News from Tasmania for April 2021

[Maggi Young]

Newsletter from SRGC members of the  Crowden Family in Tasmania –
Kaydale LodgeVisit  www.kaydalelodge.com.au  or call (03) 6429, Kaydale Lodge Gardens, 250 Loongana Road, Nietta, Tasmania 7315, Australia



Welcome to our second newsletter. We are looking forward to autumn and the wonderful colours that brighten the garden. Autumn is on the move here in our cool climate garden, with cold nights really bringing the colour out.  Two of our favourites acers vitafolia and japonicum have had wonderful colour the last two weeks, giving us a hint of what's to come.

We will be celebrating the spectacular Autumn colour, which should be perfect, on the weekend of the 10th and 11th of April. 

A great time of the year for the Maple lover.
 

The Colchicums have put on a lovely show through March, Colchicum ‘Lilac Major’ planted behind the wren fence has been amazing. This beautiful display all started from 20 bulbs mum planted 40 years ago.



It has been such an awesome year for Rhubarb.  We have harvested over 100kg from the veggie garden, most of which has been made into Lesley’s rhubarb cake for the dining room. Lots of people love it and we have had many requests for the recipe so we thought that we would include the recipe later in this newsletter.



We have had an interesting summer, what there was of it.   It has been a bit hard on the vegetable garden, peas, beans and lettuces were OK but unfortunately pumpkins, despite Lesley’s best efforts, did no good at all.
She was very disappointed as the last few years we have harvested between 30 and 40 and this year we will have a grand total of two, just too many frosts in the early summer and too cold.

We get a lot of joy from collecting our own vegetable seeds, at the moment Amarlie loves the flower heads on her leeks.  Flowers vary from white to dark purple and the heads can be quite large.

[Maggi Young]

The soft fruits did really well, last year picking 360 kilos of blueberries this year we will exceed 400kg from our 60 plants that are about 10 years old. The loganberries (70kg), blackberries (still picking!!) but average 120kg  and gooseberries have done really well, thankfully all thornless.



Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ is looking spectacular, we have started using it as an edging plant on our peony and perennial beds. It works well as it adds a splash of colour as the perennials start to finish, it also helps keep it looking tidy.   The bees absolutely love it and it brings Amarlie’s favourite colour to the garden.



Dahlias have been lovely for the last six weeks, they're still going strong and will till the first frost.




Thankfully the wallabys haven't found them and we were amazed how well they have done considering the cool wet summer.

We've had lots of wonderful garden lovers visit since we reopened after the covid closure and we would like to thank you all for your kind words and smiling faces.  It has been a pleasure to share our garden with you all and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we do.

Quite a lot of our visitors saw us on Gardening Australia  in December or in the Gardening Australia magazine January edition.  It was a very proud moment for Mum and Dad to see the garden they started 42 years ago pictured so beautifully.

We would like to thank Tino and the wonderful team for such an amazing job and special thanks to Jenny Baldwin, editor of Gardening Australia. She did a wonderful job writing the article, such a beautiful and generous story, she even made us sound sane!

 
Amarlie and Lesley with the TV presenter Tino Carnevale.

[Maggi Young]

Garden Tip for this newsletter
Cut off Hellebore leaves to ground level in late April, just before the flower buds break the surface.  This makes for a wonderful display of flowers in August and new vigorous growth.  Our big patches Amarlie runs the lawn mower over!



Due to Kay having her knee operation Kaydale Gardens will be closed from the 11th of May and reopen on the 18th Sept, unless by appointment.


Wishing everyone a Happy Easter
   

Kaydale recipes

Peanut Butter Cookies
120g Peanut Butter 120g Butter softened 120g Sugar 120g Brown Sugar 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla Cream this all together till slightly lighter in colour, add packet of choc chips then sift in a seperate container and add: 235g Plain Flour 1 tsp Bi-carb Soda 1/2 tsp salt Mix together well then preheat the oven to 180, use a small icecream scoop and place on a tray. Flatten with a fork and cook for 12 min. This recipe makes approx 30 cookies but can be doubled easily.

 RHUBARB CAKE
80g butter 300g brown sugar 1 tsp vanilla 2 large eggs 1 cup sour cream (250g) 300g plain flour 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 500g washed raw rhubarb cut to 1 cm lengths Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the vanilla then add and beat in the eggs. Sift all dry ingredients and add alternatively with the sour cream. Stir in the Rhubarb and spread into a prepared 23cm round springform tin with greaseproof paper on the base. Mix the topping ingredients of 100g brown sugar 1/4 tsp cinnamon and spread level over the top of the cake add a few dobs of butter. Cook in a 190 oven for approx an hour or until skewer comes out clean. It is a moist cake. Can serve with Rhubarb compot which is 500g Rhubarb and 1/2 cup orange juice (this takes away the furry feeling) and sugar to taste. Cook till tender.

[shelagh]

Looks wonderful. I've always fancied Tasmania but I'm afraid I'm a bit too old now.