Lifestyle Block - with Snakes

The little house in the Bush

Sun? What Sun!

It's Autumn now & of course, we are in the midst of a heat wave. You have to love this crazy weather. I don't deal with heat well.  I tend to flop around, whining, like a beached whale. As it's too hot to be out there working, I thought I'd take you through my garden in pictures. As the caption says, we live on 4 acres, close to Melbourne. A dear friend from New Zealand came to visit once & told us "wow, you live on a lifestyle block - with snakes" NZ people don't like snakes. We laughed so hard, we have kept the name.

Another view

Yes, we live in the bush. Amongst the trees. In a "cold" climate, roughly 600 metres above sea level. We get snow. I have had to really think about placement of the herb & vegetable gardens due to the shade created by the trees or the fierce frosts, the occasional snowfall & the wind. The ultimate design has more shade in the afternoon to protect the plants from that scorching summer afternoon sun but it's not always possible. I lament the lack of sun in the Winters. That sun stays so low in the sky, it doesn't get above the trees. We get constant phone calls from companies selling solar panelling. My standard answer now is (& this one made my daughter laugh) "sorry, I live in the bush, we don't get sun here" & hang up. I always wonder what they think.

Side view of waterfall

The Front

Boysenberries on the watertank

Unfortunately, the soil in our area is clay, clay, more clay, & sandstone. I was very fortunate to own horses for many years. I didn't have much time for gardens then, but boy, I had some serious horse poo. All my gardens have been created from piles of horse poo. Thanks girls, you did a great job. I created gardens using logs, sleepers, stone, - anything I could lay my hands on really. The poo sat for a few months, to break down & encourage worm movement. And then the planting began. Become friendly with your local horsey people. They are always keen for people to take off their hands  the enormous piles of horse poo that is collected. Don't ever use it fresh, let it sit for a few months before planting.

My Poo Producers

I have a confession to make. No garden is safe from my secateurs. If I come to visit, I will be taking away cuttings & seedlings. Call it a weakness. My Aunty is embarrassed walking anywhere with me. I even pinched some interesting seed pods from Monkey Park in Launceston this week. I can walk around a lot of my garden & point out where I've pinched most of my plants. My Mum has been a regular source of amazing succulants. My theory is, if it strikes, Im on a winner, if it dies, ah well, I haven't lost much.

I would describe my garden as "cottage" rather than "formal". It is a mixture of natives, succulents, flowers, ground covers. No formal garden here. The good thing about my messy mixes is that every season will bring new flowers, new growth, new colours. This is important to keep those bees coming to your garden. I make sure I plant shade lovers like azaleas in the front of the house where it stays in shade through Winter. The shade loving herbs are placed behind the "big tree' or under larger bushes. Mint, coriander, bergamot, echinacea, marshmallow, fennel are all moisture, shade loving herbs. Coriander bolts to seed if placed in a hot, sunny position. Plant with your nasturtiums to keep them happy.

My passion at the moment is my herb garden. They are so much fun to grow. Fascinating plants, flowers, scents, and by jingo, they're good for you. There is nothing like picking your own herbs for cooking, basil for example. The scent & taste is intoxicating. 

Herb garden

 

The Rotating Vegie Patch

We have many visitors to our garden. I like to keep a certain portion of our acreage "natural" to encourage the natural order of things - ie the native grasses, flowers, birds, insects, reptiles. Luckily our neighbour is like minded so we have created a wonderful sanctuary & corridor for the native animals around a big lake. Unfortunately we have lost many animals on the road out the front (including 2 dogs). I just wish people would slow down in such a sensative area.

The House Herb/Vegie garden

My little Visitors.

Koalas, echidnas, wombats, chocolate wallabies, sugar gliders, possums &  the eastern grey roo all make an appearance. We also have a huge array of birds - crimson rosellas, a magpie dynasty, currawongs, kookaburras, & water fowl. Also the occasional visitors like yellow winged black Cockatoos, Gang Gangs, & once, after the Black Saturday fires, some very confused and hungry King Parrots. The smaller bird varieties are wonderful too, too many to name. I have  discovered that when the birds all shriek & hit the trees, eyeing the sky nervously, there is a Wedge Tailed Eagle overhead. The shriek is something you cant ignore, its quite funny. I always go have a look, & sure enough, an eagle. I witnessed the demise of a duck on the lake. Death by eagle, it was gruesome. The Bush can be cruel. We have our share of the scary ones too - spiders, reptiles & snakes. Im not a huge fan of snakes, since my sis-in-law was bitten by a tiger snake & nearly died. We have had a few brown & copper heads here, but I have a theory on this one too. We have a very big & friendly kookaburra dynasty, that breed here every year. There are never fewer than 5 around. We can be digging in the garden when next thing - whoosh, plop & one is sitting on the ground next to you with a big worm, grub or skink dangling in its mouth. The look they give you is hilarious. No self respecting snake would be caught dead round here.  

2 of my Kookas

The Waterfall

We made a waterfall in the back garden. When we were building the house, the ground was so rocky we struggled to dig the stumps deep enough. The sloping garden bed was a nightmare. Pure rock. Its amazing what horse poo can do to transform a rock bed. We just built it up. But we also had an old bath tub. We wanted a water feature, so in she went. We carted rocks from all over the block & created a waterfall. The pump was fitted, with the pipe hidden under a huge rock up the top. Now 3 gold fish live in the pond, protected by waterlilies that I dug out of the lake. We did have 4 goldfish. I was sitting on the decking one afternoon. I heard a plop in the water, looked in time to see one of my kookaburras with a big goldfish wriggling in its beak. I screamed, it took off with me in hot pursuit screaming "drop it ,you rotten bird" It flew to a branch & proceeded to whack the poor fish on the branch a few times before it gobbled it down whole, with me still shrieking like a banshee underneath. Hence the waterlilies.

A cute Skink

 I love it when friends come to visit & freak out when they come across a spider. The first instinct is to get the whole house sprayed to get rid of the nasty, scary insects. Think hard before you do. If you upset the balance of things in the bush, you could end up with more trouble. Like friends, many years ago, who had 1/2 their house eaten out by termites. We always suspected that regular spraying to kill the insects, especially black ants (the natural enemy of the termite) might have been the problem. The only thing that gets killed here is the white tail spiders, millipedes, slugs & snails. One fun activity is going out in the garden, after a rain, with a bucket of water & vinegar. Its always snail season so I go snail huntin'. I tried just water, but the things have in built snorkels, & they always managed to climb out. The vinegar fixes that problem. I cant squash them, its too nasty. Traps can be made for millipedes by rolling up wet newspaper & leave overnight in your garden. Burn it the next day.  I hate those things - they eat everything. And nothing eats them - they stink, & mustn't be very tasty. There is a slug & snail bait you can buy commercially that kill millipedes. I have had to resort to this method occasionally I'm ashamed to say, but it's epidemic here. Black horrors. Only use bait if you are certain no pet or native animal can get to it, but nothing eats millipedes. 

My Attempt at "Art"

Next Blog will be a walk through my Marquee to see how my vegetable season went. Ive been Most pleased this year with my produce. However, over the years I have worked out what grows well & what doesn't. I concentrate on what does well. This is true for your whole garden. I have lost many diosmas to snow. I always thought they were hardy. Not here apparently. So, no more of that. If certain succulents cannot handle the wet winters & rot, I either try to place in a sunnier position, or give up. I have never had a brilliant tomato production. Our Winters finish too late, the season never long enough. I have solved that problem by having seedlings started in my bro-in-laws hothouse. Thanks Pete, my tomatoes are brilliant this year. The garden is a changing, morphing entity - every season is different. Thats why its so much fun.

Happy Grubbing
Tam.