A cottage garden

The garden here at the Old Bank is a new experience for me. It's filled with cottage-y plants and flowers, like tiny daisies, hellebores, lavender, geraniums, hydrangea. I confess to knowing little about flowers, so my friend Karla kindly visited last week to show me how to prune the roses and help me identify the various plants. The garden space is small and wraps around the buildings. There's no grass, but gravel, garden beds and a cute little garden path of stones. In Sydney we primarily grew Australian natives. Up in the hills of Franklin, we were surrounded by native temperate rainforest trees and plants like native pepperberry and man ferns. I grew vegetables and planted some fruit trees as well as a few imports like maple, spruce, crab apple and ornamental pear. Here in our little winter garden, there are already so many flowers. There are bulbs starting to appear and I'm looking forward to seeing what they all are. The camellia bush is about to explode with fluffy pink blooms. Aren't they gorgeous?

New season, new trees

Last week, a man with a digger came and leveled out some bumps in the yard that made mowing difficult, and removed some large rocks that were jutting out enough to damage the ride-on mower. We decided to fill some of the holes left behind where the rocks were removed with some new trees, so a Saturday morning trip to Greenhill Nursery was in order. They have a huge selection of plants and very helpful staff. Even better, the trees are grown in a climate similar to ours, so we know they will cope with the local weather. We bought a couple of elderberry trees (I want to use the flowers in some recipes I have), a lipstick maple, a crab apple, an ornamental pear and a little blue spruce. Fingers crossed they all do well and didn't mind the snow covering less than two days after they were planted. I was unable to take a photo of the newly graded bank in the garden without being dog bombed, as you'll see. Thanks, Gretchen.

Finally, fagus

Yesterday I walked the Tarn Shelf circuit in Mount Field National Park with a friend, in perfect autumn weather. This walk has been on my list since we moved to Tasmania. The time to go is in late April, in order to see the "turning of the fagus". Fagus, or deciduous beech, is the only native plant in Tasmania that loses its leaves for winter. Before the tiny crinkled leaves fall, they turn bright golden then red in a terrific autumn display. We were a couple of weeks too late and most of the trees were bare, but we saw enough to get the idea.

The walk would be spectacular any time of the year. From the Lake Dobson car park, you climb up to the ski fields then hike along the ridge or 'shelf', looking down on tarns. The vegetation is varied and we loved looking at the alpine plants in the early part of the walk and the fungi and pandani towards the end. Just stunning. All of this wilderness, little more than an hour from Hobart.

$3 each

Today's purchases at the Market @ Franklin: a walnut tree and two basil plants. $3 each. A large jar of blackberry jam, $5. We also made considerable inroads into the Christmas gift list, with Huon Pine goods, native pepperberry and more that can't be revealed yet lest the recipient actually reads my blog.

Tomatoes are in

October is the busiest time of the year for me at work, so the poor old garden doesn't get the attention it needs in spring. Despite that, on the weekend (between work trips) I bought some tomato seedlings from Cygnet Market and planted them. I chose some 'cold resistant' varieties and planted a couple in the greenhouse and some outside in the raised garden beds. Last year I found buying seedlings a much better approach for me than starting them from seed in the house in August. Maybe one day I'll get to do that again. The local wisdom says that tomato plants can go in 'after show day' (meaning the Hobart Show), but based on how cool it is at our place this evening, I'm wondering if where I live, the rule should be after the Huon Show day.

Japanese wasabi, grown in Tasmania

On a field trip last week visiting businesses in Tasmania's north west, I saw wasabi growing for the first time and tasted the freshest possible, just picked, trimmed and grated by the founder of Shima Wasabi. Now part of The Tasmanian Food Co. group of companies, it's a fascinating business and the largest grower of Japanese wasabi in the southern hemisphere. They primarily supply fresh wasabi to high end restaurants around Australia. It is grown hydroponically in a large climate controlled greenhouse. The stems (not the roots, as widely believed) are harvested and shipped on demand direct to chefs, chilled to keep it fresh. There's little waste, as the leaves, stems and flowers can all be used as well. Currently, little of their product goes direct to consumers, although you can buy wasabi powder  to make a lovely paste from their web site. That may change, however, with new products and packaging methods currently under development.

Pepperberry bonanza

Today a friend popped over and picked a huge bucket load of Tasmanian native pepperberries. I had already picked what I wanted. I dried them spread out on baking trays on top of a cupboard and they're now in jars ready to use in place of regular black peppercorns for added flavour, colour and heat. It turns out that this year's batch are quite spicy!

On a visit to Kingston-based Essential Oils of Tasmania last year, I learned that pepperberry bushes only flower and produce fruit every three years or so, which would explain why we had very few last year and the year before that. This year has seen a bumper crop. Perhaps I'd better pick some more...

Two lonely gooseberries

At a friend's garage sale a year ago, I bought two small gooseberry bushes in pots. I had seen them growing at Hartzview Vineyard and thought they might go well at our place. Up close, they are very prickly indeed, with large spikes coming from the tiny branches. I planted them in a sunny corner behind the greenhouse and this year one of the bushes sprouted just two berries. Hmm, what to do with two gooseberries? To start with, add them to half a kilo purchased from a friends' stall at The Market @ Franklin. After researching a few recipes - crumble, tarts, cobbler - I decided to make gooseberry ice cream using this Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe. Oh my god, it's delicious. Fluffy, creamy and refreshing. Such a beautiful summer treat. Now I can't wait for my gooseberry bushes to grow and bear more fruit.

 

Native pepperberry shortage

Last year, the many mountain pepperberry (Tasmannia lanceolata) bushes on our property produced very few berries. The few I saw were hardly worth picking. This year hasn't been much better. I was hoping for a bucket full of plump, tasty berries to flavour a science experiment we have underway in the dining room (pictured below). While there are more than last year, I've ended up with less than half a jar of dried pepperberries so far. Some of the pepperberry bushes on our property are very large and twice my height, and they are all growing strongly. There are male and female bushes, and they all look healthy. So I am not sure why the plants have produced so few berries. A few years ago there were so many, we couldn't pick them all. I am wondering if the chill factor has something to do with it. Last year's winter was very mild, but this year we've had three lots of snow already, and it's only the 2nd of June.  I will be interested to see what next year's crop will be like. Pepperberries are especially good for flavouring roasts and beef, and I've used them to replace pepper in other dishes too. I would describe them as peppercorns with a beautiful pink colour and more complex flavour.

In defence of flowers

I don't normally allocate space in the garden beds for flowers. Sure, we have 'accidental' flowers that pop up, like the daffodils that appear in ever greater numbers each year in the front paddock and some flowering bushes (native and not) planted by the previous owners. Growing food plants is more important and many of them look beautiful too. But this year, I got some free cottage flower seeds in an order from the Diggers Club and some poppy seeds from our lovely local vintage store Shop@Franklin and decided to mix them in with the vegetable beds to look pretty and attract the bees. The day after sowing the tiny poppy seeds, we had high winds and heavy rain and months later, nothing had sprouted at all. So I planted out some onions and leeks in that raised garden bed. Of course, only then did clumps of weedy looking plants start to appear. I didn't pull them out in the hope they might be poppies. Sure enough, the first variety has started to flower. In this week's damp and misty weather, the luminous dark red flowers look fabulous against the bright green grass and grey skies. I'm sold - more flowers from now on.

Poss off

In just one night, possums have largely destroyed a lovely young oak tree near our garage - branches snapped, leaves all gone, only a few stalks remain. We had noticed a few possum droppings on the nearby fence, so we knew they were about, but it's the first time they've had a go at that tree. Must have been the tasty young leaves... I really hope it regrows. We've removed the fence around it that wasn't keeping anything out anyway, and I'm trying this product called 'poss off' which apparently they won't like the smell or taste of. We'll see. Not sure what's in it other than garlic, which is the clear aroma it gives off.

Down in our little orchard, it appears they've also been eating the leaves off our young espaliered apple trees... but have left the two pears alone! Weird. At least I know my veggies are safe. People told us when we moved here about the devastation possums caused in their vegetable gardens and the lengths they had to go to to keep them out, so David cleverly built a fully enclosed yard for my apple crate raised beds to go in. And the rest of my edible plants are in the greenhouse or on the balcony... except the garlic, which I'm hoping they don't like.

Ancient pines

Quite a few years back when Wollemi pines were first sold commercially, I bought one for my Dad for Christmas. He loves Australian native plants and history so it seemed a good combination of the two. Here's what it looked like when I visited earlier this month. Beautiful, isn't it?

On Sunday we spotted Huon pines (Lagarostrobus franklinii) for sale at the Franklin Market. We've had several visitors ask us where they can see one, so now they can see one (albeit a tiny one) in the corner of our yard. Hope it thrives like my Dad's tree has.

An inspirational garden

On the Sunday before last, several gardens in the Huon Valley were open to visit under the Open Gardens Australia scheme. On the way back from my walk up Grey Mountain I stopped in at Lanes End in Glen Huon, a peaceful oasis in the hills. My phone camera snaps simply did not do it justice, so I have only included one photo of the beautiful stand of gum trees, under which a planted understory attracts many birds. I loved the mixture of native and introduced plants and the lack of formality, and wondered if piles and piles of mulch could ever improve the clay at our place... maybe one day.

Raspberries - the second attempt

My first attempt at growing raspberries failed. How can that be, you might well ask - don't you just stick them in the ground in Tasmania and they grow like crazy? Well, good question.

There are a couple of reasons I think. First, I didn't prepare the soil enough. Our place is mostly clay and while I did dig out a trench and fill it with better soil and mulch, I was too scared to add manure and all those good things later on because the raspberry patch is located inside the fenced wallaby proof paddock - where the dogs also live. And anything like manure, compost or blood-and-bone is VERY tasty to our dogs. Also towards the end of the first growing season, the plants had some kind of infestation of what looked like tiny aphids, and they had done plenty of damage by the time they left. Then, I didn't weed the beds well enough and grass started to compete with the berries.

So I'm learning from all of this in my second planting. A few months ago I dug a deeper trench and filled it with manure, compost and rotting leaf litter from the rainforest on our land. I covered it with wire and rocks to deter the dogs from eating it and left it there to rot. Step one seems to have worked OK, as when I planted the raspberry canes last weekend the soil was rich, dark and full of enormous worms having a great time. Fingers crossed. Raspberries are my favourite fruit.

Espalier - year one

The six apples and two pears collected from Woodbridge Fruit Trees one snowy weekend last July have survived their first season, despite a few cherry slugs on the pears. The little tree pictured here tied safely to its trellis is a Huonville Crab, which has beautiful purple leaves. Apparently its fruit will have scarlet coloured flesh as well. The trees produced three actual apples (two Cox's Orange Pippin and one Berner Rose), then not long before they were ready to pick, one of the dogs broke into the orchard (she was after the chook poo in there) and ate all three! So we missed out, and David made a special latch for the gate to prevent further incursions. If you want to place an order for some trees from Woodbridge, I suggest you get in quick as some varieties are already sold out. Each year, many people wait for notification that their new catalogue is up in late April/early May, so they can place their order and won't miss out.

Tomatoes - the second attempt

On Sunday I pulled out all the tomato plants. One or two had started to die off and frosts are forecast for this week. And I wanted to prepare the beds for some other crops. All up we had 12 tomato plants of a couple of different varieties, Berner Rose and Tommy Toe.

Last year, when we had a cool and reasonably wet summer, none of the seedlings started in the garage then under plastic outdoors grew to be viable plants. This year we had a gloriously warm and dry summer. I started the tomato seeds early in the spare bedroom which worked really well. I let the seedlings acclimatise outside for a while then transplanted them, and the plants grew healthy and strong. Loads of flowers turned into loads of small green tomatoes... but it was all too slow and autumn arrived. Despite the sunny days, the cooler temperatures left us with few ripening tomatoes.

Finally a couple of weeks ago I started pulling the ones that had started to change colour off the plants and put them in a bowl inside the house near the window. Now we've had six ripe enough to eat (very tasty) and a few more in the bowl are almost there.

Next year I am sure we will do better again, with a soon-to-be-revealed new and improved strategy.

Naked ladies

One day while I was away last week, David went to investigate what Gretchen was woofing at. It turned out to be these flowers that had suddenly appeared in our front paddock! More surprise flowers that we haven't planted. They are Amaryllis belladonna, an autumn flowering bulb from South Africa, with the common name of 'naked lady' due to the bare stems. They didn't come up last year, so I am guessing they must be enjoying the hot, dry weather we have had. I am sure there will be some web surfers who end up on my blog not expecting to see flowers...

Little fruit trees

The apple and pear trees planted as bare root stock in July seem to be doing okay so far. Hopefully they will do more growing over the next few summer months. The Huonville Crab is the prettiest by far, with beautiful burgundy coloured leaves, but only the Berner Rose and the Cox's Orange Pippin are bearing any fruit.

Paradise

I was very happy to arrive home around midday today after a few days in Brisbane for work. Not that Brisbane isn't nice, but this is, well, paradise. To me anyway. See what you think.

We sat in the sun on the deck chairs and read the paper. The blossoms on the crab apples are out. The bare rooted fruit trees we planted on an espalier back in July are starting to sprout leaves and blossoms. And the dogs are just enjoying hanging out with us.

 

 

Guest room or greenhouse?

Following the dismal failure of the tomato seeds I planted last year, this year I have started them off inside the house, where it is generally nice and warm. Early signs are good... well, better than the couple of sad little seedlings that made it to around 10cm high last year before giving up. Although it was a pathetic first attempt, I don't feel too bad because most people around here struggled with tomatoes last year thanks to the cool summer we had. Except for those people growing them in greenhouses of course. Where we are up on the hill is simply too cold to grow some things and the growing season is short. I will look at getting a greenhouse next year. In the meantime, the morning sun streaming into the guest room will hopefully give these little seedlings a chance.