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.
First thing was setting up all the wind breaks. Natives on the south side, woolly bushes and Amanda likes the silver native ground cover which handles the heat. Fountain grass was a problem and took a lot to bring under control. The blowouts caused by the wind had to be managed till they covered again with grasses. First thing was to rip out all the wattles and get rid of the rabbits.
The second year in Geraldton they started the trees. Willow myrtle, peppercorn and fiddlewood were in tree sacks at their rental while waiting for the house to be built. Getting a garden going up here in this gutless sandy soil and strong winds has been the toughest gardening gig she has ever took on.
They bought in twenty tonnes of clay (red and brown) and spread that over the area to be planted. The clay is soaked in water, mixed and watered into the water repellent sand a bucketful at a time. Amanda said it is very hard to create good humus out of this type of sand that is lies along the coastal plains around Geraldton. The clay helps hang onto the nutrients and water, otherwise it all just leaches quickly away. Before introducing the clay, their water bill went through the roof and nothing grew well anyway. Early problems with leaf margin burning was found to be mainly caused by the high chlorine content and hardness of the town supply. This water is not real good for most fruit and nut trees.
Amanda recommends gardeners test your soil as theirs was deficient in everything except sodium chloride! Studying medical science in her student days led her to think about feeding the soil and not the plant. Once you get your analyses you can add the necessary elements and they do this through a Fertigation venturi system. Nitrogen fertilizer and liquid gypsum to dissipate salt go through and trace elements plus potash, when needed. She said they would love to put seasol and power feed through but it is far too expensive today. Soil testing kits can be purchased and the bigger fertilizer companies will run a test on your samples. Water repellent soils can be made worse if things like plant matter from acacias and Banksia mulched wood are added to that type of soil. Pig manure is a solution.
They also have a biolytic system full of worms that takes all the water from the house (grey and black) and puts it out into the orchard via the submersible pump system. All eco products are used in the house to keep that water going out so that they can safely eat the fruit off the trees.
The carbon char setup they made creates carbon from dead wood and the resulting black carbon solids are ground up and added to the soil which helps water retention and good soil bacteria to grow. Australia just introduced a carbon tax through our parliament so carbon char can attract carbon credits as it qualifies as carbon sequestration.
Amanda said we are going to make a sea change from Geraldton and move to Leschenaultia near Bunbury for work reasons and are looking forward to kinder soil and climate for gardening. The rare tropical fruit trees are bagged up ready to go with them. These include Grumichama (guava), Kwai Muk, Longon , Lychee , yellow Strawberry Guava, Wampee , White Sapote. I have just over 70 fruit trees and maybe a 1000 odd “others” she added. She loves to prove we can grow any type of plant if we work hard enough at it!
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