SALAD DAYS

In this cool mountain climate of the Granite Belt of southern Queensland frosts sometimes continue to torment gardeners into the second month of Spring, which they have done this year. Thus, I’ve had to wait patiently before planting the seed of many of my summer vegetable crops like sweet-corn, melons and cucumbers.

When we open our garden at Das Helwig Haus B&B on 7/8th November this year for the Australian Open Garden Scheme we will have something special to show our garden visitors. I began planning these raised garden beds in February as a way of recycling three round sheets of a rusty corrugated iron, rain water tank. Now look at the result!

Loose leaf lettuce

The tale begins in February when I had the assistance of two young French men, members of WWOOF - Willing Workers on Organic Farms.  Firstly a plumber was called to cut the empty tank into three portions. Two of these light, but awkward structures were lifted into place.  The top sheet of the tank was upended and holes punched in the base for drainage. Holes were also punched into the base of third sheet, the bottom of the original tank.  It was allowed to remain where the rain water tank had always stood. Next a contractor with a truck and bobcat were hired to bring sand from near our Severn River frontage and dump it into the three rings.

Bobcat dumping sand

As any nursery man will tell you if they can get hold of the product, river sand may be used as one of the ingredients of potting mix for it’s drainage ability. In this situation, I was using it in bulk to three-quarters fill my containers. Then David and Thomas had to level off the sand before wheel-barrowing load after load of home made compost from my bins, run them up ramps and empty them onto the sand. That task completed, their next project was to spread bales of lucerne hay (alfalfa hay) thickly over the compost. They were assisted in this task by my newly acquired female Jack Russell Terrier puppy, Trixie.

David spreading hay

My next task was to insert strawberry plants into the compost around the rim of each tank. I also planted the centre of one tank with quick growing mignonette lettuce, although nothing grows quickly when the ground is cold and the hours of sunlight are shortened. Many morning throughout June, July and August I could have taken similar photographs of frost icing the leaves of the strawberries.

Frost in June.

But, “Look now!”

Ripe strawberries hang over the side.

What is ahead of me? Four weeks of picking strawberries and making strawberry jam for sale when we open our garden for the Australian Open Garden Scheme. I now have over one hundred such plants about to bear fruit. There is no bending to pick these strawberries as these three tank sheets have provided raised garden beds.

While we were consuming the mignonette lettuce, I planted the centre of another of my raised garden beds with a number of loose leaf lettuce of different colours and leaf shapes.

The Australian climate is notorious for being vindictive. It seems that we country folk are always suffering from droughts or flooding rains. These dust storms happened because last summer, floods had deposited lots of silt a thousand miles to our west. This silt had dried prior to a Westerly wind roaring across it.  The wind gathered the dust into a cloud and carried it east. Just look at my rear vegetable garden suffering through the first of three dust storms. Not only was there dust, but a ferocious, biting wind.

The first of three dust storms.

Such dust storms are part of the Australian weather pattern, but this was the worst storm for seventy years. We are fortunate. Last May our Severn River flooded.  Although there has been very little rain since May and much of Eastern Australia is drought stricken, we are able to draw water from our frontage on the Severn River. This volume of water is held in place by a weir two kilometres down river.

The Severn River frontage of our farm.

Thanks to the availability of this water my garden has recovered. Please remember though that this water is not free. I have to pay for our water use. We purchased and installed a pump, a main water line, garden irrigation system and  now must buy fuel for the pump, which presently during this dry period is costing us about fifty dollars per week. City people seldom realize how cheaply they are provided with water. Now I can reap the harvest, but it will take a lot of garden visitors paying an entrance fee and the sale of many jars of jam to recoup the cost.

Strawberries, parsley and loose leaf lettuce.

Other raised beds are planted with green vegetables and a variety of herbs, including camomile, oregano, basil, coriander and lemon balm.

Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.

This is a region noted for Australian wildflowers, four wilderness National Parks and sixty wineries. In 1997 Eberhard and Fay established the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies, a European wildflower.

Book Cover

To obtain Fay’s book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine email Fay on helwig@halenet.com.au

Internationally it is available on the Amazon.com website.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACXQ0M/sr=8-1/qid=1244294755/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1244294755&sr=8-1&seller=

http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

http://books.google.co.uk/

Technorati Tags: Australia, Australian, cool mountain climate, Das Helwig Haus B&B, Glen Aplin, granite belt, Queensland, strawberries, vegetable, Wildflowers wilderness and wine, WWOOF

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