My garden during the past twelve years or so

Twelve years ago, when I moved into my house in Mackay, my garden was a triangle of sand with a couple of trees and a few out-of-control bushes. My priority was to enclose the area in a fence as my dog at the time, Honey, was a frisky black labrador whom I did not wish to see die prematurely.

I envisaged the sandy triangle as a secret garden. I laid out paths with cardboard and covered the sandy areas with compost, mushroom compost, straw and shredded paper. I planted many palms and after a few years the dream became a reality.

The area which became my secret garden

Part of the secret garden a year ago

As I had read Jackie French for many years, I followed her advice and planted a fruit tree forest right along one boundary. The idea is to plant the trees very closely together which provides a certain amount of protection from dust and noise. I planted macadamia, lychee, jackfruit, guavas and many other types of trees and as they grew I lopped off the lowest branches. I treated the soil in the same way I had done to my secret garden.

Flood

On February 15, 2008, we had a flood in Mackay and my garden went under three feet of water. While the plant life remained, all the topsoil I had built up over the years with compost, leaf mulch, mushroom compost, hay etc. was washed away. All as not lost as I was able to use the newly arrived silt to remake gardens and the flood waters obviously contained a fascinating range of nutrients as palm trees which had been four feet high for some years suddenly doubled in height.

Because of the huge trees both outside my fence line, and within it, I have great quantities of leaves which make excellent mulch and gradually my soil has built up again.

February 2010 has been extremely wet and all the layers of dead leaves are decompsing rapidly and underneath those layers the soil is rich and filled with worms.

I have not watered my garden for four years and everything is drought proof so in those times when we do not get rain I rarely lose anything from the garden.

During 2009, because of work and university commitments, I did not spent much time working in my garden, except for occasional brief clean-ups, however it gave me enormous pleasure, particularly the secret garden where the palms and trees tower above my head.

Move your mouse over the thumbnails to see the enlarged photographs.

The next gallery is Mackay.