A blank slate was what we wanted with our new garden, and when we moved here, that’s what we got. There was a small, roughly fenced and terraced vegetable plot on the hill below the house, which had been mostly abandoned to layers of cardboard and plastic. The rest was grass, with lantana and other tall weeds on the fringes. In our first year we have tried and moved a couple of gardens, and begun to plant the ornamental gardens round the house.
The gardens
We wanted to see the garden evolve as we learn how we will live here. I think there is often an impatience with gardening, fed by TV shows that treat backyard makeovers and garden design like furnishing a room; a feeling that the garden should be created in its finished state.
One example of how our garden has evolved is the Mid-levels. Last year was dry, with a particularly dry spring, and because we get all our water from rain it became apparent that watering a large vegetable garden from tank water wasn’t a reliable option. Then we got the solar pump working down at our big dam. I plumbed and piped it up to a paddock halfway up the hill, and the Mid-levels were born.
The garden that I was planning for the main vegetable plot turned out to have poor soil and difficult conditions (too wet when it rains and too dry otherwise, with sand over stony clay), so I’m phasing that into an extended herb garden.
I also had plans for a vegetable garden next to the chicken coop, which I extended to three fenced yards in an effort to integrate them into the production system. Chickens are not compliant creatures; they will ignore what you would like them the eat, eat what you would like to protect, and scratch away any mulch you’ve spread. I’m still working out how to coordinate these gardens so that the chickens can range in one while the others grow crops.
Finally, the ornamental garden is also slowly evolving as the perennials get established and the annuals provide some colour cover. Orchids grow easily, so I am extending my range beyond the usual dendrobiums, phals and oncimiums, and will look forward to posting as the new ones bloom.