October 2017 - Mayfield Gardens

What a drive from Mayfield/Windellama (or even further afield for some) to Mayfield/Oberon on a sunny day, leaving very early to arrive by 10am – almost everyone arrived on time - from Mayfield to Mayfield.

Mayfield Garden is a work-in- progress series of gardens, 15 hectares in all, open most days of the year – just bring your strong legs & walking shoes. This garden includes a 2.5 ha water garden, boardwalks, huge bluestone bridge, 'the grotto' (cascading waterfall you can walk behind), copper tree fountain, beautiful trees & gardens and much more.

Before we continued on our voyage of discovery we welcomed Chloe & Kayla, Jude & Wazza’s cute
granddaughters and then shared our gardening woes & wows. Jude & Wazza have been going to Bunnings’ garden club at Goulburn on the last Thursday of the month at 6pm and are learning heaps (as in compost heaps?).
They added liquid sulphate after 'wettasoil' and their blueberries are now growing well in pots. Grow lettuce in semi-shade and they won’t bolt to seed.

Doreen said their weeds are still growing thickly but Bruce has had success growing roses from cuttings in his hothouse using his own potting mix (better than what he bought). He just needs to keep water up – suggestion was to put saucers under pots.

Kevin & Margaret are growing tops not bottoms on carrots (if only I had that body). They say to put pine needles around blueberries. Azaleas, camellias & rhododendrons are also acid lovers and like pine or casuarinas needles.

Caroline & John are picking “branching broccoli” (bought at the big B), carrots & lettuce. Joy has the best crop of yellow thistles! Anne is having problems with her lemons – thick skin & very dry despite plenty of watering.

Prune lemons later in November after risk of frost has passed – clean secateurs with metho. Bridget’s broccoli, cabbage & Chinese cabbage have all bolted – probably getting too much sun – need more shade. These veggies can also bolt if cold weather suddenly turns hot. Wazza said that Yates garden products website has an “app” you can download for gardening problems or what is that plant?

Katie has flowers everywhere and leaves on trees - she’s picking bok choy, kale, snowpeas & lemons so she says she’s happy. Only problem – the roses in her garden are choking with couch grass which she’s poisoned, and while waiting for the grass to die down she’s working out which mattock or sledge hammer she can use to batter it out. Irene’s lemon is still really sick but broadbeans are flowering and peas growing. Liz-Ann & Peter are delighted that the horseradish they planted months ago is surviving despite being completely neglected.

After our marathon garden walk, many of us had lunch at the old, very basic & ordinary looking Tourist Hotel in Oberon – but great $10 pub lunches. One not-very- young woman serves behind the bar, takes orders, cooks all meals and then serves them &clears up (she really is chief cook & bottle washer).
We had a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed their meal.
Our next meeting will be at John & Caroline Engisch’s  Melbourne Cup Day, Tuesday 7 th
November after 11am-ish (later than usual). Please bring something to BBQ as well as a plate of either salad or
sweets to share – don’t forget your crazy hat and gold coins for sweeps!

Veolia Excursion September 2017

This September Garden Club decided to take a field trip to somewhere close to home but a far cry from our traditional beautiful garden excursions. We met up at the Loaded Dog at 10am and boarded the little bus and headed up the winding road around the windmills to the Woodlawn Bio Reactor off the Collector Rd in Tarago.

The huge Bio Reactor facility opened in 2004, very basically, it is a landfill centred in the old Woodlawn Mine site which collects waste (mostly from Sydney & Canberra) which it then processes and turns into green electricity, it can apparently meet the energy needs of up to 30,000 homes!

Excerpt from the Woodlawn Bio Reactor Website:

The Woodlawn facility has prioritised sustainable and innovative waste management practices including:

• 7 landfill gas Bioreactors that recover up to 7 megawatts of clean energy from what would otherwise be gas-emitting waste material.
• Agriculture incorporating a working farm that applies nutrient and grazing rotation to help manage and understand impacts on the site.
• Aquaculture and horticulture capturing waste heat from energy production and using it for fish farming and hydroponic horticulture
• Mechanical and Biological Treatment (MBT) extracting organic content from the waste to produce compost for environmental rehabilitation.
• Windfarm (operated by Infigen Energy) that harnesses 48.3 megawatts of clean energy per year.
• Solarfarm utilising increased sun exposure from cleared land to produces 2.5 megawatts of clean energy per year.

Our first stop was the information centre where we were told all about the site, what they do and how they do it. We watched some videos about the bio waste management process and the obligatory induction video starring a few of our town's locals.

Next we headed over to the large Aquaponics area, where they use excess heat generated from the bioreactor to warm multiple vats filled with Barramundi, the fish are fed a high protein diet to encourage fast growth, the waste they produce is filtered out through large water troughs filled with little specially designed beads with large surface areas, these house bacteria that helps break down the waste. Plants are then also planted into these troughs using the waste water as nutrient for strong growth and completing the filtration cycle so that the water is returned into the vats containing the fish.

Back on board the Garden Club Express and we headed up the hill to the viewing area where we would able to gaze into the giant hole in the ground which now manages 20% of Sydneys waste! Trains freight shipping containers filled with waste from Sydney to Tarago each day where the containers are off loaded onto trucks and then carted up the hill to the old mine site, the waste is sorted for processing, the hole is ideally filled with bio waste which is then continuously being covered by dirt, the methane produced by this process is harvested and turned into energy and the waste heat from this process goes to the fish farm.

 Unfortunately the unseasonably freezing and windy weather made things a little less pleasant as we huddled at the viewing platform.

It is very important that rocks are not thrown or kicked past the barrier into the hole as it could be dangerous for the people working below.

We took some photos, some naughtier members tried to push the giant display boulder over the edge but luckily for the crew working below they aren't getting any younger and the several ton rock proved un movable.

We then thanked our hosts, boarded our little bus and headed down the hills and back to the Loaded Dog for a nice hot lunch by their open fires.

August Meeting 2017 Truffle Hunting!

We were all very excited about our local Willowglen Gardeners’ invitation to visit Tarago Truffles and the day dawned with bright sunshine after 24 hours of (well-needed) non-stop rain – a big relief, especially for our hosts Denzil & Anne Sturgiss. Denzil led us to their Trufferie & asked for volunteers to sizzle but no takers so he turned off the electric fence after we took turns to swish through the foot bath – no dirt, mud or alien germs allowed.

Denzil planted the Trufferie in 3 stages from 2002 to 2009. Acorns & sterilised truffle spores are planted into a pot & form a symbiotic relationship – then the small trees are planted into the ground after 18 months. First truffles are expected in 4 years after planting out. Holly Oak & Old English Robur Oak are used & hazelnut trees planted between each oak tree. Tree roots need sun & frost – open canopy between trees, sprinkler for each tree – 13 million litres of water used per year.

On to the hunt! After Dusty the dog has indicated a truffle, Denzil digs carefully with a spoon so as not to damage the truffle. The truffle smells earthy but surprisingly also sweet. Wazza, John, Carolyn, Jude & Irene all took a turn of lying on the ground sniffing the truffles after Dusty indicated. (What photos, hehehe.)

We returned for morning tea & our usual chat about members’ garden experiences this month. Wazza has a common birthday shared with all horses, and today was the day – happy birthday Wazza & all the other horses!

Wazza’s lemonade tree suffered badly from our recent -10 o C temperatures. Jude said a wombat ate all their broadbeans despite being grown in a mesh covered garden and now they have about 40 roses to prune – a mammoth task – we’ll call her Rosie in future.

Best wishes go to Jackie as she recovers from even more hospitalisation & treatment and to Doug who still drove daily to hospital although suffering a very painful knee injury. Joy said a chainsaw took to John’s leg but he’ll survive. Her limes are perfect but yellow skin (only green inside) and her lemons have no juice.

Bridget’s lemon tree not producing despite following all suggestions. Wazza suggested keeping the
pots of citrus trees on large saucers full of water. Joy introduced Anne (our new Canberra member) who needs to move 2 large tall standard roses growing across the driveway. Wazza said to cut 2/3rds of roots and also 2/3 of tops, soak in seaweed solution 2 weeks before & after the move.

Carolyn said John chainsawed the old gnarly roots of the old rose bush they moved – it’s in clay & gravel and now doing well. She is picking bok choy but “the roos are growing fast”.
Tony & Sandra have a small problem – a wombat goes under the fence & the dog goes out through the hole but at least their garlic is growing well.

Irene’s broadbeans look good, Lloyd sold 3 wethers – and one has just given birth to a
brown lamb (strange but true). Kevin & Margaret’s lemon was burnt by frost but carrots & parsnips growing well (need fresh seed, keep it moist, don’t plant too deeply).

David’s MG garden is going well & the VW garden is nearly done but the Holden FX frame needs to be replanted (we’ll be able to see all this at our Christmas party). He’s reduced their rose pruning because he reduced the roses from 30 to 4.

Liz-Ann & Peter grew ginger successfully in the Blue Mountains this year and are happily cooking with it.

After our lunch (Anne’s delicious cauliflower soup, which Denzil topped with fresh truffles) Anne talked to us in the Truffle Shed about how she cleans, grades & packs the truffles. Our heads were full of the delicious aroma of the black truffles – much sweeter than the truffle farm we had been to in Provence a couple of years ago.

We then toured Anne & Denzil’s gardens – their citrus & other fruit trees are heavily covered with shade cloth to protect from frost. Anne said that Denzil is reorganising her veggie gardens, with garlic growing well.

Denzil has made very high raised veggie beds which gave us all ideas of how to save our backs. Wazza invited Anne & Denzil to our Christmas party, where they can sit back, eat & drink and chat with everyone about gardening or the world (just not politics), whichever appeals more.

Thank you to our friendly hosts, Anne & Denzil, for your warmth, hospitality & generosity. We really appreciated this opportunity and highly recommend the experience to you all www.taragotruffles.com.au

The Truffle Festival is still on around the Canberra region until the end of August www.trufflefestival.com.au . Our next meeting is on
Tuesday 5 th September at 10am at Ni &Alan’s place.

Article by Liz-Ann