Planning or rather the lack of it

I didn't start with a plan.  I still don't have a complete paper plan, although now I try to at least record the names of plants and where I've put them.  My intention with the blog is for it to hopefully become a diary record of the garden (and perhaps be of some interest to friends, family and other gardeners).  Like most gardens, the garden has changed over time. In the beginning I created mini gardens around what was there, but in some cases those initial plantings have already disappeared as shrubs and native trees have got bigger and created more shade and I've had a rethink about what should go where.  I still use this method to establish new areas but I am slightly more knowledgeable about the climate (USDA plant hardiness zone 8b), plant requirements and spacings, different soil types within the garden and the prevailing wind (south west).  The garden layout has evolved around what was already there and we have tried to respect the previous garden as much as possible, only removing trees and shrubs we have needed to.  If you started from scratch I'm sure you would set out the garden with more of an aesthetic in mind; you would most definitely need a plan then.

The ash tree garden in the early days

The vegetable gardens were set out and planted in the first year and every year since by Mike, the tidy and productive vegetable gardener.  They were sited for sun and where the soil is a deep silty loam - one in each corner of the very back half of the property where there had been previous vegetable gardens.  Not the most practical places in terms of getting veggies in for tea or nor for keeping an eye on what is ready to eat but these are the flatter and productive areas so why change what works?

Vegetable garden December 2019

When we arrived the sloping back of the property was grass and a couple of heavily grazed shrubs and three very ringbarked apple trees and a pear tree.  We grazed this with sheep once we erected some fences.  Corduroy and Velvet were our main ladies - they were Brodie's pet lambs in the spring of 2005, the year we arrived. There were offspring in time too.  Come summer time grass would get short and they're be tethered in the garden area for an extra bite and finally go off for farm holidays when the paddock got too bare.

Velvet with newly born twins

For anyone who has gardened in boundary with grazing animals you will know of the nibbling through the fence that goes on; what happens when the odd gate is left open and the choicest of plants eaten to the ground or pulled up and discarded, and the amazing reach of a sheep standing on its hind legs.  For those of you who have never had this experience believe me, it can be damaging.

We finally said goodbye to Corduroy, age 12 at Easter in 2017, by which time I was already starting to plant trees in the back part of the garden.  Crippled as she was, Corduroy still managed to trim my newly planted Forest Pansy (Ceris canadensis) and take a long strip of bark off the grafted walnut Juglans regia 'Meyric', even though I thought my netting structures were sheep proof!!  I was not impressed, but annoyed with myself for not protecting my expensive purchases better.
  

Corduroy with Brodie 2006 - just back from Pet Day

One of my early mistakes was not digging some holes to look at the soil profile.  I sited the orchard next to the existing fruit trees (they were in the paddock part of the garden).  It was not until we sadly buried dogs Spot (2011) and Meg (2014) did we discover that I'd sited the orchard on some of the shallower soils - 30 to 40cm of soil over almost straight gravel.  I was a slow learner - over a period of time I planted four apple trees that eventually died!!  It is a good area in winter but it needs water supplementation in summer.  It is rumored that the river ran a different course in an earlier period of time as many properties in the area have gravelly soils.  We are lucky to have only a relatively small patch.  Now the orchard is more spread around the garden than concentrated in one spot.

Early establishment of orchard around 2010