THE TASK BEGINS

It is at this time each year that I begin the task of preparing The Remembrance Field to remember the fallen of all wars.  Anzac Day falls on the 25th of April and this is a reminder  for me to trim back the Rosemary hedge at the end of the field and cultivate the soil in preparation for a November display of Flanders poppies.

It is in this way that I remember our Diggers.

Anzac Day Poster

This year the Australian Post Office has released a new series of stamps featuring the Rising Sun badge worn on the slouch hat. Uniforms have changed and so have customs. It would now be unlikely to print a poster of a modern soldier smoking a cigarette. It surprised me to discover that the Rising Sun badge has also been changed several times.

Rising Sun badge

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A UNIQUE DAY

Today at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month it will also be the 11th year of this century. 11-11-11-2011

It was at 11.00am on the 11th of November 1918 that the Armistice Treaty was signed at Versailles. The guns fell silent across the battlefields of The Somme and the awful conflict of World War One ceased.

I quote the editorial of my local Border Post newspaper, written by Ewan Leighton:

It’s almost been a century since more than 60,000 of Australia’s finest died in World War One. Since that time, countless more have been killed in conflicts around the world. It is this time each year that communities across Australia come together to remember our fallen soliders, and to pay tribute to the price they paid for the life we live today. On Friday November 11 the Last Post will play through the Stanthorpe CBD. This significant date marks nine decades since the armistice that ended World War One. It is time not to remember the conflicts but to pay our respects to past and present soldiers werving overseas. It is hard to escape the violence that is war when we still have thousands of our best men and women risking their lives everyday. Younger generations don’t seem to realise the importance of Remembrance Day and the significance it holds for many Australian families. It’s important to ensure younger generations grasp the fact that thousands of our best men and women are risking their lives everyday. On a positive note, Rememembrance Day parade numbers appear to be on the rise both locally and nationally. On a local level residents should go and see the amazing poppy field cultivated by Fay Helwig at Glen Aplin. It is crucial for all Australians to take one minute out of their lives tomorrow to remember those who have given theirs – lest we forget.

Michael & Lauren 2003

Michael and Lauren are seen here raising the Australian Flag above our Remembrance Field at Glen Aplin in 2003. This year Michael graduated from the Brisbane Boy’s College yet I am sure he will still remember this special honour. Read the rest of this entry »

STANTHORPE MUSEUM REMEMBERS

The sun shone brightly, although thunder rumbled occasionally to the west, as the Granite Belt community gathered to remember the fallen at the Stanthorpe Historical Museum on Thursday 11th November.

Back in August I had been asked for Flanders poppy seeds by one of the volunteers who work at the museum. I replied that it was too late to then grow poppies from seed, but that I would bring in some plants from the Remembrance Field and transplant them into the prepared garden bed.

Poppies at the Stanthorpe Museum

Flanders poppies are best grown from seed and do not establish easily when transplanted, so it was with delight that I observed some of the transplanted poppies were flowering beneath the railway siding place names that once marked the destinations throughout the Soldier Settlement established in 1920 when 500 returned service men took up blocks of land to grow apples. Read the rest of this entry »

GOOD TREES – BAD TREES? 2

Weeping Willow - Stanthorpe

It is winter now on the Granite Belt and most of the Weeping Willows have dropped their leaves.

This is a tree much favoured around the world for its lush green foliage. It is frequently planted in parks. But, in Australia it is  classified in some areas as a noxious weed.  Read what I have say about these trees and please add your comments.

The Willow tree originated in China and spread via the Silk Road to Egypt and through Europe to reach England.

The Weeping Willow is a beautiful tree to use for large yards and has a number of interesting aspects. You might be surprised to learn it is a medicinal tree as well.

The Weeping Willow tree is a member of a family of trees and scrubs that contains over three hundred and fifty different varieties. The varieties of willows have many widely different characteristics, but they are all remarkably alike in many ways. Most of them occur in moist soil in cooler climates and mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. Willows are remarkably fertile trees and easily cross fertilize between species. These occur naturally or as the result of deliberate cultivation. Read the rest of this entry »

WEED SHRUBS WITH BERRY SEEDS

During these autumn and winter months many of the introduced shrubs growing wild along the banks of the Severn River provide berries now for Australian birds who have multiplied largely due to the weedy nature of these shrubs. Birds like the Satin Bower birds now have a winter source of food.

May view of the Severn River

It is only possible for me to access the river bank at this one place where we cleared the rubbish many years ago to allow family, guests and friends to go fishing. Now farmers are prevented from clearing trees on their river frontages by the Queensland Native Vegetation Act. What this means is that plants like blackberries, Willow trees, honeysuckle, brier roses and and Privets now flourish in these regions providing cover for wild pigs, foxes and rabbits. No one manages these areas to prevent their degradation. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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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

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THE REMEMBRANCE FIELD

Most visitors to my garden understand the significance of the red Flanders poppies growing in the Remembrance Field and the edging hedge of the herb rosemary. Rosemary is the token worn on ANZAC Day and the red poppy is worn on 11th November the date the Armistice Treaty was signed at Versailles to end World War One.

“But, what is the significance of the blue cornflowers?” they ask.

Cornflowers and poppies

My answer is of particular interest to the residents of Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, because the planting of blue cornflowers represents our remembrance of the crew, doctors and nurses of the Centaur an Australian Hospital ship sunk off our coast by a Japanese submarine. Read the rest of this entry »

CONTROLLING WATER FLOW

Our farm at Glen Aplin is blessed with both a river frontage and an area which was a swampy flood plain when we bought the property in 1992. That swampy area had an eroded gully, was over grown with tussock grass and thistles, and also dotted with deep holes.  It was infested with blackberry brambles, riddled with rabbit warrens and I hardly ventured to enter the area for fear of snakes. When I saw my little Jack Russell Terrier dog fall into one of the steep sided holes filled with water and that he couldn’t get out without assistance, I decided something must be done. Eberhard, is almost pedantic about tidiness, so the sight of this wild area affronted him and neither of us thought it gave a pleasant outlook for our Das Helwig Haus B&B guests.

With the assistance of neighbours we burned off the tussock grass and brambles. We employed a contractor with a grader to level the region, filling in all the holes, but still leaving the eroded gully. Then we went to the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and paid for a water engineer to design two dams with a connecting water course and an overflow towards the river. In 1996 contractors were hired to undertake this work. No sooner were the earthworks completed and before they could move their machinery off our land a week of steady summer rain filled our dams and river to overflowing. To illustrate what happened I will used photographs taken in 2008.

Flood entry

The Stanthorpe Shire Council built three of these culverts which channel flood water under Mt. Stirling Road and into our first dam. Read the rest of this entry »