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.
Her husband Vic was a crayfisherman and greatly respected. She decided to stay put after his death and continued her involvement in the community and is now sponsoring a child in Bali as well. Her son Peter and his brother Robert had established themselves in the crayfishing industry and Peter fought for twenty years for the yearly WA rock lobster quota system. That has been achieved and gives a more reasonable living for those left in that industry.
Alison is a keen gardener and her influence can be seen in the development and upkeep of the Kalbarri golf and bowling club gardens. Because Kalbarri is hammered by the southerlies and gets hot in summer, most of the gardens are looking a bit off with the change in the weather. But with careful choice of local plants and the added benefit of good alluvial river soils they have managed to keep a display of colour and balance at her house and the surrounds of the Golf Club as well. The gardens of the golf club are maintained by volunteers.
Out the front of the house facing the Murchison River is a bed of gerberas. They look great, if not a bit tossed with the wind and at the end of flowering. We even saw some gerberas coming up between some paving bricks! And they are hard to establish! Alison said the soil was good but she just waters them now and again, chucks a bit of fertilizer on (carefully so they don’t grow too many leaves) and there they are. In winter time she shaves them to the ground and up they come in spring.
After the redevelopment of the house, local tradesmen helped her cement over the front yard and cover it with imitation lawn back in 1985 leaving garden beds watered off a bore. So there is no lawn. Alison learnt that most of the things grown here had to be tough including daisies, Geraniums, Melaleuca hedge, Euphorbia succulents, New Zealand Christmas bushes on the verge, Hawthorn bushes. We took out the roses and put in natives she said. At the Golf course they used miniature oleanders, non-deciduous Frangipanis, daisies and Melaleuca, Bougainvilleas and other native plants including a bed of wildflowers.
Pictured in her shade house with Ada, Alison pointed to the big spiders she allows to live and eat flies and insects there; they were joined today by a lizard looking for a feed.
She would like to thank Water Corp WA for coming up to Kalbarri and explaining the maintenance of our soils including putting bentonite clay in and using water conserving crystals. The visit was well attended and all went away better informed about soil and water management. Now she never throws away any prunings because they are used together with animal manure and rakings from under wattle trees to make compost.
Kalbarri has been the tourist destination for travellers rather than the City of Geraldton Greenough, but we believe that the future will see a more even sharing of that resource. That is what we reckoned as we cruised back to the city, especially when we have our own GG botanical garden. You can input your ideas about that at this site. Just register, it’s easy and free. http://2029.civicevolution.org/
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