Sarting over

[Pip]

Well we finally moved house so now I can finally set my mind to designing my next garden. The property  we have bought really does require a huge amount of maintenance it is a little overwhelming. Somehow over time we will transform the property  into something special.

Here is the driveway  

The front paddocks full of weedy desert ash and black berries

The dam is looking very disappointing due to this winter being very dry, fingers crossed for more rain as spring approaches 

The soil here is deep sand the total opposite to the clay based soil of my last garden. This is where the new rainwater tank is going to be intalled.

The property abuts an area of regenerated native vegetation this is were a large mob of Kangaroos come out of scrub every evening.

This hill blocks the view of the ocean.

I'll most likely concentrate my new plam plantings closer to the house

I'm  sure this project will take me the rest of my life.

[Daryl]

Looks like a great place Pip, and I'm sure you will have lots of fun there!

 

[Neil C]

Wow, certainly a lot of land to play with but I can understand being a little overwhelmed. You'll have to make the first planting something pretty special.

Regards Neil

[gyuseppe]

it will be a huge garden  !
out of curiosity how much does it cost?

[PalmatierMeg]

What a spread! I'm overwhelmed just looking at the photos. Can't wait to see photos of results of your labor.

[Tyrone]

What a canvas you've got there Pip. I know exactly how you must be feeling at the moment having done something similar a few years back. You'll have just so many ideas flowing through your head at once. Definitely divide the garden up into sections. Do as much to secure your water source as possible because big gardens need big water. The tank is a start. Starting close to the house is probably good. Get a few thermometers around key areas and watch your temps in winter. Maybe even an electronic weather station. Get some key bits of machinery to make life easier for yourself, such as a ride on lawn mower, and a spray rig to tow from behind to keep the weeds down. Then just go for it. Plant canopy trees, palms, etc etc. You'll have a ball. You'll be exhausted but you'll have a ball. The hardest bit is pulling it all into shape in the beginning. It will feel like you're getting nowhere for maybe months. Take pictures along the way so you can see progress and not give up.

Ive been at my place for over 4 years and feel like Ive barely touched the place. Looking back at old photos has been helpful to see the transformation. I've got a 23000L tank turning up today to pump bore water into and I'm preparing an area for a large tunnel shadehouse. I'm going to put in another shadehouse after the first one in another area then put in a large tunnel house covered in plastic for growing seedlings and summer veggies in winter. I want to get a decent size mulcher to clean up fallen debris and create my own mulch as this place could just swallow up semitrailer loads of the stuff.

Keep us up to date with your progress.

BTW How many acres is it?

[Steve Mac]

I'm lazy and you have enough work to do there already.

I would stick to the easy tough palms for a while,

that will reduce your workload, stress, costs and disappointments.

I love the shots of the typical dry bush in Straya. (Australia)

It even looks like you have a dead wombat in your driveway. :-) 

We are jealous. 

[Josue Diaz]

Wow awesome new place! The native flora and fauna is great too.

[Pip]

15 hours ago, Tyrone said:

What a canvas you've got there Pip. I know exactly how you must be feeling at the moment having done something similar a few years back. You'll have just so many ideas flowing through your head at once. Definitely divide the garden up into sections. Do as much to secure your water source as possible because big gardens need big water. The tank is a start. Starting close to the house is probably good. Get a few thermometers around key areas and watch your temps in winter. Maybe even an electronic weather station. Get some key bits of machinery to make life easier for yourself, such as a ride on lawn mower, and a spray rig to tow from behind to keep the weeds down. Then just go for it. Plant canopy trees, palms, etc etc. You'll have a ball. You'll be exhausted but you'll have a ball. The hardest bit is pulling it all into shape in the beginning. It will feel like you're getting nowhere for maybe months. Take pictures along the way so you can see progress and not give up.

Ive been at my place for over 4 years and feel like Ive barely touched the place. Looking back at old photos has been helpful to see the transformation. I've got a 23000L tank turning up today to pump bore water into and I'm preparing an area for a large tunnel shadehouse. I'm going to put in another shadehouse after the first one in another area then put in a large tunnel house covered in plastic for growing seedlings and summer veggies in winter. I want to get a decent size mulcher to clean up fallen debris and create my own mulch as this place could just swallow up semitrailer loads of the stuff.

Keep us up to date with your progress.

BTW How many acres is it?

This new property is 17 acres. Most of it was used for horses so the pasture is very degraded, we intend on sowing an improved pasture mix closer to spring and let the pasture plants establish for a year or so before getting any grazing animals. That will give us time to fix the fences. The real reason to move to this property is for the dog kennels. The property was run as a boarding kennel since the early 1970s and for a time was the home of some of Australia's best German Shepherds. The property has a working bore which is supplying the house at the moment. Mains supply water is non existent in this area, I'm not sure why since it is very close to the reservoir that supplies 60% of Adelaide. The existing rain watertanks are far too damaged to be useful, those tanks are not large enough anyway. Once the water supply is more secure and the plumbing functional the next job will be getting solar power.

[Tyrone]

That's a big property. What sort of minimums are likely in winter? Solar power is what I want to get done here eventually. Then I am completely off the grid for everything. Plus we get heaps of unexpected blackouts.

Keep us up to date with what you do with the place. Will love to see pics of your garden once you get started.

[Moose]

Hope Skippy won't be a problem for you.

[Pip]

3 hours ago, Moose said:

Hope Skippy won't be a problem for you.

Hahaha. Skippy may be a problem but I think the rabbits would do more damage. We need to remove the black berries from the seasonal creek then the rabbits will have less cover. 

[Moose]

54 minutes ago, Pip said:

Hahaha. Skippy may be a problem but I think the rabbits would do more damage. We need to remove the black berries from the seasonal creek then the rabbits will have less cover. 

Both are candidates for the Barbie if they touch any of the cherished flora and fauna   

I've had rabbit but not any Skippy yet.

[Pip]

This is a little interesting. We found an old photo of the property from over 40 years ago in one of the built in cupboards. The photo looks to have been taken from where the house stands looking towards the paddock closest to the road that is dirt. The road is now sealed and there are many more trees now.

 

[Tyrone]

SA looks so much like southern WA.

Pip you should hopefully be getting some rain to help put some water in that dam of yours. It's absolutely bucketing down here in the west and it should be heading your way and reach you in a couple of days.

[Palms4Steve]

Wow that’s huge. You certainly could turn that into something special. Will look forward to all your updates.

[Tracy]

12 hours ago, Pip said:

We found an old photo of the property from over 40 years ago in one of the built in cupboards. The photo looks to have been taken from where the house stands looking towards the paddock closest to the road that is dirt.

Pip, you need to find a perspective to get a similar shot today, and keep going back to the spot for future perspectives.  That of course assumes that you can get up high enough above today's and your future plantings.  Maybe a drone perspective from the same area.  Bottom line, it will be fun to track your progress!  Congratulations on what looks like a lifelong endeavor!

[Pip]

I've planted my first palm at my little farm. It is the Jubaea that was also very first palm I planted in my old house. After digging it out I'd  left it in a pot at my parent's house until I was ready to plant it out. The site I selected is very sunny location just near where the long driveway bends towards the house. There is a working tap nearby so I should have no trouble keeping the roots moist over summer. 

[PalmatierMeg]

Congratulations on your initial planting. Looks great. What a beautiful property.

[joe_OC]

Wow!  17 acres...  Besides planting out your palm paradise, are you going to be using the land for a business as well?

[Josue Diaz]

Great first palm! 

[Fusca]

Now the fun begins!    Steve has some good advice and it looks like you are starting in that direction.  At least you have something palmy to look at for now until you have more time, although you already have such nice views!  Looks great!

On 7/2/2018, 6:56:41, gtsteve said:

I would stick to the easy tough palms for a while,

 

[Tyrone]

That Jubaea will love that position

[Tyrone]

I've found that my Jubaea which are much smaller than yours and my palms in general love liberal amounts of pelletised chook manure. I use rooster booster, but I'm not sure if you can get that in SA it may be a WA thing. Also green lawn clippings as mulch work a treat. As you have a huge property now, mulching with truckloads of bought stuff is out of the question unless of course you own a series of oil wells. I was piling my lawn clippings up, now they are used straight out the catcher onto the beds. Also all my pulled weeds go straight to the chooks and once the chook pen soil level gets too high I'll shovel it out and put the soil around my palms and garden beds to build the soil level up with rich compost. 

[joe_OC]

17 minutes ago, Tyrone said:

I've found that my Jubaea which are much smaller than yours and my palms in general love liberal amounts of pelletised chook manure. I use rooster booster, but I'm not sure if you can get that in SA it may be a WA thing. Also green lawn clippings as mulch work a treat. As you have a huge property now, mulching with truckloads of bought stuff is out of the question unless of course you own a series of oil wells. I was piling my lawn clippings up, now they are used straight out the catcher onto the beds. Also all my pulled weeds go straight to the chooks and once the chook pen soil level gets too high I'll shovel it out and put the soil around my palms and garden beds to build the soil level up with rich compost. 

If a lot of that land is for horse pastures, he will have a lot of free fertilizer/compost

[Pip]

2 hours ago, Tyrone said:

I've found that my Jubaea which are much smaller than yours and my palms in general love liberal amounts of pelletised chook manure. I use rooster booster, but I'm not sure if you can get that in SA it may be a WA thing. Also green lawn clippings as mulch work a treat. As you have a huge property now, mulching with truckloads of bought stuff is out of the question unless of course you own a series of oil wells. I was piling my lawn clippings up, now they are used straight out the catcher onto the beds. Also all my pulled weeds go straight to the chooks and once the chook pen soil level gets too high I'll shovel it out and put the soil around my palms and garden beds to build the soil level up with rich compost. 

Yep Rooster booster is available here along with dynamic lifter and rapid raiser. I've always used at least one of those products. At the moment  I've found accumulated  organics on top of the sheds and aviary so hzve used that as mulch. 

[Pip]

Today I planted the second palm into the ground. I guess this area would be the front garden. I cut down two conifers that the previous owner had bought as pencil/candle pines which of course they weren't. The pines had grown far to wide for the location as the branches were blocking the driveway and would eventually grow into the house. This second palm is a Jubaea X Butia that was sent to me as a tiny sprout a few years ago now. This palm has been under planted with purple flowering mexican sage.

 

[Chester B]

Everything looks great, the land you bought is really nice.  I found myself in a similar situation as my last place was 7 acres with about 5 of it that had been left to renaturalize.  Originally it had a barn pastures and cows, when I acquired it you could barely walk through the undergrowth. 

If I can offer a bit of advice:

1.  Unlike a small suburban lot you can never get it looking perfectly maintained.  Learn to accept the place looking acceptable, unless you plan on being a full time caretaker of the property.

2.  Don't work around what is currently there.  You're better off clearing an entire area and starting from scratch exactly as you like.

3. Patience, patience and more patience...Rome wan't built in a day.

My number one pest on my property was rabbits as well, the deer and other animals were never an issue.  Even if they didn't eat a plant they liked to sample it to see if it was to their liking.  I had to cage any small plant or tree I had in the ground.  I made little wire mesh cylinders out of chicken wire.

Best of luck, I look forward to more updates.

[Tyrone]

15 hours ago, Chester B said:

Everything looks great, the land you bought is really nice.  I found myself in a similar situation as my last place was 7 acres with about 5 of it that had been left to renaturalize.  Originally it had a barn pastures and cows, when I acquired it you could barely walk through the undergrowth. 

If I can offer a bit of advice:

1.  Unlike a small suburban lot you can never get it looking perfectly maintained.  Learn to accept the place looking acceptable, unless you plan on being a full time caretaker of the property.

2.  Don't work around what is currently there.  You're better off clearing an entire area and starting from scratch exactly as you like.

3. Patience, patience and more patience...Rome wan't built in a day.

My number one pest on my property was rabbits as well, the deer and other animals were never an issue.  Even if they didn't eat a plant they liked to sample it to see if it was to their liking.  I had to cage any small plant or tree I had in the ground.  I made little wire mesh cylinders out of chicken wire.

Best of luck, I look forward to more updates.

Aint that the truth. I've 6 acres with about 3.5 acres being landscaped. That is plenty.

[Gonzer]

You should remove the Mexican Sage now or you'll have competition for whatever water's available. They have a tenacious root system and are a pain to remove when older.

[Pip]

2 hours ago, Gonzer said:

You should remove the Mexican Sage now or you'll have competition for whatever water's available. They have a tenacious root system and are a pain to remove when older.

I think I've planted the right ground cover then

[Pip]

A finally  planted what I have left of my Dypsis plumosa sprouted from seed sent by Dooms Dave. After a very successful germination would have been close to 100% I now only have 7 left. I planted them as a close group, fingers crossed they like the dirty beach sand like soil here. Need to get some mulch.