"The Drip" Mudgee

What's Blooming this Week?

2012-01-23T02:32:00.000-08:00

The Swamp banksia, Banksia robur, is a tough and gorgeous thing. With over fifty bushes in flower right now in The Water Garden there are blooms at every stage of development from unopened buds like the one shown above through to last season's flowers, now dried but still delightful.

For more on The Water Garden click here

Garden Design Books in our Library

2012-01-20T23:16:00.000-08:00

The garden at Serincourt near Paris, created by Yves Gosse de Gorre, is a notable contemporary garden with a reputation that continues to grow as time goes by. The remarkable topiary, which was highlighted by Jake Hobson in his recent book "The Art of Creative Pruning" , caught my attention so I went online and ordered a book written by the man who created the garden.

It is in French. "Sagesse & Deraison au Jardin" translates according to Google as "Wisdom and Unreasonabless in the Garden." Right.

But the pictures tell the story.

In the Gully Garden

2012-01-19T00:31:00.000-08:00

I have no idea what these flowers are.

But The Gully Garden is full of them right now. They thrive in the moist, mulchy soil there.

Can someone identify them? UPDATE Jan 24: Nicholas Vale, from Garden Life has identified this as Pratia.

The Attack of the Christmas Beetles

2012-01-18T22:19:00.000-08:00

Midsummer is "Christmas Beetle" season. They can do enormous damage to eucalypts. This young Willow Gum, Eucalyptus scoparia, growing on the Eucalyptus Lawn, was stripped by them in one day.

It seems that isolated trees are particularly vulnerable, whereas those growing in the forest fare much better. Is this because one of the predators of the Christmas Beetle, the endearing Sugar Glider, cannot get to isolated trees? It is thought that this was one contributing factor leading to ":eucalyptus dieback" in the New England region.

We should perhaps seek to ensure that our eucalypts are not put at risk by being placed in isolated positions. Planting stands of trees that are particularly attractive to Sugar Gliders, such as Spotted Gum, Corymbia maculata, could assist.

From the Kitchen Garden.

2012-01-17T00:27:00.000-08:00

We grow a great variety of plums in The Espaliery, including wonderful old European varieties which are impossible to find in the corporate food barns.

Our friend Heinz Thole, a chef of German origin, is staying with us this week and used an eighteenth century, blue-skinned variety of plum to prepare Zwetschgenkuchen, German Plum Cake, for a yummy Sunday afternoon treat. Here is the recipe he used.

1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup warm milk (about 110° F)
1-1/2 packages or 3-3/8 teaspoons active dry yeast
2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
6 tablespoons of butter
2 eggs
2 pounds Italian plums
1/3 cup Turbinado sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Add a pinch of sugar to the warm milk and sprinkle with the yeast. Allow to sit for five minutes, then gently stir to incorporate any dry particles. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Set aside while you sift together the flour, granulated sugar and salt into a large bowl. Beat butter and eggs into the milk and yeast mixture. Pour into the flour, stirring until a wet dough forms. Turn dough onto a heavily floured surface, kneed lightly into a ball. Place in an greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place for one hour.

Wash and pit plums. Cut lengthwise into halves. If you prefer smaller-sized pieces, continue cutting into fourths. Grease the bottom of a 13×9-inch baking sheet or shallow cake pan. Roll out dough to the size of the pan and transfer to greased pan. Poke several holes with a fork in the dough. Cover the surface with the cut plums. Cut up remaining butter and place on top of plums. Allow the dough to rise in a warm place for 15 minutes as the oven preheats to 400° F.

Bake for 25 minutes until plums wilt and pastry is golden brown. Mix together turbinado sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle liberally over plums while warm. Allow to rest 10 minutes. Cut into squares and serve warm. Store leftovers in fridge. Makes 20 slices.

For more on The Espaliery, including a list of fruit trees grown there, click here.

What's Blooming this Week?

2012-01-16T22:20:00.000-08:00

Hundreds of trees of Angophora florabunda have erupted into white blossom on the hillsides surrounding our valley in the last week.

Not a spectacular tree, this Angophora does however provide a valuable seasonal food supply to the honeyeaters, including the endangered Regent Honey Eater. The flowers resemble those of Eucalyptus.

When in blossom they fill the valley with a delicious honey fragrance. Anne Williams, a reader of this blog via Facebook, describes Angophora as "soft, rounded and gentle". What a delightful and appropriate description.

Notes from The Library #31

2012-01-14T23:54:00.000-08:00

"The Art of Creative Pruning" is Jake Hobson's most recent book and it is an inspiration. With the publication of "Niwaki. Pruning, Training and Shaping Trees the Japanese Way" a few years ago Jake established himself as a modern day uber-dude of cool pruning. His second book confirms this.

Hobson commences his tour-de-force with a quote from rock legend Lou Reed and then moves on to pay tribute to two of the great modern examples of Topiary ... the gardens of Marquessac and Serincourt. The journey continues with chapters devoted to Cloud Pruning and Organic Topiary, Niwaki and the Japanese influence, karikomi, pollarding, espaliers, pleaching ... it is all here. And it is all good.

We seem to be amassing quite a collection of books on the art of pruning. This approach to garden design is becoming an obsession. Last week we looked at a recent publication about Nicole de Vesian's sublime garden creations in Provence and by next week I am hoping to have received a copy of a book by Yves Gosse de Gorre, the creator of Serincourt. For a list of books in our Garden Library click here

Pruning our Old Weeping Mulberry

2012-01-12T15:51:00.000-08:00

The weeping mulberry in The Main Courtyard has recently been pruned back very hard, revealing the beauty of the trunk and branch structure.

We had neglected to prune this twenty year old tree for a couple of seasons and the huge amount of growth led to it blowing over in late November 2011, a victim of the strong winds we get here on top of The Great Australian Dividing Range.

Clive and our frequent visitor, Elaine Paton, trimmed it back to a skeleton, propped it back up and hoped for the best.

We weren't at all sure the tree would survive all of this, but it is slowly coming back and looking more beautiful than ever after its ordeal. As they say "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". For more on The Main Courtyard click here

Pruning Espalier Fruit Trees

2012-01-11T14:47:00.000-08:00

The Espaliery is being pruned this week, with a lot of new soft growth being removed.

This is an important part of the midsummer maintainance routine; aiming to thin the canopy, allowing sun in to ripen the fruit and also keeping the trees to the desired size.

Here Clive is attending to the arch of Beurre Bosc pears. For more on The Espaliery click here

Progress with Pollarding of the Plane Tree.

2012-01-10T17:15:00.000-08:00

Twelve months ago we were wondering whether or not to pollard the plane tree in The Main Courtyard. The tree if left to its own devices would have eventually become too big and be out of scale with the area. To see the posting about this click here

We decided to proceed and got our local arborist to do the job in Midwinter. Pollarding requires technical skill and artistic judgment and we were thrilled with the result. To see the posting on this plus some interesting photos of pollards from around the world click here

And now having burst back into vigourous growth it is looking fantastic; lush and shady and in scale with its surroundings. Pollarding is in one of the many forms of creative pruning that we are utilizing with increasing frequency in these gardens. Given the success of this firstr venture in pollarding we are now considering planting more plane trees in The Main Courtyard. To see more on The Main Courtyard click here

What's Blooming This Week?

2012-01-09T02:25:00.000-08:00

Best known for their roses, the Delbard family have also been breeding dahlias of unparallelled beauty at their nursery about three and half hours south of Paris for over sixty years.

This is a 2010 release, "Canaries", blooming here at The Drip, Mudgee for the first time this year.

Unfortunately we neglected to stake this huge plant and shortly after producing its first bloom it fell over, snapping the stem at ground level. Damn! The "Manana, manana" approach to gardening does not work. Hopefully the tubers will reshoot and we won't have lost this treasure from The Cutflower Garden. For more on The Cutflower Garden click here.

Notes from the Library #30

2012-01-06T14:11:00.000-08:00

An idiosyncratic, yet increasingly influential, style of garden design emerged in Provence in the late twentieth century, developed by Nicole de Vesian. Her passion for clipping evergreen shrubs into intricate designs was influenced by the great clipped box garden of Marquessac in the nearby region of Dordogne. This masterpiece is featured in Stephanie Alexander's delightful book "Cooking and Traveling in South West France."

Nicole de Vesian, who had established a fine reputation as a fashion designer, worked predominantly with the native shrubs of her region ... box, tuecrium, rosemary, lavender and santolina. She soon established a devoted cult following and her work first came to the attention of the international garden design community in the early 1990's. Her influence continues to grow with the 2011 publication of "Modern Design in Provence" which we have recently purchased for our library here.

The similarity between de Vesian's approach and the karikomi which I mentioned yesterday and which we are developing as a feature of The Hill Garden here at The Drip is obvious. It seems that the more we develop our personal style, the more we find our inspiration in the great traditions of topiary, karikomi and niwaki. The common factor running through all these traditions is the use of plant species that are local to the area, and it is this approach which we are now exploring here at The Drip by utilizing local species such as Bursaria spinosa.

Karikomi in The Hill Garden

2012-01-05T01:25:00.000-08:00

Karikomi is a form of abstract topiary practiced in Japan. The creation of these "blobs" by pruning shrubs is a staple of Japanese garden design. Karikomi are sculpted, traditionally from azaleas, into asymmetrical, organic shapes, never into perfect spheres as would be more common in European topiary. The azalea is native to Japan just as Box and Yew, the staples of European topiary, are native to Europe. These two great traditions of garden design have both arisen from the use of local species, these native plants being clipped into complex formal compositions which reflect the local landscape.

We have begun experimenting in The Hill Garden with this style of pruning using our local species, Bursaria spinosa, commonly known as Black Thorn. Bursaria is currently unpopular in cultivation and can be very invasive in disturbed or degraded agricultural land, forming dense impenetrable thickets. This has occurred here, where Bursaria rapidly colonized the hillside after the removal of blackberry infestations which had previously dominated the area. We have decided that clipped Bursaria may well be our equivalent to the clipped box and azalea of the Northern hemisphere. Interestingly a nineteenth century name for Bursaria spinosa was "Australian Native Box".

Here Peter Marshal uses mechanical hedge clippers to begin pruning the Bursaria hillside. It will be fascinating to see how this hill of clipped Bursaria, our local version of Karikomi, develops over the next few seasons. To see more about our work in The Hill Garden click here

Giant Sunflowers

2012-01-04T03:13:00.000-08:00

Over the years we have grown many different types of Sunflower. This one which just popped up in The Old Cottage Garden seems to combine the characteristics of several varieties we have grown here in the past.

It is enormous, already reaching almost 3 metres and still growing. This suggests it is descended in part from these Giant Russian sunflowers we grew a few years ago in The Espaliery.

It has multiple flowers, suggesting it is also descended from these Lemon Queen sunflowers. which we grew in 2007. But where did the delightful two-tone colouration come from in our new giant?

Water is Life.

2012-01-03T01:48:00.000-08:00

Summer has arrived at last. Temperatures are regularly hitting the mid-thirties. Watering newly planted trees and shrubs is now a matter of life and death. One day missed can result in disaster.

In 2011 we invested a considerable amount of time and money in new plantings. A Hazelnut hedgerow comprising sixty trees, an advanced and rather expensive American walnut, a Pecan and an English Mulberry were planted in The Nuttery. We relocated fifteen Silver Birch in The Horse Paddock and replaced a Japanese Maple. In The Parterre Garden we planted fifty Dwarf Box, Buxus suffruticosa, and eight climbing Cloth of Gold roses on the pergolas. On The Eastern Terrace a new hedge of one hundred and twenty English Box was planted. In The Hill Garden we planted new Mt Fuji cherry trees and relocated a Magnolia denudata, three Magnolia grandiflora "Little Gem" and some Camellias into The Camellia Grove. New grape vines and Crepescule roses were planted along the stone walls of The Old Cottage Garden; in this garden we also planted two Moss Roses, "William Lobb" and "Nuits de Yong" plus a Granny Smith Apple. In The Old Orchard we planted a Pink Lady apple and in The Main Courtyard dwarf peaches and nectarines were planted in wine barrels. A Chinese Liquidamber, Liquidamber formosana, was planted in The Water Garden. And a new garden area was undertaken with the planting of Proteas and Silky Oaks The Western Acre near the camping ground next to The Gully. It was a busy year.

Although we have had significant rainfall recently it would be foolish in the extreme to think this means that regular watering is not necessary; this is a common error and results in many deaths. The routine of weekly watering must be continued through midsummer, regardless of rainfall, for the first two years after planting. In heatwave conditions even more regular watering is often required These new plantings will therefore require careful attention until the summer of 2013/14. To see more information, including complete plant lists, for these garden areas at The Drip, Mudgee click on the links above.

What's Blooming This Week?

2012-01-02T03:16:00.000-08:00

These huge lilies in The Parterre Garden are the undoubted stars of the week.

Each plant is two metres tall and carries over a dozen intensely fragrant blooms. The bulbs have multiplied slowly over the years and we now have four of these spectacular beauties.

But what are they called? Unfortunately we have no idea! Help please

For more on The Parterre Garden click here

Compost - Everything Old is New Again.

2012-01-01T03:20:00.000-08:00

Waking up early on this New Year's Day I decided to spend the day spreading compost.

All the weeds and spent plants and clippings and prunings that had accumulated in The Old Cottage Garden over the last year, have by now transformed into dark, sticky, moist compost, warm and sweet.

Returning this to the soil, bringing new life to our garden beds, seemed to capture the spirit of the day very nicely and a perfect way to start the new year. The cycle starts afresh, the future of our garden built upon the past. Happy New Year.

Our Garden Blog Returns for 2012.

2011-12-31T22:33:00.000-08:00

For almost two months I have been unable to do this blog, frustrated by an inadequate internet service. Now at last we have a fast internet connection courtesy of the new National Broadband Network The blog will recommence on News Year's Day and The Drip Mudgee will be online once again.

So much happened in the garden over the period of no blogging. Every day brought new delights and the occasional disaster. Gardening is never straightforward, having its ups and downs which I will record day by day during 2012.

In the meantime here are a few images from the last month. Early summer in the Old Cottage Garden.

An Apology

2011-11-30T15:20:00.000-08:00

I have been unable to keep the garden diary up to to date for the last three weeks due to an internet connection that has been ridiculously slow and unreliable.

We will be moving onto the new National Broadband Network soon and hopefully this will finally give us a reasonably fast connection.

In the meantime I will persevere with the inadequacies of the old system and will attempt to update the blog when I can.

What's Blooming This Week?

2011-11-07T12:47:00.000-08:00

The first flush of roses is in full swing and The Cutflower Garden is entering one of its most productive phases, providing huge bunches of flowers for the house.

This is Hot Cocoa, a relatively modern floribunda which created a sensation when first released in the early 1970s. It has stood the test of time and has entered the list of all-time favourites. It has vicious thorns and little fragrance but the sheer abundance of blooms and unique colour makes these attributes forgivable.

The blooms vary in colour depending on the temperature, ranging from orange-red through dusky coffee colours often with undershadings of purple. To see more about The Cutflower Garden click here

Seasonal Vegetable Planting in the Espaliery

2011-11-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

Peter Marshall planted this year's tomato crop, replacing the broad beans. This is an ideal crop rotation as the beans are legumes and have added nitrogen to the soil over the winter. The tomatoes went into beds 1B, 4D and 4C. Basil will be planted into these beds next week.

Peas were planted into bed 1A last month. Beetroot was planted in Bed 3B, alongside the existing asparagus patch, several weeks ago, along with radish seed, French sorrel and land cress. Basil, coriander and chili were planted in Bed 1C along with existing silver beet. Zuchini and mizuna planted in bed 2C alongside existing horseradish. Radish seeds planted into Bed 3A with cucumber to be added asap. Asian vegetables are planned for bed 2B. Salad greens, snow peas and climbing beans are to be planted in Bed 2D. Additional climbing beans can be planted into beds 3C and 4A alongside existing rhubard clumps.

Bed 2A is fallow this season, with all weeds and finished crops being composted in that beds.

Pollarded Plane Bursts Back into Life

2011-11-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

Around Mid-Winters Day we pollarded the plane tree that lives in The Main Courtyard. Since then we have been waiting to see how it will come back after such a vigorous pruning.

Over the intervening four months, the trunks and branches continued to thivcken and the bark began decortication. In the last two weeks, the pollarded tree has produced masses of new shoots. Success.

The tree will now be pruned each winter to maintained this structure. Over time the pollard will develop into a magnificent sculptural feature as well as providing much needed mid-summer shade just where and when it needed. Pollarding is a technique we will explore further in these gardens along with our increasing emphasis on espaliers, topiary and niwaki.

What's Blooming This Week

2011-10-31T21:26:00.000-07:00

"Souvenir de la Malmaison", with its sumptuous shell-pink blooms and intensely spicy fragrance, is without doubt one of the great roses of all time. It is a Bourbon rose bred in 1843 and was named to commemorate the superlative rose garden developed by Napoleon's lover , Josephine de Beauharnais at Malmaison, the country estate snear Paris which she bought in 1799.

Josephine was a woman of extraordinary character, unique in her era, undertaking detailed and credible scientific analysis regarding the manner in which characteristics of plants were passed on from one generation to the next. She pioneered selective breeding with her rose collection and her work in this area influenced Lamarck. Josephine may be justifiably seen as taking one of the first tentative steps leading to the science of genetics, now transforming our world and our understanding of life itself.

Our plant, a climbing version, has been given a pergola all to itself. Surrounding "Josephine's Arbour" is a collection of dahlias, another plant whose potential was recognized and explored by Josephine.

Old Roses and Strawberries

2011-10-28T23:36:00.001-07:00

This corner of The Old Cottage Garden has been a focus of activity lately, with a collection of strawberry plants in terracotta pots being added to the existing planting of ancient varieties of Rose. The rose in flower on the left of the photo is The White Rose of York, Rosa gallica alba, and is still one of the great garden roses of all time.

Our aim here is to create an area that ultimately will be very low maintenance. Thickly applied gravel will control weeds and a timed irrigation system to the strawberry pots and to the nearby table grapes will avoid the need for twice daily watering during the heat of summer.

However, until the gravel is put in place the area will need very consistent attention to weed control as a huge number of seeds remain in the soil in this area and these particular weeds can grow from germination to seed-set in less than a fortnight!

Late Season Irises

2011-10-28T01:59:00.000-07:00

Iris #9 Orange

Peter Marshall took these photographs this week as we continue the process or dividing and cataloging the clumps of Iris growing in The Parterre Garden.

These are the late blooming members of our collection.

With careful planning we can create an awesome colour display that spans all of October

Iris #14 pink

Iris #10 Black-red

Online Garden Visitors

2011-10-26T15:16:00.000-07:00

We bought this Maoilica tile, by the ceramist Laureanti, in the Sicilian town of Caltagirone in 1995. The tile is now installed in The Rose Tunnel in The Parterre Garden and I wrote about it some time ago here on the blog. Today Laureanti's daughter, Marta, contacted us via the website. Here is what she said. "Hello!! Compliments for your garden!!I'd like just to say that it was so strange discover your post for a coincidence!! I am the daughter of the ceramist Laureanti! and you have one of his works. in 1995 I was 12 years old. I hope you had happy time in my town. My dad is still a ceramist but now he has a new shop just in the other side of the Piazza Municipio, along Principe Amedeo Street.. . If you have time surely come back to visit it will be a great pleasure for my dad."

Another online visitor made contact earlier this week, "Hi, I'm a landscape designer from Santa Barbara, CA. I accidentally found your blog while looking for photo of fruit tree groves for a client presentation. Forty five minutes later, I'm still loving your site. Please include me as a member of your web site and blog. I lived in Australia for a couple of months while traveling after graduating from college. I look forward to disappearing into your magic gardens, when time allows. Thank you . Downing Denison"

It is such a delight sharing our gardens with people from all over the world in this way. What a difference the internet makes to things, bringing us into contact with garden lovers from everywhere. Gardens have historically often been a place for civilized social interaction. And in the 21st century it seems they perform this role in new and unexpected ways.

Wombat Damage

2011-10-25T23:55:00.000-07:00

The Common Australian Wombat is a muscular marsupial up to a metre in length. They look cute. But they destroy stuff

A few months ago we decided to dig up some of the Crinum lilies that thrive along wall of the Old Cottage Garden . But we forgot to fill the hole back in and this week one of of our local wombats decided this was an invitation too good to refuse.

The result was a massive excavation achieved in one night! This shovel has a six foot handle, showing how fast a wombat digs. Fortunately David Hardy, who took these photos, found the diggings before the invader came back the next night. We would have had a huge problem on our hands, as these creatures wreak havoc around the house and the gardens if they breach the security, undermining footings and causing serious and expensive damage. Houses have been destroyed by them. So Dave got a trailer load of concrete rubble and repaired the damage

There's no point just filling in the hole with dirt. Wombats leave a scent trail and will be back to the same spot time and again. They are remarkably determined creatures. So first of all fill the hole with rubble, then dirt and finally a strong wire mesh weighted down over the area until the grass grows again. The wire will stop the wombat digging .

All our perimeters have had to be protected in this way. It has been a long and expensive battle and its not over yet so it seems .

What's Blooming this Week?

2011-10-24T03:26:00.001-07:00

A stroll though The Western Acre at this time of year reveals a very different world from the enclosed areas of The House Gardens. This Leucadendronn is one of a number of South African members of the Proteaceae family are currently in flower in this wilder section of the property..

The Western Acre is divided into a number of areas. In effect it a small Botanical Gardens, focusing on flowering shrubs and trees of the Southern Hemisphere. One area has designated for a collection of Proteaceae not only from South Africa but including Australian species such as this charming Grevillea from Queensland also flowering now.

We have only planted a small number of introduced shrubs into this area which is predominantly degraded bushland damaged by a century of over-grazing by cattle. The limiting factor in developing these new gardens has been the ability to provide regular watering during the establishment phase. We hope to resolve that this season with a new spur of irrigation leading through th this entire area

For more on The Western Acre click here

Stone Mulches

2011-10-21T16:24:00.000-07:00

We don't use only organic mulches at The Drip.

Mudgee is a rich souce of locally mined stone mulches, and matereials such as this crushed limestone from Mt. Buckaroo suit these gardens perfectly

We have made extensive use of this in The Main Courtyard and find it the perfect mulch for the many herbs that now grow there as well as providing a crisp backgound to our growing collection of cacti and succulents

Mulching the Iris Beds in The Parterre

2011-10-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

The newly laid out beds which will become The Parterre Garden were also mulched with rice husk protecting the newly planted Buxus sempiverens suffriticosa from water and heat stress in the months ahead.

Over the next couple of weeks the Irises will be divided and sorted into the beds according to a scheme of Clives devising.

In order to the complete the hedging in The Parterre we still need approximately 600 moper Buxus plants. W will propagate these ourselves in The Shadehouse. To see more on The Shadehouse click here

More about Mulch

2011-10-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

With the temperatures still rising mulching is now crucial. We have been spreading heaps of this rice hull mulch.

This is inexpensive, easy to spread around delicate plants and very effective as water retainer and weed suppressor. It also lasts a very long time and though it has little nutritional value it does add excellent organic fibre to our sandy soils.

There are a couple of downsides to be wary of though. It can be very dusty when you spread it, so a mask is a good idea. And rain tends to run off it so unless it is arranged in such a way that water penetrates some areas it can actually prevent water access to the soil.

It's Time to Mulch

2011-10-18T02:36:00.000-07:00

Last week we did a huge amount of hand weeding, adding to our stocks of compostable materials which later in the season will return to these same beds as mulch.

This week however we are using mulches introduced from outside the garden. These, like this lucerne mulch used in Cut Flower Garden, will add additional nutrients to gross feeders such as these Herbaceous Peonies, and assist in keeping keep the weeds from returning.

With the temperatures rising rapidly now, mulching becomes a priority in preparation for the season ahead. To see more on The Cut Flower Garden Click here

What's Blooming This Week?

2011-10-17T15:23:00.000-07:00

Iris #5 Pale yellow

The Mid-season Iris are continuing to delight

As each clump blooms it is being divided and sorted into the newly laid out beds of The Parterre Garden

Iris #6 Two tone mi/light blue


Iris # 7 Deep Purple

Iris #8 Dark Blue

Iris #9 Beige to mauve

Iris # 9 will be moved onto The Western Terrace to form an edging along one side where its more subtle tones will be better appreciated backlit by late afternoon sun

Our Memorial to Paul Poolman

2011-10-14T16:07:00.000-07:00

Clive's father, Paul Poolman, passed away on October 14, 2000. Before his death Paul requested that we dedicate this Wisteria Walk to his memory. The view from this elevated terrace was one that he loved to paint.

In 2000 the Walk was just a plan. But now eleven years later it is very much a reality, becoming more beautiful with every passing year.

And the Wisteria above Paul's memorial stone blooms without fail on the anniversary of his death each year.

Elaine in The Garden Room

2011-10-13T01:38:00.000-07:00

Elaine Paton held a small fashion parade in The Garden Room today.

The aim of this exercise was to choose suitable garments for a wedding in Leura.

This huge, unroofed space seems to bring out the theatricality in people. That's a good thing.

Netting the Cherry Trees

2011-10-12T04:21:00.000-07:00

The cherry trees are bearing good crops this year. But we will lose the lot to birds unless they are netted from now on. The Espaliery was designed to make this relativly simple and quick. Each fruit tree in The Espaliery sits between a pair of timber poles and below a timber rail. This to enable nets to be placed for the protection of each tree individually


Step 1; Hang net from top rail

Step 2; Attach net to the hooks on the pole


In this case the adjacent tree was also ready to be netted

Step 4 Dowels are attached to the nets to hold them down. These will remain for rolling up and storage.

Step 5 Check for holes in the net and repair if necessay

These individual nets will be moved around the Espaliery throughout the coming months as the harvest of early and late cherries give way to the plums and then figs, quinces and apples. The system provides the flexibility needed to protect each tree just at the time it needs protection and allows us to remove nets before the tree grows through it.

The Old Door Step becomes a TableTop

2011-10-11T04:10:00.000-07:00

David Hardy, Bruno Egger and Clive moved this large and very heavy slab of sandstone into position to form a table in The Old Cottage Garden.

The slab was originally the front doorstep of the house that was built on this site by the Blackman family in the 1880's.

Now, one hundred and thirty years later, this piece of local history has found a new role, providing an "eyecatcher" at the end of the old garden path.

What's Blooming this Week?

2011-10-10T01:36:00.000-07:00

Just when we thought the daffodils were all finished for the year, one more appears.

This Poets Daffodil, Narcicissus poeticus, is a late flowering variety sometimes known as Pheasants Eye, with an exquisite small bloom,

Clive divided the clump today and we hope to see many of these appearing next year

Spring Weeding

2011-10-07T21:18:00.000-07:00

Warm weather and lots of spring rain inevitably means that weeding is high on the list of priorities right now. Elaine Paton has been here and is doing an unbelievable job going through the Old Cottage Garden with a fine tooth-comb and removing unwanted upstarts before the big growth flush begins in earnest.

At this time of year we have a number of desirable self seeded plants - poppies, parsley, nigella and cosmos - coming up amongst unwanted weed seedlings in this garden, so Elaine's painstaking approach is the only way to preserve the desirable plants whilst banishing the undesirables

The Old Cottage Garden requires an intimate familiarity with the seasonal cycle and with the inhabitants of this specific garden. Careful observation allows the gardener to gently tweak the whole ecosystem of this complex little area, nudging it all along in the right direction season after season. For more in The Old Cottage Garden including complete plant lists click here

Be Careful with Paper Mulch

2011-10-06T05:11:00.000-07:00

Newspaper can be a very useful mulch when used correctly . But unless carefully laid out it can have unintended consequences.

These enormous lilies in The Parterre Garden had been heavily mulched last summer. In autumn the plants of course died down and over the last six months the parent bulbs produced "pups" underground. The heavy mulch however stopped the new plants from emerging this spring and would have killed them if we hadn't thought to check.

Fortunately the pups where discovered in time and were safely potted up to grow on in our propagating area in The Shadehouse. For more on The Shadehouse click here

Standard Wisteria is Beautiful, but ...

2011-10-05T00:29:00.000-07:00

This pink wisteria was planted with the intention of it one day covering a gazebo that we thought would be built here to take advantage of the view. Clive's father Paul Poolman loved this view and painted several watercolours from this position.

But plans change and we no longer intend building a gazebo here. The Wisteria Walk, above The Eastern Terace, was another favourite spot for Paul, the views are more spectacular and we have recently dedicated The Walk to Paul's memory.

Without a gazebo to clim over, this lone wisteria is marooned. Over the years it has grown into a rather beautiful standard specimen, but this is not the position for a standard plant. So next winter we will move it to a more appropriate spot. The question is "Where?"

Notes from The Library # 24

2011-10-04T03:53:00.000-07:00

Rain is predicted this week so it is looking like a few days spent in our Library will be on the agenda.

"Niwaki. Pruning, Training and Shaping Trees the Japanese Way" by Jake Hobson provides not only visual inspiration and an insight into the subtle aestheticss of historical Japan but also provides a wealth of practical information, including advice on when to prune, how to prune, why to prune and what tools to use. This is an indispensable reference for those who strive to achieve more than the ordinary.

European topiary, pollarding, Japanese niwaki and the crisp contemporary formality of landscape designers such as Jacques Wurtz and Andrea Cochrane are increasingly informing our approach to these gardens here in Mudgee. Time in The Library researching these approaches to garden design is always time well spent. For more on The Library at The Drip click here.

What's Blooming This Week?

2011-10-03T05:33:00.000-07:00

Drip Mudgee Iris #1 pale-mid blue

The daffodil display is done. And now the tall Bearded Irises take over.

The classic blue variety above is the first to bloom, with another twenty varieties still to come. We will blog the varieties as they come into flower over the next month or so.


Drip Mudgee Iris #2 Cobalt Blue

Drip Mudgee Iris #3 White with pink flush

Drip Mudgee Iris #4 Pale blue

This year we will divide the clumps, which have multiplied enormously over the last few years. This will be done as each clump blooms so we know what is what. The divisions will be planted out in The Parterre Garden . For more on The Parterre Garden, including a list of the Irises and a plan showing where each variety is planted click here

The Cumquats are Ready for Picking.

2011-09-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

We are nearing the end of the citrus season here at The Drip and the cumquats are now ready for picking.

We use part of the crop ourselves, producing an exceptionally intense cumquat marmalade plus a cumquat chutney and pickled cumquats.

But with sixteen trees in The Espaliery we produce way more fruit than we need for our own use. The remainder of the crop goes to award-winning Mudgee food producer Angela's Edibles. For more on the Espaliery click here

Thinning the Blood Plums

2011-09-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

The espaliered Blood Plums have set a huge crop of fruit this year.

This crop will require thinning which is best done when the fruit reach the size of a pea, probably about a fortnight from now. Ideally a fruiting spur such as this should carry only half a dozen fruit maximum.

By keeping crops smaller, aiming for quality over quantity, it becomes easier to manage diseases and pests including by avoiding fruit-fly problems arising from massive amounts of fallen fruit. Rigorous pruning and espaliering the trees allows this "micro-management" of fruit crops. For more on The Espaliery click here

Pretecting Trees from Possum Damage

2011-09-28T18:54:00.001-07:00

I posted a cropped version of this photo a couple of weeks ago showing the reflections in the ponds down in the Water Garden. What I did not show was the ugly tree guards on the trees next to the ponds. They are hideous but necessary because of the bloody possums which strip every leaf off many trees in spring. They have killed a number of trees on the property and seem to be in ever-increasing plague proportions. Until someone figures out a humane way of keeping their numbers under control and developing a possum fur industry or gourmet possum meat products or something we have no choice but to try keeping them out of vulnerable and valuable trees.

These tree guards, which were quickly and cheaply made from old sheets of corrugated iron, seem to be effective. But it is not a good look, so we are working on better solutions. The important factors seem to be

a guard must be made of something that possums can't climb.
a guard must reach high enough so that possums cant jump up from the ground.
a guard must be long enough so that possums cant reach from the bottom to the top
vulnerable trees must be isolated so that possums can't clamber through the canopy .

We are now making less obtrusive possum guards, which are only 30 cms tall, positioned approximately one metre above ground level. We are are also exploring other materials such as clear acrylic to further reduce the visual impact. To see more on The Water Gardens click here

Fig Tree Beetle Damage

2011-09-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

At this time of year we always have problems with these Fig Tree Beetles, Poneridia semipullata. which completely denude the trees in just a few days. The larvae and the adult beetles both cause damage and the groweth cycle of the trees is severely set back

One solution is to use a spray designed to destro lawn beetles. We prefer not to go down this road, but our tests with organic sprays such as detergent or garlic sprays are proving these to be very hit and miss, certainly not doing much to the adult beetle. This approach might prove effective on larvae, however this year we didn't spot the larvae early enough.

The fig trees are espaliered so at this this stage it seems that the best way is to brush the beetles off into a bag and squash them. Simple and very effective. Being espaliered trees we should also be able to spot emerging problems and take action before these issues become a problem. Regular attentiveness and an intimate familiarity with the seasonal cycle is essential.

What's Blooming This Week?

2011-09-26T01:20:00.000-07:00

We tend to assume that wattle is always golden. But there is one very significant exception and it is flowering at The Drip right now.

A blood-red variety of the deliciously aromatic Cinnamon Wattle (Acacia leprosa) was found growing in a Victorian forest in 1995 by two bush walkers. They took cuttings to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, which manages a specialised plant conservation program, thereby saving many plants from probable extinction. The plant was subsequently released commercially as "Scarlet Blaze" with profits going to the conservation program.

The discovery is regarded as one of the twentieth century's most surprising and significant horticultural discoveries and the plant was declared Victoria's Centenary of Federation floral emblem. We have one plant growing here in The Western Acre. For more on The Western Acre click here

A Warm Spring Salad

2011-09-23T05:09:00.000-07:00

Our broad beans and asparagus are at their best right now.

So we decided to design a spring salad using these two classic ingredients fresh from the The Espaliery

Steam the asparagus. There's no need to cook the broad beans if picked young and fresh, simply shell them and combine with warm diced potatoes, caramelized onion and a good quality (Mudgee) fetta cheese. Before the potatoes cool down, dress the salad with olive oil, salt and ground white pepper. For more on The Espaliery click here

After Budburst

2011-09-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

Less than a fortnight ago I commented on the beauty of the delicate tracery of bare branches and "budburst" on the Scottish Wych Elm.

Now these buds have now matured into seeds, contained within these winged capsules.

The Spring display rolls on, each day bringing new delights. What a season this is.

Compost.

2011-09-21T04:41:00.000-07:00

Making compost is one of those immensely important and satisfying garden activities that continues throughout the entire year here at The Drip.

This morning Peter Marshall was at it again, proudly sporting his new "Peter Marshall Garden Services" uniform.

Here he is adding local Mudgee limestone to the compost pile in The Old Cottage Garden Garden. For more on The Old Cottage Garden click here

"I Could Taste the History!"

2011-09-20T03:32:00.000-07:00

Last week we took a few of our "heirloom oranges" into Mudgee township for Aaron Cole of The Market Street Cafe to test. Aaron gave them a definite thumbs up, loving the sour tanginess of these oranges that have grown here since the 1880's. As Aaron said "I could taste the history"

They are quite unlike modern oranges, being small, tart and highly aromatic. Aaron picked the remaining fruit from the trees and will be using it for marmalade at the Cafe. We all plan on this becoming an annual routine from now on. Aaron is also interested in having lamb from our flock of Wilsthire Horn sheep appear on his menu.

Given the uniqueness, age and value of our oranges, we aim to propagate the original trees in The Citrus Grove and keep this little piece of local food history alive into the twenty-first century. For more on The Citrus Grove click here

What's Blooming This Week

2011-09-19T05:42:00.000-07:00

This week is the week when the cherry blossom peaked.

The blossom lasts such a brief time, only a matter of days, making this a most special time of the garden year. The Japanese festival of Hanami celebrates these brief days as a metaphor for life itself, luminous and beautiful yet fleeting and ephemeral.

Each year we add more cherries to The Hill Garden and each year the display becomes more remarkable. For more on The Hill Garden click here

Garden Cloches Protect Sensitive Plants

2011-09-16T02:15:00.000-07:00

The temperature is rising. Today in some areas of the gardens here in Mudgee it reached 27 degrees Celsius. That is enough to cause young or newly transplanted plants to wilt and even die. So we need now to focus on survival strategies for hot weather, not forgetting that at this time of year we will still experience frosts.

A traditional solution to heat and cold is a garden cloche, a small "bell" designed to provide protection from the elements Cloches may be made from various materials. Modern versions use shadecloth or plastic. A traditional cloche is more likely to be woven from bamboo or cane.

A garden cloche can be an expensive purchase. In some organic gardening magazines we have seen bamboo cloches retailing at over forty dollars. At this price a cloche would be more a fashion statement than a practical item of garden equipment. So we went hunting and found doormats with a good open weave in the local Mudgee hardware store. And they cost two dollars each. For the same cost as one organic fashion statement we now have twenty functional cloches at work in the vegetable beds of The Espaliery, protecting this week's plantings of beetroot, French sorrel, land cress and African marigolds. For more on The Espaliery click here.

Spring Rains

2011-09-14T02:50:00.000-07:00

After record rainfall late last year, leading to catastrophic floods, then an extended dry period with lower than average rainfall this year, it seems that anything could happen.

It does seem now that the climate swings from one extreme to the other.

Last week we got over 40 mm of slow soaking rainfall which topped up these ponds in The Water Garden, keeping everything very, very moist in this low-lying area of the property. The Aspens growing around the edges of the ponds are loving it. For more on The Water Garden click here

What's Blooming This Week?

2011-09-12T01:23:00.000-07:00

In the Northern Hemisphere the Helleborus is known as the Lenten Rose, as it blooms in the period leading up to Easter. The timing of the Christian Easter is based upon the old pagan Festival of the Spring Dionysia, which was held on the full moon nearest the Spring Equinox. March 20.

This wonderful plant follows exactly the same rhythm in the Southern Hemisphere, starting to flower in late winter and continuing through to around the time of the Spring equinox, September 20. Sadly we in the south have never developed a festival to mark this "Southern Dionysia". Perhaps we should?

We have collected many varieties of Helleborus and right now they are at their absolute best, with the Equinox only ten days away and a full moon this week.

Taste Testing the Orange Trees

2011-09-09T00:54:00.000-07:00

The old orange trees that form the basis of The Citrus Grove here at The Drip are unique. Planted in the 1880s and still fruiting they are sour oranges, ideal for marmalade and of unknown provenance. But they are showing signs of age and we worry that soon they may be no more.

We decided to get organized and invited one of our local food people, Aaron Cole, of the Market Street Cafe in Mudgee town, to do a taste test and see if he feels they are worth preserving into the 21st century. If so, we will graft new trees onto appropriate rootstock. In order to figure which varieties are best we have individually identified samples of fruit from the five surviving trees as shown in the photo below.

The positions of these trees in the grove will now be mapped and placed on the relevant page of our website which is rapidly becoming a very useful database listing everything of significance in our gardens here. To see more on The Citrus Grove click here

Bud Burst

2011-09-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

Whilst blossom trees are the blowsy Prima Donnas of the spring garden, there are others whose charms are more discrete.

The tracery of the bare branches against a clear spring sky, with just the first hint of new growth bursting from full buds is in some ways more beautiful. It speaks of the promise of the season that is to come.

This Scottish Wych Elm in The Forecourt displays these tiny bursting buds for just one day before the new leaves form.

What's Blooming This Week?

2011-09-05T23:20:00.000-07:00

Spring is definitely in the air this week and the gardens are filling with blossom.

This crab-apple tree, Malus floribunda, is one of the star performers right now, with cherry blossom to follow soon.

2011 is shaping up to be one of the best spring displays we have ever seen, with many of our original plantings now achieving maturity after twenty years.

In Memoriam

2011-09-04T01:20:00.000-07:00

Jen Creighton was born one hundred years ago today on September 4, 1911 in Alligator Creek near Townsville

To commemorate the Centennial anniversary a large ceramic tub has been placed in The Camellia Grove which is dedicated to Jen's memory. The tub is ideal as float bowl for camellias.

Jen's birthday falls in the middle of camellia season so she is assured of an increasingly splendid display each year on her birthday as the grove matures. For more on The Camellia Grove click here

King Parrot in the Old Orchard

2011-09-02T03:34:00.000-07:00

A family of King Parrots are frequent visitors here.

The Old Orchard is a favourite hangout.

At this time of year it is the bloosom on the fruit trees that interests them. Later it will be the fruit. Nets are needed if we want our share

Spring is Here.

2011-09-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

It is officially the first day of spring.

That means the daffodils are now at their peak. With thousands of individual bulbs and over forty varieties in The Old Orchard it looks pretty damn amazing right now.

This gallery of images by Clive shows some of the varieties that we have selected for division this year. By doing this each year we are gradually achieving a quite spectacular display which is becoming one of the seasonal highlights of these gardens at The Drip.

Paths through the Daffodils.

2011-09-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

The paths between the daffodils and jonquils in The Old Orchard are becoming more clearly defined each year as the bulbs multiply.

These paths, important structural components of the design of the orchard, are a seasonal feature, changing in Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.

The paths will be kept mown through to December by which time the foliage of the bulbs has died down and the entire orchard can be slashed and kept short for the summer fruit picking season. In late autumn, the fruit trees become dormant, the bulbs re-emerge and we return to mowing only the paths. For more on The Old Orchard click here

Making Marmalade from Heirloom Oranges

2011-08-31T16:57:00.000-07:00

An orange grove was planted here at The Drip in 1880. Extraordinarily these trees still bear fruit one hundred and thirty years later.

We are not sure what variety these trees are but they are much more sour than modern oranges, with a taste akin to Seville Oranges.

They therefore make the best marmalade. This is one of our regular end of winter projects, stocking up with a year's supply of our own unique orange marmalade. For more on The Citrus Grove click here

Wildlife from the Munghorn Gap

2011-08-30T09:18:00.000-07:00

The Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve adjoining The Drip is home to a great diversity of wildlife. Famed for the bird-life which attracts birdwatchers from all over the world, The Munghorn Gap is also home to significant populations of marsupials, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

This Red Necked Wallaby is one of many who moves between "The Drip" and the adjoining bushland, frequently grazing with a mixed mob including a few Eastern Grey Kangaroos and some Swamp Wallabies.

The best time to view the Wallabies and Kangaroos here is late afternoon. For more about The Munghorn Gap Bush Walk click here

What's Blooming This Week?

2011-08-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

In The Espaliery the Japanese plum trees are now laden with blossom and filled with bees.

This is all very pretty but the reality is that there is too much blossom. We will need to do massive thinning as the fruit develops to avoid problems. Small, poor tasting fruit would result if the tree attempted to mature this large a crop. In addition, excess fruit falling on the ground will become a source of fruit fly infestation.

A longer term solution would be changing our pruning protocols to leave fewer fruiting spurs.

The Future of The Garden Room.

2011-08-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

We used a photograph of last night's bonfire to create a Photoshop mockup of the design for the wall of "The Garden Room". Although we are loving this unroofed space in its current form the idea of one day creating a huge kitchen and living room is also attractive. And anyway it is fun playing around with design ideas.

This wall faces north-west so the single most important factor affecting the design is the need to screen the hot afternoon sun in summer whilst allowing it to penetrate in winter. Our current thinking is that the small square windows high in the wall allow easy shuttering when needed, while the three narrow slots only allow sun to penetrate in winter and the large door opening out to the pond and fountain in The Octagon will be shielded with a brise soleil.

A totally different, hi-tech solution could involve the use of double-glazed smart glass in the construction of this wall. Innovative suggestions would be very useful at this stage as we are in no rush and time spent on developing the final design could lead to an awesome outcome.

The End of Winter.

2011-08-25T04:32:00.000-07:00

A big "Thank You" goes to Peter Marshall, Jay Fraser, Helena Stein, Martin Rule, Nicholas Vale and Garry Jarrett for helping collect lots of scrap timber to build a bonfire and then joining us for a meal. The warmth from fire was amazing and the house looked quite spectacular in the firelight.

Each year for the past few years we have had a huge bonfire in the large pit in the centre of The Main Courtyard. It was a delightful way to mark the end of winter.

This could be the last of these bonfire nights as we are thinking of starting work on the transformation of the pit into a circular pond, surrounded by a raised Octagon, which will become the central feature of the The Main Courtyard. For more on The Octagon click here.

Self Seeding Poppies

2011-08-24T00:58:00.000-07:00

One of the features of The Old Cottage Garden in Spring is the spectacular display of poppies.

These self seeded annuals reappear year after year and as time goes by we are developing our own unique colour strains. The original red "Gallipoli" poppies and a number of heirloom varieties, in tones orange, white and purple, purchased years ago from from The Diggers Club are now cross-pollinating and each season brings new delights and surprises.

At this time of year weeding becomes a bit tricky as we carefully pick out the poppies from other self seeded "weeds". Hopefully as time goes by we will have fewer undesirables in this garden. For more on The Old Cottage Garden click here

The First Asparagus of the Season

2011-08-23T23:25:00.000-07:00

The first asparagus shoots are emerging in The Espaliery telling us that Spring is definitely on the way.

The asparagus bed is now four years old and we expect to be harvesting huge amounts from now on even though it is still crucial that we leave one third of the crop from each crown unharvested to rebuild vigour for next year. During this growing period the plants need generous watering so we will be re-setting the irrigation timers to achieve the moisture levels necessary to ensure fast growth and tender shoots. We never bother buying the rather sad looking bunches that are available year round from the big supermarkets, much preferring to eat asparagus only during its season of growth here in our own garden.

A generous feed with fresh compost at this time and at the end of the picking season will keep things moving along. For more on The Espaliery click here

Red Swamp Banksia

2011-08-22T02:33:00.000-07:00

The Red Swamp Banksia (Banksia occidentalis) or Waterbush is from a small area on the south coast of Western Australia. We planted one in The Water Garden eighteen months ago, where we have planted dozens of east coast banksias, unsure if it would survive here.

The Water Garden had been been inaccessible since the great floods of last year so this week it was a nice surprise to discover the Western Australian banksia had grown rapidly, surviving dought, wind, frost and flood, was in full flower and already attracting the attention of honeyeaters.This is a tough little beauty, which is what we need in the difficult location where we are developing the Water Garden.

A field study in its native habitat showed that the Red Swamp Banksia is pollinated by the New Holland Honeyeater and the White Cheeked Honeyeater. Both these species occur here and are increasingly frequent visitors to The Water Garden. For more on The Water Garden click here

Notes from the Library #23

2011-08-20T05:40:00.000-07:00

It takes a lot to lure me out of here these days. More and more I agree with Cicero's dictum "If you have a garden and library you have everything you need". And, increasingly now, the garden and the library at The Drip are sources of complete and utter satisfaction. But the Mudgee Reader's Festival sounded like something I shouldn't miss, particularly as one of the speakers was the author of a book that clearly should be in our library. So it was off to town for a very civilized day of socializing with people who read and people who write.

Derelie Cherry's "Two Dogs and A Garden" is a charming, lush and very personal account of her life in Paradise. "Paradise" for Derelie is the garden her husband Bob has created 100 kms north of Sydney, a garden that Leo Schofield described as a "horticultural Valhalla." Over a period of forty years Bob Cherry has built this remarkable garden, bred plants and developed one of Australia's most successful wholesale nurseries.

Bob's passion for flowers has lead him to create an amazing array of new garden varieties, most notably the well-known and very widely distributed "Paradise" range of Sasanqua camellias. We have never planted these here, but I suspect that after reading Derelie's book, and gaining an insight into the person behind the plants, there might soon be some new additions to our camellia collection. For more on The Camellia Grove click here

Digital Re-Design for a Heritage Garden

2011-08-18T00:45:00.000-07:00

This photograph from yesterday's posting has attracted quite a lot of interest and generated discussion on a number of issues so here it is again.

The first thing to point out is that this photo of The Old Cottage Garden at "The Drip" has been tinkered with. The gate that appears in the original version of the photo has been digitally airbrushed out. Similarly the gravel on the realigned path is "digital gravel". And the white seat at the end of the path is of course just a quick computer-generated sketch designed to establish a scale for the real thing. Ditto the two circles representing balls of clipped Teucrium fruticans. This technique is something we are using more and more. Taking a photo from the most significant viewing position, in this case from the doors to the library, then tinkering around with a few quick ideas sketched in digitally is helping us save a lot of time and money by getting a clear idea of what things will look like before we commit real resources to achieving it.

To achieve these modifications took less than five minutes and these days it really requires no great skill in graphics technology to do simple operations such as this. Software such as Photoshop or Paint has made what was once the preserve of highly trained graphics professionals accessible to all and the software is rapidly becoming even more powerful and more user friendly. Who would have ever thought that an old time Australian cottage garden would be re-designed with high technology one hundred and fifty years after the first settlers here battled to establish a foothold in this harsh environment? How times change.

Redesigning the Old Cottage Garden

2011-08-17T02:06:00.000-07:00

The Old Cottage Garden was first laid out in the late nineteenth century. It followed the fashion of the day with a straight, narrow path leading from the little front door to the narrow front gate, all edged with quartz from the goldfields. Not any more.

We decided to realign the path. It had never run at a right angle to the house and it looked, well, it just looked really silly. And annoying. And anyway this is now the back of the new house. So we shifted the path to this new position, orthogonal to the house. In the photograph above you can still see the line of the old path leading to the old front gate. No-one has ever used the 'front gate' anyway, so next week we will block it in and place a seat at the end of the new path to give a satisfying focal point. New gravel on the path and a pair of clipped silvery Teucrium fruticans will complete the reworking as shown in the image below.

An added advantage with the new design, so we have been told, is that the feng shui of the house is now much more propitious; health and prosperity will no longer be able to flow from the house but will be contained within. Sounds good to us. To see Rick Martin's panoramic photograph of The Old Cottage Garden in the Autumn of 2010 click here

A Walk into "The Drip"

2011-08-16T02:00:00.000-07:00

A visit from Matt and Shannida Herbert was the perfect excuse to take a break from pruning, weeding, planting and all those winter jobs that fill the days at this time of year.

Matt and Shannida are the directors of locally based company Aquaponics Pty. Ltd and have a wealth of knowledge not only about aquaponics but also solar power systems, natural sequencing, water management and many, many other things ecological, environmental, sustainable and generally sensible.

It is always great to connect with like-minded people and explore ideas on how best to manage the land into the twenty-first century. This was their first time here, so a walk up into The Drip was essential. For more on "The Walk to The Drip" click here

What's Blooming this Week?

2011-08-15T00:35:00.000-07:00

The Gungurru, Eucalyptus caesia "Silver Princess", is a Western Australian mallee that thrives in the Mudgee climate.

Our grove of these has been in flower right through winter, much to the delight of the honeyeaters.

The mallees, small multi-trunked trees, are some of the most spectacular of the flowering "gumtrees". Given the success of this species we are now planning to expand and diversify our collection. A new page on our website will list species that we believe worth trying. To see The Mallee Grove page click here

Winter Pruning for Structure

2011-08-12T18:10:00.000-07:00

With the last weeks of winter upon us and spring about to arrive the pressure is now on to finish the pruning of deciduous trees.

These grafted Scottish "Wych" Elms, Ulmus glabra var horizontalis, in The Forecourt, will eventually provide shady "umbrellas" for car parking during the heat of summer. But even with these expensive grafted varieties it is still necessary to prune in order to achieve the desired outcome.

Structural pruning such as this is an ongoing maintainance task which needs annual attention. The careful shaping of trees and shrubs to achieve structure and form is fundamental to our design approach in all the gardens surrounding the house. For more about The House Gardens click here.

Daffodils, Daffodils and more Daffodils.

2011-08-11T01:27:00.000-07:00

The "Ptolemy" daffodil is an old heirloom variety, bred by Barr & Sons prior to 1920.

We don't have a lot of these yet but they are multiplying nicely and will be divided this season.

Each day now another variety of daffodil is coming into bloom in The Old Orchard. We have around forty varieties so there's a lot still to come. To see more about daffodils in The Old Orchard click here

Bush Lemons Ripen in Midwinter

2011-08-10T01:14:00.000-07:00

This ancient "bush lemon" provides a ridiculous amount of fruit each winter.

It was planted here in the late nineteenth century along with many other citrus trees and is still fruiting

The bush lemon, part of The Old Orchard, is not as acidic as other lemons and makes a delicious cordial or fresh vitamin C drink. To see more about citrus varieties planted at The Drip click here.

Wattle? Mimosa? Or Acacia?

2011-08-09T01:03:00.000-07:00

"Wattle?" "Mimosa?" "Acacia?" Call it what you like, it's gold and it's Australia's national floral emblem. In early August the hills surrounding our valley are splashed with gold and with over a dozen local Acacia species growing on the property the spectacle goes on for weeks.

Increasing numbers of wattles have regenerated in the bushland areas of The Drip since we fenced cattle out of these once-degraded areas. The extreme damage of the past is slowly being undone and the land is healing.

The grove of wattle in this photo is on the track that leads to The Cliff Top Walk. For more information on this 3-hour bush-walk click here

What's Blooming This Week?

2011-08-08T00:48:00.000-07:00

Though jonquils of course have blooming for a few weeks already, these daffodils are the first to flower of many varieties that we have planted in The Old Orchard.

They began almost a fortnight ago, way ahead of any other.

We are not sure what variety they but have tagged them for division this season.

Propagating Box for the Parterre Garden

2011-08-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

Our original stock of Dwarf Box, Buxus sempervirens suffricticosa, is being increased by cuttings in The Shadehouse.

In order to complete Clive's design for the new parterre garden we will need 400-500 new plants, so this represents a substantial cost saving for this project. And of course we have many other projects, needing many, many new plants.

Propagation has been made much more reliable by recent improvements Clive undertook in The Shadehouse, particularly the installation of a new watering system with drip trays and timers. Delicate young plants will die in a few hours without water and in the past we have lost many hundreds of plants because of this. The timers should help avoid similar catastrophes in the future. It is important however to check the batteries regularly as these can go flat quite rapidly. To see more on propagating plants in The Shadehouse click here

Axial Design in The House Gardens

2011-08-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

The Long Axis running through The Espaliery, The Cut Flower Garden, The West Wing Garden and The Western Terrace intersects with the Minor Axis that runs though The Main Courtyard, The Water Walk and The West Wing Garden. These two axes underpin the entire design structure of The House Gardens

The Minor Axis terminates with this "eye catcher" in the West Wing Garden which will feature a beautiful old bas-relief plaque and a wall basin with a water spout.

To see more about axial design in the House Gardens click here

Laying out The Parterre Garden

2011-08-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

Clive has been designing a new parterre in the West Wing Garden. A "parterre" is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds edged in tightly clipped hedging. Strictly speaking a parterre will feature gravel paths, but in this garden we might maintain the grass paths.

Marking out the parterre with bricks before planting the dwarf Box, Buxus sempervirens suffriticosa, that will form the final design is enabling this garden to be created with a high degree of geometric precision.

This parterre will be such a strong feature that perhaps we should change the name of this garden to The Parterre Garden? To see more about this garden on our website click here

Is the Pollarded Plane Tree OK?

2011-08-02T00:46:00.000-07:00

The Plane tree in The Main Courtyard that was pollarded in early June is showing no signs of life yet. When will it develop new buds to replace those it lost during pollarding?.

If all goes according to plan we will see up to two metres of growth in the coming season. This will create a dense, shade-giving canopy by mid-summer.

The branches will also begin thickening up and the characteristic knobs of a pollarded tree will beginning forming on the ends of the branches enhancing the dramatic sculptural form of the tree for next winter.

What's Blooming This Week?

2011-08-01T20:38:00.001-07:00

The camellia tree in The Old Cottage Garden has just started to bloom. The huge old tree can be seen on the right of the path in the photo posted in yesterday's blog entry. There are literally thousands of buds this year and soon the entire tree will be covered with blossom. With a few unseasonably warm days, the bees are out and about and loving the blooms.

This tree was planted here in the late nineteenth century and local legend has it that it was a cutting from the first camellia in Australia. This seems unlikely but has inspired us nonetheless to develop an historically themed collection of camellias in The Camellia Grove.

We need someone to identify the original variety in The Old Cottage Garden. Help please. A few bottles of excellent Mudgee red wine will go to whoever can correctly identify it first. For more on The Camellia Grove at The Drip click here

Notes from the Library #22

2011-07-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

This photograph of The Old Cottage Garden was taken by Rick Martin in April 2010. It shows the basic layout of the garden as it has been since around 1880 with a straight path edged by pieces of white quartz gathered from the goldfields and creeks of this area. On the right can be seen the camellia tree planted in this garden in 1880 by descendants of James Blackman, one of the first Europeans to enter the Mudgee valley.

Although the old design is of historical interest, and is an example of a local style of garden developed during the Gulgong gold rush, we have felt for some time that we did not want to be prisoner to the past and that it was time to rethink the garden. While we intend to maintain strong references to the original style, we feel the need to develop a design more in keeping with the contemporary architecture of the new house that we have built here and reflecting a twenty-first century rural lifestyle and outlook.

It is time to move on. This winter we have begun work on redesigning the garden, so this photo will now become a useful and very beautiful archival record of the way things once were. For more on The Old Cottage Garden click here

Pickling our Olives

2011-07-28T03:04:00.000-07:00

This nasty looking mould formed on the surface of the brine in our olive-picklinng vats. It looks horrid but is not a problem.

The pickling of this years olive harvest is coming along nicely. The black olives have been sitting in the vats of brine for the last months doing what they do. We removed the mould and the pickling process continues.

Next week our friends Kath and Ian from Top Shed Olives down the end of The Drip Lane will come and make sure everything is going according to plan.

Pruning the Grape Vines in the Courtyard

2011-07-27T03:43:00.000-07:00

Midwinter is a particularly busy time in these gardens and pruning is one of our highest priority tasks.

Clive has been clambering up on the scaffold to prune the ornamental grape vines on the High Pergola. These two vines, which are now six years old, have finally reached across the entire pergola structure. The vine on the right grows on the steel bars, the vine on the left grows on the intermediate wires. They are pruned back using the same spur-pruning technique as in a fruiting vineyard and by Christmas, when the real summer heat kicks in, will produce a dense canopy.

This pergola is pruned every year and takes around four hours, a small investment of time for months of cooling shade during the heat of summer. For more on the Main Courtyard click here

Recycling Old Wine Barrels

2011-07-26T02:06:00.000-07:00

David Hardy helped us out by dragging two old barrels out of our underground Wine Cellar and cutting them in half.

He had more than adequate supervision from Clive, Charmaine Tuck-Lee and Wendy the Garden Goddess. Wendy and Charmaine were here exploring the gardens and beginning their planning for a proposed garden visit day as a fundraising event for CanAssist.

The half barrels will soon be planted with dwarf fruit trees and herbs in readiness for summer, adding another component into The Main Courtyard. For more on The Main Courtyard click here

What's Blooming This Week

2011-07-25T01:03:00.000-07:00

More daffodils and jonquils emerge each week in The Old Orchard.

These Paper White jonquils commenced blooming last week but this week have reached their peak. Once flowering is over we will divide these clumps and replant them immediately in empty areas of the orchard. While most authorities recommend dividing clumps after the leaves have died down, it is not necessary to wait for this and by replanting during the growing season we know exactly where the blank spaces are.

And what will next week bring in? To see more on The Old Orchard click here.

Notes from the Library #21

2011-07-22T05:53:00.000-07:00

Andy Goldsworthy is regarded as one of the greatest sculptors of his generation and the ever-expanding Goldsworthy section in our library is a never-ending source of delight and inspiration.

In 2003 Goldsworthy installed "Treeline", a row of close planted aspens that will in time form a cage like screen alongside a public road that leads through a private property.

This work has now become the inspiration for our new hazelnut hedge in The Nuttery which will form a screen along The Drip Lane.

An Edible Hedgerow in The Nuttery

2011-07-20T00:48:00.000-07:00

The trenching for the new hedge of hazelnuts was done today. Peter Marshall has also limed the trench and given it a good sprinkle of organic fertilizer.

Next week the seventy five hazelnut trees that are to form this important new feature will arrive from Australian Gourmet Hazelnuts a local Mudgee company. We have already planted elderberries, damsons, medlars and crabapples behind the line of the hazelnuts making this hedgerow a very productive one indeed.

The dense screen of this edible hedgerow will add to the privacy of The Caretaker's Cottage. For more on The Caretakers Garden click here

What's Blooming This Week?

2011-07-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

The first of the many jonquils and daffodils in The Old Orchard are coming into flower.

The yellow and orange Soleil d'Or, creamy Earlicheer and Paper White are always the first to bloom, kicking off a display that will now continue until October as each of the many varieties we have in The Old Orchard reaches its peak.

We divide the clumps annually, thereby rapidly increasing our stock and we estimate there are now well over 5000 bulbs here. Each year the display becomes more spectacular. To see more about The Old Orchard click here.

Notes from the Library # 20

2011-07-15T01:05:00.000-07:00

This photograph from "Palazzo of Tuscany" gives a different view of the pond in Lucca that Richard Tulloch sent us a photo of earlier this week. A decade ago it was this image of the pond at Palazzo Pfanner that planted the seed of the idea that eventually became the design for The Octagon in our courtyard here at "The Drip".

It clearly shows the raised octagonal surround of the pond, though Richard's photo gives a better idea of the all-important axis that runs from the underground cellar through the pool to the house.

The lemon trees in terracotta pots and the crushed white limestone in our courtyard also owe their origin to this well-known garden which was used as the location for the 1996 film "Portrait of a Lady" with Nicole Kidman. We might give the sculptures by Michelangelo a miss though. For more on The Main Courtyard at "The Drip" click here.

Rethinking "The Water Walk"

2011-07-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

It is time to deal with The Water Walk. A while back we realized something had gone horribly wrong here. The Water Walk, linking the Main Courtyard and The West Wing Garden, was intended to be part of a tour de force of classic axial landscape design. Take a look at the photograph below, taken last summer, and you will see the problem.

Check out the position of the four persimmon trees. They are not symmetrically aligned within the design. It all looks unresolved and really, really wrong. We have been talking about digging up the persimmon trees and moving them. Midwinter is the right time to do this but it is a horrid, backbreaking job and would set the trees back years. Fortunately there might be another solution. Our Head Gardener's partner, local chef Jay Fraser, figured out that instead of moving the trees we needed to realign the axis. How? By relocating one of the two urns. These urns now sit symmetrically on each side of a new axial line which runs straight between the persimmon trees. The photo at the top of this page shows this realignment. The urn on the left has been shifted, so the urns are closer than before and the axis has now moved to the right.

The fact that one of the raised troughs which will form The Water Walk will now be wider than the other, as shown by the lines of bricks, doesn't seem to matter one jot. So now it looks like this problem can be solved more easily than we had feared; like they say, "There is more than one way to skin a cat". To see more on The Water Walk click here

Inspiration from the Past.

2011-07-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

About ten years ago, this pond in a large courtyard in Lucca, Tuscany, became the initial inspiration for The Octagon in The Main Courtyard - a circular pond with a fountain at the centre, all set in a raised octagon. Simple, beautiful and attainable.

This photograph, taken last week by our friend, Richard Tulloch, shows how the axis that runs from the centre of the underground cellar on the far side of the courtyard bisects the pond, passing through the fountain. The axis terminates at the house. This is exactly as it is in our design here at The Drip, Mudgee, so the photo gives us a good idea of the future vista from The High Pergola across to our wine cellar.

We still have a way to go before The Octagon at The Drip is quite as charming as this, and the sculptures by Michelangelo are more likely to be something by a local Mudgee artist. But the creation of a worthwhile garden takes time, so please be patient. We will get there eventually. For more on The Octagon in The Main Courtyard click here

Frosty Mornings in The Hill Garden

2011-07-12T17:39:00.000-07:00

Each night the temperature at The Drip is falling well below zero. Minus five is not uncommon. Though the skies are clear and the sun shines, the daytime temperatures rise to something around ten degrees, often less. This is winter in Mudgee, it's damn cold, the air is crisp and clean and we are loving it!

The frost stays in The Hill Garden till late morning at this time of year. The dark line through the frost in this photo shows where our Head Gardener, Peter Marshall, recently planted Miscanthus sinesis. Peter divided three large clumps of this decorative grass and this yielded over a hundred new plants, allowing us to the define the "bones" of The Hill Garden.

The Hill Garden is a transitional zone between the formal gardens close to the house and the natural bushland of The Drip and The Munghorn Gap. For more on the design of The Hill Garden click here

What's Blooming this Week

2011-07-11T00:43:00.000-07:00

The hazelnut trees in The Old Orchard adjacent to the house have produced catkins this week.

These ancient trees, one male and one female, have been growing here since around 1880, and are a relic of the original plantings made here at The Drip by the Blackman family as was the honeysuckle hedge that was mentioned on this blog last week. We have no idea what variety they are, but they bear reasinable crops in most years.

This week we will be planting a whole new hedge of hazelnuts in The Nuttery. These are named varieties supplied by Clem and Vanessa Cox of Mudgee Gourmet. For more on The Nuttery click here

Renovating an Old Hedge

2011-07-08T18:47:00.000-07:00

Today a friend lent a hand and got stuck into a job that we have been meaning to do for ages, cutting an ancient hedge of Winter Honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima, back almost to ground level.

The honeysuckle hedge that divides The Horse Paddock from the native bushland was planted over a hundred years ago by the original European settlers, the Blackman family, and is the last remaining section of what was once an extensive system of boundary hedges at The Drip. In the twentieth century the family's fortunes declined and for many years the hedging had been neglected, eventually becoming an overgrown eyesore. By cutting it back at this time of year we are allowing it to burst into vigorous new life in the Spring and it will soon provide a dense and beautiful boundary as it must have done so many years ago.

Renovating the hedge allows us to open up The Honeysuckle Track which forms part of The Main Garden Walk. To see more about this walk click here.