I think every backyard should have one… a water feature… homage to our most precious resource… a gorgeous, bubbling focal point…. yes, well that’s my excuse anyway. Who would have thought that a mains water line (in a very flimsy plastic tube) would run VERY shallowly right beside the two main pylons for the tree house???!!! Certainly not me as Josh and I found out whilst trying to plant a camellia ground cover to elegantly sweep around the base of the tulip tree tree house. The plant is still in it’s bucket, all that elegantly swept was the giant arc of water as my spade hit dirt.   What immediately followed was a Cathy Freeman inspired sprint to the front of the property (to turn off the mains water), which had poor little Josh following in a mad panic believing his mummy was just running for her life! Yes, “every gardener for themselves”… !!

So turns out reversing water features isn’t cheap. DIY repairs only resulted in the pipe holding long enough for Josh to manage to tie himself to the tree house base. Turns out knots are hard to untie when you are being blasted by a huge jet of water and giggling hysterically!!!  Cue plumber. At $180 that camellia better look pretty darn good once I eventually pluck up the courage to dig again and actually plant it!

An interesting observation from the saga was how much we use water.  We had to wait almost the entire day for the plumber to arrive… so that’s an entire day without water.  I, as you do, had decided to do the planting after my morning run and prior to my shower… so there I was sweaty and now muddy for the day! But what a day without water really showed me was just how many times a day I use water and how such a precious resource it is. Whether it be to drink, cook, wash, feed the chooks, clean my hands after wrangling children, chooks or chives… it really was a great lesson on just how much I consume per day… even per minute!