Open garden: Aquila, NSW

AQUILA nestles into a north-facing slope with beautiful views to Table Top Mountain, north of Albury, NSW

Aquila is named after the wedge-tailed ­eagles that circle the hill.

AQUILA, NSW. 182 Mitchell Road, Table Top.

OWNERS: Lou Bull and Emmo Willinck

OPEN: This weekend 10am to 4.30pm

ENTRY: $8, under 18s free

DESCRIBE YOUR GARDEN: Our 0.5ha garden nestles into a north-facing slope with beautiful views to Table Top Mountain. We’re just north of Albury on a 6ha property named after the wedge-tailed ­eagles that circle our hill. It’s a relaxed garden of no fixed style, much like its makers. The emphasis is on growing food for us and the local wildlife, and creating an environment to encourage the family to create, dream, dig and enjoy.

WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL: Coming up the winding 200m drive to be surprised by the view and the setting is always fun. We love the link and extension the garden makes with the revegetation works started by Emmo’s parents more than 20 years ago.

BIGGEST CHALLENGES: The extended heatwaves. Our water supply is limited, which makes us careful how we use it. Emmo would say the biggest challenge is me. If he spots me just standing, dreaming, he goes into panic mode.

GREATEST PLEASURE: Sharing the garden with our children, their cousins and friends. Pet chooks, mud pies, flower displays, cubbies, rope swings, campfires and treasure hunts are just some of the adventures for weekends and school holidays.

WHAT’S GROWING: The main garden is mostly natives, with groupings of other plants to attract pollinators and wildlife. Fruit trees and vegetables are in the productive zones. This climate allows us to grow a wide range of fruit trees.

EXTRAS: Seeds from Seed Savers Albury-Wodonga, plus a cuppa from the Table Top School P&C. Funds go to the school’s garden program.

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TWIG Q&A

FOR three years our strawberries have grown fantastically but bear very few berries. Is it the wrong variety or is our volcanic soil too rich?

MARLEEN VAN DE WINCKEL
BARRINGTON, TASMANIA

Your climate and soil are fine. In Tasmania you need day neutral rather than short day varieties. Try Tioga, Cambridge Rival or Alinta. Foliage rather than flowers can be due to shade or excess nitrogen. Withhold fertiliser until they flower, then resume fertilising. Frost can damage flowers.

My rosemary bush is slowly dying after being cut back quite hard. Is there anything I can do to save it from becoming kindling?

KIRSTY WARING
MELBOURNE

Rosemary is not a long-lived plant, lasting between 10 and 20 years, depending on conditions. Light, annual pruning, just as the flowers fade, promotes bushiness and prolongs life. Old, woody specimens often don’t recover when pruned back into old wood. You could try taking cuttings from healthy parts, or invest in a new plant.

We have a problem with earwigs on our rural property, devouring our crop of tomato seedlings. Of various treatments last year, tins of fish oil as bait were most effective but earwigs still ate the seedlings.

MICK TEBECK
LOCK, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Strategies include reducing hiding places and letting chooks range over the ground. Non-toxic diatomaceous earth is registered overseas for earwig and other pest control but not here. Pyrethrum is the lowest toxicity chemical treatment option.

My three-year-old blood orange hasn’t flowered or fruited despite full sun and good feeding. It replaced a different one that didn’t flower in eight years. The adjacent mandarin fruits profusely.

MARCUS FLIS
PERTH

Anecdotal evidence suggests some blood oranges can take eight years or so to flower, for no particular reason. Try cincturing it, an old method to stimulate cropping on healthy trees. Incise a spiral or C-cut into the bark of the trunk to disrupt sap flow, in late winter.

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