Visit North Hobart Cathy & Ward 2021

North Hobart is a beautiful part of Tasmania with some gorgeous old homes nestled within well-established gardens. Sunday, in the bright sunshine, we were very lucky to be able to spend a couple of hours enjoying Cathy and Ward’s little piece of paradise there.

Victorian Home

Their Victorian home, built in 1898 is a perfect backdrop to the garden which has plenty of lovely ornamental plants but the real treat for food gardeners is the plethora of edibles: fruits, veggies and herbs. You would have been hard-pressed to spot a bed that didn’t contain something you could pick and eat.

Much of the garden is almost permaculture-like with perennials thriving in the conditions that suit them best (or where space was found). But also there are some dedicated productive areas. One of my favourite aspects of this garden was the gateways between the areas. I found myself enticed to see what I glimpsed beyond the borders.

Archway up to the veggies

 

Archway down to the house

 

Gate to the front garden

 

The most dramatic feature of the garden is a huge mulberry tree that Cathy and Ward planted when they moved in 40 years ago. The tree’s leaves are used by neighbourhood children in their silkworm projects and the berries are plentiful enough for sharing, a point underscored when they offered old shirts to protect the clothing of any intrepid mulberry hunters from staining. I didn’t see anyone grab a shirt but I saw plenty of purple fingers to convince me the berries were a big hit.

Mulberry tree

Mulberries

Predating the mulberry tree are a few other fruit trees: a purple plum, a multi-grafted pear and an apple. All continue to produce – the apple having been grafted with the tastier Mitsu & Cox’s Orange varieties which Cathy does her best to harvest before the birds do. She tried port wine traps this year to control coddling moth but they weren’t as successful as she was hoping. The consensus of the group was that this is a lousy year for coddling moth, at least in Greater Hobart.

Pears

Apple Tree

Apple

Other fruiting trees and vines abound including a very healthy looking Kiwi, quince, lemon, persimmon and a fig. The fig seems to be doing it’s best to discourage anyone sitting down on that nice bench and just enjoying the view. It’s almost like it’s saying, “Hey, there’s work to be done!” But this is a garden worth taking time to appreciate, maybe with a cup of tea in hand while wandering the paths as many of us did on Sunday.

Eureka lemon

Persimmon

Fig bench

Cathy explained that several of these productive plants, notably the fig, quince and kiwi, have had some heavy pruning done to them in past couple of years. The results speak for themselves: pruning to control extraneous growth and allow in light and air does not stop a plant from producing!

Kiwi vine

Kiwis

Laden quince

Quince

On the veggie front, there are the normal beds which must produce more than 2 people could eat. Plus a fair-sized greenhouse that currently holds tomatoes, cucumbers, chilies, a curry tree, lemongrass, turmeric and basil.

 
Those productive beds, and the entire garden are watered by an irrigation system. Over time Cathy has built and upgraded the network, replacing most of the sprayers with drippers for better performance and because they are less likely to be knocked and damaged while working in the garden. There are 2 controllers to drive the system: one under the garage and one in the pantry.

The one exception to the exhaustive irrigation is the glasshouse. Cathy currently waters this by hand but may try again to get an automatic system she’s comfortable with in there too.

In the glasshouse

Within the garden are signs we’ve come to recognise as common methods for keeping plants alive and thriving. Cathy uses mulch that she recycles from green waste on the property topped up by pea straw. The worst of the blackbird mischief is controlled with a combination of chicken wire and gutter guard. All-in-all this is one of the least defended gardens I’ve seen with plenty of fruit in evidence. Cathy and Ward are managing really well against the typical thieving of the local fauna.

Blackbird protection

Mulch

Of course these garden visits are about more than just the gardens we’re viewing. We’re also about sharing our surplus, ideas, experiences and friendship. As always, there were plenty of goodies on the produce table that came and went throughout the morning as many of us scored something new for the garden or pantry. And the seed box experienced a rejuvenation with a bunch of new packets being delivered and just as many taken home. It’s really good to see this sharing of garden bounty!

Produce table

 This was the club’s first garden visit with a morning tea table since Covid arrived on our shores. Everyone brought their own mug and the food was all pre-cut into individual pieces. Thanks to everyone for what you brought and for doing your part to stay Covid-safe. We’ve got 2 more garden visits this year and hopefully they’ll work out as well.

Morning tea table

All that’s left is to thank our generous hosts, Cathy & Ward for opening their garden to us and making us all feel so welcomed; and to thank Max and Gaye for all they do to organise and run these events. It’s a great club and that’s no accident.

Cathy & Ward

Max's intro