Visit Blackmans Bay Karen and Dan 2024

On an overcast but warm day in November, Karen and Dan welcomed us to their lovely food garden set amongst the gum trees in Blackmans Bay. As a busy family with three young children, they shared their invaluable tips for achieving a low maintenance but highly productive patch.

When Karen and Dan arrived in 2015, the food garden consisted of a solitary apple tree and a hot house. They developed their plot around these two features - rebuilding a retaining wall and installing numerous low-rise planting beds.

 

Karen explained that the design of the garden was very much about reducing the amount of work required, to fit around their work and family commitments.

The beds have dripper hose and sprinkler systems installed, making watering less onerous. The entire garden area is also mulched, reducing water loss and eliminating the maintenance of grass in and around the planting beds.

Espaliered fruit trees feature throughout the garden and include apples, pears, cherries, and nectarines, to name a few. Training the fruit on trellises makes protective netting and fruit harvesting quicker and easier.

In addition to the trellises, Karen has made great use of the boundary fences, pots and other containers around the garden for growing grapes, kiwi fruit, berries and other produce.

All the berries and fruit trees are underplanted with flowers and herbs, maximising growing space, reducing weed growth through competition and encouraging valuable pollinator insects into the garden.

Further back on the block is a chook pen with four lovely hens, enjoying the shade of the gum trees and wind protection from the boundary vegetation.

Karen explained that the hot house has been under-utilized to date - proving to be too hot in summer and too cold in winter. Despite that, the kids have been trying their hand at growing dwarf bananas inside and some interesting plants are clearly enjoying the conditions.

But like everywhere, the site is not without its challenges! A couple of avocado trees have borne the brunt of strong, cold westerlies off the mountain, and despite Karen's valiant efforts to protect them with a laserlite screen, they're sadly not looking the happiest little vegemites.

A very interesting find were these tree fern steppers that Karen uses to walk on when tending to the veggies - what a great idea!

Once again, everyone out-did themselves with the produce table (this was only half of what was on offer by the time the visit got underway), and a delicious spread for morning tea, that we all thoroughly enjoyed.

Thanks to Karen and Dan for their generosity, a great morning in their garden and some inspiring ideas for everyone - whether you're short on time or not!