Garden 3
Rob Reilly
We bought this 8,093m² (2 acres) property 13 years ago, the only thing on it was about 50 half dead avocado trees, 6 pecan nut trees, 5 macadamia trees, some citrus and a few old fruit trees, 2 camellias at the front of the house and 1 red cedar, the rest was long grass and cobblers pegs.
We added an extension to the house and put in a 45,000 litre (10,000 gallons) water tank, making a total of 67,500 litre (15,000 gallons) of rain water, we also put down a bore which we use for the garden area. The vegetable garden area used to be a dog run, and we also put up a bush house on it,
After I broke my leg 10 years ago we built up and paved the area around the vegetable garden beds to make it easier for me to access for planting and weeding from the electric scooter. We have help for ½ a day a month for the jobs I can’t do; otherwise I do the mowing and gardening, etc.
I do not fertilize the lawns as I use a mulching plate on the mower, so there is no removal of clippings. I do not use as much mulch as I would like because the Bush Turkeys scratch it all away. I use a herbicide on garden edges for weed control; also generally knock down type, Roundup on Kaikoura
The climate in Maleny make gardening a breeze, most things grow very well.