FIRE AS A TOOL

I grew up on a cattle property in the foothills of the Bunya Mountains north of Dalby in Queensland, where it was my father’s custom to burn off the old dry grass every spring prior to expected rain. Thus as children my sisters and I learned to light fires and, if necessary, to fight fires to keep them under control. We saw fire as a useful tool, but today many people fear fires due to the devastating bush-fires of recent years.

Ever since moving to the Granite Belt in 1992 we have made it a practice to burn off our grass land towards the end of winter to prevent a possible spring bushfire. At this time of year the air is cold and the ground damp so fires are more easily controlled than later when warm weather arrives. An account of the worst bushfire I have seen in our district is given in my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine. That year the fire occurred in October when a strong Westerly wind brought down a wooden power pole on private land and grass was ignited. With a strong wind behind it the fire roared through the dry grass, crowned into the leaves of the eucalyptus trees, jumped the highway and sped through the ravines and across the hills to the east of us, destroying homes and taking the life of one woman. That night the same fire came upriver towards us barely kept under control by the volunteer Bush Fire Brigade, commonly known as ‘Bushies’. It was these men who decided the next day that because we had kept the land near our home clear that they should burn back from there to meet the fire. They were using fire as a tool to fight fire.

Also recounted in Wildflowers, wilderness and wine is the history of our friendship with Nick and Mary Jane Hese who first came to Das Helwig Haus B&B as guests in 1994. They became firm friends who offered us their assistance and knowing that Nick’s occupation was as a professional firefighter I enlisted his help the following August to burn our firebreaks. That day he arrived on his motor bike with his leather jacket sprinkled with snow. As not enough snow fell to wet the ground we were able to burn the land the next afternoon.

You will also find in Wildflowers, wilderness and wine an account of how Nick and Mary Jane later purchased their own land here on the Granite Belt where they often spend weekends. Once more Nick came this weekend to assist me with our burn-back.

Nick has lit the first fire

Read the rest of this entry »

A WINTER WEEK

Vivian and Giles have now left me to continue their Australian travels in the sunny north of Queensland, but before leaving here Giles experienced our coldest morning since 2007 when we measured -8°C here at Glen Aplin on Tuesday 12th July. The Granite Belt of southern Queensland is the coldest district in the State which ensures that we truly experience all four seasons of the year. It is also the busiest tourism season of the year when weekend visitors from Brisbane arrive – not to feel the cold, but to experience the ambience of wood fires and hot Christmas in July dinners.

Wood smoke

Read the rest of this entry »

AN ABUNDANCE OF SAP 3

A number of times friends have said to me, “I don’t know how you do it all!”

My response had frequently been, “With difficulty.”

In April I realized that I had to take some time off for respite and flew to Hong Kong where I spent the next four weeks enjoying this view.

Refreshed, I returned, with added zest and am now preparing to spend three days at FARMFEST near Toowoomba. See www.farmfest.com.au

Sunrise over Kowloon Harbour

Initially I booked a stall site at Farmfest to promote my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine because a couple of years ago I had observed Jame McClean promoting his book When Bloods Enough at Farmfest.   Jame writes blood, guts and sex thrillers and he promotes himself as a Queensland outback author under the slogan ‘The Bush Fights Back’. Although the Granite Belt is hardly in the outback, we are in the bush and I believe my style of writing will also appeal to a country readership.

Jame McLean - The bush fights back

I then decided to take my SAP products along to test the market for them within this rural community. While I have had great sales selling packets of SAP crystals at market stands for use by home gardeners, there is the possibility of a much larger market for these water solubable crystals in agricultural use.

Boxed crystals

They are now widely used in agriculture in China. Farmers are incorporating the dry crystals into their soil before planting crops, like these tobacco crops I photographed in China. The couple of workers in the distance were watering individual plants, giving each one a cup of water. The gel absorbed this water and helped the plants get off to a thriving start. Then, the seasonal rains came and soaked the field. Any dry crystals absorbed the water ensuring continued moisture for the tobacco plants.

Tobacco crops in China

One of the questions I have frequently been asked at the local markets is, “What happens when the ground is waterlogged by too much rain?” I answer, “The gel absorbs water and expands, floating in the soil and preventing compaction of the soil, thus allowing the roots of plants  to breathe.”

This year I decided that I would create my own example of using the SAP in an agricultural situation, by incorporating it into the soil of The Remembrance Field. Prior to leaving for Hong Kong in April I had sprayed the immerging weeds on this field, but due to our wonderful, regular autumn rain and cool nights, the Flanders poppies germinated by the thousands. Too early! I saw this greening of the field as an opportunity. With the arrival of a Wwoofer – Willing Workers on Organic Farms -  I decided that he would plough in this crop of early poppies as a green manure crop. His name is Brad Ariss and he comes from Parry Sound in Canada. Firstly, Brad broadcast dolomite and water soluable gel across the swath of green poppy plants.

Brad broadcasting dolomite and SAP

Brad cultivating The Remembrance Field

Next he used our little Honda tiller to turn over the soil. When he had turned over the soil from east to west, he worked the field from south to north, thus incorporating the broadcast dolomite and SAP. Next time it rains the SAP will absorb moisture and retain moisture in our friable decomposed granite soil. Dolomite is not a fertilizer – it is a soil conditioner, which will ensure the rapid breakdown of the green manure crop.

When I advised my son, who had supplied me with a tonne of SAP from China of my intention to display and sell this product at Farmfest, he spoke to the salesman at the Chinese company from which he had sourced the product. He sent me this email today.

Hi Mum,

The factory is pretty excited you are going to Farmfest!

He attached this  correspondence

Subject: Re: Water Absorbing Crystal Polymer
Hi,

Thanks a lot for your email and info, message well noted, we wish you a fruitful show at Farmfest, and we await for your further instruction.   Let’s keep in touch. We will work closely and support you fully.We look forward to a successful partnership.

Should you have any further questions, pls. feel free to contact me.
Have a nice day
Kind Regards
Colin Yung
Manager

Now what did I say at the beginning of this post?  Yes, I had had to leave home for a month of respite.  No, at 71 years of age I don’t want to become an entrepreneurial saleswoman. So what is the solution. While selling SAP at Farmfest I am going to ask for distributors who will share my dream. With assistance from my son based in China I will continue to purchase SAP in its various forms by the tonne and then offer this in smaller quatities to distributors. I’ve had flyers printed to hand out at Farmfest saying:-

WATER BEADS OR WATER CRYSTALS
These beads and crystals are created from water-absorbing polyacrylamide.
They have a proven lifespan of 2 years in direct sunlight or 4-5 years when mixed with soil.
They have the capacity to absorb up to 400 times their weight in water.
Polyacrylamide is 100% non-toxic and biodegradable.
HOUSE AND GARDEN
Mix crystals into garden soil, water the soil and then plant out seedlings.
Mix crystals into potting mix before filling pots.
Use to start and grow indoor Wheatgrass or Herb Gardens.
These crystals can reduce watering frequency by up to 75%.
They promote faster seed germination by keeping the root zone moist.
DECORATIVE
Water beads work great with candles and fresh flower arrangements.
Freeze water beads for chilling wines or champagne.
Water beads can be used without soil in pots holding water-loving plants like Bamboo, Arrowhead, Chinese Evergreen, Dracaena, Peace Lily, Red Prayer Plant, Philodendron, Dieffenbachia, Spider Plant and Ivy cuttings.
FARM
Crystals may be lightly spread on cultivated soil. When mixed into the soil they hold nitrates, phosphates, potassium, iron, zinc, boron and other elements next to the roots of plants, thus reducing the leaching of these elements into ground water. Research has shown that the beads attract the bacteria and microorganisms essential to plant growth.
Crystals in dry weather extend the time that moisture is stored in the soil.
Crystals in wet weather absorb additional water and float within the soil, thus preventing compaction.
RETAIL DISTRIBUTORS WANTED
e.mail: helwig@halenet.com.au Mobile: 0439 390 863

So if you are amongst the thousands who will visit Farmfest this year- Tuesday 7th, Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th June – do drop in to chat with me in the Lifestyle Shopping Arcade.

I will close this post by including a gallery of photographs of how I have used the water soluable crystals and decorative beads in my home.

Selected glass containers.

Flowers stand upright in SAP gel

With no smelly water to change, flowers last longer.

Homemade candles sitting in red beads, green beads and clear crystals.

Wildflowers, wilderness and wine

I will be there at Farmfest next week to autograph copies of Wildflowers, wilderness and wine for my readers. For a quick preview of what this book reveals see http://www.australia-book.com.au

AN ABUNDANCE OF RAIN

Yes, from July 2010 until about three weeks ago we had an abundance of rain. Until the January floods the weather was almost perfect for gardening.  For six months I didn’t need to irrigate my garden, because every week we would get enough rain – nice steady soaking rain, not storms with damaging winds and heavy rain. I’ll probably never enjoy such a period again, but it was great while it lasted.

After the floods the sun has shone brightly, which was wonderful for the farmers of the Granite Belt. They had plenty of stored water for irrigation, but what their crops needed was hot, sunny days to ripen and sweeten their fruit. Even when Tropical Cyclone Yasi roared in across north Queensland the sun continued to pour its heat down upon our district. The grass had grown madly after all the rain and now it has gone to seed and is rapidly browning off.

Glen Aplin valley view

This photo shows a view  from our farm to the ridge on the other side of the Glen Aplin valley, but only two weeks previously the grass country beside the river had been under flood water. Read the rest of this entry »

WET AND COOL

The Australian states of Queensland, Northern Territory and New South Wales have recorded their wettest spring in 111 years of records with an average 163mm of rain. A moderate to strong La Nina weather pattern through the Pacific Ocean has delivered this wet spring. Due to the cloud cover Queensland has also experienced the coldest spring since 1932.

Dealing with such a rare weather phenomena as a truly wet year, in a 25-30year weather cycle, means problems for some people, but it is an ill wind that doesn’t blow some good. Cattlemen are watching their cattle grow sleek and fat standing in grass up to their bellies, but the hopes of many wheat farmers were dashed. After growing the best crops of the past decade wet fields have prevented them harvesting their grain.

Wheat and poppies

My wheat was planted late, the third week of July. It grew entirely on the natural rainfall. Now it is ripening off and after Christmas I will have to harvest the poppy seed and the wheat.

Harvesting poppy seed isn’t difficult. We just walk through the field snipping off the dry poppy seed capsules and turn them upside down into a large paper sugar bag. This allows the capsules to dry completely and spill their seed into the base of the bag. I then pull out and throw away the dry material and pour the seed into a smaller container.

Eberhard has promised to sharpen the sickle. I will then have to walk through the field, slicing through the tall straw, which hopefully I will then have WWOOFers to bind into sheaves and stook to dry in the old-fashioned manner of our pioneering farmers. What then? How will I store all these wheat sheaves to keep them dry and away from vermin, like mice and rats? Stay tuned. As I discover answers to these difficulties I will keep my readers informed. I don’t intend to grind the wheat for organic flour, but rather I will feed it to our poultry and sell some sheaves at my market stalls for dried flower arrangements.

For three weeks recently I had here two young French WWOOFers – Thomas and Esther. One of the jobs they did for me was prune back my fijoa bushes and shape them into trees. When I constructed the poultry run to include these trees they were intended to provide shade for the hens. But, due to the excellent season and the fertility provided by the poultry they had grown too large and were preventing the sun from drying out the ground.

Thomas and Trixie

In this view you can see the hedge of fijoa bushes in the pen behind the garden bed where Thomas was turning over the soil.

Esther with fijoa prunings

After I cut back the fijoa bushes, Esther snipped them into smaller pieces so the leaves could be incorporated in the compost bins and the stems put aside to be shredded for mulch.

Following the construction of this pen a couple of years ago,  I abandoned the previous poultry pen and allowed the outdoor area, which had served as a day time free range enclosure for my hens, to fallow.

In September I took my Honda tiller and broke up the fertile soil and in early November planted the enclosed area with vegetables. This pen was fenced with netting to keep out the rabbits, but when my climbing beans reached the top wire, I knew it was time to add another width of netting to provide them with support. Thomas and Esther had left, so it was Ikmo Kim, a Korean WWOOFer, who provided the necessary agility and muscle.

Mo attaches wire netting

Again the vegetables in this garden have flourished without the addition of any fertilizer and on natural rainfall.

There are climbing beans along two sides of the square and rambling yellow cherry tomatoes along one side.

Climbing beans, water melons and sweet corn

In the midst of the square I have planted sweet corn, water melon and gherkin cucumber seed.

Golden ripple cherry tomatoes, gherkin cucumbers and sweet corn.

I prefer to grow climbing beans, rather than dwarf bush beans as they yield over a longer period. When I have an excess of beans I prepare them for use, scald in boiling water, drain, package and freeze for winter meals.

Golden ripple cherry tomatoes

The Golden Ripple cherry tomatoes form a huge rambling bush and are difficult to pick unless provided with a structure over which to grow. Eberhard chooses not to eat red tomatoes, which I also grow, so I first grew these little yellow tomatoes for inclusion in salads.

I then discovered another use. They can be used to make a delicious marmalade.

TOMATO MARMALADE

• First take a large quantity of tomatoes and scald them in boiling water. Cool to allow handling and then pop the flesh from the skins. Discard the skins. Weight for weight  of  tomato flesh add the same weight of white sugar. Add the juice of one lemon per every 500g of tomatoes.
• (For Americans following this recipe consider that 500g or 1/2 a kg is roughly the equivalent of 1lb.)
• Prior to juicing your lemons thinly peel some lemon rind. Cover this rind with water simmer over a low heat until tender. Cool and slice into short, thin strips.
• Add sugar lemon juice and prepared rind to the tomatoes  and bring to a rapid boil.  Now the pot must be watched to avoid boiling over and stirred regularly to prevent sticking.  The faster the jam can be cooked the clearer and lighter the colour.  When mixture stops frothing and makes strong bubbles that begin to spit, it is close to jellying.  Place small volume on a lid in the refrigerator to quickly chill to test for jelly.
• If placing in commercial bottle with a good seal, fill jar, screw on lid tightly and turn upside down for 2 minutes.  This will sterilise the remaining air in the jar and keep the jam air-tight to prevent spoilage.

Wildflowers, wilderness and wine

At this time of the year our thoughts turn to Christmas gifts. I am offering you the opportunity to give an inexpensive gift this year. I wrote THE SUMMER OF THE MORNING STAR as a gift for a 10 year old granddaughter and gave it to her as an e-book on a disk. When I made that e-book available as a free download on this site, I found the subtle humour gave many adult readers a real chuckle. Although this e-book is copyrighted against anyone else using it for commercial gain, you are welcome to download it and give it to a grandchild or a friend as a Christmas Gift.

Once you have read this first chapter of THE SUMMER OF THE MORNING STAR You may also go onto http://fayhelwigauthor.com to download the second chapter. The second book in this series is called AUTUMN DAYS and is available for you to download on http://www.australia-book.com.au

CLIMATIC DIFFERENCE

My garden is different to most Queensland gardens due to the altitude of the Granite Belt. Most Queensland gardens are located in tropical or subtropical climates, but the Granite Belt of Queensland is the only region of this State with a temperate climate. The majority of the gardens in Queensland only know two seasons, the ‘WET’ and the ‘DRY’ whereas here on the Granite Belt we have four distinct seasons as in the Northern Hemisphere.

Usually our winters are dry so we seldom get snow and for the same reason we frequently experience more winter frosts than Victoria. Brisbane and Melbourne are the capital cities of Queensland and Victoria. Coastal Brisbane has a subtropical climate but the altitude of Das Helwig Haus (about 850metres above sea level) and our position on the western side of the Great Dividing Range create our much cooler climate.

State capital cities

Read the rest of this entry »

MORE ABOUT MULCHING.

Golden ripple cherry tomatoesTo see a former post called Mulching Matters go to the Organic Gardening category in the November archives. I use several methods of mulching but they are all intended to serve these purposes.

• To stifle weed growth
• To prevent evaporation of moisture
• To keep the ground cool
• To prevent erosion

In that post I showed how I had used clippings from a fallen wisteria vine to mulch an area around self-sown Golden Ripple cherry tomato seedlings. I bought the first packet of seed from the Diggers Garden Club about 1994 and ever since then these tomatoes have volunteered to grow each year in my garden. All the fruit eating birds feast on them and then spread the seed throughout my entire garden. Mostly, I weed them out, but I always leave some plants to bear fruit each summer.

Wisteria mulch

Eight weeks after this green wisteria mulch was laid around the tomato seedlings we could begin harvesting these little cherry tomatoes for salads or for my favourite Lemon & Tomato Marmalade.

Read the rest of this entry »

THE VALUE OF SHADE

Recently, when reading Peter Andrew’s book Back From the Brink, it made me take a good look at my upright willow trees and ask myself if I was utilizing them to full advantage. I planted these trees in 1998 at the end of a drainage system to serve three purposes.

• To soak up excess water
• To create a green view  behind our vegetable garden
• To provide a wind break

I quickly became disenchanted with these trees, as they spread their roots out into the area where I had previously planted pumpkins. It was a space where the pumpkins could spread. But, with the willow trees stealing all the moisture from the ground, my pumpkin crops began to fail. We ripped the ground and pulled up the roots, but within 6 months the roots had again colonized the area. The past couple of years this ground has remained bare. The trees were serving their intended purpose, but they had restricted my use of this portion of my garden.

Pruning willow

The willow trees had grown too tall. In August 2008 while they were deciduous, I hired men to reduce the height of the trees by cutting them back with a chainsaw. I used the solid wood for the fires and the twiggy branches for support structures for climbing beans and sweet-peas. When they grew again they had a bushier shape. I have seen trees like these repeatedly cut back to fence height to create a dense hedge. Read the rest of this entry »

TEA FOR TWO, OR MORE

As a child I was only allowed to drink milk or water until the age of twelve, with a soft drink as a special treat during an occasional visit to town. My parents drank Bushell’s tea with their meals.

Nowadays there are multiple drink choices available for adults and children alike. One has only to walk into a supermarket to see rows of bottles and cans stacked high containing cordials, fruit juices and carbonated drinks. At the dairy counter there will be different sized containers of milk, in plastic or cardboard, offering a variety of flavours.

Move to the racks of tea and coffee and you will have a choice of roast coffee beans from all over the world. You can buy beans or ground coffee, some of it decaf. Usually in the same aisle it is possible to select dried teas in surgical dressings, as one of my friends once described the sachets commonly called tea bags. You will be confronted with brands and varieties from many countries.

It was on a trip to the USA in 1981 that I first encountered the powdered concoctions mixed with water which the local people called iced tea. Later, when I visited my German in-laws in 1990 I was offered a choice of herbal teas with the evening meal. These were always served as a hot tea.

In 1992 we moved to the Granite Belt to establish Das Helwig Haus B&B. Amongst our first visitors were Meg and Peter Stevenson with their children Darren and Belinda. During an excursion they discovered a herb farm and returned with several pots for my garden. One of these little plants grew into a Lemon Verbena bush.

Lemon verbena

Read the rest of this entry »

MULCHING MATTERS

During the past weekend when we opened our garden at Das Helwig Haus B&B for the Australian Open Garden Scheme, I was frequently asked about my mulching methods. I use several methods of mulching but they are all intended to serve these purposes.

• To stifle weed growth
• To prevent evaporation of moisture
• To keep the ground cool
• To prevent erosion

Most green ground covers serve the same purpose, provided they have sufficient water to encourage their continual growth.

Ivy as a ground cover

I planted this ivy in 1993 to grow over an old tree stump situated in the garden at the rear of the house. This is the western side and after soil and rocks had been moved to build the guest wing of our house this spot looked like a dessert with white dusty soil and raw boulders. I hired Frank and his bobcat to create a rocky upper terrace above this portion of the garden. My priority was then to green my summer view by planting deciduous fruit trees and to cover a couple of old tree stumps with vines. Read the rest of this entry »