Visit Margaret 7 May 2017

On Sunday 7 May the Food Garden Group visited Margaret's garden at New Town:

On a morning when rain threatened and temperatures did not reach double-digit figures a good crowd met in Margaret’s winter garden.

Here Margaret (blue shirt) welcomes everyone. She then realised how cold it was and quickly rugged up before showing us her garden.

One bed had a rich crop of Pepito pumpkins (seed from Diggers). This pumpkin variety is not grown for its flesh, but for its seeds.

Margaret opened one of them and showed us the all-important pumpkin seeds that don’t have a hull and that can be eaten raw, roasted or microwaved. They are eaten in things as diverse as muesli, salads or stir-fries.

Margaret’s winter garden also contained many brassicas and a great crop of Queensland Blue and Butternut pumpkins.

Margaret designed her house herself and gave it an L-shape, with the inside of the L facing North. This has created a very effective sun trap that is protected from winds. She uses the area to great advantage for things like a Cumquat and a Tamarillo. Her Tamarillo tree is thriving and has an incredible amount of ripening fruit. In a row of laundry basins she grows herbs, tomatoes and other crops that prefer warmth.

But the space ‘on the outside of the L’ (on the shade-side of the house) is not wasted: there she grows berries and Cape Gooseberries successfully. Margaret picks kilos of Cape Gooseberries every year. It was interesting to see how far she had pruned back these bushes, now, at the beginning of winter.

Her block used to be dominated by large trees that have now been removed. This makes her garden a lot more open and light. Margaret has now planted a row of fruit trees and berries that she will espalier along her Northern fence. The photo shows a Nashi pear.

When the house was built Margaret had a large water tank installed that in most years catches enough water to irrigate the garden until around mid December. In her house she has a nifty C-Bus system that controls all electronics in the house from a panel in her kitchen (see photo below).

She also uses this to automatically irrigate six areas in her garden, and finds that this automated system lowers her water bill.

Power lines go underground to six electronically operated valves called solenoids (black little box in the photo above) that open and close according to Margaret’s watering schedule. Beds are irrigated with drip lines.

This was an instructive and very enjoyable morning with great contributions to morning tea and the produce table. Many thanks to everyone!

I like to thank Margaret for being happy to host this visit at a time of year when many gardeners prefer not to host a food garden visit. Her willingness to make her kitchen/dining area available for morning tea was much appreciated because the cold would have made for a short morning tea outside.

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