Visit Mount Nelson Ngaire and Larry 2022

Visit Mount Nelson Ngaire and Larry 2022.

On a lovely Sunday afternoon in September we were all very happy to visit Mount Nelson for the first Food Garden visit of the year. 

Ngaire and Larry own a steep block in Mount Nelson, overlooking the mouth of the mighty River Derwent. When they can tear themselves away from their amazing views, they are very busy in their garden. Here is Ngaire talking to the group and explaining their main challenges and what they did to overcome them.

Large overgrown Pittosporum rows are slowly but surely reduced to a more manageable hedge, leaving room at their foot for a veritable carpet of charming Forget-me-nots. 

Forget-me-nots are a great favourite for honeybees at this time of year. Some lucky beekeeper close by will be very happy to see his girls bringing in all that nectar!

To protect their food plants from the abundant wildlife in their area, Ngaire and Larry have built a netted enclosure. 

Now that they have acquired a jack-hammer, they have been able to deal with the steep slope and the stony soil. 

Who knew that a jack-hammer was a gardening tool?! 

They have solved those difficult growing conditions by putting in raised beds, and this has worked really well. 

snow peas flowering

Sprouting broccoli

and more greens, all happily growing in the raised beds.

Broad beans in full bloom

Raspberry canes also find a home in the cage, in concrete planter boxes.

as do the rainbow chard.

and seedlings in canvas bags and pots

Outside, olive trees are doing well and they should soon outgrow the reach of most pademelons.

Ngaire and Larry recently installed another timber raised bed. It is netted too and provides extra space and a level area for growing vegetables in. They bought their raised beds from Dovetail Timbers . They found them easy to assemble and best of all they are made to your specifications which was essential in designing them for their steep terrain.

Next to the house is the newest addition for food growing: a glass house (in this case made of polycarb). 

Note the happy Food Gardeners on the deck above, overlooking it all.

Despite the fact that it was only installed a week ago, the glass house already houses some tomato plants, seedlings of capsicum and cucumbers as well as many more hopes and dreams. 

The group discussed the benefits of having a glass house. The ability to grow warmth-loving vegetables such as eggplant and capsicum was a feature, but also extending your growing season and the option of keeping things like celery and even tomato plants over winter! 

For summer, ventilation in the roof is key to let the hot air escape. 

To achieve good ventilation the hothouse has temperature controlled window openers in its roof. These work by the mechanism being filled with a kind of expanding wax, which pushes the widow open once it reaches a certain temperature, meaning they do not require electric power.

The frame of the hothouse rests on a concrete slab, but as you can see in the photo above, this slab only reaches about 20 cm into the glass house. The rest of the floor they first covered with lots of cardboard (to kill off any weeds) and then a thick layer of gravel. This way, good drainage is assured, reducing moisture build-up. What a clever idea.

Throughout the lower part of the garden there are citrus trees in many varieties. They look happy and should provide a bountiful harvest for years to come.

The produce table was well stocked, and many people went home with something new to try in their own gardens. 

A big thank you to Ngaire and Larry for being the perfect hosts. They are a very effective team where Ngaire is the enthusiastic gardener and Larry comes up with engineering solutions and puts in a lot of of the hard graft! They showed us a great example of the enjoyment of growing your own vegetables and fruit, no matter how steep your block or how persistent the wildlife.