A Walk in a Heritage Garden

The farmer’s prayers were answered. After a week of very welcome showers turning into heavy rain, waking up to grey skies each morning, it finally changed. Sunday and “Mother’s Day” dawned with clear blue skies.

Time to explore.

25 kilometres south of Geraldton is the heritage hamlet of Greenough. Situated on the fertile flood plains and near the mouth of the Greenough River, close to the ocean. During the 1860’s it became a thriving agricultural area. Initially farming was easy but primitive agricultural techniques, lack of fertilizing and the scourge of rust disease on the wheat crops, combined with droughts, fires and floods led to the area’s decline. Settlers moved out and the fine buildings fell into disrepair.

Fortunately the cultural and heritage value was recognized in the 1970’s and a dedicated group of people have made the enormous effort to save some of these beautiful buildings. Today it is a pleasure to wander around and admire a by-gone age.

First stop was the impressive “Home Cottage” now a museum.

Home Cottage built 1862 with the help of convict labour.

In preparation for his wedding John Maley built this house for his new bride. Originally a 4 room cottage it was extended as the family fortune grew along with the number of children. Elizabeth had 14 children.

An amazing woman

The house is now a museum. The exhibits, photos and stories take you back to an era when life was hard, no modern appliances. But family and friends shared a strong bond of helping and caring. I will take you through the house in the next post as this time I want to walk you through the garden.

What a pleasure it was, so much love and care has been put into this garden to show you how it used to be.

The large, mature pepper trees provide much-needed shade for the back of the house, and a seat is handy to take a rest.

 

Along the side path towards the veg garden

 

Another seat under another pepper tree.

 

Welcome to Elizabeth’s garden.

 

Open the gate and in we go to the veggie patch.

 

What a good idea

 

Now this is an idea I am going to take home with me. Can you see how it works? The barrel is filled with compost and horse manure, holes cut in the sides and plastic pipes put in to plant the seedlings in. Great for herbs when stood in full sun, and very easy to water and care for.

The scarecrow

Of course any serious veggie patch must have a scarecrow. Oops this fellow needs his pants pulling up.

Maybe Jack will pull them up…

That rosemary smelt divine and helps keep pests away. Notice the stakes used as supports for vines and the stones used to create raised garden beds.

Love the rustic look.

Recycling at it’s best

The hanging baskets of strawberries have a good place to hang and keep away from pests.

This is now a community garden.

The shade house in the background was used for seedlings and propagating cuttings. In another corner they had a compost heap. Nothing was wasted. It has been a very hot, dry summer but now the autumn rains have arrived the garden is starting to come back to life. Lots of new seedlings coming along.

The iron bark clothesline

Do you remember these old style clothes line? My Mother had one in the back garden in England in the days before rotary clothes-lines (Hill’s Hoists in Australia) and clothes drying machines.

Next post I will show you some of the interesting things I found inside the house.

********************

I have joined Jo’s cyber walk-about group. Each week Jo invites us to take a walk in our areas and show the group where we have been.

Jo has been in Poland and this week she has taken us for a walk in the country side of this interesting country. Click here to join her.