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Posted by FarmI on April 25, 2007, 8:18 pm
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> BUT, the garden is going extremely well, i had no losses from heat or
> drought over summer, and my dream of turning a poor sad neglected & dry
> property into a fertile and self-sufficient garden for food, birds &
> animals is all panning out pretty well so far. i've got loads of worms
> now, the soil's improving, it's getting more beautiful every day, and is
> definitely worth the hard work! so if i can do that during a drought with
> my greywater, all power to me, but honestly, anyone _can_ do it & more &
> more of them are.
I always feel a sense of real wonder when I contemplate how much can be
achieved over time and with effort and water.
I went to visit some Open Gardens in the Nimmatabel region of NSW some
months ago. I well remember one farm. It was like a moonscape.
Typical Monaro sheep country - naturally treeless and rock stewn but good
basalt country and all it needed was water. It was a 3 km drive into where
the house sat under the lee of an east facing hill but subject to Southerly
winds.
The before pictures were amazing. A disgustingly sad weatherboard cottage,
missing many boards, peeling paint, broken windows with a ratty old garage
set in a desertlike landscape of no grass or trees or anything - the only
thing missing was the pic of sheep wandering through this old house. It sat
in the middle of a big paddock.
To see how much the owner had achieved over a 25 yr period, and the life
they had brought tot his moonscape was astounding. First plant trees and
lug water to them - this went on for years till they built up surrounding
wind breaks. And the garden! It was now a to die for garden. Lush grass
on that rich basalt soil, a thriving veg garden and chook runs and a superb
flower garden with the most glorious Peonies I've ever seen. I can still
see it in my mind's eye. More power to the lady of the house who did, and
continues to do, a brilliant job.
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