HI All

[kexkez]

HI I'm Kerry and am from Donnybrook, in Western Australia. We moved here from Perth just over 4 years ago to get out of the city.
I've browsed this forum a few times over the past year or so and thought it was about time I joined. I was googling last week in frustration over problems finding some soil amendments and once again came across this forum where another Donnybrook person has also mentioned also trying to find the same things. So... here I am.


We are in town, not on acreage.New build, as of 2 years ago so starting from scratch. On 3/4 of an acre and I'm just about to dig over the remains of my first veggie bed and start planting again. My veggie bed is in part of my front garden as our block is mostly rock and gravel. We have our front garden area mostly set up now.
I did have potatoes, cherry tomatoes, basil, spinach, cucumber, carrots, snow peas, in the beds. A couple of the potatoes were re planted and seem to be florishing still. We weren't impressed with my first lot at all. More research needed. My carrots grew beautifully from seed but I didn't improve the section of bed they were in enough and they haven't grown well. ( all a learning curve) The tomatoes of course grew well and I was giving them away to keep up with the fruit. Cucumbers did well, as did the one surviving snow pea( slaters got the rest ), spinach, basil,. I also have a cape gooseberry which has given me heaps of seed. I grew it as it was something I remembered fondly as a child as a special treat to eat from "grannys garden" on our family farm. Turns out I'm not too keen on the fruit these days. But I have collected seeds if anyone wants some.
I am so envious of those of you on acreage.

Kerry

[Heidi]

Hi Kerry,
Welcome aboard! Remember, its not the size of your land, its what you do with it! By the sounds of it, your doing lots! Sometimes, I'm envious of those with smaller properties! With a larger property, comes more animals, more animals, means more work! Although, no I don't think I could live in town anymore.

I look forward to hearing from you more!
H

[kexkez]

HI Thanks for the welcome. We are loving having more space around us than we had in the the city but as an ex farm girl ( I was 71/2 when we moved to the city) I would have loved to have bought a few acres. 7-20 of them. DH was a city person though so he couldn't imagine it at all. The sheer terror of being on acres overwhelmed him 4 years ago. Funnily enough now he says he could imagine it. It's taken 2 years of living on our 3/4 acre block with the nearest neighbours being several acre blocks away for him to realise he could have done it. Now we are gradually getting neighbours as the blocks around us sell he is starting to feel hemmed in. If only we were 10 years younger we might have even considered shifting out of town from where we are.

Each has work to it. I know there is a massive amount of work to being on acreage, even hobby farm size. The machinery and animals and work required to care for them is massive. At 50 ( in a few months)with teenagers who aren't outdoor kids we've decided that for us we've left it too late.

kerry

[minnie]

Hi Kerry,

Welcome to the group, we're pretty diverse and everyone is doing something that others aren't interested in.

With a larger property, comes more animals, more animals, means more work!

Certainly feel this at the moment...

We moved onto this property last year and I'm 55 so you're never too old to make a change if it's something you want to do, it's just important to know what you want, and get things in place to make old age not a grind... well I hope so any way.

All you guys down in Donnybrook should have a party there's a few of you all living near each other these days.

Look forward to hearing your exploits...

Vicki

[dggoatlover]

Hey Kerry

Hello from me as well! And funny enough we did a similar thing to you. My hubby was terrified of living on acreage so our first move was to buy a one acre block on a housing estate - I convinced him that it would be great to have space for a veggie garden and some chooks and more space for the dogs.

That was seven years ago - since then we have slowly progressed to 5 acres and now 25 acres and we are developing a dairy goat and alpaca stud. Who would have thought it!

Our two kids have coped fine with the change - great way to encourage them to earn pocket money!

[Hayhay]

Hi Kerry and welcome!

I agree size doesn't matter its what you do that counts.

But in saying that its never too late to change!

See you round

Hayley

[kexkez]

Thanks for the welcomes. yes different work type/ load for different sized blocks.

I am so envious of 2 friends with 5 and 7 acres. But I work full time 60 kms away and hubby is just starting to look for full time work. so It's not the right time for us to move again. Plus I don't think I could face building again.

[Shadowgirlau]

Hello Kerry and welcome to the group. it is always nice to see new people join and hear about their journeys. As you pointed out in your intro, we are quite a diverse lot here. Oh and by the way, you are never too old to for change when the time is right.
My hubby was 70 when we moved onto our property he is now 74 although he would like more this is it as I doubt we could cope with anything larger at this stage of our lives.

Like you we are still establishing our gardens etc but what a challenging journey hey! Look forward to hearing more from you in the future
Kathleen

[kexkez]

Thankis for teh welcome Kathleen. Haven;t been back for a couple of weeks. Work is really busy atm. Just going for a look around the forum again.

[Dinahmite]

Hi Kerry,

Welcome to the forum and welcome to Donnybrook. You have chosen the best town in the state... We are a great bunch down here and we have a wonderful and diverse community offering absolutley everything you could possibly need. You will never regret leaving the city... ever. Mind you with a one degree morning the other day and 2 degrees today... you may think about it ..

I think I know where you may be located and yes, gravel can be a real challenge, but 3/4 of an acre... wow you can do anything with that. Can I suggest you visit Sprocket, the guy who runs the Bridgestone tyre place and also has the garden supplies just north of town on the main road. He has a number of soils and mulches. I have bought the mushroom mulch and the garden mix. The Mushroom one is a little coarser with lots of wood particle and the garden mix is finer with some manure added. Both are wonderful and are virtually sterile.... steaming as you shovel it out. I grew the best broccoli I have eer had last year using the mushroom mulch. The garden mix is now home to lettuce still gowing strong and capsicum, more brocolli and cauliflower. I would suggest using raised beds on gravel. We have are out near the Boyup Brook road in the heart of the fruit growing region and have a riverfront property with loam over clay. Sometimes it doesnt drain all that well even though it is very rich, so my raised beds work really well. I have even spread some loam over the bed and mixed with the purchased soil if I need a finer mix for seed growing.

If you need any help with anything Kerry, locating local tradespeople etc dont hesitate to contact me by PM.
Kind regards
Dinah

[kexkez]

HI Dinah thanks for that. yes I know who Sprocket is. We actually lived next door to him when we were building.
We get our wood from his place for our fire.
There aren't that many sections in town we could be, with 3/4 of an acre. ( 2? 1? wouldn't be hard to figure out where we are.

I got a load of soil in from the Mumballup Organics when we set up our front yard. When we eventually do something with the back I'll be paying him a visit for more soil though. ATM the back is very rocky and we don't have the water pressure to retic out there so we have focused on the front area for now. My plan is to evetually put raised veggie beds out the back. For now though my veggies are a front garden "feature" Today we planted 34 pincushion hakeas along one boundary to start a hedge. All tray sized seedlings as that was the biggest size we could dig holes for. I've also started chicken wiring along that boundary. blah I have about 70 m to go. Hopefully the rabbits decide its too cold to come out tonight.l it was 2.9C at 6.40am this morning. Hate to think what it got down to over night.

The next tree stock to go in will be either apple or mandarin. We planted a lemon about 3 weeks ago and I've got some mulberry plants/trees to put in when HUbby's back is up to digging into the rock again.

I had bought some larger plants for a road side fence hedge a while back but i will have to get soil from Sprocket first. The area is too much clay to dig down and I'll need to build a raised bed first.
The weeds are going nuts atm. My entire front yard garden area is completely covered except our small patch of lawn. I need to get out with the hoe and get stuck into them.

[Dinahmite]

Sounds like you are hard at Kerry... well done. Yes, the hard ground can be a problem. We had a block like that years ago. It was great for drainage but every hole you wanted to dig was a crowbar job and at had to be done in winter.
The Mumby Organics stuff is very good too, just a bit further to go but a nice drive all the same. We get the odd rabbit around here but the guy at the end of the road shoots them. Last night we had a fox really close to the house sending our Jack Russell nuts. He is very small so I wouldnt let him out even though he wanted to go and chase it. It you get chooks around here you need weld mesh sunk a foot in the ground and cemented in. Even then they will tear at it with their teeth... incredible but true. I lost my dear old Australorp/Isa Brown cross to a very sly fox. Poor old darling I could here her calling that blood curdling call they only seem to do when the fox has them... horrible.

Anyway, good luck with the vegies. your fruit trees will do well too if you dig out the boondies and put in some manure. I had a friend who grew the most amazing peach trees in barely 3 inches of soil. I dont know how he did it...

CU

Di