STROLL THE PATHS OF THE FRONT GARDEN

When I first sighted the cypress pine cottage that was to become our future home I was delighted by the honey stained timber which blended naturally amongst several tall eucalyptus trees. While constructing the garden I maintained the natural ambiance by creating rock edged sand paths.

As I lead my tour group towards the southern portion of our front garden I offer them a choice or direction where the path divides around a large bed containing an ivy covered stump, a popular spot for my cat, Patches, to supervise garden activities.

Patches on Ivy

The area fronting our house contained five large eucalyptus trees, the variety known as Peppermint gums, which grow in the cool mountain districts along the Great Dividing Range from Melbourne to the Granite Belt of southern Queensland. Most farmers curse eucalyptus trees because they survive the droughts of Australia due to their capacity to spread roots to match the height of their growth. They are capable of taking every last bit of moisture from the ground. They drop eucalyptus leaves as a mulch  containing a chemical which acts as a growth retardant for grass and other plants within their drip zone.

When he sighted those five trees my father warned, “They’ll rob your garden of all its goodness.”

Other people worried, “What about storms? Aren’t you worried they’ll fall and damage your house?”

Reluctant to remove the trees until I had other plants established I allowed them to remain. Sure, I was forever raking leaves, adding rich composts and pouring on the water, but those trees provided cooling shade in the summer and a degree of frost protection in the winter.

Then disaster struck! Read the rest of this entry »

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PAULA – MY CHEF FOR THREE WEEKS.

It was Eberhard who met the bus from Sydney at Glen Aplin and brought Paula Snow to our home. Paula had contacted me from Boston in the USA and asked if she could come to me as a wwoofer. She had joined the WWOOF organization and discovered that Das Helwig Haus B&B was a host farm prepared to teach organic gardening and cookery skills to young international travelers who were Willing Workers on Organic Farms.

Over coffee, i discovered that she had studied cooking for three years at a culinary school, then worked under a senior chef at an Italian restaurant for two years and then under another senior chef in a  seafood restaurant for a further two years. Both restaurants were situated in the city of Washington.

“What prompted your trip to Australia? I asked.

“My Grandmother died and left me a small legacy on condition that I do something adventurous with the money. After three weeks with you, I’m heading to Cairns to go white water rafting, bungee jumping and scuba diving.”

“And why have you chosen to wwoof with us?”

“I read that you practised self-sufficiency and I want to learn ‘garden to table’ from you.”

Eberhard turned to me and asked, “What are we eating for lunch today?”

I laughed. “I’ve got a cook and a chef in the kitchen and you’re asking me what we will eat? Can’t the two of you work it out?”

Read the rest of this entry »

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WE ENTER THE HERB GARDEN

“Why do you call this your herb garden?

I am always asked this question as we walk down the slope between borders of marigolds and camomile daisies. It is true that this lower terrace at the rear of the house has never been designed as a formal potager. The style of such a traditional garden is usually symmetrical and surrounded by neatly trimmed box hedges. They often contain a fountain, bird bath or sundial in the centre.

The reason that this area at the rear of Das Helwig Haus B&B became our herb garden is its proximity to our kitchen. Rather than keeping a bunch of herbs in a glass on my kitchen table, I prefer to go into the garden to gather fresh sprigs as needed.

Garden path between marigolds and camomile.

I grow the German camomile (matricaria recutita) as an annual plant like the marigolds as it self-seeds and germinates thickly each year in August. The flowers are plucked when fully open, dried and stored. Later they can be steeped in hot water to provide a soothing bed-time tea to encourage a restful sleep.

We pass beside the feijoa trees under which I have planted seed of jam melons as they will need space to run out their vines.  Borage always self-seeds in this area too. It was the ancient Romans who first floated borage flowers in cups of wine. I pick a few dainty blue flowers and hand them to my garden visitors, remarking that I freeze the flowers in ice blocks to later float in a jug of water. The leaves of this herb are cucumber flavoured.

Read the rest of this entry »

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TWO CITRUS RECIPES

It is 48 years since I married my first husband and moved on to a dairy farm to live. I milked cows morning and evening, boiled water in a copper to wash clothes and cooked on a wood burning stove. The only way to gauge the oven temperature was by putting ones hand in the oven and hazarding a guess. Wood was split to different thicknesses, making it possible to regulate the heat by the quantity or variety of wood being burnt. For slow cooking of dark fruit cakes for Christmas only a small amount of wood was allowed to burn and several thicknesses of stiff brown paper was layered around the mixture in the tin, while other sheets of the same paper were placed over the tin. It was generally considered desirable to have the cake cook 3-4 hours, with testing after 3 hours with a straw from a broom to determine if the mixture was still sticky.

Those were days when men joked that they had bought the Missus a new axe for Mother’s day so she could split her own wood. Read the rest of this entry »

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WE WALK AMONGST VEGETABLES

When pegging out our house extension in 1993 for the guest wing of Das Helwig Haus B&B, Eberhard realised that the northern veranda would abut against the rockery garden. As the house was positioned on a slope falling away to the south, the ground for the extension would have to be excavated to the sixty-centimetre depth demanded by the Stanthorpe Council. A bulldozer was hired to clear the site and push rocks and subsoil to form a hill on the south-western side of this site. The weather was hot and the pile of decomposed granite, which forms the whitish subsoil of the Granite Belt, produced a barren moonscape. The glare reflected off this site and into the kitchen and living room was horrific.

“As soon as we can, I must plant a fast growing leafy tree against the back veranda to shade our kitchen,” I said.

“Make it a deciduous tree,” Eberhard advised. “Once the new wing goes in it’ll block the sunlight from the north. During winter months we’ll need light!”

Sweet-corn beside the persimmon tree December 2004.

Now the gooseberry bushes, quince, persimmon and fig trees are well established and by December are lush with green foliage.”

This area where I’m leading our garden visitors is the service area for our home. A huge concrete rainwater tank was constructed on site and a hole was blasted out of the rocky ground beside it to admit the bio-cycle tank, which handles all the gray water from our guest accommodation before it is recycled on to shrubs.

Frank Musumeci brought his bobcat to build rock retaining walls and level off the pile of subsoil to create a broad terrace. I watched mesmerised as he wheeled the machine to and fro, selecting large rocks from within the earth and delicately dropping them into place, forming a semi-circle of boulders.  Finally, he leveled off the fill to form a platform. Later we spread topsoil over this area, which is the sunny high ground carrying the currant and gooseberry bushes, the asparagus and rhubarb. Read the rest of this entry »

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FIVE POPPIES

There are several different varieties of poppies from the Northern Hemisphere growing in our garden at Das Helwig Haus B&. This morning after a shower of rain last night I found I had five varieties in bloom. I have photographed all five types of poppies for inclusion in this post today.

I’ll begin with the Flanders Poppy, commonly called the Field Poppy in Europe until it became associated with the battles in Flanders during World War One.

Flander Poppy

Flanders Poppy and honey bee.

Often there is considerable difference between individual Flanders poppies – Papaver rhoeas in both flower and leaf structure. The Reverend Shirley, an English cleric, noticed several different colours amongst a clump of wild poppies in his garden and with selective breeding produced the Shirley poppy which now bears his name. These poppies have the texture of crepe paper ranging through colours from rose pink to mauve and purple. In our Remembrance Field at Glen Aplin I often notice poppies with unusual colouring. Sometimes I will receive an telephone call from a excited gardener who obtained seed from me the previous year to say his seed has produced a new colour.

Papaver rhoeas with white centre and petal edging

First Oriental poppy of 2008

The poppies bred from the Papaver rhoeas stock have similar leaves and will last no more than one day as a cut flower. They are annuals and must be planted from seed each year. The Oriental poppies I grow are Papaver atlanticum, a hairy perennial with orange flowers. The first flowers appear deep within the foliage but later blooms may grow as tall as 60cm. As they are perennials they will carry over from one year to another.

Oriental poppies in 2007

Iceland poppies

One of the most beautiful poppies is the Papaver nudicaule commonly known as the Iceland Poppy. It is actually a perennial grown as a winter/spring flowering annual. This is an excellent cut flower, requiring no water if the stems are firstly seared with heat. I use a candle flame to scorch the stems.

Honey bees love these poppies

Like the Flanders poppies the Californian poppies – Eschscholsia Californica seed prolifically and have become one of the weeds of my garden. I have one garden bed where I allow them to grow each year as a ground cover under shrubs, but I have to thin them severely. I have also found that seed spread from my rubbish heaps to surrounding grassy areas where these colourful flowers have created perennial clumps. They don’t transplant easily as they have a single tap root, so should be sown from seed. However it is that strong tap root that allows them to survive as a perennial. They grow wild across the hills of southern California.

When bought in a seed packet there are a variety of colours including shades of cream, lemon, yellow, orange, red and mauve.

After a few years of self-seeding most of my poppies are the traditional yellow colour associated with the wild poppies of California.

Californian Poppy

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ENTER THE VEGETABLE GARDEN

Once we cross the covered walkway that links our guest apartments to the northern wing of Das Helwig Haus B&B we enter the vegetable garden. On our right the rhubarb and acanthus grow gigantic leaves and the kiwi fruit vines entirely cover the lattice along the apartment veranda. This is the south western part of our garden and as such is exposed to the worst of our winter winds. All the permanently planted trees and shrubs in this region are deciduous and in the winter months the area becomes rather desolate.

Rhubarb

Winter is our busy season with guests who come to the Granite Belt to taste the wines, follow the food trail and cuddle up before a fire at night. Thus it suits me that the garden is dormant. I try to have the grape vines, quince, persimmon, cherry, mulberry, apricot and nectarine trees pruned by the end of August.

There are some years when spring is slow arriving on the Granite Belt with frosts continuing on into October. In fact, frosts have been recorded in every month of the year. Because of the cold winters the garden does not yield much produce in spring until the soil warms.

While we were holidaying in Germany during the spring of 1990 my sister-in-law, Minna Helwig, told me that we would be having a barbe kue on Samstag and I had thought she was telling me that she planned a barbecue on Saturday. Imagine my surprise therefore when she picked the first red stalks of rhubarb from her garden, discarded the poisonous leaves, and gave me the stems to wash and slice. Meanwhile Minna used fresh yeast to make the sweet bread base of a Kuchen. The rhubarb was spread across the base, sprinkled liberally with sugar, and after the dough had risen to double the original height, placed in the oven to bake. Served with generous amounts of pouring cream, this is the traditional way the first rhubarb of the season is presented to families in the village of Wolferborn and throughout other regions of Hesse.

Rhubarb clump

We continued our around the world trip to visit Margaret, a friend who lives near New Liskeard in northern Ontario, Canada. I was amazed by the size of her rhubarb clump. Obviously established years previously it seemed to require no special attention, would die back into the earth under a heavy cover of snow each year, but then burst forth in the spring to create a remarkably thick cluster of plants. I was to see many more such clumps on other farms in northern Ontario and the attitude seemed to be that rhubarb was little better than a weed. There weren’t enough ways to utilise all that rhubarb and it was frequently ignored.

My tour groups are equally astounded by the size of my rhubarb clump.

“What do you do with it all,” I’m asked.

“Each weekend I’ll ask our guests if they would like to take a bunch home with them, but very seldom will they take me up on my offer. They would rather buy my Rhubarb Relish, which is especially tasty on cold roast lamb.” During the next fifteen minutes as we wend our way through my productive back yard I’ll be advertising our jams, jellies, chutneys and pickles, which they’ll have the opportunity to buy before they board the bus. “The rhubarb must be picked until April.”

Fay's jams and jellies

Because our rhubarb is well watered and shaded from the afternoon sun by the structure of the self-contained apartments it doesn’t suffer any stress and tends to remain green in colour, not the ruby red I would prefer. As a result, if cooked alone, it is rather an unattractive khaki green colour. When I stew my rhubarb I add either strawberries or raspberries. These share their colour and flavour, thus creating a tasty and attractive compote.

“And this fern – what is it?”

“That’s the asparagus. If you look near the base,” I scoop away some soil with my bare hand, “You can see fresh spears. We only pick the stronger shoots during the first couple of months. Then we let it make fern. This is important as the fern allows the roots to receive nutrients during the summer months. Then when the winter frosts come, it dies down and we clear away dead foliage. It is an ongoing cycle. If properly looked after an asparagus bed will last a lifetime.”

“And what are these bushes?” My attention is drawn to bushy clumps on the left side of the path.”

“Red and white currants. We use them to make jellies.”

Harvesting white currants

During 1995 I planted the upper terrace at the rear of Das Helwig Haus with red and white currants. These now bear a prolific crop each spring and must be hand stripped from the bushes and converted to currant jelly. Little did I think when I began planting this huge garden to offset our home, what a rod I was creating for my own back? No matter how busy I am with other matters, by the end of October Eberhard will be drawing my attention to the asparagus needing to be picked, the rhubarb running to flower, the strawberries attracting birds and the currants hanging ripe and ready for plucking.

Fruiting strawberry plants edge the paths and draw gasps of awe from the visitors. Don Burke, of the Burkes Backyard TV program, was amazed at the healthy growth of our strawberry plants when he visited the garden in 1997. I explained to Don that each year I covered them in hay during August then set fire to the hay, allowing the fire to also burn away all the leaves of the strawberry plants. This destroyed the leaves and any disease. The ash added nutrient and the perennial plants were triggered to all shoot new leaves together, flower together and fruit together.

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YOU ARE INVITED to visit Fay’s garden

I first visited Europe in in 1990 arriving in time to admire the cherry blossoms on the trees in Germany and lingering until the first cherries had ripened. Thus I saw the wonderful metamorphosis that is a Northern Hemisphere spring.

Two years later when Eberhard and I moved to live on the Granite Belt, the coldest region of Queensland, I realised I could grow many of the flowers I had so greatly admired in the European gardens. What I hadn’t anticipated was that because we also have severely cold winters, although seldom any snow, we too could experience the same dramatic change of seasons. Yesterday I saw a cherry tree laden with blossom at Thunderbolt Farm http://www.thunderboltfarm.com.au and by the first week of November the cherry orchards of the Granite Belt will be dispatching cherries to the capital city markets and overseas. My own Morello cherry tree is a little slower to bloom and ripen fruit, but I grow it for the superb sour cherries needed to make Eberhard’s famous Black Forest Cake, the recipe for which can still be found on SBS TVs Food Lovers Guide to Australia.

Lilac blooms against a blue Queensland sky

Everyone asks me when my garden looks its best. My bulbs bloom in the early spring under still deciduous trees. The flowering trees like the crab apple, peach and cherries blossom mid September as do my wisteria vines amd the Chinese roses – Banksia and Rosa Lavigata are covered in flowers the first week of October. It is this rapid succession of different flowering varieties that I had first noticed in Europe, for these were the flowers I saw each taking a week to be centre stage during the spring months.

Now the deciduous trees are gaining their leaves and my garden is noticeably turning green. This green period will last no more than two weeks before shrubs begin blooming and the colourful annuals like the poppies claim attention.

Fig tree

In this view you can see that the fig tree is budding out with green leaves and the roses in the foreground have fresh leaves. I have established many permanent features, including various green conifers, all of which, like the Mondo grass lawn, are intended to lesson the amount of work I do to maintain this garden.

Green rose garden

The first buds are appearing on the rose bushes. By the time I begin welcoming bus tours of visitors to my garden on 19th October, this rose bowl will be filled with colour and perfume.

First Flanders Poppy of 2008

Already the one plant has produced a red Flanders poppy, the pink cistus – rock rose is covered with flowers, the blue forget-me-nots are brightening shady areas, the lavenders edging the paths are blooming and I’m hoping you will visit me this year to see my garden reach its full glory. Entrance to the garden is $5.00 per adult. If you want to stay a night phone me on 07-4683 4227 or email helwig@halenet.com.au

Rock rose - cistusBanksia Rose, named after the botanist Sir Joseph Banks.

Banksia Rose, named after the botanist Sir Joseph Banks.

Large variety of forget-me-nots

Lavender edges the paths

OCTOBERFEST in the SPRING

During the past 10 days I have had the help of two young Korean men and more recently a young German woman as Wwoofers – Willing Workers on my Organic Farm. The men have worked industriously to weed and thin the Flanders poppies in the Remembrance Field while Anika has assisted me in the household vegetable garden.

Anika with the first Flanders Poppy to bloom in 2008

I must have both the Remembrance Field and the garden ready for presentation by 19th October when I have about 150 visitors expected to view these attractions.

Korean wwoofer Joe

After the coldest August for 17 years we are now having a warm spring with the bees buzzing in the lavender bushes lining our paths. Potatoes are sprouting from the warm earth, sweet corn shoots have appeared, climbing beans are developing leaves and all the other seeds of lettuce, beets, carrots, radish, cucumbers, melons and pumpkins have germinated and are breaking through the surface of my friable soil.

Did you know that stinging nettles are a herb used in Europe as a strong tonic at the end of winter when made into a fresh tea by infusing the leaves in hot water? They are one of the first weeds to grow vigorously in my garden with the onset of warmer weather.

Before Anika could begin picking the peas this morning we had firstly to pull out all the stinging nettles growing amongst them. I explained to her that their growth was a compliment to the quality of my soil, as they thrive in fertile soil and are frequently introduced into gardens by the use of animal manures.

Anika picking peas

Spring is a busy time for everyone here on the Granite Belt as the wineries are holding a spring festival named Primavera throughout the spring months. Amongst the functions to be held this weekend is the Octoberfest at Thunderbolt Farm. Keith and Claudia Beverley have Thunderbolt Farm listed as a host property in The Australian Wwoof Book, and like me rely heavily on wwoofers to assist them during their busy seasons. What good fortune for them this year that they too have two German wwoofers, David and Sonya, presently with them. Now, Anika has been invited to join the festivities at Thunderbolt Farm this weekend.

Octoberfest at Thunderbolt Farm

For a German style Bed Breakfast this weekend, book your room now at Das Helwig Haus B&B by emailing helwig@halenet.com.au or phoning Fay on 07-4683 4227

PAUSE BESIDE THE ROSE BOWL

FAY SHARES SOME HISTORY

On every garden tour I will always be asked, “What are those pink and red things?”

“Do you mean these?” I’ll break off a few different blooms. “These are a form of dianthus. They have the perfume of cloves, like carnations. This form is commonly called Sweet William, but the Scottish people didn’t like William of Orange, so they called them Stinking Billy.” My answer will bring a laugh. “See the variation? Although they are various shades of pinks, reds and white, each flower has a different pattern. The Dutch have another name for these – they call them ‘A Thousand Beautifuls’, and from what I’ve been told their particular word for beautiful is the same word they would use to describe a beautiful young woman.

Sweet William

Next, I’ll brush my hand over the gray foliage plant with the yellow button like flowers. “And this is Santalina, a Mediterranean herb that supposedly is a stimulant for roses. I grow it right around the rose bowl over the rocks. As you walk past, give it a brush – release the aromatic oils.”

It was an Italian born neighbour, Orris Romeo, who helped me construct the rose bowl. He brought over an old tractor fitted with a small dozer blade mounted on the
back, which swiveled in any direction. Orris used this to cut into the sloping ground at the north-western corner of the house, leaving a sharp earthen bank, and spread the soil evenly towards the house. It was in this semi-circular basin I later planted the rose bushes. Once more Orris had returned to his farm, swapping the blade for a carry-all tray. Together we surveyed the rocky outcrops around the farm gathering up boulders as large as he could roll or lever onto the carry-all. Orris dropped these into the excavation and then sat on his bottom, using the strength of his legs and back to push the rocks hard against the cut bank. Less attractive rocks were dropped down under the edge of the veranda, the tops just showing between the earth and floor boards. This barrier prevents dirt washing under the house during storms. Thus we created a terraced, rock-fringed bowl. I have so many memories associated with the Romeo family and the establishment of our garden.

Rose Bowl

Santalina herb

Early one warm morning of our first summer on the Granite Belt, when Eberhard was without a shirt, the sound of a motor bike brought him to the front veranda. The rider took off his helmet and requested directions. Eberhard couldn’t clearly hear his inquiry.

“What’s he saying?” Eberhard asked. “I think the cheeky bugger wants to know if I’m Mr. Australia?”

I was amused. “You might have a bare chest, but you would never pass for a muscle builder.”

Calling to the man, I asked, “Are you looking for Mr. Orris Romeo? ” He nodded and I instructed, “Go back out our entrance road, turn left and you will find that Romeo’s Lane is the next road on the left. Go to the end of the lane.”

After answering several more questions, I tell my visitors, “I’m going to cross over the walkway now between these rosa lavigata roses and lead you down through the vegetable garden.” This is one time when I have chosen to use the Latin name, as it was the first name by which I came to know this superb early blooming white rose.

Rosa Lavigata or Cherokee Rose

Rosa Lavagata or Cherokee Rose

“Have any of you read the book by Gavin Menzies – 1421 The Year China Discovered the World?”

A few amongst my audience will nod their heads, while others may say they saw a TV documentary on the subject.

“This is a very old Chinese rose, but its common name is the Cherokee Rose. It was given that name when discovered growing in the USA by the early settlers. How do you suppose it reached California? According to Gavin Menzies it was grown there by Chinese left behind to colonize the region when their ship was wrecked.”

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