St Erth Garden – Part 1

Saturday was a great day for a morning trip, and both Kim and I had been looking forward to getting out of the house all week. I was in the mind that I didn’t really care how long it took to get there and how many stops we needed to make, we were going to make it with minimal fuss and pain.

The trip was a lot shorter than we thought, and was only about 30 km from home. Blackwood, where the St Erth Garden is situated, is in the centre of the Wombat State Forest, and is in a very beautiful part of the country. The forest had been burnt out about 5-6 years ago, but even though the tree trunks were black, most had grown back, but what amazed us the most was that there was not many ferns or undergrowth that had grown back. Maybe that is a good thing?

Anyway, when we arrived, we pulled up next to an elderly couple who asked us if we were going on the hike. We looked at each other, and I replied that we were just going to have a look at the garden. Apparently, there was a group hike organised for the John Chan track into the forest. I don’t think that Kim, Ben and I would have made it to the first kilometre, let alone the entire hike. We all walked away from the car park and this is the first thing we saw (other than the hikers).

This one is a Cox Orange Pippin. I have one of these in my front yard orchard. Here is a shot of me attempting to suck in my belly in front of a pear tree!

After walking up each row, and trying to avoid all the kangaroo poo, we got to the veggie patches that were all covered with netting. I think the native wildlife might like to have a nibble on their greens, so they have to protect them. But on the way there were moss covered trees.

and other flowers that Kim just had to stop and take pictures of. I don’t blame her, they were nice.

So, back to the veggie patches. Here they are finally. Well composted with a rich home made compost and well mulched beds, and paths ready for the soon to be warmer weather.

Garlic in the first bed (mine are bigger!),

curly kale in the second bed (I think),

broad beans in the third, both crimson and aquadulce.

Then a nice patch of garlic chives, which I sampled. Very garlicy! The last row had salad greens, lettuce, mustard greens, mizuna and some rainbow chard.

That was the end of the well protected veggie patch. Up the hill now to the berry patch.

Raspberry canes, still dormant,

juniper berries,

There were many others, but right at the very end was the rhubarb. Kim and I both started to think of apple and rhubarb crumble, and will plant some next chance we get.

That was basically the end of the edible garden, except for some herbs, but because these photos are taking forever to upload on this slow collection, I will show two more photos, and do a part 2 tomorrow.

This massive tree dominated the edible section of the garden with its delicate pink blossom. It was captivating.

And, alas, we stumbled upon Bill and Ben’s final resting place among the succulents. It looked like a nasty accident. I do hope it was painless.

I will finish off part two tomorrow evening. Thanks to Kim for the wonderful photos. Stay tuned!