Bidadisndat
Contributing Member
THE LANDSCAPE GARDENER
(Book 4 in the Changes of Pace Collection)
Mathew O’Rourke, known simply as “Matt” or “Mattie” to his many friends, some of whom even knew his surname, had two loves that completely dominated his life. First and foremost of course were his wife Dianne and family of two young boys and a four month old baby girl. The second was his job where as both a fully qualified horticulturist and arborist he was employed by a large landscape and gardening company.(Book 4 in the Changes of Pace Collection)
He had met Dianne in the first month of his third year at high school, and the two had remained inseparable ever since. After finishing senior high school Matt had gone to a TAFE College to do both horticulture and arborist courses whilst Dianne had opted to do dressmaking, and during this time they worked casual part-time jobs to gain practical experience in their chosen fields, cover expenses, and hopefully save a little for their future. Matt had managed to earn both of his certifications while working part-time for the company that subsequently employed him on a full-time basis after he graduated, and Dianne had learned all the ins and outs of her trade, as well as the maintenance of sewing machines and overlockers, while working as a seamstress for a uniform clothing manufacturer.
They were married soon after he graduated from the TAFE College and their first child, Terrence, was born a scant nine months later. Or was it eight? Anyway, it was close enough after their wedding to set tongues wagging amongst several gossips in the area where they lived. Not that either of them cared: They loved each other, and knew they would do so for the rest of their lives. Their second son, Liam, arrived sixteen months later, and was followed in another sixteen months by a daughter, Susan.
Their Italian born landlady, Maria, who treated Dianne like a daughter and the children as her own grandchildren laughingly suggested that a fourth child would probably come after another sixteen months and Dianne laughed with her, saying that she wouldn’t mind that at all provided they could afford another one. Matt’s job paid reasonably well, although he often worried about the security of it, but Dianne was a stay-at-home mum who since having their first child worked part time for the same uniform clothing company that employed Maria.
Matt and Dianne rented the downstairs apartment of the duplex that Maria, a widow, owned and lived in. The largest bedroom of Maria’s upstairs apartment had been given over to two commercial sewing machines and an overlocker where she, another Italian friend and Dianne worked together, turning the pre-cut materials supplied by the company into uniform skirts, slacks, dresses and blouses. It was piece-work, and although the income wasn’t fantastic it was a lot better than nothing, plus it allowed Dianne to take care of the children at home. As she didn’t have the expense of childcare Dianne believed that overall she was probably much better off than working mothers who had to pay through the nose for that service.
During the past three and a half years she had spent so much time chatting with the other two women that she had actually learned enough Italian to be able to hold a decent conversation in that language with Maria’s extended family and many friends who always seemed to be stopping by. And having spent a lot of time in the company of them both, and with the many young children of Maria’s numerous friends her eldest boy, Terry, was also able to communicate quite well, even if only in simple terms befitting his age.
Dianne wanted all her children to pick up the language this way as she felt it would give them an edge in the future, especially if they chose to take Italian as an elective in high school, although that was a long way off yet. She had long ago decided that whenever she and Matt needed a babysitter for the kids, it would be an Italian girl who would be instructed to speak only in her native language when with them.
Maria had thought this to be an excellent idea and, in addition to volunteering her own granddaughter, had actually gone to the extent of vetting several of those of her friends in order to find the best girls for the position if it was ever required. To Dianne’s practical mind learning a language this way probably equated to saving several hundred dollars over tuition fees and smiled to herself at the thought of the Australian Tax Office trying to add that to her earnings.
Matt had also endeared himself to Maria by transforming her previously mediocre front garden into a dazzling display of colour throughout each season, and the back yard into a fairly extensive vegetable garden. He had also installed a chicken coop and run along the back fence, and being practically free range, and supplied with copious amounts of kitchen scraps, the eggs produced by the eight hens therein more than covered the cost of the small amount of scratch mix that was purchased for them. He then did the same for Maria’s son and daughter-in-law, Angelo and Sophia, who owned and lived in another duplex three doors down the street, and with whom he and Dianne had become very good friends.
With a little bit of help and no end of advice from Maria’s mob, Matt had built a large barbeque under a covered pergola that jutted out from the rear of the double garage at the side of the duplex, and it had become the focal point for all the barbeques and parties held since its construction. Angelo had obtained an old but very good stereo record player at a yard sale some years before and had set it up in the garage, with weatherproof extension speakers fitted under the pergola. He and Matt had built up quite a collection of L.P. records covering a wide selection of genres, from classical to jazz, rock ‘n’ roll to country and western, and much more, and it saw extensive use. So too did a very large drinks ’fridge with double glass doors, donated by one of Angelo’s mates who had purchased it very cheaply from a take-away shop that had gone out of business.
Maria’s extended family and many friends had decorated the pergola with Italian and Australian flags, strings of coloured lights and a large number of empty Chianti bottles in their woven straw holders that now hung from its rafters. Of course, along with a variety of beers, soft drinks and wine casks there was still a number of full Chianti bottles in the ’fridge yet to be emptied.
Nobody dared argue with Maria when she insisted that two shelves in the ’fridge were to be kept clear of drinks so that food could be placed in there when they were having barbecues, and although Angelo initially tried to insist that one shelf would be more than enough he quickly changed his mind when she put in a large selection of cheeses, cabanossi and salamis, jars of olives, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, grilled aubergine, zucchinis, mushrooms in oil and suchlike.
Needless to say both Matt and Dianne, who everybody treated as if they were members of the family, loved the many parties that were held there, and at the last party Matt found to his surprise that he had actually picked up enough of the language to be able to engage in simple conversation when they spoke in Italian. Naturally there was lots of laughter and good natured ribbing whenever he made the inevitable mistakes in pronunciation or grammar; however there certainly wasn’t any lack of assistance and encouragement when any correction was required. Maria also made it very clear to the men what would befall them if she caught them teaching him any words or phrases that in her opinion were vulgar, and the men respected this... by making sure she wasn’t around when they did so.
The land behind the all the properties on the same side of the street was rough bushland infested with a lot of lantana and other invasive weeds, and was separated from their back fences by a twenty-metre wide easement intended to be both a firebreak and an access road for fire trucks and council vehicles. The local council was responsible for its maintenance however it had never had to bother with keeping the easement clear as most of the adjacent residents, having access through gates in their fences, treated it as a virtual extension of their own backyards, grassed it with a hardy lawn turf, and kept it mowed. A well-worn track where people walked their dogs and children rode their bicycles meandered down the centre for its full length, and although the locals had for some time been asking council to have the path paved, it seemed that this was considered to be of low priority and nothing had been done about it yet.
Matt and Angelo had, directly across from the properties where they lived, plus one on either side and the one in between, cleared about four metres or so into the bushland beyond, mulched it thickly and planted out a hedge of native plants including acacias, banksias, callistemons, flowering gums, grevilleas, hakeas, lilly-pillys and honey locust. Whilst it looked beautiful now that the plants were well established, its real purpose was to shield from public view a further ten metre extension into the bush where at first he, Dianne and Maria, and then Angelo and his family had each planted out two overlapping mandalas of raised vegetable garden beds. The design was actually close to that found in Linda Woodrow’s book “The Permaculture Home Garden” which was published several years later.
The dense planting of the hedge also acted as a wind break and a sun trap, creating a micro-climate that both extended the main growing season and expanded the range of fruit and vegetables that could be grown. Although they had had no problems with bandicoots, pilfering possums, initially attracted by the grevilleas planted along the easement, were an entirely different matter, and both Matt and Angelo eventually had to go to the extent and expense of putting up an eight-foot high loose-topped wire mesh fence around the perimeter of their mandalas to deter them.
He hadn’t bothered to ask for the council’s permission to do all this, as it would have invariably said no, and thankfully none of the neighbours had complained. In fact, after several of them had had a look at the mandalas they had asked him for advice on how to do the same for themselves, formed a gardening club, and then asked him if he would like to take on the role as Head Gardener... in a voluntary capacity of course. Both he and Dianne were delighted with the concept and they both readily offered their services to the new club, along with the free use of a geodesic fox-proof chook dome that he had constructed for his own mandalas.
He also provided, separate from those he kept in his own run, six chickens to populate the dome, and it was the responsibility of the person using the dome at the time to ensure that the chickens were well cared for. Actually the chickens took care of themselves, thus it was really only necessary to provide them with fresh clean drinking water and a couple of handfuls of grain. The grain they scratched up helped to distribute the compost they were making from the kitchen scraps and lawn clippings that were thrown into the dome. And as the holder of the dome was also able to keep the eggs that the chickens laid that chore was not considered to be onerous.
Having tasted the difference between store-bought eggs and those provided by the chickens they were taking care of, several people followed Matt’s lead and installed small chook houses and runs in their own back yards, with the agreed-to rule that nobody would keep a rooster, the early morning crowing of which would disturb the tranquillity of their quiet neighbourhood.
In the three years since the club was formed it had grown considerably, and there were now five more mandalas spread along the easement, plus another four under construction. Construction of each new mandala was made fairly easy by the fact that when somebody wanted to put one in all the members of the garden club pitched in to assist, and one couldn’t help but notice that this also had the effect of drawing all those involved into a closer and friendlier group of neighbours. When Matt joked with several of them that their suburban neighbourhood seemed to be turning into a farming community they not only heartily agreed with him but also maintained that they were quite proud of the fact.
In order to conserve water Matt had encouraged the members to install drip irrigation and use thick layers of mulch on their gardens. Rather than run hoses across the easement from each property when wanting to water their gardens, he suggested that they each put in an underground irrigation pipe, terminating in a standpipe and tap, and with a shutoff valve at the house end in case a pipe was damaged. Where they were able, quite a few members took advantage of the government’s rebate system and installed rainwater tanks on their properties, and ran their irrigation systems as well as their laundries and toilets from them.
A further innovation came about after Matt had been approached by a couple of club members who had requested his help in assembling two more chook domes, as they felt that they did not have the expertise needed to do it themselves. It was when he was engaged in this project that he came up with the idea of covering a dome frame not with chicken mesh, but with translucent bubble wrap, thus making of it a small portable hothouse. After some experimenting he found that while bubble wrap was very effective in the cooler months it was overly hot when the weather warmed up, however by using various light-reducing percentages and colours of shade-cloth they still worked well, plus had the advantage of allowing good ventilation.
After putting together one of these domes it was displayed it at the next get-together that the club now held each month, with the result that he was asked if he would be able to produce them for sale to members. However Matt suggested that in keeping with the ethos of the club it would be much better if those members who wanted such domes work on them as a group project, and he would provide a list of materials required, detailed instructions and advice where needed.
The produce from Matt, Dianne and Maria’s veggie garden and mandalas actually slashed their food bill considerably, and more often than not produced a modest surplus that Maria used for trade with her family and friends. Maria didn’t like taking cash for the produce, so all her friends were informed as to what she needed at any one time, be it olive oil, tea, coffee, flour, sugar or whatever, and her little trading system worked well. When other members of the club also noted and spread the word about the savings they were making by growing their own veggies it had the effect of inspiring and encouraging new members to join, and by the end of the fourth year sixteen of the twenty three properties backing on to the reserve had become part of the system.
One duplex between Maria’s and Angelo’s was an investment property owned by a couple who rented it out, and as the tenants of both units had no interest in becoming part of the garden club Matt and Angelo decided that they would use the bushland behind it and install another double mandala there. Maintaining their combined mandalas would probably have been a full time job for one person however between their two families, plus Maria, they fielded five keen gardeners, and whether working alone or together in twos or threes the time that each spent in the gardens was quite easy and pleasurable, not to mention also quite profitable.
Once each year, when there was an abundant supply of tomatoes from the gardens of friends as well as their own, there was a weekend set aside for bottling fresh tomatoes, as well as tomato sauces, pasatas and pastes. A large amount of sun-dried tomatoes was also put into jars, preserved in virgin olive oil and often flavoured with garlic, basil or chilli. This event was always accompanied by a massive party that required all who attended to bring a plate of food to share and at least one bottle of wine, plus anyone who had one, a mandolin, guitar, or violin - even if its owner couldn’t really play it all that well - or in the case of a piano accordion only if its owner could play it well.
Of course the council eventually got to learn of what amounted to guerrilla gardening on the land however after meeting with the members and inspecting the system, and finding no chemical herbicides, pesticides or fungicides were used, nor was there any type of contaminated water runoff that might enter the catchment area of the dam beyond that supplied the area with drinking water, it was given approval to remain in place. The local newspaper wrote up a glowing article on the garden and when interviewed by one of its reporters a quick thinking Matt very cunningly attributed the scheme to “those forward thinking councillors who had backed it”. Not that any of the councillors had done anything of the sort of course, however they did not deny having done so and happily accepted the unearned praise that they subsequently received.
Following his suggestion in the newspaper article that the garden could possibly be used as a model for more community gardens in the local area, and perhaps for areas elsewhere to learn and copy from, it was felt by many councillors that here was an excellent public relations opportunity not to be missed. Following much discussion the project was eventually given the status of an “approved local community garden”, and council rangers were assigned to make random security patrols of the area.
Although the club was asked to consider becoming an incorporated identity and maintain a register of members they were all relieved to find that while it was possible, and felt by some to be inevitable in the future, at this point in time no fees for the use of the land were to be imposed by council.
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