Permaculture ALBANY had their first garden tour on Saturday the 23rd of May 2015. After a beautifully sunny Autumn morning the clouds sent a shower just as the tour kicked off at 1pm.
Thank you so much Kathy Prahl for your Garden Tour. Despite the afternoon rain, the garden and your narrative was such a distraction, it didn't matter. A really informative and inspiring afternoon. Here is a summary of the tour...
Kathy Prahls' 1/4 acre urban block has been in the family since 1983. It was initially a bush block covered in watsonia and natives and then built on by her parents.
Since 2001 after the passing of her parents, Kathy has taken up residence in the house with her family.
Following the death of her 19 year old daughter, Kathy began to make significant alterations to the garden areas. The first being the front garden which became a rose garden designed in honour of Kathy's daughter.
This area features the beautiful floral symbolism of a Mr Lincoln rose (her daughter's favourite) surround by four chain of heart roses.
"My garden is always a work in progress."
The house block lies on a very 'wet' area where there is water present year round below the top soil despite being on a slight slope. Kathy dug around in the rose garden to show us wonderfully dark soil. This is the result of adding about 4 foot of mulch over the years. "It was just sand with a pH of about 8 which is slowly changing to a neutral pH now, with worms and organic matter."
The front garden is never watered which is the result of building the soil up with organic matter to allow the natural moisture further down to be available to the plants. As a result Kathy says she has reduced her water usage down to a quarter of what she was previously using - but has extended the garden area considerably!
She is happy to point out that the concept of not using native woodchip mulch because of the high oil content in the mulch is flawed. "Absolute crap!" Kathy pointed out a parsley plant that had self sown, had never been watered or fertilised and yet is one of the most radiant, perfect specimens of flat-leaf parsley I have ever seen. A real testimony to the benefits of liberal quantities of mulch to a garden bed.
Kathy went on to describe how the garden she inherited from her parents was mainly grass with fruit trees down the side. Over the years Kathy has improved on the structures around the house with the addition of a hot house, green house and a 10 000 litre water tank which she uses to water the garden.
The back garden was a mix of fruit trees - temperate, deciduous and sub-tropical. Again, some of the best examples of pineapples, limes, bananas and banana passionfruit I've seen locally. Kathy pointed out that although the olive tree situated near the house has been in situ for about 30 years, it really hasn't done much as the soil is so damp and gets flooded regularly in winter. Kathy has managed this in other areas of the garden by mulching quite heavily and creating a diversity of raised garden beds utilising all sorts of recycled materials.
Chop & Drop
Over approximately the last eighteen months, Kathy has started to enthusiastically employ the 'chop and drop' mulching method which has begun to pay off immensely. It is building her soils and increasing the soil life which is resulting in healthier trees and plants. It is saving her time as she is not having to do too much all at once and no longer gets the 'green waste' carted off the site. Kathy heartily shares her delight in having a good 'chop and drop' session after a particularly challenging day at work, as a means of therapy.
Probably the biggest light-bulb moment for Kathy was realising that she could simply use all the 'green waste' she was accumulating and no longer had to buy in costly pea hay or sugar cane mulch. This reduced both time and money with the benefit of a healthy, happy garden. Kathy later pointed out another area of the garden where she had lay down about 2 foot of canna lilly plants that she'd cut down to plant her pumpkins. The area of soil in that spot was incredibly light and friable - and a lovely dark, earthy colour.
Cycles of Life & Death
During the garden tour it was evident that there was a real cycling and flow of growth, cutting and mulching and then decay and then bursting to life of new growth and abundance as Kathy managed the garden throughout the seasonal changes. Alongside this, Kathy directed us towards the area her parents ashes were scattered. Kathy also mentioned that under each fruit tree was the carcass of some sort of animal. A practice that she maintains adds to the vigorous growth of the trees and assists with getting them established. Kathy was also happy to point out that the one fruit tree that looked markedly different from the rest was the only tree not to have had an animal buried under it before planting! Over the years Kathy has buried sheep, rabbits, chickens and ducks under her various trees.
"Mulching just works."
Virtually every area of the garden itself has some form of cover over it. Whether it is woodchip mulch or the chop and drop pieces from prunings or removing trees altogether. There were also three varieties of sweet potato and numerous other ground covers ranging from edibles to exotics that were admired for their flowers or foliage. This again, added to the already damp site, has meant that Kathy has been able to withdraw from frequent watering and instead hand waters using various soil amendments that she has on the go.
Fruiting Tips
Bananas - chop the bottom of the bell off after several hands have formed to encourage the bananas to grow larger fruit. Apples - wait until the spots disappear. Despite a fruit having good colour, Kathy suggested it is better to wait for the small, light coloured 'spots' to disappear before picking so that the fruit is fully mature, sweet and juicy. The apple will come away easily when pulled from the branch.
Fruit fly trap solution
Kathy had several plastic drink bottles hanging near the Banana Passionfruit vine which she said were the remaining fruit fly traps from the fruiting season.
The recipe for Kathy's fruit fly traps is: 2 cups of water, 1 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla essence and 2 tablespoons of cloudy ammonia. Place this in each bottle with a small area cut away to allow the fruit fly to enter.
Kathy insisted that it may appear that the trap isn't working but if you leave it alone you will find that 'all of a sudden the things full of them!" They need to be changed about every 2 to 3 weeks starting in October.
Following the main garden tour Kathy also shared another handy tip for those that recall the black bins in various locations around the backyard. In these Kathy had various mixes of either comfrey, chicken manure or kelp. Each was in rainwater and used at various times for fertilising plants in the garden. They were simply topped up with materials and rainwater as required throughout the year.
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