update on trees

Dad recently did a trip up to Amherst to fix the irrigation for the new orchard trees. While there he took photos, here's a few:





In Dad's words:

These were taken when I went there to install small watering pots to the new plants, and check progress of olives. Only 3/4 of a tank of water has rained since transferring water to the large tank. I will pump the irrigation tank full next time I go and water the entire orchard. I will also install a drip attachment to all the small watering points for the orchard and allow the full tank to slowly drip into these tree pipes. That should help them through the dry season.

Edna Walling's "Bickleigh Vale"

A few years back when researching herbaceous borders, I wrote about Edna Walling, an Australian garden designer from the 1920-50's who was like Australia's version of Gertrude Jekyll. (See here and scroll down about halfway for the section about Edna)

Well, there was an 8 minute feature about her on last week's "Gardening Australia" TV show that Mum kindly told me about, and you can watch it for free on the ABC website here: Link to ABC website

Because I'm not sure how long the ABC will leave it accessible, I also created my own copy that you can access below. Please try watching at the ABC link first though: not only will you be able to view it all in one go, it'll help to save my bandwidth allowance! :-) Plus they have lots of other good stuff that you can browse while you're there...

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:

Lovely views

Dave sadly didn't take many photos while he was there but I forgive him: as he said, he was working! (And there's a reason that it's usually me wielding the camera...)

But besides the photos of the fence and house showing their progress, he did get a smattering of scenic views. It's these more than anything which remind me of why we're planning to move there.

View from the hill near olives:





Early morning at the dam:

Dave's visit

Dave got back yesterday, at last. Here's his short summary of what they did each day along with a few photos:

Monday 4th August
rained all way up, got there 2pm, built shelter


(this photo was taken a few days later obviously, given the blue skies!)

Tuesday 5th August
cold morning, started to strip back panels on side wall, forest side



Wednesday 6th August
primer coat on stripped wall, continued stripping. Planted lemon tree, blood orange, almond, pecan.





Thursday 7th August
painted first coat on side wall, built scaffold for work on dam side wall.





Friday 8th August
more painting and stripping, 5,000 gal tank arrived and installed. drove back to Melbourne in the late afternoon.



Saturday 9th August
rest day in Melbourne

Sunday 10th August
drove back to Amherst in the morning, arrived early afternoon. started initial work on olive fence, put 5 posts in



Monday 11th August
more painting and stripping. forest side finished, dam side half stripped. another 10 posts in



Tuesday 12th August
30 posts put in am, primer coat done dam side all other posts in.



Wednesday 13th August
first blue coat on dam side, holes dug for fences round almond and chestnut trees.



Thursday 14th August
second blue coat, started completing fence with first run of wire



Friday 15th August
wiring up fence. finished first run, started top layer.

Saturday 16th August
finished second run of wire (upper) started fences for trees

Sunday 17th August
ran hare fence around olive trees

progress on the shelter shed

Dad has made more progress on the shelter he's building , that we suspect will one day serve as a barn.

3 more of the trusses are up now - I still can't get over how he's managed to do all this singlehandedly.




Via email 12th July:
I had to abort the plans to work on my shed because of bad weather so hired the dingo to use my time well once there. I had gone up without a trailer, met with snow near Ballarat and lots of rain, so turned around and went back to get the dingo. (nb: this was to dig post holes to enclose the olive grove: a project he will do with Dave in a few weeks)... I made the new track to the hobbit house below the perimeter of the olive grove and will drive there and create a safe road, although it is a little sloped in places. Once there are no longer building projects there it can lapse back to grass and be a walking track.


Via email 20th July:
I am sending some photos of my near completion of the shed frame. I could go no further this trip because of time and because my arms would not permit more lifting of the heavy planks at the end of the day. I have the battens ready for iron on one side, but must remove the two fascia beams for attachment to the ends of the rafters either end. These were needed to walk on while framing. I must lower all the planks again, and install them on the outside for fitting the fascia beams. I have stretched the span to the limit of all members, but it is a very sturdy structure nonetheless. The posts are on stirrups in concrete, bolted to the ribbon plates at top and the end trusses are resting on saddles cut into the top of the corner posts. Two opposing strap braces are fitted as well.

If I have enough old iron I will complete both sides of the roof, but if not only the downhill side so this area can be Dave's lounging area. I will put the small caravan on the downhill side leaving room only for parking a car where you see the Jackaroo, only closer to the posts. I will put a small tank uphill to catch the runoff and provide bath water. We can cart the water from the tanks near the old house for now and transfer to the standing tanks.

This uses 4 of the trusses, and there are 6 remaining. This accommodates 2 vehicles easily, but using 6 trusses will accommodate 4 vehicles. I will discuss with Dave if you and he can decide where you might like such a structure. If built down on the flat near the container it is good for neighbor supervision, but a long way from where you ought to have if for maximum utility. I think probably up where the drive ends in the turnaround, but to the side of the track I drive to go to the hobbit house now. I think it important that track look and feel graceful just as your driveway with trees looks.

idea for a shower

I found this on Ebay. It's too expensive (and too far away) to bid on, but wanted to make a note of it as perhaps we can build our own. It'd make a great outdoor shower, as well as a way to make sure you didn't use too much water.



It's an old (1810) portable watersaver shower. You apparently pumped water up to the top using something like an old tyre pump. Then you had your shower and the water collected in the bottom where you could pump it back up again.

Soil test results

Yes, they have finally arrived. Here's the key extracts:



(Click to make it big enough to read).

Also, here's the background information leaflet.

building a shelter

Dad has been spending free time working on a side project at Amherst: building a shelter using the roof trusses he salvaged.

I'm not sure quite what it will end up being like - eg: whether it will have any sides enclosed - but it's already starting to look nice, and huge!



Dad is planning to put the small caravan under it for protection, as well as setting up a woodheater for warmth. That'll be where Dave stays during the 2 weeks he's there in early August. Positioning a tank on one edge he'll be able to use the roof to collect water, which will then be used to rig up a rudimentary outdoor shower.

These photos give you an indication of not only what it will look like, but also how amazingly improvisational my Dad is. He's managed to build this entire thing with huge heavy trusses 10ft in the air single-handedly.



In Dad's words:

(via email 30th May):
I am pleased to have succeeded in getting the 8 stirrups into the concrete in the right places so the next fortnight weekend that I go up I can erect the pine poles atop these, and put the long beams in place. I will need to make braces for the pole walls which at either end support the trusses. Then I will need batten materials for the iron roof. I have some up there, and will use all my own stuff first, stuff which I took there long ago for the hobbithouse. I have enough scavenged western red cedar weatherboards to box in the two ends of the truss roof. And I have enough secondhand iron to complete the roof, I think.

(via email 22nd June):
I have plans to go up for another working day next weekend, and spent today loading tressles, planks, and extra pipes with more ladders. I could not proceed last weekend because of being too short of ladders to work safely at any height. I must totally anchor the first truss before I can move the towers to the next set of posts. I then erect the two posts and connect them temporarily to the first truss with battens. I then move to the third set of posts, and so on until all four trusses are erect on their posts and then connnect all with battens both beneath the ends of the trusses and above. I then put on braces and ensure all is square so when I put on the sheets it works well. I am lucky I have the extra truss that is hanging upside down as a stablizer and connector for the two posts so they can be held in a plumb status. I then put bolts through the connecting points and it will withstand high winds and be safe.

Ebay win: fence spears

We just won a bulk lot of these. I've seen similar before but there hasn't been enough of them or else they were just too expensive / too much hassle to arrange delivery. These were only 20 minutes from my sister's and the seller kindly agreed to drop them off.



From the description:
A bulk lot of 95 cast iron Victorian Pallisade fencing spearheads. 120mm long, 75mm wide, 21x17mm stub to suit 25mm RHS. New, never been used, although some are a bit rusty. Great for repairs or extensions to original or reproduction fencing

Not sure precisely how we'll use them yet, but one idea is on a fence to enclose parts of the garden near the house. It wouldn't keep out kangaroos, but they're unlikely to come close to the house anyway, but it would work for sheep.

The rough concept would be to get some old metal rods, like the kind they use in foundations (ie: cheap) which we'd then attach these spears too, spraypaint black, and voila a fancy-ish fencepost. If we spaced them eg: a spearpost every metre with wire in between, Dave reckons we'd be able to cover an area 20m x 20m square which is a reasonable size.

Keeping bees

Sometimes things just all fall into place.

We plan to keep bees at Amherst to help with pollinating the orchard as well as for honey and beeswax.

But neither of us know the first thing about bee-keeping.

I'd been expecting it would be a hassle to find somewhere local to learn and thus we'd be better starting over here in the UK despite the climate and bee strain differences. But it turns out that couldn't be further from the truth.

The Central Goldfields region of which we're smack bang in the middle is apparently a centre for the Honey Bee industry in Australia!!!! Who knew???

Because of this, the local TAFE has multiple courses all about bee keeping. The one that sounds perfect for us is a 7 week course, 1 evening per week plus 2 weekend day practical sessions.

So bees can wait. Thank goodness, 'cos I wasn't looking forward to attempting it here in urban London. :-)

soil test update

We're still waiting for the full set of test results, but we've heard about the Foundation test.

From Dad's email (May 1st):
"He said he has done one of the tests, the foundations, and the news is good, an M classification for the footings. He has to complete the capability tests, as these require time for dispersal of water from holes before he can submit his samples"

I had a little hunt online and found a booklet thanks to Soil Test Australia which defines the different classifications. It turns out M = average. :-)



UPDATE: the full report has arrived.

water bottles for trees

Both Dave and my birthdays are coming up in April, and Mum asked what present we wanted. So, I immediately thought of Amherst and suggested a lemon tree for the orchard.

But of course, lemon trees need a lot of water, far more than the others in the orchard. So I came up with an ingenious solution. Why not give any ultra-thirsty trees their own little water butts set on a drip feed going right under the soil? It wouldn't be lost to evaporation that way and they'd be able to have as much water as they wanted then provided the water butts were big enough.

I looked on Ebay and - tada - the perfect solution. Old olive barrels already fitted up with taps and in a fetching terracotta colour that won't look too out of place:



This is the description from Ebay:

This 190L Rainwater/Greywater barrel has a brand new 1/2 inch garden tap fitted. It is ideal to store water for the garden. It features an open top 2 piece lid . The lid has a hole in the centre and it and comes with a sink plug to stop the mozzies from getting in. In a former life this drum held olives and I have rinsed and leak tested it. The drum after rinsing retains a slight smell of olives but this will go in time.

During Melbourne's recent rain, using these type of drum/ tanks I caught 700 litres of water off a 6m x 4m shed. I then used the water to wash clothes and used the greywater to water the garden. This drum could also be used to catch the water dripping from your air conditioner or you could catch the overflow from your rainwater tank.

Tank Size approx 900 x 550mm.
Lid size 320mm diameter

We bought three of them and Mum liked them so much she bought two more for herself. I plan to just prop them up on bricks next to each tree that needs extra cosseting, they'll look quite cute. :-)

Rescuing the olives

What with all the attention focused on the orchard, the poor olive trees planted up on the hill got neglected. The enclosures were broken into by next door's sheep and escaped deer, and many trees were eaten or at least severely squashed. :-(



Dad very kindly made an emergency trip to make repairs so hopefully they'll bounce back. Ultimately though I think we're going to have to invest in a big fence for them too like the orchard. *sigh* Here's an example of a repaired enclosure:



And here's what we can expect to have lots of, one day. :-) Despite everything, we have fruit on a couple... so it's not all bad.




Just for the sake of future records (not that I suspect anyone but me will ever be interested) here's the saga in full as described by Dad:

On Feb 14th Dad emailed:

"Watered orchard. Found great damage to olive grove. 12 trees nearly destroyed by roos or sheep. Broken down barriers. Must go next week to repair and replace all tree barriers".

On Feb 21st Dad he did as promised and wrote back with an update:

"I got home at 0200 this morning after spending the past two days to save the olive grove. I understand from talking to your new neighbor down the hill that there have been deer on the block only last week...

I set about to replace the damaged plastic pickets with new ones, using 4 each tree not just 3 pickets as it is apparent that the trees get much more protection from would-be grazers with 4. I acquired all the now unneeded pickets from the orchard, having considerable trouble to extract them until I figured a way to use a chain and pin in a hole to grip them to pull with the picket-extractor... (Overall I regret buying the plastic ones, but at the time it seemed the best thing.... They are still the best for safety around stock, especially horses... but on your block will always need to drive a pilot hole first with a steel picket, extract it and then drive the plastic: time-consuming and frustrating but the only effective way to get the penetration in your soil type)

I was able to gather only half enough plastic pickets to do all repairs from the orchard, and began my work of repair. After finding it took nearly an hour each tree... I took the decision to use the 50 new steel pickets bought for Tex to fix the fence. I gathered all steel pickets we had on the block about 10, and ultimately extracted 18 of my steel stakes from around the hobbithole site. In the end I had just enough to do all repairs on all the trees as needed. There were only 4 tree enclosures which did not need to be replaced urgently since these were in satisfactory condition if I only beefed up the fixing. So I finished at dark yesterday, 830pm feeling as knackered as Dave felt the day he made the first enclosures.

I posted the pics of the tree damage (typical), the plastic post replacement, the all steel post replacement, the wiring clipped to strengthen top, and some pics of the little olives which demonstrates that your grove is ready to produce if only the animals can be kept away. I think the chief damage is from hares (from below) so I redid all wire wraps with apx 6 inch of fold along the ground. I also strengthened the overall by clipping nearly all the holes in the pickets to the wire instead of only top and bottom holes. The use of 4 pickets allows further distance from the wire for the centre of the tree. On all the trees cropped to the ground there are new leaf buds forming. I judge none of these trees will die. One of the trees damaged in the first year subsequently die even though the wire was fixed. So you have only 1 fatality to date, but if I had not acted promptly this time I fear most of the grove would have been destroyed. We are quite lucky I took a stroll up the hill when watering last weekend so noticed the damage soon after the attack and had time to go within a very short time".

our first peaches

peaches
Originally uploaded by lynetter

The first ever fruit from the orchard, picked by Dad and Vida 2 days ago. There was also apparently another peach that had ripened already and fallen - they ate it up there and Vida said it was very sweet.

Seeing this is so wonderful as brings us one step closer... although growing 8 peaches successfully is still a long way from self-sufficiency, but hey it's a start... :-)

You can see these same peaches growing on the tree barely a month ago here.

our new garden edging

A few weeks ago we did a little Ebay splurge and bought some reclaimed edging tiles from a Gloucestershire manor house.

They're ultimately destined for the garden at Amherst, but in the meantime I'm using them here. They make a much nicer edging for around the chicken run don't you think?



(PS: you can see no chickens as this photo was taken at dusk - they'd taken themselves to bed!)

We also had far more than I expected, which is brilliant. Here are all the leftovers that I need to figure out how to use:



Gosh we're going to have a fun time scrubbing the dirt off them when it's time to send home. *sigh* Still, it will definitely be worth it. :-)

We have peaches!

Wow wow wow.



I would never have dreamed we'd have fruit already - considering how last year we were happy just to see the trees had some leaves, given they were getting constantly nibbled at and constrained by the wire. Dad was so right about putting in the fence.

Here's the same tree from a distance. A very happy tree I think. :-)



(Notice too in the distance there are trees. They are the gums lining the driveway that are huge! More on them in a sec)

Here's a few other tree shots. I'm just so happy that we have some that are thriving.

Orchard fence is finished

Well, almost finished. It only has a temporary gate at the moment, but close enough as it'll probably be years before we get something permanent.

Here you can see the fence clearly, and also how we've interspersed old tree trunks with the poles.


The old trees were from some that had long-ago fallen on our property. They're Ironbark which is incredibly strong (hence the name) so they're not going to rot away anytime soon. The posts need painting perhaps to make them match the trunks, but overall I like the effect... I think it'll be even better when I get creepers growing over some of the poles, etc.

Up close the trunks have a lovely pattern:



The other thing I like about the fence is that from a distance the wire fades into the background (at least when it isn't wrapped in shadecloth):



I was so worried that having the fence would make it feel like a compound but it doesn't. When the fruit trees grow big it'll be even less noticeable.

Orchard fence is halfway there

We've prioritised getting the orchard fence built so that it was done in time for Spring, when the trees put on their biggest spurt of growth. Let's hope it makes a difference.

As a reminder, here's what we planned.

Dad has now got the poles in, including some fabulous dead tree ones! I wish we had more dead tree ones but it's OK, we shall work with what we have - it's going to look better than I hoped I think.

A birds eye view

Dave discovered that Google Earth had recently added new photos at much higher resolution covering Amherst. You can see the trees we planted!!!

Here's a close-up for the house and garden area. This is my favourite view. I love how not only can you see the trees, but also the outline of the walled garden area, right down to our first start at making vegie garden beds. From this view I can see we've got the sizing right relative to the house + the placement... it was so hard to judge at ground level.


Here's a view covering the entire property:


It's a little deceptive as it makes it look flat whereas in reality it's on a kind of rolling hill.

Finally, here's a close up of the far side, where you can see the baby olive trees.

trusses for shed

Dad got some great trusses. He's going to use them to make a temporary shelter for building materials he needs to clear out from his backyard. The picture of the random carport shows how he's thinking it will look.

photos of trees

Poor Dad. I am always pestering him to take photos when he visits. I just love seeing how it's changed and having the photos also makes me feel like I'm there. Here's a couple of shots from Dad's recent visit:

From Dad's email on September 24th
The dam is half full. The gums are very large now, some 2.5metre and growing++.

pine posts and wire for orchard

Dad has done another of his miraculous sourcing tricks. Somehow he managed to find someone who was dismantling their orchard and selling off a bunch of pine poles that are perfect for what we need:

From Dad's email on September 19th:
I am going to Amherst with the loaded trailer of 160-180mm pine posts 3 metre long. Had to go to near Arthur's Seat chairlift to get them. They are excellent and only $10 each. The next size down, 125mm, cost $25 each. These are an exceptional bargain and we ought to buy as many as you envision you will need. He also has 125mm ones both in the 3m and 2.4 m and some 2.4m that are 180-200 that would be excellent for strainer posts. Your call if you want to invest more. He runs an orchard that he is downsizing. He has about 1000 poles that are 9 yrs old but in excellent, and I mean excellent order. Better than new because they have better preservative in them than is presently being used.

Dad ended up getting another load's worth in the end I think, as they're such a good deal and will come in handy for so many projects.




In terms of the wire, Dad said:
I cannot get discounted dog wire so will go with 1.2 m high weldmesh for the bottom that has square gaps of 10cmx10cm. You need 3 rolls at $54 each, plus staples. You have the single strand wire already to make up the top of the fence up to the 2.4, or you can tell me to buy an additional 3 rolls of the weldmesh and make it all weldmesh.

I replied to say to use the same weld mesh wire along the whole fence and also to make sure it was lined up with the wire below if it was going on in two parts.
"What I mean is, make it symmetrical if you can as otherwise I think it might look a little odd to the eye when you're looking up close to see the 'stripes' of the wire that don't match up. If this isn't possible then please leave a gap, say 20-30cm, between the two sheets of wire so they look clearly separate... I'm assuming a small gap like this, 1.2m off the ground, is not going to be possible for any sheep/roo to squeeze through as they're not climbers"

designing the orchard fence

The poor fruit trees need better protection. No sooner do they send shoots up than they get nibbled off by a passing sheep or kangaroo. The wire fencing doesn't seem to have worked as well for them as the gum trees, so they're surviving - but barely.

Dad reckons, and Dave agrees, that the only thing to do is put in a proper fence.

But I've been hesitant to do so, because I was worried it would spoil the feeling of open-ness and views through to the dam.

There's no alternative however, so after much deliberation we've come up with an idea.

The 'functional' goal is to keep the sheep and roos out, but make it possible still for smaller animals, like rabbits, to get inside and eat the grass to save us mowing. The 'design' goal is to make it look nice, perhaps even sculptural, not like a traditional fence and with minimal impact on the views.

Depending on price, we're hoping to use the kind of wire that has square holes, about 15cm x 15cm. It's strong enough to repel sheep, we can use tent pegs to fasten to the ground between pillars, and viewed from a distance you'd hopefully not notice it.

The question however, is what kind of posts to use to hold the wire up.

My first idea was to make it sort of mediterranean in feel... to make the fence posts like round pillars, and put planters for cacti and succulents on top. The concept was that we could sprinkle them through the orchard and that they'd appear to have a reason for being there - almost as if they were sculptures - beyond just holding up a fence.



But, when I tried to envisage this while there, I realised it wouldn't work... it didn't have the right feel. So Mum and I came up with an alternative.

We'll make it one big fenced area around the orchard - but in a curved shape that feels natural to walk around and to fit in with the shape of the driveway. I had a go at marking it out using bricks, but suspect it'll evolve as I wasn't sure how much space needed to be between each post.
We'll use normal fence posts (ideally round, unless rectangular is a lot cheaper) with the idea being that ultimately we can paint them - perhaps in the dark blue of the house, with a gold 'finial' like detail at the top. Whatever paint style we choose, it can be a recurring motif throughout other garden features and help to pull it all together. To give you an idea of how the painted fence posts might feel, here's an example from a garden we visited in Olinda (ours of course would be much taller and with wire between):



To make it even more interesting and less 'fence-like', we could perhaps have every 5th or so post being not a post but a 'dead tree'. If we buy some uncut big branches from the local sawmill, ideally in different shapes with a few other branches coming off at the top, then they could be set into position almost as if they were the trunks of real skeleton trees. It'd give it a more natural feel and blend in with the gums of the driveway, and I could put pots and hanging planters in the branches perhaps. Hmmm... here's a sketch of the idea:



Of course, there are a few trees that are just too far out to be included in the main fenced bit. I'm envisioning that each of the mulberry and almond trees will have their own enclosures. For simplicity they could be rectangular, but the way they're lined up needs consideration. Mum and I toyed with a couple of ideas (aligning them with the walled garden; making them point to the dam) but in reality I think the best alignment will only become obvious a the point of building, as it'll need to fit in with the house, the drive, the slope of the land etc, so am not going to fuss too much about it for now.

a sad lesson learned...

In October we planted a few things without any protection from sheep, to test out how they'd do.

Sadly the news is not good.

There is no sign of the reeds. Nor did the waterlily survive - but then, after the disasters of attempting to plant it, that's not surprising.

There is only the slimmest of signs of the 'pigface' cuttings. So slight that it might be just a weed, but I found where I planted it and there is a very small shoot coming up that might, just might, be it attempting to re-grow. It was too small though even to show up on a photo, so I suspect realistically it's gone. :-(

Even the agaves are struggling. The b*****d sheep ate them, spikes and all! Well, they didn't have big spikes as they were little, but still... Dave reckons that one agave survived unscathed behind the house, but I searched and couldn't find any sign of it. However I did find the two that were at the front of the house. Both are eaten to the bone - but they're still green so fingers crossed they'll revive. One even seems to have sent out an offshoot.

What a difference a week makes...

... well, actually 2 weeks, during which time there were several days with solid rain.

I've just got back from a very fleeting trip to Australia for a friend's wedding, and managed to squeeze in 2 hours at Amherst en-route to the airport. To my amazement, it was green! It's such a relief to see how quickly it greens up; to have a reminder that it's not always dusty and drab.

The lemongum trees are doing magnificently. You're starting to be able to get the effect of them lining the driveway now.




The dam has filled up quite a bit - the ridge is still visible but closing over at one end.


Unfortunately the orchard isn't doing so well (more on that soon) but just look at the green!


Here's a short clip combining images with some panoramic videos to show more:


Music thanks to Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Mum's visit to Wigandia garden

A short while ago I wrote about Wigandia garden. This is a famous Australian garden, renowned for being extremely drought tolerant, low maintenance and with its own unique style. You can see the garden's website here.

Well, thanks to the garden creator William posting a comment (thanks!) I discovered that the garden was opened to the public for the first time in years over Easter.

Unfortunately I couldn't go myself, what with being on the other side of the world, but I convinced Mum to go in my stead. It was a very long day for her, around 4 hours drive each way(!) but I think she enjoyed it, and she did an amazing job of taking photos and video.

In Mum's words:
"It was all a surprise – I had not expected it to look so good. And his sculptures would be, anywhere else, just a heap of old junk like the rusty decrepit bike thrown on a heap of sort of garden rubbish. It looked just perfect – a guy there (another visitor) and I both commented it would look like waiting for the rubbish collection in our places, but was so exactly right where he had placed it! I think it was one of the volunteers who told me he had given it a LITTLE water to make it really nice for Easter, since about Christmas. that is, probably the bathwater to cover an acre or so! "

I've put the full set of Mum's photos up on Flickr here. As well, to give you a flavour of the garden, below is a short video compilation showing one side, plus a couple of photos.


Music thanks to Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)







Based on the photos, the garden is amazing. The fact that it's so full of life, at the tail end of a long hot summer and drought, is phenomenal. Yes, I imagine it'd be prettier still in late autumn after some rain, but it's easy to make a garden look lovely when it's lush and green - what's hard is what this garden succeeds at - to look wonderful even when it's dry and overbearingly hot. It's also clearly a garden for wildlife, with the various drinking bowls for birds and all the butterflies. Just wonderful. I hope I get a chance to visit it myself in person one day.

update on trees

Not much has been happening at Amherst over the past little while. Dad has been busy studying for his nursing exam and working on his own house. Here's an update from Mum on a recent trip:

"Dad went up to your place Thursday night with Dakota and Lady, the trailer and the ute. I went up Friday and brought him and the dogs back in the afternoon. I was late arriving – traffic was dreadful. Dad wanted to look at the terrain a bit south of Ballarat so we drove back that way, and rejoined the freeway at Ballan.

The grass at Amherst on your land seems to have been mowed. Almost bowling green short and smooth! And there was a definite green tinge over everything that I was not expecting. Dad went to water the fruit trees and found water standing in the trenches he had dug round them, like mini dams, one per tree. Tex said they had about 100mm overnight a couple of weeks back – I think it was the night I told you it was raining up your way. It looks lovely, but there is not much feed about for sheep...

The gums along the drive are either flourishing or dead, and there are far more flourishing than dead for sure. No more have died since you were there I think. Fine healthy trees they are, and outgrowing their wire protections which is hampering their growth."

articles about swimming ponds

This is something I have thought about for a while, ever since first coming across the concept. I really don't like 'normal' swimming pools, they just look fake and require too much maintenance. But it is going to be so hot there that having somewhere to go for a dip would be good.

A natural pool, aka a swimming pond, seems like it would be a good solution. My only concerns are 1) if it was natural would that mean we risk snakes going into it (my pet horror), and 2) would not the natural appearance be spoiled by the legal requirement to have a fence around it? Or perhaps it would be spared that, by virtue of not being an official swimming pool, like dams are spared.

I have toyed with the idea of it being dug into the hillside, in the space where there's a kind of mini hollow, just down from the olive trees. It would have lovely views there and, if fencing were required, the ground is steep enough that perhaps we could have the fence out view when you're in the pond.

Obviously, this is a luxury so not something we'd rush into, but still worth thinking over.

Here are a couple of articles about it, and I'll add more as I find them.

Take a swim on the wild side - The Garden, July 2005



Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6


Swimming ponds - The Garden, May 2004



(This is part of my slightly insane project to 'file' potentially useful articles that I read, so I have a chance of finding them in future)

in search of artificial lawn

This is a picture of the banks of our dam that Dad took a few weeks ago. It's drier than I've ever seen, you can not only see the hump in the middle, it's now a path big enough to walk over! It really rams home that water is going to have to be very carefully allocated in the garden.




Lawn uses a lot of water but, as we discovered when visiting Beth Chatto's garden, it makes a huge difference to the look and feel of a place. Beth's "dry garden" is OK but it doesn't come close to my garden dream. To really shine, the garden beds need the the green lawn as backdrop.

Except perhaps for a tiny patch in the "secret garden", we're not going to have enough water to support real lawn. Even the drought resistant stuff you can get in Australia needs watering every 2-3 weeks. If you don't it goes brown... ok, it springs back to green-ness as soon as you water it again but what's the point, if it's brown you may as well have gravel. Besides, there's something miserable about the hardy grasses - they feel rough when you walk on them with barefeet, to me they're not a proper lawn.

Which leaves artificial lawn as the only alternative.

We looked at this a few years back and, at least then, there didn't seem to be any decent suppliers in Australia - at least not servicing the domestic market. Now though we've come across a few, and Dave has emailed them to find out more.

Here are the suppliers we've found so far:
http://www.protechcorp.com.au/
http://www.artificialgrass.com.au/
http://www.tigerturf.com.au/
http://www.evergreensyntheticgrass.com.au/

Below are the questions Dave sent to each... I shall post an update with their replies. Fingers crossed. :-)

1. How real does your fake lawn feel and look? eg: If you walk on it barefoot could you tell the difference between it and real grass? If you fall over on it does it give you abrasions/burn like the old style astroturfs do? Is it possible to obtain a sample of the product?

2. Not that we are likely to need to do it often, but once the lawn is laid, if you needed to get to the ground underneath it is it possible to roll it up and re-install it later? This is a consideration because part of the area we'd like to cover has an underground gas main easement which we are not allowed to build over. As well, we are probably going to be installing various underground tanks for sewerage treatment, etc and if they could be underneath the lawn that would give us a lot more flexibility in placement.

3. To what extent is the product fireproof? If for example, a bushfire came through, would the fake grass act as a stimulant or retardant to the fire? Our property is bordered on one side by ironbark forest and so bushfire is a serious hazard we need to consider. On a smaller scale, what would happen if someone dropped a lit cigarette? If a small part was burnt, is it possible to patch?

4. Is it possible to use the fake lawn as a surface for collecting rainwater? We are going to be seeking to capture and store as much water as we can, given it's such a dry area. The lawn would be almost entirely in an area with a gentle slope, so there will be a natural path for runoff.

5. Finally, the question of price. I would be looking at 250-300 square metres coverage, though not in a square block, the grass would be going around garden beds, trees, etc. Can you give a ball park estimate of likely cost? Are there ways to minimise cost, eg: by doing the preparatory legwork and installation myself?

Xmas tree watering

Dad made one last watering trip up to Amherst a few days before Christmas. Here's some photos from that visit. What is amazing about it is just how dry it is, this is the driest I've seen it. Note the tree in the first photo. It now looks miles away from the water edge... well, when we planted it, it was only about 2 metres out.

watering trees and firefighting

I don't know what we would do without Dad helping out at Amherst, especially with watering. We'd hoped that this year it wouldn't have been necessary to make so many trips, but as it's so dry and the fruit trees still so young, he's had to go still every few weeks. At least it's only the orchard needing watering now, we've not been giving any to the gum trees or olives anymore.

Below are accounts of his recent watering trip and some local news - Dad has met the guy who will soon be our new neighbour. He is Tex's son-in-law and building on the site just near our dam opposite Tex's place. He's a professional firefighter and so Dad has donated some equipment to help set up for protecting our place. Hopefully Dave will get a chance to meet him in March.

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FROM DAD'S EMAIL - DECEMBER 8TH

I have plans to go on Monday to water the fruit trees as there has not been rain for this past month... i plan to pump from the dam for the day, and to take extra hay there. To fill in time while the trees are being watered, I plan to wheelbarrow loads of manure and place these about the fruittrees outside the area protected by the wire, and between the trees as well. Enriching the ground there will help the trees and the manure is old and not too hot. I will pile some on top, but not too much so as to burn the trees.

Tell me if this is not what you want, but if I don't hear at all from you, I will use the pile of manure in this way as it is not going to be enriching the soil where it is right now. It may be that working the soil around the trees would encourage water absorption and allow the manure to settle into the ground well and make it's contribution.

I will make one more trip after Monday to water, but briefly only as I will leave the tank full and not need to pump next trip, before I go to Lithuania at the end of December, unless we get very good rains. I realize it is costly to get this foothold with the orchard during these early years, but think what blessing they will be when up and running well. I will talk to you some time about putting an inexpensive wire fence around this little orchard and placing the netting on this fence and so let the trees spread out a little. We need not fear the sheep will get in, and built properly the roos will be kept out as well. It is a small orchard so a close fence will be not too dear".

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FROM DAD'S EMAIL - DECEMBER 11TH


I have had difficulties to water at Amherst. The dam was too dried up to pump from the place where I usually do so I had to totally redo the pumping situation and moved to the part of the dam where the water was over knee height, that portion nearest to the road.

There were no sheep on the property. Roos ate top only of another tree where I'd not reinforced the wiring protection, but tree is doing well otherwise.

Some good news though with regards to the trees: The trees that had been stripped last time have fully recovered and are well leafed, albeit all along their trunk as new little limbs are not yet grown. Also I discovered that one agave was still growing up near the olives.

While there, I watered well as before and placed more straw, but could not obtain bales of straw at nursery, only expensive chopped stuff so only took for the two trees which I had to replace from the last destruction. Am so pleased with growth.

The trees where there's no shadecloth in place (the ones along the road directly up to the house) are but slender poles so will need shadecloth at the next next opportunity. I will talk to you later about what must be done to do justice to this present orchard. So much has been done now that it would be stupid to just let them die now or to merely grow as stunted trees in the himalayas.

I talked to Tex about the drought. He has enough potable water to see him through, but stock is suffering. He will be butchering most of his flock. His son-in-law was just back from firefighting in Gippsland. He is a professional firefighter. He is the one building below you. I spoke to him after talking to Tex for about 20 min. He was working on getting set up with a quick response unit for putting out a fire on his property and yours should it occur. He did not have a tank yet so I gave him one of the tanks I bought for water saving here in Melbourne. I feel it is the least we can do to aid him in his frontline efforts to quell the small fires that may occur or to fight fire from encroaching larger fires.

I placed a very long pipe in the deep end of the dam to put the firepump sucker pipe into so it is possible to quickly access the water there with his firepump. He has one like you. You also have a tank and we will need it to be setup with your firepump. I have a small trailer here in Melbourne that we will use for this purpose. I have had it resprung with heavyduty springs to carry the weight. I have not taken it up there yet, but it will be the frontline defense we will have when I am working there. The water pump will be setup with it so a woman will be able to use it in an emergency, ie not requiring the lifting of the pump into the back of a ute or such, but merely hitching up the trailer to any vehicle with the strength to shift it. I will have the Jackeroo when I work.

I started the watering of the plants at 630pm and finished at 930pm, and that was possible only because I made a new arrangement with borrowed pipe from the pipe that leads up to the olive tank for watering from the deep end of the dam, and using the rest of the pipe to make a means of watering with 3/4 pipe rather than the 1/2 pipe. With the tank only 1/4 full my pressure only permitted to water each tree over 30 min, one at a time. Once the pump had filled the tank I could do two trees. However I pumped continuously for 3 hours and left the tank 3/4 full and watered all the trees deeply with the use of this extra pipe where the water time of the trees was only 10-15 min. I arranged that I could do one tree with the little existing pipe while doing 2 other trees with the other pipe in the same timeframe.

Initally I moved a small amount of water from the potable rainwater tanks (about 1 foot on the tank measure) to hasten the increase of water pressure available to me.
So it is done, and I got all the explosive things out of the container too so there is not a risk if a fire comes.

planning permit for walled garden

One of the concerns flagged by Dad in relation to the vegetable garden wall is that he feared we needed a planning permit for it. But we didn't understand why that would be the case in our area, as there's no neighbours to overshadow or views to obstruct.

Anyway, we agreed to disagree until Dave and I could do some research ourselves. Here's what we discovered.

Since we initially bought the property, it seems to have been slightly re-zoned. According to the map here, we're now in a Farming zone (code FZ), which is part of the Rural category. A PDF of the requirements for this zone can be downloaded here.

This says we don't need a permit for Agriculture, which in my opinion clearly encompasses a vegetable garden ... which we can't have without building a wall to keep out the sheep and kangaroos. Thus, building a wall to enable us to create a vegetable garden shouldn't require a permit. We figured we'd better doublecheck this logic though, so Dave called Norm at the local planning department.

Norm said we wouldn't normally need a permit, but we might in this instance only because the area being enclosed is much bigger than typical for a garden in the Amherst/Maryborough area. Norm said he knew exactly the kind of thing we meant though, and said there are loads of them in the Western District (which makes sense as that's where a lot of the grander properties were built years ago). He didn't seem to think there'd be a problem getting approval for the wall even if we did need a permit though. What we needed to do was to send him a few sketches... indicating where on the proper