finished today...