In My Garden - Ngaire and Larry - February 2022

Ngaire & Larry spent some time in their Mount Nelson garden this week, capturing images of what's growing (and what's not). Keep reading to hear Ngaire explain the garden as you walk through it with her.

We moved to our property on ‘the bends’ of Mount Nelson about six years ago. The block is just over 900 square metres, and about 160 metres above sea level, but we are on the sheltered side of the mountain and close enough to the water that we rarely get frosts here. The original owners had designed a completely ornamental garden, and it had not been kept up by the people living here before us. Our first few years here involved clearing masses of overgrowth and unwanted trees -- so many cotoneasters and pittosporum! We’ve also been on a learning curve figuring out how to deal with the steep, rocky terrain and the extensive (beloved) mob of pademelons who make use of the wildlife corridor provided by the no-fencing covenant on the small group of properties surrounding/including ours.

We are slowly (!) transitioning our space to a full and productive garden with lots of fruit trees, berries, and raised beds for annual veggies. There is still a long way to go, but here is a snapshot of where we are today.


The tomatoes are going super slowly this year in our garden – as in most Tassie gardens in this wet La Niña summer as far as I can tell. As of late January we have yet to eat a full size tomato from the garden, and have had only a few little ones from the Gold Nugget. The toms in this picture are starting to set a good amount of fruit, and so I’m still hopeful that we will have some good eating over the next few months, but some of the others have just completely failed to thrive and probably should be put out of their (my!) misery. The Gregori’s Altai in the middle of the picture below is the most vigorous of the bunch so far – grown from a seedling kindly provided by Ross at the November garden visit. Looking forward to tasting this one!

The blueberries have definitely been the star of the harvest so far this season. We have 12 blueberries in various spots around the garden, but I’d say at least 80 percent of the harvest to date has come from two of the more mature plants: one Sunshine Blue (pictured), and one Denise. Delicious!

 


The only edible plant* growing in the garden when we moved in six years ago was the mint that had spread across this bed, which was otherwise a small forest of pittosporum. We cleared the pittosporum and planted herbs and flowers for the bees as well as a few more blueberries (under the nets). But the mint will always be with us.

*Not counting dandelions and blackberry

 


I had intended to try some peppers and eggplant in this bed, as it is the sunniest/most sheltered spot in the veggie cage. But after the unpromising start of the tomatoes and the cool summer forecast I decided it was better to hedge my bets and put in some more beets and broccoli, interplanted with rocket, in front of the scarlet runner beans.

We planted this pomegranate (Mollar de Elche) almost three years ago, in full knowledge that trying to get fruit from a pomegranate in Mt Nelson was… optimistic! The tree and flowers are pretty enough to make it worth the chance, but although the tree is growing well we have only had a few flowers this year – fewer even than last year. Some of that is likely down to the cool/wet summer, but I think we might try to find a space for second pom to see whether that improves things for next year.



We have learned the hard way that we need to have a sturdy fence around every tree we want to survive in our garden. It’s extra-annoying because it means that our pademelon friends don’t keep the grass and weeds down in there as they do everywhere else. But it is handy at this time of year to have the extra protected space to use for grow bags of leafy greens as well as a couple of eggplants that lost their planned spot in the main veggie garden.



The Wurtz avocado had a tough time over its first winter; it was down to its last three leaves at one point. Not out of the woods yet, but the steady new growth is a promising sign. Much like the pomegranate, the avocados were planted more with hope than expectation, but it’s one thing to know that and another to live it – I am now highly personally invested in the survival of this little tree!



I had a couple of extra zucchini seedlings that I stuck in this bed as back ups – just as well, too, as the ones in the main veggie cage completely failed to get going and have been reluctantly removed. There is still a way to go before we will be eating from these, if at all, but in the meantime they are fitting in among the chard and adding to the ‘Australian one-day cricket team circa 2005’ vibe of this bed!



The cool summer may not be great for the veggies, but at least it is giving us a chance to get cracking on our next garden infrastructure project: a new large raised bed in the back yard. We are preparing a level spot for it using the jackhammer we bought last year when we were installing/constructing the raised beds and paths inside the veggie cage; it has been a game-changer for us in working on our steep, rocky block. The materials for the bed will come from Dovetail Timbers in Bonnet Hill – the four big beds we installed last year were from them and they’ve been great. Inspired by our visit to BJ and Aimee’s garden a few months ago, we’re going to try the hoop-and-net crop protection that Dovetail provide as an option with their beds. If it works, it might also give us the option of using a heavier cover in place of the netting as a kind of cold frame to get some things started early. If it turns out not to be enough to keep our determined pademelons and possums out then we will figure out another cage-style solution.