About Us

US

We, Gavin & Tina, (G&T) both grew up in Melbourne. Tina had an aunt with a dairy farm in near Wonthaggi. Her Dad was a country boy who always had a huge vegetable garden that kept the neighbourhood in veg. The yard always contained a number of malodorous drums of liquid manure at various stages of readiness (ie. fetid & bubbling, or not bubbling yet!).

I had no real family background in gardening, though we did have a huge garden in Rosanna & from the moment I was tall enough I was responsible for mowing the grass with a temperamental old Victa. My father (an Engineer) hated anything that grew! As a shrub put on growth just prior to flowering he would announce that it was “getting out of hand” & needed cutting back. He taught me how to prune using an axe. For many years I thought the definition of “shrub” was “woody  plant that does not flower”.

T &I shared a rented house in West Heidelberg, (pre-gentrification) where we indulged our love of gardening & flowers. After a knife-wielding rapist was chased through our yard by a dozen police & a police dog…(without waking us)…it seemed inevitable that we should move to the country.

Moving in 1980

Renovations begin 1982

By the end of 1980 we had purchased the “picturesque farmlet” advertised in the Real Estate section of the local paper…only to be told by locals that we had every weed growing except for blackberries, (which need good soil). We had the worst soil in the district …nothing but gravel…& our paddock dried off before anywhere else in the North East!…Obviously nothing would ever grow here!

The ”house” was a relocated army/migrant hut. No power, no water, no insulation, no plumbing etc. The interior was divided into 4 separate “dwellings” & there were holes kicked through the dividing walls. No-one had ever lived here. The exterior walls were corrugated iron & the roof corrugated asbestos. It needed a little work. I’m not saying we did it hard but I am saying
that as naive city kids we learned a few lessons we weren’t anticipating having to learn! As an example, Tina learned to iron the outfit for her job as a legal secretary with a flat-iron heated on a combustion stove!…& learned how to take her toilette al fresco in all weathers…She swore she would never be an “indoor girl” again.

Unbeknown to us 1980 was an exceptionally wet year. There was running water in the “creek” (never seen that again)! We could dig a hole a foot deep anywhere in “the garden“ & get enough water to fill a bucket. Sweet Corn in raised beds grew 9 feet tall with only a couple of buckets of water.

By January the weather had warmed up. 25 days in a row above 35c…6 days above 40…The locals said…Oh no…the hot weather doesn’t start till February.

That Autumn, come the rains,  we started planting fruit trees in the “orchard” above the house…the idea being to be as self-sufficient as possible. We started with citrus & in winter planted apples, pears, plums, apricots, almonds, chestnuts, hazelnuts, mulberries, etc, etc, etc. The next summer was very hot & much drier…We were still watering by bucket.

The following year there were a record number of frosts in a row & Lime trees & Lemon trees we had planted the previous year succumbed…you live & learn

Fire….flood…frost…drought…tornados…rabbits…wallabies…possums…grasshoppers…livestock…What can I say? We delight in Nature & it delights at our expense…It’s called Irony!

30 years on

DIARY

We have come to the end of a difficult winter. (Sprinter is definitely here!) The black birds are making the most of the concert hours at the beginning & the end of the day; King Parrots are pristine green; Mr Satin Bower Bird (we have 2 & their retinues)is impossibly gleaming metallic blue & full of a multiplicity of trills & squeaks & grunts & croaks. A great imitator of turkeys, foxes, kookaburras etc.

Buds are swelling; magnolias opening; maples & ash beginning to entertain large numbers of bees;  crocus have burst & the violets are everywhere!

Every season there is something to learn…& a difficult season…(like this winter)…is the best teacher of all. This winter started wet…(things rotted)…then it became extremely cold…(lots of snow in Stanley)…& then more frosts & sharper frosts than we’ve had in years. There is much to be learned by studying which plants have been frosted (or rotted) & where one clump of a plant has been chewed up & spat out by the conditions & another clump of the same plant has sailed through unscathed.