WILDFLOWERS OR WEEDS

Extract from my book WILDFLOWERS, WILDERNESS AND WINE.

In 1993 I had asked Eberhard to plough the field in front of our house to allow me to establish a wildflower meadow like I had seen in Europe during our holiday there in 1990. I had realised that in the cool mountain climate of the Granite Belt I would be able to grow many of the Northern Hemisphere flowers I had so greatly admired in Europe.

Amongst the flowers I sowed in the field were the red Flanders Poppies. My powers of observation came into play and I noted that it took sixteen weeks from when the poppy seed was sown for the plant to reach flowering. I recognised that it would be possible to germinate the poppy seedlings to time the flowering to begin mid October and continue on to the end of November.

Flanders poppies

This was an important discovery, for it led me to the startling conclusion that no where else in the Southern Hemisphere was there such a grouping of Flanders battlefield place names as the Granite Belt possessed and a cool mountain climate that would allow the poppies to bloom for 11^th November, Armistice Day.

In a report I wrote for the Southern Down Tourist Association I proposed the creation of a memorial drive where  people along the route could grow poppies in their gardens or fields to create a tourist attraction. This route already existed as a road linking the soldier settlements of Amiens, Messines, Bapaume, Passchendaele, Bullecourt, Pozieres and Fleurbaix. I envisaged motorists and school groups touring the area each November.

A meeting of tourist operators and business people from the northern – soldier settlement end of the district met to discuss the proposal and the Stanthorpe Border Post carried the story as a front-page feature. The enthusiasm was contagious. The RSL suggested placing seven memorial crosses on the drive to mark each district, with each cross to carry a plaque detailing the history of that particular battle. Furthermore it was suggested that the school children at Amiens and Pozieres might undertake the planting and management of poppies growing in garden beds under the crosses. The President of the Lion’s Club announced that the club would consider beautifying a public picnic ground with the poppies. Tony Evans, of Evan’s Seedlings at Amiens offered to purchase bulk poppy seed for distribution and to plant an acre of ground at the front of their business with the poppies. His father had served in France and been one of the original diggers to receive land at Amiens. I was photographed for the newspaper story standing with Mr. and Mrs. Evans. I came home from that meeting on a high!

Then the protesters, like storm clouds, gathered! Read the rest of this entry »

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TREASURES

There is something in my psyche that makes me enjoy the life of  hunting and foraging, not only for food but for items that I can reuse. As a child on farms our family never had access to garbage disposal services so we had to compost, burn or bury our rubbish. Today I still live on a farm and I don’t have the luxury of wheeling a garbage bin out to the kerbside for collection. Instead as part of the service we pay for via council taxes, our Shire Council provides bins on a site near Glen Aplin where we are allowed to dump household refuse. There is no recycling service for paper, aluminium cans or bottles. Further away near Stanthorpe there is a dump where people can dispose of old household furniture, white goods, car tyres, rusty wire etc. But, to travel that far is seen as a nuisance, so instead of taking these items to the official spot people not only fill the bins but leave any item that they can not fit into the bins lying on the ground nearby. Eberhard says Australian’s are a rebellious lot and won’t heed the voice of authority. I say that the Shire Councillors should consider solving the problem rather than complaining about the untidiness of rate payers. After all – they are elected  to meet the needs of shire residents.

This is a rural area into which many ‘tree change’ people have moved in recent years. During their former urban life they have never had difficulty disposing of their rubbish so they expect the Council to service their needs. Thus instead of shredding and composting garden rubbish, or even burning such piles, loads of shrubbery and even tree branches are thrown into the bins. Everything from kitchen utensils to paint buckets are cluttered beside mattresses and TV consoles until the Council eventually sends out a truck and a team of men to clear the area.

I am a law abiding soul who only deposits what garbage I can not recycle on my own property, but each trip I make to the refuse dump reminds me of the saying, “One man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure.” There are times when I will bring home a greater load than I have taken away. Not for personal use, but to recycle in the garden.

Such treasures include geranium cuttings, insect screen doors and a baby’s bath tub.

Water is a valuable garden resource. These two recycled former 44 gallon fuel drums now stand below the roof of a shed where the runoff rain water can drip down into the first drum. Warning – if you store water in such open containers be aware of the dangers. I check my drums regularly to look for wrigglers – mosquito larvae. A thin film of kerosene applied to the surface of the water will quickly suffocate them. Also, once the level has dropped, birds who have been coming to bath in this water may not be able to fly out. I insert a stick into these drums to allow birds to stand on it while they shake their feathers dry and thus prevent them drowning. Of course, if I was a rich woman I could have another covered rainwater tank placed on this site, but I have grown up ‘making do’ with what was available for me to use. I find these drums exceedingly useful when filling buckets of water to carry to my poultry each evening. Again if I was a rich woman I would have pipes reticulating water to the poultry pens. In this instance I could easily fill one drum, but had no way of flowing excess water to the second drum until I saw the baby’s bath tub thrown away at the refuse dump. Now once one drum has filled, I can place the tub slanted across the top to flow water to the second drum.

Read the rest of this entry »

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