It’s My Garden, My Hole, I’m First

July 6th, 2009 by Ezio

Tip! Rock Gardens - Rock gardens can take on different themes and colour schemes throughout the year with a little careful planning. There is again some heavy physical work involved when you’re putting together your rock garden but well worth it in the end.

Australia’s the warmest place in the world, and there was every chance of reaching it before bedtime. It needed a few more diggers and another couple of spades. So I phoned Kevin and told him the plan. He was big, strong and kept spare spades in the shed for emergencies. He didn’t have a torch, but it’d be daytime where we were going.

I assembled the gang and told them the plan. They were impressed, but there was a brief argument as to who would go down the hole first. It would have to be me, but I wasn’t very assertive. I resorted to dirty tactics.

“It’s my garden, my hole, I’m first.”

That settled it.

We worked in shifts and soon Tim’s head disappeared. That meant we were really deep and it shouldn’t be long before we heard Australian voices. Boy, were they going to be surprised!
There was a ‘clang’. Metal hit metal. A startled head appeared from the hole. “I think we’ve hit something” it said.

Tip! Evaluating your garden design. Before you start winterizing your garden, take a few minutes to review what worked and what didn’t and make note of any areas that you would like to change in the spring.

Could be the bottom of an Australian car, a boat or even a rocket. “Better be quiet - shhhhhh.”
Another couple of clangs and we knew a second World War bomb was blocking our path to Australia. We found an axe in the shed and gave the bomb a good beating. It wouldn’t go off.

“It’s my turn to make it go off.”

“No it’s not, it’s mine!”

Darn thing wouldn’t explode, so we scraped the dirt back to look for the button. Every bomb has a button in case it doesn’t go off and has to be detonated by hand. Everyone knows that.
Parents always butt in when you’re having the most fun.

“What are you lot doing, come and wash your hands, dinner’s ready”

“We’re just setting the bomb off mum, I’ll wash my hands in a minute.”

Everything happened quickly. There were sirens, cars, people in uniforms and lots of orange tape. We were moved a long way from our bomb and it was clear we had competition. That was the trouble with being small. Just when you found something really fun to play someone bigger came along and took it away.

Tip! Oriental - It is often the kind of garden found in houses with small backyards. It uses rocks, evergreens and water, and a wide variety of plants to create several angles with this style.

So we sat on the step of a shop and ate chocolate. We saved a bit for when the bomb went off and opened up the hole to Australia. We’d offer it around as a sign of friendship, chocolate being an international language.

They were taking a long time setting the bomb off, and as it had been hissing aggressively when we got dragged away it shouldn’t be taking this long.

We snuck around the back of the houses, behind the policeman talking to an angry gardener, climbed over the fence into the garden and hid behind a bush. Water was spurting all over the place. We must have missed Australia and hit the ocean instead.

Tip! Choose a sunny, well-drained gardening site. Most wildflowers need at least five to eight hours of sunlight a day and well-drained soil.

Blame got passed around until it fell on me, but I reckoned this so called Ã¯Â¿Â½disaster’ could be an unexpected bonus. We got a bit closer to check if any sharks were floating through the hole, as sharks were pretty cool and no other kid had one. With all this water pumping into the garden we’d have a pond to put it in. Maybe a lake, or even the whole ocean.

A big red face appeared around the bush.

The water pipe, the face said, is very important. The big red face spoke earnestly about bursting local council property and a cold Sunday dinner waiting for him at home. There was a Ã¯Â¿Â½cross missus’ in there too, whatever one of those was, and a whole sentence that ended with Ã¯Â¿Â½pesky kids’ but that didn’t make sense either. All we wanted to do was get to Australia and warm up.

Tip! Water Features - are becoming more and more popular and also more affordable. Create a water feature that will suit your garden.

I had a very early night. All my friends went home and the big red face went off with the policemen, muttering.

I stared at the ceiling. This must be what they call Deep Thought.
There must be other ways of getting Down Under.

There are of course, but it was several years before I got on a plane and flew here. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, and the trip, although exciting, wasn’t nearly as much fun.

Tip! Water Gardening. Bring in pumps, drain, clean, refill (if necessary) and store tender water plants prior to freezing.

Digging a hole here through the centre of the earth is the way to go. We’d have made it too; if it hadn’t been for that bomb they called a water pipe.

Rob Daniel is a children’s author, creative writing, memory and self-esteem teacher. He lives in beautiful Albany on the south west corner of Western Australia, has a passion for mangos, the Greek Islands and bringing the best out of young people.

Rob creates ‘turn the page’ children’s e-books with illustrators from around the world. You can check out and buy these books instantly from http://www.chocmint.com You’ll also find an opportunity to join the chocmint adventure yourself, if you have a passion for writing and illustrating for children.

Tip! Understand what you want. For example a garden for a holiday house would be totally different for your normal home.

LATEST book published ‘A Tail’s Tale’, illustrated by UK artist Elizabeth Stringer. Part proceeds from these books go towards sponsoring children at the Bear-Care orphanage in Kitgum, Uganda run by the extraordinary Murray Kidd