A Courtyard Garden With Cyclone Gardening Tools

I shared with you recently some never kink hoses that I reviewed for Australian garden brand Cyclone. I now have some of their awesome gardening tools I've been getting dirty in the garden as we start to add some kerb appeal to the front our house and create a garden in our front courtyard.

There is a Cyclone tool for pretty much every task you have to do in the garden - so between the weeds, raking and tidying up, transplanting and potting plants - we have been putting these gardening tools to good use. 

Mr P got busy with the top soil spreader and leveled out the sand in the courtyard so we could lay some pavers around our rain chain pots (another project we are working on .... blog post to come!)

The metal spreaders roll as you move them along the ground and they glide nicely over the soil flattening the ground. We have used a few different types of spreaders and this one has a really nice glide to it, or maybe it's just Mr P's moves, he always makes things look easy!

The Telescopic hedge shears - wavy edge is perfect for cutting greenery and plants that are thick or slippery as the wave holds the stems in place while you cut - While the Telescopic ratchet bypass lopper is perfect for cutting small-medium sized greenery and branches.

We used these shears and loppers to cut back the neighbors trees (with their permission of course!) that were taking over our fence. They snipped through wood branches without a problem - these are must haves for trimming larger plants or trees.

The 10 Tine mulch and bark fork has a shorter handle than a normal fork which makes it sturdy and is good for carrying lighter materials.

The fork itself is pretty wide and you can fit a lot on - we raked up all the dead grass and weeds with the fork, lifted it straight onto the fork and into the bin, got to love a multi tasking gardening tool.

The 4 prong hand fork was one of my favourites as I like anything mini size that fits my hand. It was perfect for weeding - I always get blisters pulling out weeds even when I wear gloves but now I can use the fork to loosen the weeds and then pull them out which is much easier.

The 2 prong hand weeder is smaller and allows you to weed in small areas where you don't want to damage the surrounding plants or lawn. I still hate weeding but using these weeders definitely helped keep my dainty hands blister free!

The courtyard cultivator is another weeding tool because you can never have enough weed helpers, those suckers grow anywhere and everywhere! This is more of a heavy duty weeder and was perfect on the larger weeds that almost needed a shovel to dig out!

With our backyard being cleared for subdivision, we had to dig up all the plants from the backyard and put them into pots for the courtyard. The aloe vera was growing out of control in our backyard garden beds and they look so good potted up in pots and in their new home on the path by the front door. 

Every courtyard needed it's own courtyard shovel - this shovel has a short handle which makes it easy to dig holes and I liked it because it wasn't as heavy as a normal shovel and I could work with it better.

I used the hand trowel the most, it was great for doing up the pot plants and meant I didn't have to get my hands dirty with potting mix!

I think any house from the 1960s in suburban Perth had a jade plant otherwise known as a money plant growing unkempt and wild in their garden. We have transplanted our money plants half a dozen times and they are still growing strong.

I dug them up yet again (hopefully for the last time!) and planted them in matching ceramic pots to create a welcoming path to the front door .... Paired with my funky Acapulco chairs and our furbaby Lexi who can resist this welcome!

These Cyclone gardening tools are quality products that feel good in your hands - the larger tools have a lifetime warranty while the smaller tools have a 10 year warranty which is pretty impressive.

They have become well used additions and a big help in creating our courtyard garden.

I can't wait to show you more of our courtyard garden as we finalise the design and keep working on it over the coming weeks!

How is your garden growing ?


Sharing with link parties:
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
The Dedicated House - Make It Pretty Mondays

Disclosure: Many thanks to Cyclone for providing me with these products for review. I have not received any payment or compensation for this review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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Book Club Book Review: The Girl On The Train By Paula Hawkins

My Book Club's book choice for the month of October was The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins.

This is a thriller told in diary format by three female narrators - the main character is Rachel a recently divorced, sad and lonely, alcoholic who can't move on from her past.

The story follows Rachel on the train each day and the lives she imagines the people who live along the train tracks live. These people include her ex-husband, his neighbors and his current partner.

One of the narrators is murdered and somehow Rachel ends up in the midst of it as the story progresses with you trying to work out "who dunnit".

I can see why this book caused so much hype and interest it really is a brilliant read, it's fast paced, realistic, and I couldn't put it down.

I didn't particularly like any of the characters, although they were written well, they weren't likable. I felt really sad and sorry for Rachel, and her story was raw and confronting at times. But that's also what I loved about this book just how shocking and real it was.

I recommend this book to thriller lovers and to anyone who thinks others have a perfect life - this will show you that nothing is every quite as it seems!

I give this book 4 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give up a bottle of the worlds best champagne for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

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DIY: Plastic Pots + Spray Paint = Granite Look Pots

Our latest home improvement project has us working towards clearing the backyard for subdivision.

A mini excavator and driver came last weekend to dig up the old garden beds and we had to transplant any plants that we wanted to save and move them into the courtyard at the front of the house. Some of the plants are these yukkas we grew from cuttings that a friend gave us years ago, we stuck them in the ground, watered them occasionally, and they have turned into beautiful big plants!

Now that the front courtyard has a fence around it it's a blank canvas patiently waiting to be landscaped - but until we work out the exact design I don't want to spend money on expensive pots or start putting plants into the ground only to have to dig them up again. 

So I decided the best thing was to plant the yakkas into pots we already had .... old, weathered, faded, dirty plastic pots ...... which would be given a face lift with some spray paint that looks like granite.

To start with I gave the pots and trays a good clean with my fancy never kink hose to remove all the dirt and peeled off the labels. I left them to dry in the stinking hot 38 degrees sun which only took about 10 minutes and they were good to go!

Once the pots were clean and dry I turned to my trusty spray paint supplies and used the Dulux Duramax Plastic Primer spray paint first to apply a light coat of primer onto the pots and trays.

The primer is a must as it prepares the plastic surface which helps the paint stick to it.

The primer didn't take long to dry on such a hot day - I waited less than half an hour.

I then used two cans of Dulux Duramax granite affect spray paint. You could use one can of paint and have the background colour show through and a more speckled look but I wanted it to be solid granite which is why I used a second can of paint.

I did a couple of light coats and waited half an hour between coats to dry. Dulux Duramax is known for it's fast drying time, it dries super fast which is perfect for impatient painters like me! 

I did a review of these Dulux Duramax spray paints earlier this year which you can read more about here.

I waited another hour for the painted pots and trays to be completely dry and they were then ready to be used.

I sat the pots on the trays, filled the pots with potting mix and planted the yukkas.

Everyone looks surprised when I tell them these pots are plastic, the granite effect is very realistic and I think they could pass for being made of granite or a heavier material.

Except they are much lighter and cheaper than granite pots would be!

It feels good to be out in the garden adding some much needed greenery and kerb appeal to the front of the house.

Have you been out in the garden lately? 

Sharing with link parties:

Curly Crafty Mom - The Creative Corner
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays




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Book Review: Pimp My Rice By Nisha Katona

This is a book review of Pimp My Rice: Dress it up, Spice it up, Serve it up  by Nisha Kotana that was published by Nourish Books on 15 October 2015.

Nisha is a British born Indian, rice and curry evangelist, a former barrister, restaurateur and has spent many years teaching Indian cookery to Brits of all ages in Liverpool.

The name says it all really Pimp My Rice is a cookbook about turning the humble grain of rice into a tasty dish for the dinner table.

There are rice dishes for all courses - entree, main to dessert. For any meal of the day - from breakfast to dinner. With all flavours - sweet and savoury to hot and spicy.

There are rice dishes I've never even thought of creating before like Banana Espresso for breakfast and desserts made from rice don't normally appeal to me but seeing the Salted Cinnamon Overnight Pud and I have suddenly changed my mind! There are heaps of main dishes I want to make and the Gutsy Prawn Gumbo and Jambalaya both remind me of New Orleans food I'd love to create at home as a reminder of our recent Honeymoon in the USA!

The recipes are easy to read and follow they are not too fancy or complicated which makes this book perfect for the home cook. I would have liked to see more pictures of each dish as the pictures that were in there were really appealing and made me want to make the dish there and then!

The voice of the author comes through as relaxed, friendly and fun and the summary at the top of each recipe about the dish is a really entertaining way to add a story about each recipe.

I recommend this book to rice lovers it's a really great addition for any home cook, to add to their cookbook collection.

I give this book 5 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give up a bottle of the worlds best champagne for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Pimp My Rice can be purchased from the author here and Nourish Books

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here and Netgalley

Disclosure:  NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote authors and their books and I was given a hardcopy of this book published by Nourish Books to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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Home Staging And Furnishing A Rental Property

The latest project that has had all my attention, as mentioned in my last blog post, has been to get my rental property an inner city apartment rented out.

The rental market in Perth has not been good for landlords and vacancy rates have hit a 20 year high. I discovered this when my rental was vacant for the last 3 months! Admittedly, that time included the break I had for the wedding and honeymoon. But still, when you compare it to 3 years ago when I had applications flying in and tenants offering more than the asking price to secure the place, it really has been a big change. 

Well, now the opposite has occurred, the rent prices have come down and there is over 5% of vacancies. Add to this the location of my property in East Perth where there are a lot of new developments, so tenants are going for the newer builds rather than the older complexes like mine.

I knew I had to do something to make the property more appealing to tenants because walking into an empty space not everyone can use their imagination and envisage what it would look like with a comfy couch, feature rug and modern art on the walls. Plus a lot of the potential tenants were students and travellers and wanted it already furnished so as the saying goes you need to cater for the market.

So I set myself a budget after working out how long it would take to recoup the money spent and got busy on Gumtree sourcing modern and stylish furniture and whitegoods suitable for apartment living. While most items I got were second hand, I went for quality brands and nearly new items, some of them were ex-display furniture used to stage homes for sale so they were in perfect near new condition.

All the accessories came from Kmart they are so on trend with their designs and inexpensive so it was worthwhile adding some decor items to really add personality to the rooms. Most of the artwork was also from Kmart with a few artworks from Target too.

The coffee table and side table were from Kmart's industrial range and I just love them I want them for my place! The rug had to be a real feature and statement piece and this was the only real splurge item but I scored it for half price so that made it ok - it's from Rugs A Million. 

We did a lot of upgrades too, touch up painting with some of the bedrooms getting a complete paint job, installed all new fittings in the bathroom and toilets, changed all the taps and shower head, we even replaced the old oven with a shiny new one. 

All these little details gave a new lease of life to the place and for a minor investment it really did give a big result.

Once it was furnished and decorated I took some photos and put a new ad up on Gumtree (free advertising!) and after just 4 days and 2 home opens/viewings I found new tenants.

I really do believe that with it furnished it was so much more appealing and everyone that came through said they wanted to live there compared to the way they reacted to the empty space before ... they couldn't get out of there fast enough!

A big selling point for this place is the facilities - it has a swimming pool, spa, sauna and gym.

When you walk out onto the balcony and look down onto the tropical gardens and swimming pool beckoning on a hot sunny day you can't help but want to sit out here with a drink and relax and take it all in. 

So how much did it cost? 

To stage a similar property, that's renting everything for about 6 weeks not purchasing it, will cost upwards of $4,000.

I spent less than $2,500 for the furniture, whitegoods, accessories and art for this 3 bedroom apartment and the best part is as I purchased everything instead of rented it I can always sell and recoup some of the money back down the track if I need to.

I really loved staging and styling the property and I would love to do this kind of thing for a living!

What are your thoughts on staging a property for sale or rent?

Sharing with link parties:

Curly Crafty Mom - The Creative Corner
The Dedicated House - Make It Pretty Monday
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays

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Book Club Book Review: Go Set A Watchman By Harper Lee

My Book Club's book choice for the month of September was Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

This story is set in the 1950s and is a sequel to How To Kill A Mockingbird and features some of the main characters many years on.

When 26 year old Jean comes home from bustling New York to her sleepy hometown of Maycomb, Alabama, she's shocked to learn of the racism abound in her community and from her family and friends.

The story just doesn't seem to go anywhere until the very end when Jean has a disagreement with her family and friends and finally they get to the crux of the issue and the soul of the story.

I wish the whole book had been as passionate and interesting as that final chapter.

I recommend this book to anyone who has read How To Kill A Mockingbird as you may enjoy it more than I did, I haven't read it which may be the reason I didn't enjoy this book. 

I give this book 2 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give up a bottle of the worlds best champagne for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

[Image via Penguin Books]

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