We are thrilled that the billabong is becoming a regular waterhole for the local Carnaby cockatoos! They come and bathe and drink, making quite the racket in their gusto!
We have also had regular visits from an Oblong Turtle (or perhaps visits from several, not sure!).
These turtles, also known as Long-necked Turtles, wander at least 500m from the water’s edge to nest!
With the warmer weather but still plenty of rain, the garden is blooming!! The roses have been in such abundance we have been picking them to dry petals for a family wedding coming up soon.
This is just a few of the roses!Rose petal confetti for late November
The rest of the garden is enjoying the weather too, and is such a pleasure to work in and look at!
After being bare for what felt like a very long winter, the weeping mulberry is not only looking fabulous but is laden with delicious mulberries!The bees just love the lavender and borage at the moment!
It is always great to harvest our own food, which we do on a regular basis. Recently we harvested a couple of red cabbages to make the next 12 month supply of sauerkraut. One batch just cabbage with a few cranberries and caraway seeds, the other included home grown fennel and chilli too- yum!
Such a beautiful, vibrant colour!A week or two later and both went to the fridge, ready to eat!
Work on the billabong has continued and it is now complete! it looks fabulous and has already been visited by local birds including a flock of Carnaby cockatoos. A solar powered fountain just adds a little something during daylight hours.
Well, every now and then we are getting some warm spring sunshine, in between the rain and cold winds! Despite the cold, our pineapple has finally ripened….and it was delicious!
The end of winter brought with it a big tidy up in the aquaponics systems- it was amazing how much was removed to make way for spring planting, but the grow beds still looked lush and healthy!
One of our final development projects is to create a ‘billabong’ as a habitat for frogs and a water source for a variety of native animals. A big hole was dug (with a bobcat fortunately!) and lined with plastic. We then filled it with water to let it all settle prior to trimming the plastic, adding stones around the edges. Still to come are the Western Pygmy Perch to eat any mosquito larvae, and some water plants!
Well, the rain continued into August! This has been a good thing though……. as it brought the Noongar season of Djilba during which there are clear sunny days in between. Our winter planting is dong really well, though some of the tube stock in ‘the oval‘ has suffered from the heavy rains and storms….and we suspect, rabbits……so needed replacing. The addition of a small electrified wire around the perimeter has now stopped the rabbits, and the plants are thriving.
The succulents in the garden have really enjoyed the cool winter, and many of these are flowering for the first time.
With the change of season, we even saw the first Monarch butterfly! Although these are not native to Australia, they have become very common in some areas and when we first moved into McCarthy Park 2 there were so many.
The Djilba season also is the time for magpies to prepare their nests, and we have seen our resident family of magpies collecting fibre from ropes and from the palm trees. they also love the occasional snack left over from the dogs!
Along with the rains, we have seen even more fungi.……some varieties we have never seen before!
So July 2021 is Perth’s wettest July in 26 years! We have had days of 30-40mm, but Monday 26 July was the record, with 64mm!
The pool has flooded several times, and some plants have suffered from the wind, rain and frost (we had -1.8 at the end of June…… but there has been a wonderful abundance of fungi!
We love McCarthy Park 2, but ever since we saw it we knew ‘the oval’ would have to be revegetated. Not only did we want to reduce the amount of lawn (and mowing), but we wanted to reintroduce the native plants that would have been removed to make the large driveway turnaround. Doing this will provide extra cover and food for the native animals, and be much more sustainable than lawn. It will look better too!
We waited until June, so the weather was cooler and with the guidance of Apace WA who specialise in community regeneration, we have begun the preparations for a July plant out. Apace helped us design the space, choose plants that were native to the area, preferably fire retardant or resistant, and a variety of sizes and textures to improve the aesthetics.
First was removal of the lawn, then delivery of loads of mulch and crushed gravel for the path.
Then, several balgas (grass trees) were planted. These were purchased from and planted by Replants, a company that specialises in rescuing and on-selling grass trees from land that is being bull dozed. We were so very happy to get some lovely larger additions to go with the existing grass trees already there.
Once transplanted, all were burnt- including our existing grass trees that still showed plenty of couch within them.
Already it is looking better! But next came the pathways through ‘the oval’….
…..and then the spreading of the mulch. Now it all settles in for a while until July when the native tube stock will be planted.
After a huge effort to get the aquaponics up and running, it has been great to consolidate a bit this last month. The aquaponics has really got going and is loving its new position on the east side of the house. In summer we will need some protection from the easterly wind, but in this autumn weather it is really cranking!
System 1- the original system moved from the old houseSystem 2- newly established
Both systems are going very well with good plant growth and healthy fish.
Also going well are the beehives, which is surprising in a way as it is well recognised locally as being a very poor season. Where some have had to feed their bees all through summer, we have managed without that and even did a small harvest (12 litres) as we downsized for the winter months.
The newly established ‘bee room’ proved very successful, with plenty of room to extract and clean up.Yummo!
Another finishing touch to the garden was the installation of a SubPod, a worm/composting system we are trying out as we decided not to bring our old worm farm (an old cast iron bath). So far it is great to be able to reuse those items the chooks won’t eat, such as tea bags, lint and tissues!
Edible garden, with herbs, bush tucker and the SubPod. Agapanthus line the garden beds around the house as they are considered fire retardant.
In February we moved our yabbies and aquaponics system to the new house, but both to temporary areas until we had some paving completed.
We didn’t want to lose this 6 weeks of growth by emptying the grow beds!
After much thought, we decided to set up a second aquaponics system rather than run aquaculture as we had at our previous place. This will enable us to keep Silver Perch year round as we like to do, but also run Rainbow Trout over the winter months as usual. It also provides more space for growing edibles!
Over the Easter break, we finally set up our systems in the area that was planned for them. This was no mean feat! One system was new and easy to position and set up from scratch, however moving the existing system without emptying each of the three grow beds and their lush veggies was quite an accomplishment thanks to ingenuity, perseverance and sometimes brute force!
car wheel trolleys were perfect for relocating the yabby tank and the aquaponics grow beds!
Once the new system was set up and all the pipework complete, we used a spare tank to transfer the water and fish from the existing system.
Tractor buckets are very handy for that last bit of water!
With some planting out, we now had the new system up and running with over 60 Silver Perch. Now to tackle moving the established system……
A car jack was used to lift each leg of the grow bed enough to place the car wheel trolley underneath. Once all four were in situ, the whole grow bed was pushed into place on the other side of the house.
It was not without difficulties! But we succeeded!
The empty fish tank from the original system was dragged around and placed in position… and the pipework completed.
Next step was to return to our old place and get the Silver Perch from the swimming pool! The small tank borrowed from Cheidys Aquaponics was invaluable.
We ended up removing the pump and draining the swimming pool (using the pool water to transfer the fish over a few trips), and successfully transferred 120 or so fish from the pool to the aquaponics systems. Each tank has 90 or so fish in a variety of sizes from fingerlings to 40+cm long.
And we are now fully set up, with yabbies in the foreground and our two aquaponics systems on the right!
Gosh it has been a busy time! After 30 years on 10 acres, there has been lots to do at both the old and new places. Here is a summary!
We are thrilled to once again have kangaroos around us! With a nature reserve nearby, there are plenty around and they are very adept at jumping the fences to get some nice green grass. We often see them on the road or in neighbouring paddocks too.
Kangaroo checking us out at the houseMumma kangaroo with a joey in her pouch
Then there are the birds!! We see and hear so many native birds that we used to see occasionally in MP1, but now see in abundance, in particular Splendid Wrens and Scarlett Robins.
Two male Splendid WrensScarlet RobinJuvenile ButcherbirdsCarnaby CockatooNew Holland Honeyeaters
The insects also have been in abundance! Blue banded bees just love the white agapanthus in particular!
Laden Blue Banded Bee
These have all been very welcome distractions when there has been so much do do, including a considerable amount of lawn mowing, until winter comes and we replace some with native plants.
Sometimes night time was the coolest time to mow!
Our downsizing to 5 acres meant a reassessment of what we want to do, so (for now) we sold our sheep,geese and ducks, and gave away the top bar and Warre hives. We relocated our two horizontal hives one night when it was cool enough to lock them in for a few hours, and they are going well.
The chickens are safely installed in their new pen….
And… we have had our first nearby bushfire. While bushfires are always a concern, this was far enough for us to practice and refine our bush fire plan for the new property without being too stressed.
Well, we have now moved.. to a more genteel and easier to manage version of McCarthy Park. It is a massive move, starting with the orchard in October, moving into the house just in time for Christmas, and soon to come will be moving the animals once we have their areas set up.
We are still exploring our new surroundings and learning about how this house and its surrounding 5 acres works, and while it is definitely an easier place to manage there is also a lot we want to do to make it ‘ours’. There is a considerable amount of lawn, which come the cooler weather we will reduce and add more native vegetation. We also need to cover and pave an area ready for the aquaponics, develop a vegetable garden, prepare the bee area and of course complete the poultry yards.
As we are settling in and still watering the orchard trees by hand, we have observed an abundance of wildlife, including our first snake at this place in the first week we moved in! Thankfully, we were able to capture and relocate it to a more suitable area. We have also seen lots of birds and insects…… and are looking forward to exploring more with the camera in hand.
We get a fabulous view of the birdbaths we located in the orchard.There are loads of Yellow-rumped thornbillsThe Scarlett Robins are regular visitors near the house, as are the Splendid Fairy Wrens who we haven’t got a great photo of yet!This is one of three baby Butcherbirds regularly calling for some food!There are so many Red-capped Parrots, including lots of juvenilesWe, of course, moved the Bee n Bee, the bee hotel, and within a day was being occupied in its new location.
While we are yet to complete the move with all the animals, we are loving McCarthy Park 2.0!
