The garden is a haven for birds and hosted an army of bats when the nectarines were ripe. These include cherry, green gage plum, wild plum, nectarine, pear, lemon, quince, peach, cumquat, loquat and a mulberry that bore kilos of fruit this year having had a pile of horse manure unceremoniously piled under it waiting to be composted. The next project is to rejuvenate the fruit trees that have been unpruned for some years. Her nephew, Jeremy Roberts (aged 20), is a keen fisherman and he often gives Kathryn dead carp to bury in gardens to enrich the soil. “I have a pile of fabulous books related to all "this sort of stuff’”, she says. She has also set up black bins for weed tea. She followed an abridged version of the Berkeley hot compost method using horse and cow manure, household vegie waste, coffee grounds, comfrey, shredded newspaper, deciduous leaves, small amounts of old woodchip with its mycorrhizal fungi, crushed eggshells and rainwater. Wearing Steel Blue work boots for safety, a purchase chosen by her husband Jeremy Stuparich, Kathryn has replenished the soil in the Macquarie garden with large amounts of compost made on site. Nicky encourages me to take produce each week so my family of five reaps the benefits too.” Winter crops growing now are garlic, broad beans, rainbow chard, leeks, artichokes, fennel and celery and lots of coriander in pots. “Nicky gives me free rein and, as a result, she and her family have a constant supply of salad greens and herbs and some seasonal vegetables. “It is a fabulous arrangement,” says Stuparich.
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