Visit Kellie J April 2019

On a cool and windy April day (Sunday 28 April 2019) the Food Garden Group visited Kellie and Nick's property at Sandfly.

This food garden visit was unique among the 70-odd visits to food gardens that took place in the last eight years, because there actually was no food garden .... yet.

Nick and Kellie moved to their rural property with a home, a big shed, and two dams in February, were very keen to get started with a food garden, orchard, watering system and so on, but wanted to avoid some of the mistakes people tend to make when they, full of enthusiasm, plunge into things.  They were keen to hear our opinions, comments, advice, warnings, and design ideas.

This visit was a brain storm session that made all participants think about what they would do with this 'blank canvas'.

Kellie and Nick first took us around the property, pointing out what was there at present, and what they thought might go where.  

Looking on was a large collection of plants in pots (photo above), brought over from their much smaller previous property elsewhere.  The plants wanted to know where they were going to be put, but answers to that question may have to wait a bit, because there is a lot to do when you start a new property. 

We had a good look at a group of fruit trees that possums and other wildlife had clearly given a hard time.  Most of them had few leaves left, and a lot of damage at the bottom of their trunks. This was probably due to removing of long grass with a line trimmer by previous owners. 

Kellie and Nick had pruned the trees well, but the question is whether they are going to recover.  Max K  talked about growers now overwhelmingly going for dwarf varieties.  At the end of the discussion consensus was that it might be a good idea to see how these trees recover next season, and then decide to make them the core of a proper orchard, or get rid of them and buy new trees.

A lot of plants in pots are waiting in an old hothouse (photo above), and will be planted out when a vegetable patch has been established. 

In the photo above (Kellie and Nick in the middle) we were looking at an area next to a dam, which might be a good spot for a new orchard.  I dug holes in various spots on the property to see what the soil was like, and it seemed 'not bad at all'. 

Back from walking around the property, out of the wind in the large insulated shed next to the house, the discussion started in earnest. The photo above shows Kellie (middle) with a map of the property.

After morning tea we sat down and discussed many aspects of starting with a blank canvas.  You can find the discussion summarised, with additional notes, in Food Garden Group blog post A Blank Canvas.

Many thanks, everyone, for all your comments!  It was a really good discussion.  Thanks too for great contributions to the produce table and morning tea table, and last, but not least, a big thank you to Nick and Kellie for hosting this visit!

Next season we will purchase a small urn for our meetings, to make the morning tea a bit easier to access.  Jugs that set off trip switches will be so last season!