Visit Fiona 25 September 2016

On Sunday 25 September the Food Garden Group visited Fiona's garden at Mount Nelson:

This was the first food garden visit of the new season and the turnout showed that people were keen to reconnect with fellow food gardeners after the winter break.

Fiona tells us about her vision for this garden

We reached Fiona's home by following a long uphill driveway that took us to her house and garden beyond. By then we were in the middle of the bush and therefore most of us were surprised to find such a green prosperous wonderful looking garden.

When we saw all the rocks and unevenness in the surrounding bush we understood what a challenge this block must have been when they arrived here twenty years ago. This garden is the result of many years of hard work, tender love and care, but the result looks great!

A nice path through the middle with just-sown potatoes on the right

Fiona talked about the many challenges they faced with invasive trees, shallow soil, rocks and wallabies.

A nice stand of Artichokes, already well advanced

Fiona showed us how ornamental plants can be very nicely combined with a food garden.
She rotates her crops to give them the best chance of succeeding.

Kale providing a nice backdrop: she will have a lot of kale next season

All beds are raised, with sometimes grass (one mower wide) in between beds.

Fiona's hothouse kept in place with star pickets and rope over the top

The hothouse is a recent acquisition that blew away in the first storm, but it now sits rock-solid. Temperatures at Mount Nelson are often a few degrees lower than at sea level. The hothouse will help overcome this problem.

The hothouse is already very useful.

Fiona's carefully fenced large berry area

Look at what people brought.  It was delicious.

Many thanks everyone for your contributions to the produce table and morning tea table.

And many thanks to Fiona and husband for hosting this visit to their inspiring garden, a great example of what can be achieved in a challenging environment.

This text was previously published on the Food Garden Group blog. It was written by Max Bee.