Gardening.... and many other ramblings!

It was becoming very apparent to me that even though I really enjoy gardening and have a vague idea of how it works I was desperately lacking knowledge in how to garden here in Oz.

To start with the seasons are different, Autumn is proving to be colourful.  Non-native trees very briefly changing their leaf colours to colours familiar in the northern hemisphere and then suddenly drop their leaves.  Possibly due to stress at not having enough water during the very hot very long summer.

Instead the colour comes from native eucalyptus 'gums'  and a lot of the native shrubs starting to flower, their colours are amazing and the bees are still happily buzzing away.

A lot of the things which I have learnt from Northern Hemisphere gardening just do not apply here, from pruning the roses to growing tomatoes.  For instance now is the time to put seeds in to harvest tiny tomatoes in the winter months... how wonderful.  Some rules of course are the same like nurturing the soil, dead-heading the roses to continue the blooms as long as possible and planting winter crops.

So I joined the Diggers Club, a gardening club, offering an amazing array of seeds and advice Australia wide.  The magazine is fascinating, full of really useful information on what to do right now.  It came with the seed catalogue which is choc full of a huge range of seeds and fruit trees. Traditional English cottage type, self-pollinating stone fruit (peaches, nectarines, cherrys and plums) berries (from traditional to choke and wolf berry), apples, pears, green manures to improve soils, grains like quinoa, amaranth AND various bush tucker.......phew!  The choice is startling and almost overwhelming.  Most we will be able to grow here and on the block.  Excited feels like not a 'big' enough word to describe how I feel.

I've a huge amount to learn and probably lots of mistakes along the way (it is after all the best way of learning) but what a fantastic opportunity. And of course I've now got The Diggers Club to hold my hand.

On the back of this excitement the boxes from the UK which were sent on their way here in January finally arrived.  It was like Christmas, I'd forgotten exactly what had been packed... more excitement and surprise as I unpacked and it's so good to at last have all my clothes in one place!

And then there was the hard waste collection.  The local council, as part of their service to the community, offer to do a curbside collection of any hard waste.  The hard waste can be anything, old beds, mattress's  furniture, electrical goods etc., etc., only TV's are not collected. All these things are normally destined for the 'dump' at a cost to the 'dumper', so there is a great saving along with a huge opportunity to de-clutter to be had.

It also becomes a recyclers dream, even I caught the bug, it's very hard to ignore perfectly good tables and chairs.  As THE day of collection approached the wide grass verges became piled high with all sorts of goodies.  It was  amusing to watch just how many cars with trailers were driving slowly around the area. We had to stop looking due to lack of space after giving a good home to two tables and three chairs!

We went to the block at the weekend, Fred was very helpful when it came to watering our newly planted Loquat tree and searching out cobwebs!

Hard to believe that once this tree's got it's roots down (in a very short space of time) we will almost be able to see it grow.  It should start fruiting very quickly too.... yum, yum!

Landy the older landrover was moved into a different shed, for the winter.  She is now resting her weary wheels on a couple of carpets and is covered over.

The huge and very heavy Jarrah wood bench is now reassembled and ready to use.  And Rick worked on mending the roof leak in the shed.  After a huge down pour of rain we realised it hadn't worked.  Back to the drawing board... another job for another day.

We met another lot of neighbours, very curious but friendly looking as long as Fred doesn't go to close to them.

We've marked out a site for the house, and now we're doing research on composting loo's, all very exciting and a lot more pondering to do.

That's all for now.....

Apologies in advance as there may not be a blog for a couple of weeks due to a wedding and new grand daughters.  More on those wonderful events later.......

Ooroo!

The ABC Gardeners Market and the Food Forest Day

Last week I think I was enthusing about the wonderfully fresh Chestnuts we picked up from the Adelaide Farmers market.  They were indeed very fresh and very wonderful but I had completely forgotten how much of a challenge they are to peel!  After, scoring then boiling them they of course had to be peeled... I made the bad mistake of letting them cool down too much not wanting to burn my fingers.

So the trick is, if ever you are faced with a kilo of chestnuts to peel, do it whilst they are still warm.  Warm nuts really do make all the difference!  Several hours later they are now peeled and in the freezer waiting to be turned into a delicious thick soup... no other thickener required... yum yum..

ABC is the local telly and radio station here and Saturday heralded their annual Gardener's Market.  Lots of local garden related businesses set up their stalls, heaving with beautiful, colourful and very good value plants, native and other goods. There were a couple of very interesting and enthusiastic beekeepers, selling delicious local honey and dishing out tons of advice.  A lady making baskets out of scraps of material and garden  leaves like cordylines.  She made it look sooooooo easy.  It was primarily a fund raiser for arthritis research.  did you know there is a plant which can be used to treat arthritis?  It's called (not surprisingly) the arthritis plant!

We did really well almost made it out of there without buying a plant and then we spotted some Loquat Trees and decided we really needed one for the block. Our first fruit tree which should start giving us fruit in a few years time.

As you can hopefully see it was very well attended and there were lots of plants on the move to new homes!

We visited the Parklands in the afternoon cycling through on our way to the CBD, but unfortunately I've not yet got the hang of turning the bike around whilst still on it.  I ended up in an untidy heap on the deck... oh dear, luckily I bounce well.  After I caught my breath and dusted off a little we continued into town but I was a lot more cautious after that.

Sunday arrived and we were up early to sort out a picnic and head off to a wonderful permaculture place called the Food Forest, it's based near a town called Gawler a little less than an hours drive from here.  We had a four hour morning session talking about Strawbale houses, building and living in them.

 As you can see I still haven't got the hang of layout yet!  But hopefully you can also see the beautiful shapes these strawbale houses can be made into.  Inside because the straw makes such a good insulation they are quite, a constant temperature and have such a beautiful calm atmosphere. Straw bale homes are also very resistant to fire would you believe.  Though there is no current research on how they stand up to wolves if there are three little pigs inside!

It was a very interesting morning with so much information to absorb our heads were spinning a little at the end of the talk.  It has given us some more ideas for our home and also confirmed that we were thinking along the right lines with some of our ideas.  Time to eat....

Permaculture is about honouring nature and mother earth in as many ways as possible living sustainably.  The afternoon session was all about the garden.  It made perfect sense, you plant things you are going to use/visit every day closer to the house like herbs and veggies.  A  little further away are the fruit trees, after that the native plants then the bigger trees.

The Food Forest had done amazing things with their 15 hectare site.  The fruit and nut trees had an electric fence around them and geese, chooks and bettongs lived happily together in a fox free environment eating bugs, many pests and worms whilst also kindly fertilising the crops.  It looked idyllic and seemed to work very well.  They had a piece of kit called a chicken arc which had been built by one of the visiting  WWOOF'ers (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) its a great way to see the world, learn about organic farming methods with board and lodgings paid.

Anyway back to the chicken arc its very grand

When crops are finished the lucky chooks are taken to various patches in the garden, kept safe by an electric fence and left to forage for bugs, eat the plants which didn't make the grade and of course fertilise the garden.  Every evening they are safely back in the arc for the night.  And of course they also provide eggs... talk about willing workers....

More food for thought......

Very quickly another week has passed... where does the time go?

Ooroo!

Botanic herb garden, Mawson Lakes and more chocolate!

The clocks changed on Sunday!  They went back which now means 3 pm here is about 6.30 am in the UK or 9.30 pm in the UK is now about 6 in the morning here in Oz....

It is really into Autumn here now, there is a chill in the air and the mornings are crisp.  The last couple of mornings when Rick and I have ventured out for our 5 am walk there has been a heavy dew on the cars.  It is still dark but the sky is amazing.  A mass of stars, the milky way, Orion (upside down) and the Southern Cross.  The Southern Cross is on the Aussie flag and of course can only be seen in the Southern Hemisphere.  I forgot to mention in the last post that the night sky on the last trip down to Naracoorte was fantastic.  The moon was huge, full and golden a real Autumn moon.

During the week I took myself into town, the bus trips are always an adventure.  I never know what the fare will be, even though I always get out at the same place.  And they run very much to their own timetables, apparently this is an improved service now.  No matter I always get there in the end and all the drivers seem to be quite happy chaps.

I wondered through the Botanic Garden curious to see if there were any Autumn changes to be seen.  Apart from the beautiful gum trees in flower most things were the same.  The herb garden was in full foliage.

Just right of the centre of this photo is a Loquat tree, heavy in fruit, the ripest have fallen already from the tree.  They are sweet and delicious to eat, a firm yellow almost leathery skin (which you don't eat) and a soft almost peach like fruit inside. Yum!

 This Frangipangi tree is covered in highly scented almost wax like cream flowers which look almost too perfect to be real.  Shame scratch and sniff blogs haven't been invented... yet!

This is the first pink and most polite Convolvulus I've ever seen, it forms a very neat bush and didn't look like the invasive bully that takes over UK gardens.

The Gate from the garden leading into the city's shopping area has been designed using the Ginko Biloba leaf as it's design.  The leaf has two lobes (much like a brain) and for those not in to know is used to help improve memory loss, the leaf obviously not the gate.....

From the gardens I wandered into the shopping area and came across the most amazing chocolate display I have ever seen.  I've put the photo's at the bottom of the blog.  The smell was amazing but thankfully I managed to keep from dribbling while I was standing by the display!

At the weekend we visited caravan dealers looking for a cheap but well insulated caravan (preferably with a loo and shower) so we can stay on the block.  But the cost may be prohibitive.... back to the drawing board.  But as with lots of things everything has a silver lining and this silver lining involved a trip to Mawson Lakes and the Wetlands, a conservation area.  This is a new housing estate situated by the Wetlands area.  The architects have diverted some of the water to create lakes in the estate which gives the whole thing a really nice feel.

 Right near by was the Wetlands Cafe.... below is part of the entrance gate

We had to stop for a drink and found the choice of GF cakes was impressive.... one of these of course had to be sampled.  The mountain of dark chocolate orange cake arrived swimming in a small sea of slightly bitter orange syrup... the portion was not for the feinted hearted..... but I did my best to clear my plate.... oh my goodness....... 

Sunday was farmers market day again. A few of the farmers come from the Adelaide Hills where the temperatures are much lower than they are in the city which of course affects the crops and what's in season.  To my delight I discovered a whole stall selling chestnuts... they came in different sizes, medium, large, jumbo and enormous.  We were offered samples of GF chestnut brownies, freshly roasted chestnuts and chestnut soup, totally scrumptious and I am very happy to share the recipes with anyone who'd like to try them too.

As promised the following photos are of the chocolate display, the funny robot looking thing on the left of the first photo is a cool air blower making sure the whole thing doesn't melt!  I'm sure you'll agree these are incredible.....

First Aussie Easter..... Bilby!

I was hunting around for Easter eggs and discovered a very well known chocolate company here (Haigh) sell chocolate Bilbies at Easter time to raise money and awareness for their conservation. These are lovely little creatures, not the chocolate ones, which have suffered badly from the introduction of European mammals like foxes, rabbits and cats.  

Sadly there were two species, one is now extinct and the other is endangered.  So you see they had to be supported! I fell in love with these little creatures when I saw a documentary on their conservation.... when they go to sleep they fold their ears over their eye's.  They also don't like being woken up much and can get very grumpy!

It turned out to be a very busy but fantastic Easter down at Naracoorte.  We traveled down Friday evening and although the traffic threatened to be heavy we had a great journey, no delays.  I know some of you will be very surprised that the motorways didn't have any road works or witches hats over Bank Holiday's!  Amazing....

Friday and some of Saturday was spent helping level Deb and Roberts back yard in preparation for a new carport.  Loads of beautiful top soil was moved to either our block or Peter's (Robert's brother) place.  Our future veggies/plants will be thrilled I think it will take a while to get our sandy soil in such good condition.  No matter it will be easy to grow straight carrots, parsnips and leeks.... every cloud.....

On one of our trips to the block Deb and I spotted a couple of tables and a large sign saying Free Stuff help yourself.  Hurtling to a halt we wondered over for a look, luckily we were both after different tables.  But both were very heavy having been made out of solid steel, we couldn't lift them so asked if the boy's could come back later and collect them.  Robert obliged and returned not only with the two tables but also a fridge, which was made in England in the same year I was!

This is my new kitchen on the block 

Deb introduced me to one of our neighbours, a very lovely lady who has green thumbs (as they say here), her garden is amazing, full of quite corners, different views and loads of native plants.  She had grown 17 Jacaranda trees from seeds and has very kindly offered to nurture a couple for our block.  She has also very kindly offered me advice in the future, I've a feeling I will be spending quite a bit of time talking to her... a mine of information.

Meanwhile Rick and I found a lovely nursery which had a tree sale on, we couldn't resist and had to give this beautiful Golden Elm tree a home.  These have the most gorgeous almost lime green leaves, which eventually turn the Autumn shades I'm used to seeing.  Being deciduous it is ideal for the north side of the house.  North side being the hottest as that's equator side, like south is in the Northern Hemisphere.... that took me a while to get my head around

Me digging the hole, Robert advising

Robert, Rick and I wrestling the root cover off and then finally planting the tree.  Robert did a sterling job carrying loads of buckets of rain water for it.

We are very lucky to have a couple of Peppercorn trees on the block.  The trees bear small pink berries in the Autumn which look like peppercorns but aren't, the leaves of the tree give off a beautiful peppery smell when they're crushed.  The tree itself is very elegant and almost willow like with drooping fern like leaves. Ours don't look like the one below just yet but hopefully with a bit of TLC they will.

                       

Easter Sunday arrived and Deb and I took the Webber BBQ, all the veg, leg of lamb, microwave, plates, etc., to the block to cook lunch for 6 of us.  Deb showed me how to set up the Webber so it cooked everything perfectly.

                                          

                                                 

Rick got stuck into sorting out Dora's oil leaks while lunch was cooking.  Then after a quick read of the papers it was all action again.  Robert, Peter, Deb and Fred (the dog) got stuck into digging a narrow trench for the water pipe so we could run water to our Dunny.

This is Rick demonstrating the latest flushing loo at the block.  Please note how the bucket co-ordinates with the loo!

That's all for now.........