Our Herb Wall

Over xmas/New Year I was inspired by a picture in Lesley Bremness' The Complete Book of Herbs to add a herb wall in the back garden. In my first and second garden plans I'd included pretty large herb gardens and—although there were lots of spaces for herbs in my third garden plan—I was unhappy about losing a dedicated herb garden. When I saw this picture I realised that I could use some of the bluestones we had lying around, and some of the vertical space in the garden, for herbs!

As Bremness explains, the advantage of a herb wall is that it gives you a well-drained rocky environment to grow herbs like catnip and pennywort, and the wall can be arranged to catch lots of sun on the Northern face, and be protected from too much sun on the Southern face. I figured that if I curved the wall around our monster gum, the Southern face would also be somewhat shaded by the tree trunk, meaning the herbs would be less likely to burn up in mid-summer.

Unfortunately, we didn't have quite enough bluestones for what I had in mind, so in January I bought some more off eBay (19 for $50). Getting the ca. 200kg of bluestone home in my car was not fun, but we did it, and once they were home I laid out the herb wall like this:

Many of herbs that Bremness suggested for the herb wall were pretty exotic, Germander and Pellitory-of-the-wall, or exotic forms, like Prostrate Sage and Prostrate Winter Savory, so I figured that I wouldn't be getting any of them at Bunnings and went looking for a specialist. Amazingly, I didn't find one. I thought I'd find specialist herb farms all over the place, or that I'd be able to get everything I wanted online: but not so. In fact, finding a well-stocked herb-dealer turned out to be an almost impossible task.

In desperation I did, in fact, go to Bunnings. And I was right: it was a waste of time. I then went to Banksia Nurseries and—much to my amazement—found a lot of herbs. Not the ones I was after, but I had pretty-well given up on finding anything at all so I bought everything I could knew or had ever wanted. This as the haul:

(Of course, I bought far too many herbs to plant in the wall, but I planted what I could. Some of the rest I will plant elsewhere. The others … R.I.P.)

… when everything was planted I covered the wall with netting to keep the possums (and the dog) away until the herbs could get established (this was in the second week of February) …

…which—two months later—they now have.

While I was waiting for the herbs to get established, I discovered that there is/was a herb farm in Lillydale (the "Lilydale Herb Farm Shop and Nursery"). I had found their website (here) early on, but dismissed them because they seemed to be primarily a restaurant and dried-herb business.

When I went to visit them** I discovered I was wrong—they were a genuine herb nursery too—but the nursery was closed and a sign informed us that they were in the process of moving. Very frustrating. According to a call I had the other day, however, they have finished moving now and I look forward to visiting them soon. But, moving on …

I took the netting off over Easter. In the few days since we have had no losses, and no possum/dog damage. In another week or so I will take down the stakes and twine and will plant a few more herbs in the gaps—which I will get from the Lilydale Herb Farm. Then I might post a list of all the herbs we have growing.

**I was actually directed to the old Lilydale Herb Farm address by someone at New Gippsland Seeds in Silvan. I was so desperate to find a herb nursery that I had convinced myself that New Gippsland Seeds might have herb plants for sale (since they had seeds) … or they might just know what had happened to the "Herbs & Cottage Plants Nursery" in Hurstbridge, which seems to have disappeared (or rather, been replaced by Going Green Solutions—to judge by the Google Street View of Main Road, Hurstbridge.)

So I went to New Gippsland Seeds and bought … some herb seeds. They had no plants, though apparently they sometimes do. And they hadn't heard of the Herbs & Cottage Plants Nursery. However, they did assure me that Lilydale Herb Farm was not just a restaurant and didn't only sell dried herbs. So I went, didn't get into the nursery, but did discover they had one. So, we'll try them again soon.

Lower Terrace Progress

After a very long period of neglect, we did some work on the lower terrace yesterday: we used fresh soil to filled in behind, and filled up to the top of, our new retaining wall.

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The last time I blogged about progress on the lower terrace was in July and August last year (here and here). This is what it looked like in July 2011:

Since then, we had made a bit more progress on the terrace walling and a lot more on the weeding, extending the area cleared of aggies etc etc until the line of sight along the front wall (just a row of steel posts in the picture above) extends all the way to the drive. (Which, from this point of view, is an ever-diminishing triangle of ground behind the camera.) And we weeded upward, clearing the stonework of grass etc. in preparation for rebuilding both terrace walls.

Doing this extra weeding we discovered that there was another, somewhat mysterious, partial terrace wall completely overgrown with weeds, about one metre to the left and behind the camera. Once the foliage was cleared we were unsure what to do. The cutting is steep, about 60–80cm high and has nothing holding it up except aggie roots—so we decided to work on other bits until we decided whether to build a retaining wall for it (and if so, what sort) or not. We still haven't decided.

In addition, in the last six months, we mulched most of the area we weeded, creating an earth ramp down to the terrace, with stepping-stones and edged in stones; and we intermittently weeded (and then sprayed!) the area furthest from the camera trying to get rid of the last of the blackberries and any other weeds before putting any fresh soil on top. (After months of trying—and failing—to track each blackberry shoot back to its root we gave up and started using Roundup. Likewise, after trying and failing to get the last of the weeds out of the terrace walling—without dismantling the entire wall—we started using Roundup there too.)

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Fast forward past months of micro-progress: two weeks back we went to the GrassRoots Community Market in Upwey and, apart from getting some great food, presents etc—we got three sturdy "Kings Park Special" Callistemons for only $50. (Yarra Ranges information on this cultivar here; listed by Angus Stewart here as one of the top ten native plants.)

Having bought, desiccated and killed a $70 grafted red flowering gum (called "Wildfire") just before xmas, what appealed to me about the plants is that they are large (1–1.5m) in large posts, acclimatised to local conditions, were not being maintained on a sprinkler system, meaning that if I neglected to water them daily they would not turn up their toes. And since it was likely to be a while before we won the war on weeds, they needed to be able to survive a few months in pots. They were also cheap and we were skint.

Having these lovely bottlebrushes sitting on the deck—and having read up about them—we found the motivation we needed to get two cubic metres of soil delivered, and shift it onto the terrace so we can plant them. The shifting took about sixty trips, using our big rope-handled buckets, with M and I shoveling, straining, stumbling, slipping, sliding, toe-stubbing, sweating and swearing until we were stuffed. Anyway, the soil is now in place and we are ready to plant the Callistemons and mulch around them. Que photo:

If we can, we will get another three of these and plant them as a hedge at 1.5m intervals. It is a shame not to use the Scarlet and Crimson Bottlebrushes at all, or to alternate between varieties of Bottlebrush—as I originally planned—but we might be able to use these behind the Kings Park Specials once we have rebuilt the stone wall.

A large part of the reason for the delay in planting anything at all was our realisation that it would be difficult to work on the stone wall with freshly planted tube-stock at out feet, without stepping on, or dropping a rock on, said plants. M. wanted to do the wall first, I was happy to plant first and replace any damaged plants. We were at an impasse, so we did nothing!

But, since these Kings Park Specials are a decent size, they will be a lot easier to see and avoid than tubestock, and we can stake them with big tree-stakes (50x50mm hardwood stakes) which will make them even easier to see and should protect them from stumbling amateur stone-masons! Also, by planting them close together (six instead of the three plants numbered 1,2,3 below) and close to the front of the terrace, they will be further out of the way, leaving us more room to work. This was my argument anyway and—as you can see—M agreed in the end.

Once the Kings Park Bottlebrushes are established, and the wall is rebuilt, there will be space available for a second row of plants. We could plant the Scarlet and Crimson Bottlebrushes here, instead of the Red flowering gum (numbered 4 below), as per my original plan. But even if we decide to stick with the Red flowering gum—or to leave this space clear for access—there are other places I might be able put these Scarlet and Crimson Bottlebrushes** and I will still plant the Weeping Bottlebrush where it will hang over the drive and gate etc. as planned (numbered 5 below).

**The "other places" are on the other side of the drive, on top of the stone wall, but in front of the planned fence. This space is triangular because the fence must be as far back from the stone wall as the wall is high (2m back where it is 2m high, 1m back where it is 1m high etc). Since the area down to the drive is M's territory, it is up to her to allow this, but since she really doesn't care what is on the other side of the boundary fence—since she can't see it from the house—it is possible that she will agree to me planting in this grey area. (It is largely because M is indifferent to what is on the "other side of the boundary fence" that the terraces are "my" area of the garden at all.) A few pictures would make this clearer, but they will have to wait for another post!

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UPDATE: We have planted four of the Kings Park Specials, with Running Postman between them. The survey stake marks where the fifth one will go. Sometime this week we will get some more mulch to cover up the bare ground around the plants and when my back gets better I will extend the retaining wall one more timber-length and terminate it. Then we can return to the back garden to finish what we started up there.

Progress on Vegie Box 1

I haven't been blogging much lately. Summer seems to be the season for labouring in the garden, rather than reflecting on your labours. M and I have been working hard on aspect of the plan for the back garden: slaving in fact, because unbearable heat usually comes with the dry sunny weather.

As I said in my last post (here) immediately after finishing our "Back Garden Plan No.3" (here) we started weeding, and constructing the first of three large vegie boxes, on the steep slope immediately behind the house.

Building the vegie box was, frankly, a bastard of a job, and I did my back in so badly when cementing the second post in that I had to take almost a month off. (M and I had to pull the post out of the wet quick-set cement when I realised that it was not in line, though it was vertical!) But the end product is beautiful, particularly when it has been raining, and I am looking forward to filling it with broad beans.

The first vegie box is now complete, and is nearly full of scoria and fill excavated from the path. We have been too skint to get the top soil to finish the job, so photos of the inside will have to wait for another day, but below are a few snaps of the progress so far.

BTW: This is only one of about four projects we have going which we haven't been blogging about. Before we started on the back garden we constructed some weather-proof storage for all out outdoor equipment (which I didn't quite finish before moving on).

In addition to the vegie box, M has been teaching herself how to construct low, stone walls to create low terraces for the wine-barrel garden; and I have been widening and leveling the path and creating temporary terracing with the spoil.

Next time it is so cold and wet I can't bring myself to go outside, I will trawl the my pix and do another blog entry on one of these.

Maine Coon vs Airedale

The only creature that Chewie has any respect for is Piper the beautiful Maine Coon. Or to those that know her and are just a little bit afraid - SHE who must be obeyed.

Hassles Collecting Hornsea

I mentioned before the progress of our Hornsea collecting bug. A story in the HPC&RS Newsletter about lost and broken lots bought off eBay prompted me to write in with our own sad story, which was duly published in the next issue (#77).

In my email I explained the difficulty we have had with one item in particular: a margarine container.

We broke the bottom of the Heirloom margarine container—a reasonably uncommon piece but, as you know, it is the lids that almost always get broken, so I kept up a search for it. After two years of watching eBay I managed to find a replacement bottom, we won the auction and it arrived safely. But when I opened the cupboard to retrieve the lid, full of satisfaction for having at last reunited a lid and a base, said lid fell out of the cupboard and smashed on the floor! I was dumbstruck. So, now I am looking for a lid … which could take even longer. Oh well…

BTW: This is what a margarine container looks like:

My letter was written at the end of September. At the start of December I found a complete margarine container and, since I figured we had no chance of finding a lid alone, or no patience to wait another two years trying to find one alone, I bought it.

Well the package arrived yesterday, almost a month late, and this is what it looked like. Thank you Australia Post.

Note the many "Fragile: Handle with Care stickers. I think there are eight of them!

Amazingly, the item inside was not broken. However, also amazingly—and sadly, the vendor had sent the wrong item. He sent us a jam/preserve pot. Of these we now have … I don't know, pick any large number and you'd be close. He writes:

I have checked my stock of Hornsea and have found the Pot I should have sent you. I have listed another pot with the spoon hole as you describe but this is missing, so I have indeed sent you the wrong one. What I will do is pack and send you tomorrow the correct Pot at my expense. Please keep the other Pot as a gift for all the hassle.

It is nice to find so obliging a dealer, and it will be a minor miracle if nice when it finally arrives. And if we do this again

we may have to give up all together on what was—over two years ago now—our favourite lolly jar!

Magpies Happy To See A Dog

Resident family of four magpies have been very happy with the arrival of the pup. Left over biscuits are a favorite treat and have encouraged the maggies to visit the backdoor once again.

Starting on the Back Garden

I went to the timber yard after xmas with our plan for the vegie boxes and came home with a few hundred kilos of cypress posts so we could start work out the back. And, having started, I have made an amazing discovery: digging post holes is hard work! Who knew? And who would have thought that there was an impenetrable mass of clay, rocks, gravel and tree roots just below the surface?

With a few breaks for more god-damn weeding, it has taken me two days to dig six holes. And there is something like twenty to go! Meanwhile, M. has worked wonders with our new garden fork** and two metres of mulch.

(M. has also discovered and moved a whole series of indigenous plants that had sprung up after our first weeding effort: a positive sign for the future. Hopefully she will do a post on these soon.)

**We snapped this six-month-old, stainless steel garden fork in half as soon as we started on the weeding up the back, an indication of just how well-established the weeds had become after six months of neglect!

BTW: We now have two wine-barrels too, thanks to my very generous brother, who has an abundance of these. He tells me they cost something like fifteen hundred dollars new, but are worth less than one hundred second hand.