In the spirit of not working every single waking moment of every single day, today I made the most of the lovely spring weather to finally spend some time sorting out my little courtyard.

It’s definitely one of the pluses of where I live these days that I have a little space for plants and to sit outside. But lately it’s been far too neglected and I’ve not felt like sitting out there for a while.

So today I decided to sort it out! I swept up all of the dead leaves that had blown in over the last few months, cleaned and oiled the outdoor table, organised some of the bits and pieces I keep out there, moved plants, pulled out a dead plant and replaced it with some fresh soil and cuttings of new plants, I watered and fertilised everything … and it was good!

I decided to take a few photographs to show off what now looks like a half decent space (given what I have to work with – including the bizarre apricot coloured walls!). Above is the improved view from the front door.

To the left is my favourite old rusty plant stand (found by friends after it was thrown out in the street) with some of my favourite plants – I’ve owned the maiden hair fern for probably around ten years now!

To the right are some geraniums. I’ve always loved geraniums and recently I’ve decided I should start collecting them, mostly by stealing little pieces of plants I like the look of as I’m walking around (only pieces which won’t be noticed and mostly from neglected looking plants). Apparently this means I’m starting to take after my great grandmother who was a notorious cuttings thief!

My inspiration for starting to do this came from the geraniums with the white edged leaves photographed above. I came across them while visiting my parents in South Australia. On an extremely hot day we made a brief stop in a little rural town called Kulpara to get out of the car after a couple of hours of driving.

These poor geraniums – which looked to be quite old – were in a neglected little garden in the park where we stretched our legs. During the worst drought on record and what was a very hot summer, it seemed like they were on their last legs. So I snapped off a few small pieces and brought them home to Sydney … where they seem extremely happy and are quickly growing into decent sized plants – I have four pots of them! I quite like the idea of having a little piece of Kulpara history alive and well in Sydney.

This is my much loved agave – another plant rescued from South Australia, oddly enough! Although it can’t be seen, this plant is a little bit worse for wear having been hailed on this year and also having been pot bound for a while – it’s been relocated to a much bigger pot now. But the new growth all seems happy enough.

Here is fairly new clivia lily which is having its very first flowers.

So that’s your (partial!) tour of my little courtyard. And now it really is time for me to start doing some work.