Soils aren’t Soils! So Amanda and Nick found out!

Soils aren’t Soils! So Amanda and Nick found out when they took up their block on the top of a windy estate in Buller. Plenty of wattles and rabbits greeted them as they set about building their very first dream home and garden on part of their thirty acres near the City.                                                                                   

From Paris, from England to Africa to an Australian outback setting.

From her small flat in Paris and he from his bleak mining town in Yorkshire, onto Kenya. From out of Africa to Geraldton’s sunny shores Isabelle and Charlie settled and have created something unique and pristine in suburban Bluff Point.

Isabelle told their story, in her parisienne accent, as we drank coffee on the balcony overlooking the Indian Ocean.

Aquaponics and Salty Garden Tales

Hi Folks, aquaponics and fishy tales.                                                                                                       

Neville and Anita  heard our story about how Ivan and Margaret were catching dinner plate size perch from out of the old swimming pool in their back yard. “Come and have a look at this” he said.

Turns out that after arriving in Gero from Cervantes they set about, with the help of Father in-law Dwayne,  to build a Aquaponics set up under a shade house in their back yard.  A year later with info from the enthusiastic bloggers on the net and local knowledge he ended up with what looks like a small sailing ship with leafy vegetables climbing up the masthead and silver perch swimming around the bottom of the captain’s cabin!

Your lettuce bolting on you?

 John rang me because he was concerned about his lettuces.                                                                  

“Why are they running up to seed before it makes a heart?” he wanted to know. So we decided to go around and take a look. What a surprise! John has established a great vegie patch on a vacant bit of dirt and had some tricks up his sleeve I hadn’t heard of before. And he was able to share them with me to pass on. All of his vegies were very healthy indeed.

First thing though, we tackled the problem of lettuce running up to seed before setting a heart. Nature does make sure that it more than adequately protects it s species. Because a plant can’t run away from predators or adjust itself to sudden climate changes it does certain things. If a dry spell sets in, or a few hours of intense heat occurs, or any other outside unusual stressful event takes place the plant will almost immediately start setting seed. You may have noticed some species of plants will flower profusely in a drought even though there is not much actual plant or leaf growth. In the case of John’s lettuce we were not able to determine what actual event occurred to force the plant to seed, but it may have just been some unseasonal hot weather for a day or so before rain. They were planted on the 14^th of April and started to run up to seed about a month ago.

Country Life.........Easy Style

Greetings Fellow Gardeners.                                                                                                                                                     

“Raodasider couch, the sort I get off the side of the road” is how she explained her lawn. Looking fresh and green, it makes a great foundation for the low care gardens around the Rose Cottage of Roseanne and Charles down Greenough way. It doesn’t mind the bit of salt that comes up with the bore water she said.

Hidden away across the Greenough River the house is an excellent example of the architecture of the late eighteen hundreds. Roseanne and Charles have used their talents to create a pleasant, open garden of low care plants that give the feel of country and space. Using odds bits and pieces Charles designed the eye catching examples of his art positioned carefully in the surrounds of Rose Garden cottage. They have a feel of the times gone by with their rustic character.

Rustic Lifestyle in the Outer Suburbs

Hi  Fellow Gardeners                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Gabrielle and John have been running their upholstery repair business from home in for about thirty years.  They met up in Townsville when they were both in the forces, she was in a corporal ain the Air Force and John a private in the army, she outranked me then he said! After a stint in Darwin they made it to Geraldton and worked and raised a family of three here. They shared with us that they love the rustic lifestyle that they have been able to create.

Victoria and Holly are the two resident Saanen goats, one is being milked and the other is pregnant. The milk is used for drinking and cheese is made from the residue. Sitting around their kitchen table sharing yarns I told them many years ago as a young married couple we had a pure bred Saanen goat tethered to a post out in the bush next to humpy we lived in. Her name was Esmeralda Tasenalda the Third and had a pedigree that was of a higher order than the position she found herself in!

The Full Monty on Sustainable Living

Hello Gardeners                                                                                                               

Sustainability is the buzz word according to my mate Bob. Although his idea of sustainability probably refers to making enough home brew to last until the next mix! But the course I am engaged in at Durack Institute of Technology, (DIT is the new nickname,) is towards a diploma in sustainability. Since no one actually knows what that is, it is a bit of a worry if we can pass it!

So that’s what bought me to have a look at what Peter and his partner are doing up there at Howatharra on his thirty acres of land near the highway. Gardening is only part of sustainability and Peter has gone the whole monty by designing  his nine and half star rated house. He decided to invent a new slant on straw walls by building inside with fastwall bricks. On the outside of them, he will fasten about 300 mm width of straw bales, covered outside with three layers of plaster to form a very effective insulated 540mm thick wall around his open living house. The windows are all double glazed and filled inside with Argon gas. 

How I set about making a garden in a small unit.

Hi Fellow Gardeners,                                                                                                                                                    

Recently I shifted into a two bedroom unit. It is brand new but only has a small area at the back that I could use for a private garden. Since I have been talking about growing vegies at home, I thought I better set out an example to you, our readers what the hell I was on about. This is what I had to show and tell.

Nice garden up Kalbarri way, You should visit!

Hi fellow gardeners                                                                                                                    

We had heard about Alison from Kalbarri so I gave her a call and Ada and I went up to look at what she was up to. Turns out she is one of Kalbarri’s original citizens, having lived in this one house for fifty two years. When me and me mate Tony from Three Springs camped on the river bank back in 1964 she was living there then in what was a small asbestos lined house. This was the only one in that street apart from a few shacks around about.

Surviving in the suburbs on the pension.

Surviving in the suburbs on the pension.                                                                         

I have raised this issue with Bob and a few others at different times down at the local. Being on the pension is a tough call if that is all you got.

“I reckon you gotta be able to grow something yourself,” Bob said. “Not like you can get a killer for a carton and skin it in the back shed like we did back in the good old days. Or have your own chooks and get a rabbit or two now and then.” He complained. “Save a few quid if there was a way pensioners could get vegies or something that was easy.”

“I heard of a bloke in Gero who is doing something like that, “I said.

“Well, why don’t you go and ask him?” Bob answered.

And so I did.

Wilf  hailed from Cockatoo Island in the North, been a crocodile hunter, baker, haul pack driver and a few other things in his career. Now in retirement in Chapman Valley Road, he is growing vegetables, herbs and all good stuff to the extent he and Rose are self sufficient and also supply friends and family with much needed clean, untainted produce.

Freds Slant on growing Vegies.

Greetings garden lovers

We met Fred shovelling horse manure onto his newly prepared garden bed behind his house at Glenfield. There were melons and corn growing well as Fred prepared the beds for future planting. The water for this large garden comes from a bore on the property. It has 1600 parts per million of salt in the water and he uses powerful magnets wrapped around the bore discharge pipe to change the state of the salts and calcium which then lay on the surface. Fred claims that this is okay and can be worked back in the soil later. His plants certainly did not look to be suffering any ill-effects from the bore water. I have read some articles from scientists who refute the use of magnets to improve bore water quality. But Fred is the second person I have talked with in Geraldton who said they have definitely worked for them. Both are keen gardeners.

Got that Veggie Patch ready yet?

Hi Folks.

Got that veggie patch ready yet? Winter will come. I am over this summer and like a lot of people, ready to start planting! Talked to a couple who shared their ideas with me about this.

David and Deb of Bluff Point are interested in sustainability and permaculture. Their veggie plot out the back has been build up over the last few years from impoverished soil.

Mediterranean meet the new sub tropical Geraldton.

Hi Folks

A recent visit to a friend of mine revealed some surprises in his endeavours over the years.

Read on;

This week I would like to focus my garden column on the topic of tree biology. Aborist Phil Frazee has compiled these interesting notes for all us tree lovers out there.

In the area of root physiology and its relationship to developments in the tree canopy, Phil assures us that many of the problems that manifest themselves in the tree canopy crown begin below. Many instance of decline, loss of vigour, deadwood development, or death of trees can be traced to damage of the root system.

Floods, Cyclones and Where is the Summer Shade?

At this time of writing T C (Tropical Cyclone) Carlos was sneaking down the North West coast, threatening townships and bringing heavy tropical rain to the Pilbara coast of Western Australia. By this coming weekend he could be anywhere. Meanwhile muddy floodwaters surged through the Greenough River and flowed out into the ocean, staining the sea for miles. Floods early in the week threaten to come again to the flats where the trees are bent and the men are straight. I interviewed the Arborist, Philip J. Frazee early in the week and due to the heat wave, old age and something else I can’t think of, accidently deleted the interview off the tape! Philip has strong credentials in all areas of trees and will provide us with a great story and advice on urban and home tree planting, management and care. One thing he shared with me is that trees can be managed for maximum value and minimum risk by implementing internationally recognized best practice. These standards can be obtained by contacting the Australia Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture, “Arboriculture Australia” P.O. Box 76 Edwardstown, South Australia, 5039. Or on line by e-mail enquiries@aboriculture.org.au In the stinking heat of the last few weeks people have looked for shade trees in parks, car parks, street verges along the beaches and anywhere they can find shade. The new housing developments that cram large brick block houses together leave little room to grow shade trees like the huge canopy of the Poinciana photographed growing in one older suburb. The little coral gums on streetscapes around Geraldton give colour and shade in the summer. While down on the Greenough checking out the floods, we photographed the 680 year old Red River Gum “Kurlayhi” giving shade to a young pony at the Greenough Pioneer Museum and spotted an old sheep keeping his cool. And also snapped the tourist’s best picture of the bent flooded gum down on the front flats. Before the white man came to this land, the aborigines sort the shade of the river gums up and down the watercourses all over Gondwanaland in the piercing heat. Back in the forties on the farm in Three Springs, in summer we kids would wander around under the shade of the gimlets and York gums, shooting twenty eight parrots with shanghais. They never flew away much, could have been because it was so hot or they just knew we could never hit them! You probably remember one time when there were plenty of trees around in the bush and in town. Phillip is keen on getting citizens on board into working our way back to that era by research and planting of thousands of trees.

Landscaping in West Aussie

To restart the blog I am presenting an edited version of my weekly column in the city newspaper entitled "the Garden of Life" and have set up a URL with that name. Hope you like what will come in the next weeks and years.

Western Australian summers in the South west of the state are generally hot and dry. At the time of writing cyclcone Diane came close and deposited a heap of rain here this morning after two weeks of blistering heat. There is a another one forming in the North West and that will affect our weather again till March I guess!

Recently I interviewed people from the "School of the Air". In West Aussie we have a lot of children who live in isolated outback areas and in the old days of pedal radio, the only education they got was from the infancy of the "School of the Air" Well, times have changed and with computers and satelites, although children still live in isolated areas, with this new facility and technology they have better access to education than in the old days.

So we proceed! Our interest here is mainly in gardening and in this case landscaping.

The original School of the Air that was based in Meekatharra, burnt down in 2007 It was re-located to Beachlands in demountables and now we have a purpose built facility for distance education at this site in Kempton street Bluff point. Geraldton, Western Australia.

Bruce Perry of Garden Design gave me a tour of the site. He planted the landscaped design using fine leaved kurrajongs, Lomandras and Little John Callistemon. Out the front were Aussie bred new wild wisteria (Harenbergia violacea Meema), peppermint trees (Agonis Flexuosa), Tuckeroos (Cupaniopsis anacardioides) were also planted. A row of new Queen Mum Agapanthus featuring extra large dual coloured white and violet blue flower heads and clumping strap-like foliage were growing in the long bed near the entrance. Hakea Laurina (emu bush), Little Smokie (olearia axillaris), dwarf Oleander (Nerium) and Lavender also featured in the overall design alongside other species. I am sure Bruce would tell you about them if you could find him!

Melaleucas, gums, acacias and casuarinas made up the first storey trees that were planted here. Bruce said the soil along the edge of the coast near the beach is horrible for growing anything so they took out the sand and added 300/400 ml of good soil. Included with this soil were terracotta soil improver and water conserving polymers, plus root stimulators to get plants going. Sub surface watering was installed and then covered with inorganic pine bark mulch which doesn’t break down and helps to prevent weed germination amongst what is planted. If good mulch is put in these types of situations it only produces soil on breaking down.

Bruce said it is pretty hard to plant in the three months of summer when Geraldton gets absolutely drilled with heat and the wind so we are restricted with our plants and it is hard to find new species that are going to handle it. Especially down on the foreshore.

The lawn is a new variety of Kikuyu that has been recommended for all schools. It is leafy and soft. Kids need this type of lawn to run around on. Bruce left a piece of garden on the south west corner for the children to use as a vegetable patch. The soil was treated and the area covered with good composting mulch.

During our heat wave the design of this building with its wide verandas, landscaped gardens and pleasing aspect is a welcome sight amongst today’s modern developments. My old friend Bob reckoned it reminded him of the spacious farm and town houses of the fifties and sixties.

That is the end of the article and next week we interview Phil who an American tree person who shifted here a while ago and will share about trees in general.

Look forward to sharing with you next week.

Stan Maley 61428230029