Visit to Jan's, Dynnyrne, November 2020

Jan opened her garden, Summer Hill, in Dynnyrne for two sessions for this month’s garden visit. The forecast was good, but the clouds looked ominous. Thankfully both groups of visitors managed to enjoy a lovely morning before the rains fell.

Jan’s garden is an intense mix of ornamentals and food plants in what could have been survival-of-the-fittest battle for soil and sun but instead is a lush paradise that is both beautiful and productive. 

The first thing you notice when you enter Jan’s garden is that there is no wasted space. Every corner of her garden is in use. The veggies grow beside the flowers which thrive under the trees running along the fence and between the paths which are loaded with pots with more plants. If that sentence felt like a lot of words jammed between two full stops, then I’ve given you a pretty good metaphor for Jan’s garden. Your eyes bounce from one view to the next and then back again and around. I walked the same path multiple times and each time saw more and different plants and I definitely did not spot and appreciate them all. It’s truly a marvel. 

Broadbeans and geraniums

Edible greens and flowers cheek-by-jowl

Tomatoes wherever there's space

Plum trees along the fence

Somehow between all those plants, Jan still found space to make a couple of lovely “rooms” for just relaxing and enjoying her little paradise. After all, isn’t one of the best things about a garden sitting back and appreciating it? 

Having a background in landscaping probably put Jan in pole position to create such a successful garden but she admits she didn’t plan anything, she simply responded to what was there and added what she wanted as she came across it. A perfect example was a rhubarb plant which she picked up from the produce table at the last garden club visit, she took it home and, in that jungle, found a home for it under her apricot tree. 

Just enough room for that new rhubarb

The main garden pests at Summer Hill are the sparrows and blackbirds which visit often and will peck holes in anything and everything they don’t dig up. To protect her leafy greens, which she supplies to a local restaurant, Jan covers them in netting; no supports, she just lays the nets right on top of her greens. This has deterred the birds but a bit of mould has developed in spots, probably due to reduced airflow. And, of course, many of the beds and pots are protected by various cages and guards to minimise birds scratching at the roots of the plants. There’s not much time to enjoy one victory before the next battle begins! 

One interesting technique Jan has discovered is to apply a lime mixture around the trunk of her apple and pear trees to deter harmful insects. On a trip to Turkey, she noticed the trees all were painted white and did a bit of research to determine what was going on. It turns out that builder’s lime, turned into a paste, deters insects from climbing up the trunk (therefore no impact on beneficial insects) so Jan’s trying it this year in her garden. It’s still a trial method, but last year Jan used it on 2 apple trees that had previously been infested with insects with the result that they produced an incredible bounty (one bore 2200 apples) with no coddling moth. I think everyone who heard her story and has apples or pears plans to try it in their garden. In a year or 2 we might have a good idea how well this works in Greater Hobart. 

Jan and Max giving the introduction

Pear trees painted with lime paste

We were treated to a couple of early “firsts” in Jan’s garden today. One was the winner of the Golden Tomato Award 2020, Margaret. She accepted our applause graciously and we all did our best to hide our jealously as she described the taste of her first 2 tomatoes 😊 The other was Jan’s garden Christmas tree. That’s right, decorations are going up already :-o Well, why not, it is mid-November after all. 

Golden Tomato winner, Margaret having a chat

Less than 6 weeks until Christmas

By the end of our visit, it was obvious that Jan knows her garden, spends a lot of time in it and has figured out how to get the best out of it. She waters very little, mainly the pots and she credits her use of mulch for keeping moisture in the soil. In this case the mulch was shredded office paper. She removes any rust or mould when she sees it and therefore has very little even in cramped corners. Aphids don’t accumulate as she removes the tips of infested plants at first sighting. 

It was good to see the produce table piling up with goodies, obviously Jan isn’t the only one with a green thumb in the group. There are some seeds in the seed box but, please consider collecting your own to share with other gardeners. Put them in small envelopes marked with the plant name and date of harvest and bring them along on your next garden visit. One of the really special things about this club is how we not only share ideas, we share plants, seeds and harvests – all our gardens and pantries are richer as a result. 

All that’s left is to thank Jan for opening her garden to so many of us today and for getting her garden into tip-top shape for our visit – and a special thanks from all of us to Max for organising these visits and to Gaye for greeting each of us with our name tags as we arrive.