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

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BROADWATER MONSTER MARKET

During the past six weeks I’ve attended the various markets scattered across the Granite Belt district. Yesterday I not only attended the Monster Market held at the CWA Hall at Broadwater, but I also became an exhibitor. On Friday it was doubtful a market could be held as the rain bucketed down over the Granite Belt causing minor flooding.

Water over Mt. Stirling Road

Late Friday afternoon the rain eased and Lolita, my present helpful WWOOFer, was able to assist me to cut bunches of daffodils and Spanish blue bells. We packed my Holden station wagon with two small tables and two old doors, knowing we would have to lay them in first, then place buckets, baskets and assorted other goods over them. This would of course mean that we would be obliged to totally unpack our station wagon on arrival at Broadwater before we could get the tables set up. The alarm clock was set for 5.00am to allow us to leave at 6.00am. I had been told by the market organizer that I could begin setting up by 5.30 am as the market would be open to the public by 7.00am.

As we left home the sun rose over the eastern ranges showing a blue sky day. Read the rest of this entry »

GOOD TREES – BAD TREES/ 3

When we purchased this farm in 1992 the small cottage that was to become our home and which was later extended to provide guest accommodation had no garden but was surrounded by native Eucalyptus, wattle and T-trees.  The house had been constructed in the midst of a clump of Eucalyptus trees. We brought in a bulldozer to clear ground for our guest wing and at the same time thinned the trees on our northern side to allow in more winter sunlight and the establishment of gardens. We allowed the tall Eucalyptus trees at the front of our house (the eastern side) to remain. I insisted on the total removal of all the trees on our western side because I knew that Granite Belt storms came from the west and I saw those trees as a possible threat to our home. Sure enough the first vicious storm we had came from that direction in 1994 and threw the roof of our cold room onto the roof of our house. Plus it belted us with hail. But no, no tree came crashing onto our roof.

Next, in 2001 a small tornado approached from the west but once more our house suffered no damage although five large Eucalyptus trees in our front garden were broken and tossed across our front fence and car shed, damaging both. Fortunately our car was not at home as I had taken two WWOOF girls on an outing. Only Eberhard witnessed the devastation as it happened.  I addition to destroying five Eucalyptus trees in our front garden that storm smashed five similar trees  outside our front garden.  This tornado came like a bouncing ball, destroying those ten trees and then bouncing off to tear a roof from a shed near Glen Aplin. The damage to our garden was immense and I had to establish another garden, minus the advantage of shade trees. My friends tried to offer me consolation for the loss of my beautiful garden, saying, “See it as a challenge.”  I needed time to grieve for my loss.

Patches on a tree trunk

By 2005 it was only tree trunks like the one above that revealed where once  shady trees had sheltered our front garden. By 2010 these stumps have been totally covered by green vines or hidden by spreading conifers and no one now visiting our garden is aware of the damage it experienced. 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.

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THE HEN HOUSE

Throughout most of my life I have lived on farms where the previous owners had constructed  poultry pens. These were rough structures with some form of shed cover, like a rusty iron tank split in half to form a roof, and a wire netting run where hens could forage during the day. Due to the prevalence of foxes in country regions poultry must be securely penned at night.

This year I needed to use the existing poultry pens for my growing flock of geese which led me to the decision to create a new enclosure, but where? As my readers know I’m always looking for ways to recycle materials and my projects usually serve more than one purpose.

When we purchased this farm 17 years ago it already had an igloo garden shed frame. I bought a plastic cover to go over this igloo frame, with thoughts of having a hot house in the winter. Although I have a beautiful garden, I’m not good with pot plants. Even my seed raising beds are established directly in soil out in the larger garden. This shed sat idle, within my garden begging to be put to use.

Igloo garden shed

When my infant granddaughters came to live with us, the idea occurred to me that I should convert this igloo into a hen house where the little girls could feed the ‘chooks’ and gather the eggs. 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 »

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 »

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

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THE RED STEER

Late yesterday afternoon the red steer was released into our dry grass land. The red steer is an Australian colloquial expression for fire. Just as cattle could slowly eat out grass land, a fire will clear the land quickly. Fire, used wisely, an excellent tool. The Aboriginal people of Australia didn’t have matches to start a fire, but they possessed the skill of rubbing two sticks rapidly together until the wood heated and began to smoke. Then a little dry grass was added  to smolder and burst into flame. The original inhabitants of Australia were nomadic people who never established permanent homes or cultivated the land. Instead they hunted for food. The men would regularly burn small areas of grass land when it was dry enough to burn. The heat would draw up moisture from the soil and green grass shoots would sprout. Meanwhile the women would follow after the men to find any scorched lizards or other small animals they could use for food. After a week or so when the country had greened the men would return to hunt and spear wallabies or kangaroos grazing on the fresh green grass. The eucalyptus trees evolved the ability to adapt to fire and will quickly recover from any burning of bark or leaves. Other Australian plant species need smoke to cause them to open their seed pods, enabling the seed to drop into the rich ash a day later. Fire is a natural part of the Australian ecology.

A cold fire

The definition of a cold fire is one that crawls along the ground. A hot fire races up the bark of a tree and sometimes ignites the eucalyptus leaves and then roars through the tree tops. Such wild bush fires are now common in Australia. Read the rest of this entry »

EUCALYPTUS TREES.

With this post I’m going to share an extract from my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine. The wilderness regions of the Granite Belt are comprised of large rock outcrops and an abundance of eucalyptus forest, but it was not always like this.

Granite rocks

When the explorers rode their horses through this country they had to avoid the rocks, but they did not encounter the dense eucalyptus forests that now cover the hills. One of my Grandfathers, Hugh Mulcahy, was born in Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt in 1876 and he was able to tell his children of remembering this country as open forest. What did he mean by open forest? Forest in which the trees grew sufficiently far apart to allow riders to pass between them, where grass grew and cattle grazed.

Aged eucalyptus trees

These two aged trees on our farm at the rear of Das Helwig Haus B&B show the spacing of open forest country.  But look, they are surrounded by sapling eucalyptus trees. What changed the country? Read the rest of this entry »