Visit Mandy R 22 September 2019

This was the first food garden visit of the ninth season of the Food Garden Group!   It was not too cold and the sun was shining most of the time.  What more can you expect in September!

The visit to Mandy's garden at Snug (Mandy in the middle of the photo above) was a really good start of the season because she is such an energetic and organised person with such a good eye for design and detail.

Mandy's food garden is situated up-hill from her house and next to the road.  Many commented on how many passers-by talk to her about her garden, and that it has been a great way to meet local people.

The food garden is completely netted, with a chook-run around the perimeter. 

The design of Mandy's food garden is covered in Food Garden Group blog post A wild-life proof garden at http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-wildlife-proof-garden.html

Our last visit to this garden was two-and-a-half years ago.  Those who came on both occasions saw how much everything has grown, how many more raised beds there are now, and how Mandy's effective design-work has allowed this garden to thrive.

Flowers and fruit trees border the area on both long sides of the cage.

The soil is heavy clay, but with nearly all produce in raised beds that is not a problem!

One of Mandy's recent projects has been irrigation pipes to each of the many raised beds.  In the photo above you see a riser to a bed, with a tap at the end.  Mandy plans to use drip irrigation in all beds, but has not yet had the time to install all of it. To make it clear where the underground pipes are, to make them easily accessible, and prevent damage by garden tools, Mandy buried the pipes below rows of bricks. 

On the sunny side of the food garden cage she has low apple and pear trees espaliered in a classic T-shape. 

On the shade side of the cage she has stone fruit trees espaliered in much higher fan shapes.  We discussed the fact that apple and pear tree branches are happy to be bent to a T-shape.  Stone fruit branches, on the other hand, can break or get cracks in them if that is done to them.  Therefore a fan-shape is the way to go for them.

The young tree above is an almond.  The bamboo sticks support the structure.

On her porch Mandy has two lemon trees in Hills wicking beds.  The wicking beds keep the lemon trees happy when it gets hot in this sheltered area in summer.

Mandy took us around to the other side of her house where she has created a great-looking clearly-thriving native garden.  She talked about her ongoing battle with weeds there, and how she is trying to smother them by planting more and more ground covering natives.

During morning tea Mandy explained construction and building of her 8.5 star solar home.  Many people took her up on her offer of seeing the rest of the house.

This was a great visit to a host who has created a great property with loads of enthusiasm, energy and great design features.  A big thank-you to Mandy for allowing us to visit.

The produce table was well supplied, even while this is just the start of the season, and the morning tea table had many very yummy contributions!  Many thanks to everyone who contributed.