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.
He claimed if you consistently water the leaves of your garden with town water off the scheme, the chlorine and additives in it will burn the leaves around the edge in the hot weather in late summer.
Summer might end soon and I asked Fred if he had any advice for people preparing the soil for planting the backyard veggie patch. Because our soil around here is mostly sandy, he said we need to use heaps of organic matter, cow manure, sheep manure or horse manure to build up the nutrients. Pleased he told me that because last week I had an Ag scientist on my case about my clay additive recommendations! The Geraldton turf club allows any interested gardener to go to the stables off the Flores road entrance and take what horse manure they want for free. Out of courtesy, the Race Club officials asked that all that is required is for us is to wait till after 9 a.m. and to speak to the people who are using the stall and tell them what we intend to do.
Besides the organic matter Fred uses blood and bone and two weeks before planting ads seasol at about a litre to the acre. That is his recipe for organic farming, no chemicals or artificial fertilizers are used. The build up of the soil increases the micro-organisms Fred said. When I asked him how he controls insects he bought out his secret weapon and asked me to smell it, phew! Apparently it contains anything hot that we can eat (like chilli, garlic etc), made into liquid and sprayed on the garden once a week. During the locust attack a few weeks ago he was spraying them every four hours and it kept them off!
Fred hails from New South Wales, doctors sent him to Geraldton to our warm and dry type of climate and he likes it here but reckoned he might end up in Kalbarri.
I asked “what do you do with your produce Fred?”
“Looking to sell some at the farmers market if I can,” he replied. “But once you cut it its gotta go somewhere so I give to the charities, churches and refuges around town.”
Fred has his organically and home grown seedlings for sale and you can ring him on 99383175 to place an order. They will grow in Geraldton because they were started here he said. There are no flower seedlings however, forget about flowers, you can’t eat them! We need to grow veggies, Japan is on its knees, Russia and Israel are in drought so grocery prices will go through the roof Fred predicts.
More info follow the blog at www.stanslifegarden.com
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