2008
We moved to beautiful Ararat in South-West Victoria out near the magnificent Grampian Mountains in 2008.
After 20 years of living in the big smoke of Melbourne it was wonderful to be out amongst the wide open spaces again.
My husband and I absolutely adored living here and would probably still be pottering around our little Ararat garden had the call of family not proved too strong and summoned us to Queensland in 2013.
But, we still own it, even though tenants now call it home, so we visit and prune the trees and pull out weeds and pick some fruit from the trees we planted a few years ago.
Our rickety little house was about 100 years old, close to the town centre with a dinky old-fashioned back lane-way.
The house block was pretty much a blank slate except for a row of awful Pittosporums against a corrugated iron fence that were quickly dispatched
and 2 lovely trees - a shady Native Daphne and a forlorn looking peach tree that fruited profusely every year and produced the most magnificent peaches I have ever tasted.
We set to, collecting rocks, laying paths, cutting out gardens, hauling soil and planting, planting, planting.
There was lots of sheep poo and pea straw involved.
We were extremely busy there for the first 2 or 3 years - then suddenly everything took off and started to fill in and look at home.
We grew oranges - navels and valencias, mandarins, limes - tahitian and kaffir, lemons, mulberries - black and white, loquats, white nectarines, the best yellow cling-stone peaches ever, gooseberries, strawberries and vegies galore - broad beans, onions, potatoes, garlic, artichokes, lettuces, magnificent tasty tomatoes, cucumber.....the list goes on.
And roses.
Ararat grows beeee-ewww-diful roses - it's those hot, dry summers.
There were other love affairs with flowing plants - hydrangeas, irises, fuchsias, camellias, geraniums.
It really was a beautiful, bountiful garden.
Life gave us a great gift.
