Visit Anne and Ian 18 November 2018

When you walk along the concrete driveway between houses towards Anne and Ian's place you could be forgiven for thinking that there will not be much of a garden here, but then, when you come through the gate, you enter another world.

Anne and Ian (on the right in the photo above) can be proud of their large well-cared-for garden full of food-producing plants and flowers.

Six years ago this wonderful garden was just an abandoned paddock. Anne and Ian  told us about their trials and tribulations in getting the garden to what it is today.

This thornless Blackberry had very nice pink flowers

This garden with minimal lawns has a wonderful variety of fruit trees and berry bushes, with ornamental flowering plants (often self-sown) in between, a real fruit and nut forest with the joy of flowers.  

We saw cherries, apricots, peaches, a nectarine, lemons, cumquat, lime, kiwi, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry,  hazel nuts, walnuts, almond,  jostaberries, black currants and strawberries plus more.  Wow!

a nice brick wall retains heat and keeps wind out

I have learnt myself that mistakes you make at early stages often stay with you for a long time.  Ian explained that the vegie garden was one of the first things they put in.  Then they found that in winter the area is often shady because the sun is blocked by the house.  However, they have spent so much time and effort improving the soil, that they can't bring themselves to move the area further away from the house.

Many of the fruit trees were planted on mounds with craters in the middle because of the heavy clay underneath.  This approach has clearly worked well.

Here Anne Anne and Max K discuss how to espalier their grape vine.

This fruit and berry hedge row is a great idea! At least one visitor took this away as an idea for her garden.

Some of the frames for nets were really high.  Above we see long star-pickets at the bottom of the photo, to which tomato stakes (the green bits) are attached.  The arches are electrical pipe.  At the top pipes are joined together with electrical junction boxes.

The pretty flowers in the photo above are of a Kiwiberry fruit that is part of the fruit and berry hedge.

As at every food garden visit, there were many and varied lively discussions about food garden subjects.  One discussion I would like to focus on here is Anne and Ian's problems with their Moorpark apricot tree.  

Leaves began to curl (see photo below).  Then affected leaves fell off, and gradually whole branches became bare and were removed.  Fruit tree expert Max K looked at the tree and told us that this is Gummosis.

Unhappy leaves on a Moorpark affected by Gummosis

Wikipedia says about Gummosis 'the formation of patches of a gummy substance.  Sap oozes from wounds or cankers as a reaction to outside stimuli such as adverse weather, bacterial infections, insects or mechanical damage.' 

An example of gum oozing out of a branch

The group discussed the matter at length, and the conclusion was that there isn't a proven strategy that solves the problem, and that the tree will probably gradually die.  Max K recommended that you do not plant another stone fruit tree in its place.  Planting an unrelated species in that spot, such as a pear or apple, would be the way to go.

David J mentioned that Moorpark apricots seem to be particularly susceptible.  He had the problem and put a relative of the Moorpark apricot, a Brillianz, in a different part of his garden, to replace a Moorpark he lost.  This apricot variety, according to Woodbridge Nursery, is more resistant to cold and disease. Time will tell whether this is the case. Question is too whether the taste of Brillianz apricots will be as good as Moorpark apricots.

The morning tea table had many great contributions, and the produce table was impressive (see photo above).

I am going to mention one contribution: Ross T brought five boxes of heirloom tomato seedlings and helped people choose (see photo above) between the many unusual varieties.  Many thanks, Ross!  People love your tomato seedlings!

Thank you, everyone, for making this food garden visit such a success, and many thanks to Anne and Ian for allowing us to see their inspired food garden work!