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Life At Wattle Tree Hill, Tingoora (2026)

23/10/2026

After a very welcome 89.5mm of glorious rain there were a few pressing jobs to get done this morning. ☔️

1️⃣ The chook pen and nesting boxes had been inundated, so first job off the rank was to empty the wheelbarrow of the lovely nutrient filled ‘cow poop’ hay we had collected the day before, which was now sodden and heavy causing me in my sturdy crocs to get bogged in the thick slippery black mud. 💩

2️⃣ This lead to the removal of soggy nesting hay and the reinstatement of nice dry fresh hay, ready for some welcome bum nuts. 🐓

3️⃣ The duck pen was next. Some fresh hay for around their nests and some extra for the floor of the cage. 🦆

4️⃣ Then the not so pressing jobs of pulling a few weeds, harvesting cherry tomatoes, trimming spent lavender flowers, processing the bulk peaches we bought last weekend and making a coconut jam slice.

5️⃣ Time now to run the working dog, bring the milkers in for milking, sip on a glass of w**e 🍷 and think about dinner.

6️⃣ If the weather is fine you’ll find me at the Wondai markets tomorrow morning supporting the South Burnett Pantry. 🥶 ☔️

08/10/2026

Our Mediterranean Firepit Sanctuary 🏛️🌿🔥

Every corner of our garden tells a story, but this space has truly become our own little slice of paradise.

Right at the heart of it is our firepit area, framed by a beautiful bit of accidental character. On one side, we have our mismatched white and purple lavender. On the opposite side, we have our equally mismatched rosemary—where two towering, robust survivors grow alongside their shorter, softer cousins. They completely broke the "rules" of our original neat windbreak plan, but they look absolutely beautiful together.

Branching out from the firepit, the rest of our Mediterranean garden comes alive:

• The Citrus Espaliers: Framed on either side, we have young citrus trees trained to grow flat against the framework. They are surrounded by their own hard-working guilds, including nitrogen-fixing pigeon pea, deep-rooted comfrey, and resilient lemongrass. 🍋

• The Future Ground Cover: On the northern side, we’ve planted three young caper bushes. Eventually, these will spread out to 1.5 meters wide! Because they are low-growing, they will perfectly blanket the ground without blocking the vital northern sun from reaching the other plants. 🍃

• The Olive Guild: And anchoring the whole Mediterranean vibe is our self-sustaining olive tree guild, keeping the entire ecosystem happy and thriving. 🫒

The best part about the low-profile capers and the neat layout is that absolutely nothing blocks the view.

Now, as I sit out on the front verandah looking over it all, I can see the entire Mediterranean layout blending perfectly into the beautiful views of the surrounding farmland and the mountains in the distance. ⛰️🌾

It’s proof that with a little patience, companion planting, and layout design, you can build a garden that feeds the soil, feeds the family, and feeds the soul.

✨ What’s your absolute favorite view to look at while sitting out in your garden?

07/10/2026

The Secret Life of Our Fruit Tree Guilds: The Olive Tree Circle 🫒🌱✨

If you’ve ever looked closely at our garden, you might notice that our fruit trees never grow alone. We plant them in guilds—which is just a fancy way of saying we give them a community of plant friends!

Just like people, trees thrive when they are surrounded by good friends.

In a guild, the plants work in perfect symbiosis, supplying nutrients, protection, and vital benefits to one another.

Here is the beautiful, hard-working community surrounding our Olive Tree:

• The Protector from the West: Right next to it is a Pigeon Pea. This clever plant fixes nitrogen into the soil to feed the olive, shields it from the harsh afternoon western sun, and provides fantastic "chop and drop" mulch. ☀️

• The Eastern Shield: On the south-eastern side, we have Lemongrass acting as a tough, resilient windbreak, which we also chop back to mulch the soil. 🌾

• The Wind Tunnel Guard: On the southern side sits Canna edulis (Arrowroot). This one has a crucial job—it acts as a vital barrier against the freezing southern winds that whip right through the tunnel between our house and the shed. 🌬️

• The Mineral Miner: Hugging the base of the olive tree is Comfrey. With its incredibly deep roots, it mines precious minerals from deep in the earth to bring them to the surface, while serving as a living ground cover and excellent mulch material. 🌿

Sitting back on the verandah, it looks like a lush, beautiful garden bed. But in reality, it’s a tiny, self-sustaining ecosystem where every single plant has a purpose and a friend.

💚 Have you ever tried companion planting or building a fruit tree guild? What are your favourite plant combinations?

06/10/2026

The Story of My Mismatched Rosemary 🌿🔥

It turns out my lavender wasn't the only plant with its own agenda around our firepit area!

Right on the opposite side, I had a similar grand plan for the rosemary. But just like before, nature had other ideas. After the heavy rains, only two of the original rosemary plants survived.

When I went to patch up the gaps with new plants, I thought I was getting an exact match. But the garden love surprises!

Now that they've settled in, the contrast is hilarious:

• The original two survivors have shot up into taller, more robust, woody shrubs 💪🌿
• The new replacements are a completely different, shorter, softer variety 🌱

So now, sitting on my front verandah, I look out at a completely symmetrical piece of beautiful chaos. On one side of the firepit, I have mismatched tall white and short purple lavender. On the other side, I have towering robust rosemary hanging out with its shorter, softer cousins.

None of it is what I originally planned, and absolutely none of it fits the original "windbreak" brief.

But as I look out from the verandah today, I wouldn't change a single thing. It turns out a garden full of stories is much better than a perfect one anyway.

💚 Do you prefer your garden perfectly neat, or do you love a bit of accidental character like mine?

04/10/2026

The Story of Our Mismatched Lavender 💜🌾🤍

Sometimes plans change, and the garden has a funny way of teaching us to love the unexpected.

It started with a simple plan. I bought seven lavender plants—seven being my lucky number—from a local nursery. The goal was to plant them as a neat, uniform windbreak around our firepit area. But then the rains hit, and four of them unfortunately drowned.

Wanting to fix the gap, I went back to the same nursery to replace the four I lost. I thought I was buying the exact same variety.

Fast forward a few months, and the real surprise revealed itself!

• The original three survivors shot up into a tall, white variety 🤍
• The four replacements grew into a smaller, rounded purple variety 💜

They are completely mismatched and technically completely unsuitable for a windbreak! But despite breaking the "rules" of my original garden plan, they are absolutely beautiful together.

Now, as I sit on my front verandah admiring the garden, I don't see a mistake. I see a wonderful little story.

It's a reminder that life doesn't always grow in neat, predictable rows—and sometimes the chaotic mix-ups turn out even better than what we originally planned.

✨ Have you ever had a gardening "fail" turn into something you love? Tell me your accidental garden stories in the comments!

04/10/2026

Let’s do something fun on Sunday I suggest.

We never do anything fun!

Maybe a visit to Memerambi Springs and a picnic at Gordonbrook Dam?

Well, it’s almost lunch time and we’ve spent the morning shovelling s**t hay from the floor of the chook pen and bagging it up for future use in the gardens.

We ended up with nine used feed bags which will be stored in the shed plus two wheelbarrows full which ended up in the new humanure compost pile.

It was dusty.
It was smelly.
It wasn’t fun.
But it was rewarding.

Rewarding that we can use the nitrogen rich manure in our gardens in 12 months time.

**t

03/10/2026

What’s happening at Wattle Tree Hill today?

🧄 It’s garlic harvest time

We sourced our cloves from Queensland Natural Garlic who are conveniently located across the road and have been following their lead through the process.

I saw their post this week to say they had harvested their garlic, so here we are. 🧄

Sille our Danish Maiden backpacker planted the garlic into well prepared soil full of nutrients back in April this year. I watered it regularly and gave it a dose of liquid fertiliser a few times during the growing period.

We planted one ‘pod’ wicking bed with 36 garlic cloves and harvested 24 small ones today.

The garlic planted direct into the ground did much better. A better strike rate and bigger cloves.

We will dry them flat on a shelving unit in the shed out of direct sunlight, with good air circulation.

What to plant after garlic at this time of year via google says squash, zucchini and cucumber.

29/09/2026

More soaping today!

🍃 Neem oil soap
🌱 Comfrey oil soap

Both using the same method of steeping the leaf matter in olive oil for six weeks then straining.

I’ve sprinkled some dried neem leaves on the top of the neem oil soap. 😍

These oils has been sitting in the pantry for several months and needed using. Also my ‘sustainable’ palm oil is past its used by and it’s a big box, so it has to be used too before going rancid.

28/09/2026

What’s Cooking in the Wattle Tree Hill Kitchen Today?

🧼 Calendula soap
☕️ Coffee soap

For the olive oil part of the recipe, the calendula soap was made using homegrown calendula flowers which were steeped in olive oil for six weeks then strained. I topped this loaf with dried calendula petals. 😍

For the coffee soap, I just used my original recipe and added two tablespoons of spent coffee grounds then topped with an extra sprinkle of grounds.

These will be un-moulded tomorrow and sliced, then stored to cure with good airflow on my pantry shelf for six weeks before use.

22/09/2026

What’s happening at Wattle Tree Hill this week?

It’s been a big few days, we drilled holes with the tractor auger to plant sixteen natives along the southern boundary fence.

We then loosened the soil with the shovel, added gypsum, filled with water and planted the treelings in Ricky’s special soil mix.

🐦 Flowering natives to attract birds which in turn will eat our garden pests.

💨 As a double layer wind break (alongside the vetiver grass).

🌷 For beauty 🥰

💐 For cut flowers.

🥤 To make tasty sweet syrups from the flowers. 😋

We then moved the cut off water tank into place for Ricky’s strawberry bed and filled it with native soil mixed with a little silage hay and gypsum and topped with spent hay from the cattle yards. We then added a length of old garden hose around the top edge for safety reasons.

Today’s chore is to build structures over some of the growing beds to create some much needed shade. 🥵

I planted spring seedlings a few weeks ago and they are struggling in this heat; some have even died. 😔

Life At Wattle Tree Hill

23/10/2026

08/10/2026

07/10/2026

06/10/2026

04/10/2026

04/10/2026

03/10/2026

29/09/2026

28/09/2026

22/09/2026

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