On 11 October I visited the Fetherston Gardens in Weston to see the new herb circle and the pome fruit espaliers in blossom set in 3.5-hectares of urban parkland. A Wednesday working bee was underway. Volunteers work from 10-12 on the second Wednesday of every month and from 10am to 1pm on the last Sunday of every month. As Lesley Pattinson says, there would be no Fetherston Gardens without the volunteers so they welcome everyone and have varied tasks to suit all abilities. The next working bees are November 8 and 26. Just turn up, wear sturdy shoes and bring your gardening gloves. The friends' goals are restore, regenerate and renew.
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The herb garden was a 1980s design and a sundial with a stone plinth and plaque formed the central feature. The friends, with support from Defence Housing Australia, are looking at replacing the plinth and restoring the sundial to its original position. When CIT horticulture campus moved from this site to Bruce, they gave the sundial back to Fetherston Gardens for restoration.
The original herb garden was completely submerged under turf and weeds which the volunteers have battled for years. Now, with some sturdy spade work, the original paths have been unearthed and the garden design is again defined. The bricks are old Canberra reds and were laid by CIT landscaping students.
Plantings include parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme but also less usual herbs like hyssop, Balm of Gilead, soapwort and tarragon. Many of the plants are still in their infancy as the site is a hot dry part of the gardens with little water. Some of the herbs were raised at CIT Bruce campus and others with donations from volunteers and, because they are edible and medicinal plants, the herb garden is not sprayed for weeds. Many loads of bark chip supplied by Transport Canberra and City Services have been wheelbarrowed around the garden beds to control weeds.
The rosemary hedge was planted after a Floriade dig a few years ago. The Friends had access to excess plants after their Gallipoli Garden opening in Weston on 11 November 2015 and the herb garden was the fitting place. Funding for the Gallipoli Garden was received through the Anzac Centenary Grants Program to commemorate those who served in WWI and plantings include Lone Pine, Gallipoli oak, Arbutus, Gallipoli rose, rosemary and Flanders poppies.
Lesley Pattinson and Paulene Cairnduff took me via the Galipoli garden to the magnificent rows of apple and pear trees which are espaliered against tall wire supports. The first tree in the back row is a Golden Delicious apple planted in 1978. There is a Granny Smith apple in the collection and, apart from four Malus, the rest are pear varieties, among them Packham's Triumph, two Josephine de Molines, three Winter Nelis, a Winter Cole and two Beurre Bosc as well as the seldom-seen Glou Morceau, a Belgian dessert pear.
The pome trees are pruned in winter to reduce any dominant branches with a further follow-up prune to develop spurs on the lateral growth and ensuring the old structure and framework established in place. The trees are not sprayed by the friends have used pheromone traps over the years. The trees are not netted wither and the group is happy to share the crop with the birds.
However Lesley has preserved the pears when there is abundance.
The group always has morning tea (with cake) on the Sundays as social connections and shared ideas are important. Weston Creek Community Council supports Fetherston Gardens Friends and they have a website.
Among the favourite cakes is an old favourite of Paulene Cairnduff's family. She often takes the apple cake to the working bees and shares the recipe.
Apple cake
Ingredients:
1.5 cups plain flour
2tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
half cup olive oil
2 tsp orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
3 peeled and sliced apples (Granny Smith is good)
Method:
Mix dry ingredients together. Whisk the eggs with oil, orange juice and vanilla. Mix well into the dry ingredients. Place half the mixture into a greased ring tin. Add sliced apples. Top with the other half of the mixture. Bake at 175C for 45 minutes.
Harvesting with a whistle
While the birds and I are eyeing the cherries on my tree, visitors to orchards know you have to whistle while you work when harvesting cherries or the crop never reaches the kitchen.
At the National Gallery of Australia, lower ground floor (entry free) is Angelica Mesiti's three-channel video installation The calling. It was filmed in 2013-2014 in Kuskoy, Turkey, Antia in Greece and La Gomera on the Canary Islands. When people living in these communities are in the fields harvesting tea, figs, pears and other crops, particularly in steep mountainous areas, and they want to communicate with family, friends or neighbours, they do it by whistling language. Fascinating.
Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.
