Seabrae Garden 2025¶
INDEX*
Successes
Path and Bed
Cleaning River Rock
Garden Bed Liner
Successes¶
06.Aug.2025
Might show you failures as well, but for now, just what we've been successful at growing.
On the left is thyme ... we're growing two varieties. This clump of 'common' thyme is from a bed yet to be lined. We've lined most of the garden beds, to prevent the timber from rotting. The image on the right is my pride-and-joy: Margoram!!
Can't even get it in the shops anymore here in Oz... but it's an essential for Italian dishes. Apparently, herbs tend to like sparse watering but I still try to keep the soil covered, to protect the microbiome.
I believe these little battlers are lemon thyme. We'll see how they do in spring... nothing is really going crazy growing now (end of 'winter'). 3 strawberry plants with flowers. So far, so good. Going to spread spent coffee grounds near them to discourage slugs.
The marigolds are also meant to ward off most pests, except perhaps the 'Threskiornis molucca', the ibis, or as we call them: 'bin chooks' (bin=rubbish bin; chook=chicken). These rather large birds -- roughly the size of a chicken -- don't actually eat the plants, but they trample on the young plants as they dig around for slugs... so I stuck a few sticks in the ground around the plants. Actually seems to be working.
The Australian White Ibis is a protected species in Australia and it is illegal to harm or kill them, according to state and national laws such as the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 and the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992. While they are a protected species, their increasing numbers in urban areas have led some local councils to develop management plans to address community issues and balance the needs of the ibis with human infrastructure and the environment. The Australian White Ibis is a native bird and is protected under state-based legislation in various states, making it illegal to harm, collect eggs, or remove them.
On the left: when I buy a bunch of 'spring onions' at Woolies (like Safeway) I whack off the bottom 3-4 inches -- the bit with the roots -- and stick them in groups of three into the ground.
On the right: a couple of coffee plants.
I expect these will take off in the spring. I'll have to keep them trimmed back - they tend to grow quite tall. I've tried to transplant rosemary before but failed. I'm delighted this one has done so well!
On the left: perpetual spinach. Julia isn't fussed on the taste, but I love it.
On the right: basil, flowers (so Harri-girl has something to pick) and more margoram.
Apparently perpetual spinach is really nutritious. Also, very hardy -- it just grows and grows. BTW, this is the bed that I'll be emptying and putting a liner into.
The coffee bush (breynia oblongifolia) is considered an invasive weed by Brisbane City Council.
They're not the same thing as the coffee plant (coffea arabica). The council just next to Brisbane City Council - Redlands Council, in which we live - used to have instructions on how to grow your own coffee plants. Those instructions seem to have been taken down.
As you can see, they're happy little self-seeding plants, so I get why environmental types are a bit cautious. They tend to feel the same way about blackberry bushes and guava trees.{{{sigh}}}
In the image on the left, almost all of those little wide-leaf plants on the ground are young coffee plants. I'm going to leave some and transplant others. In the middle of the image is the stump of a coffee plant. On the right: coffee cherries.
In the middle of this image is a full-grown coffee plant. I'll be chopping it back later this year. I watched a YouTube of a chap in Kona (yes, Kona on the Big Island) who advocated for doing this to, I guess, refresh the plant. At the end of the day, there's little risk to trying this: I've got heaps of replacement plants. And it's not like I'm going to miss having the Woolies truck backing up to pick up my latest harvest, either.
By the way, this is one of those areas of the garden that too often gets neglected. There was a dead ficus tree that's finally in logs-ready-for-the-fireplace form, which was more of a hindrance than anything. That little electric chainsaw has proved its worth many times over by now.
As far as working my little coffee 'plantation', to be honest, I was surprised just how labour-intensive the process is, going from cherries to roasted coffee beans. I've worked out a few strategies now to get the coffee beans to that green state ready for roasting, all without massive investments in equipment. Even so, just even picking the cherries: hard yakka.
I won't be ending my coffee subscription to Artisti Coffee Roasters any time soon.
Round the back of the house, I've got this plant. Minimal tending -- well, I tend to forget it exists, to be honest. I'll probably leave this one alone for now, until the others get established. Just have a look at these coffee cherries! It has been a great year!
In the image on the left: harvested cherries (and coffee pucks). They get smooshed in the mortar and pestle.
The pulp goes in the compost, and the beans go into glass jars (image on the right) to ferment for a week or so.
Then, we dry the beans - for AGES!
But there is one process left, one that really had me concerned, because initially I had first peeled the hull off each bean manually.
Yes.
Each. Bean. Manually.
So, there are several layers to remove on a coffee cherry:
- the outer skin and pulp are removed first
- the bean is slippery due to a pectin layer - this is removed by fermentation
- beans are carefully washed
- the beans (still covered in a hull, as in the images) are dried
- the parchment (hull) and a really thin 'skin' called the 'silver skin' are removed
Queensland being so dry, it's not hard to get them properly drying. The challenge was removing the parchment and silver skin, in order to end up with just the green bean.
Path and Bed¶
21.Aug.2025 - Path works
We've had a persistent weed problem at certain spots around our garden beds out the front. My 'frog' - Eat-The-Frog - has been getting that sorted. It was a project I was planning for the cooler months, and now with winter almost gone again, I realised it was time to 'pull the finger out'.
The beds next to the living room are going away, to be replaced by a sandpit for the little ones to play in. Julia's likely going: "Yeah, that'll happen." ðŸ¤
Besides the footpath, there was one bed I hadn't lined... this one:
We were growing thyme, margoram and this amazing perpetual spinach - that big-leafed thing hanging on for dear life - that I hope to rescue. The taste is just amazing: you just barely show it any heat, and it turns into PopEye food!
Okay, the consistency (think: mouth-feel) isn't the greatest - a bit like munching on an uncooked escargot (snail) - but the flavour more than makes up for it.
As you can see, the timber is slowly decaying, hence the need for a liner. I'll use some left-over banners from Julia's Rural Aid days... we don't throw much. Working with soil is actually fun, almost relaxing. Working with rocks? Not so much. Still, hope to get it all done before the real heat starts.
Cleaning River Rock¶
15.Sep.2025
About those rocks... here's where I am, progress-wise. Here's BEFORE ...
First, the rock and dirt had to be raked out... this gets chucked into the sieve to salvage the rock. We're going on the principle that weeds need three things to flourish: rain, sunshine and soil (or even dirt).
Rain, you can't do much about.
Soil and Sunshine, you can. After the rocky soil's been removed, a plastic banner (any sheet of scrap plastic will do here) is put down—the sunshine has been eliminated. Then, clean river rock is filled in—the soil has been eliminated. Of course, leaves and other debris will slowly accumulate, but as it breaks down, it will go down to the bottom of the rocky bed, which is hopefully going to be deep enough to discourage weed growth.
BTW, that's the sieve on the right: bane of my existence.
... and here's CURRENTLY:
Where before we had a rocky weed patch, we will only have rock, so things will remain tidy. Hopefully. The people who sometimes offer to help tend to be a little less than mindful of the principles at work here, but oh well. Since we have to line one of the garden beds (so there will be soil being carted around) I might leave things as they are until that's been done and focus on the very front of the footpath that still looks like this:
This was how the river rock was delivered: filty. Spray those weeds with poison and weed killer and hit them with a nuclear bomb and they will STILL come back. The steps to get rid of them permanently is:
- pull all the weeds, carefully, to get plant / seeds / roots
- run the river rock through the sieve, filtering out the dirt
- at the very base (ground), put down used shade sail
(hello darkness, my old friend ... 🥹) - wash the river rock clean of any dirt / soil / biomass
- place the river rock on top of the shade sail in sufficient depth
The depth is important to effectively block out all light. No more weeds.
26.Aug.2025
The least fun one can have is shovelling rocks. The mob at... well, I won't say their name but they're a prominent landscape supplier. They sold me really muddy river-rock. The point to the river-rock as a footpath is to eliminate having to weed. Weeds need: water, soil (or even dirt) and sunlight. Make the bed of clean river-rock deep enough, you've taken away light and soil. Water? Well, can't do much about that... rains here a fair bit.
Anyway, the hard yakka has been sieving / washing away the mud out of the rock. Talk about a slow, painful process. It'll get there, but not without a HUGE effort!
Garden Bed Liner¶
19.Oct.2025
Julia has been away for the past week. I'll admit it -- I have been slack. Been doing deep dives into image-creating using ComfyUI, what with new models being spawned almost weekly, so this project sort-of got ignored. I did keep up the watering, but to be honest, I'm underwhelmed with the strawberries and the coriander has already bolted.
Anyway, still had one bed without a liner. A liner is essential to prevent rotting. Not sure if one can detect it in the images, but there is definitely a lot of rotting going on, particularly down the bottom of the bed. Which is natural: wood meets wet soil and... rots.
I have been pulling apart garden beds next to the house and ended up with this half-rotted timber, some of it a fair bit rotted. I was first minded to just chuck it -- our tip recycles wood, as long as it's clean -- but then I thought: "Why not use the good side to attach the liner to?" Save myself a trip to the tip, and re-use stuff I paid serious money for: timber isn't cheap.
Which is what I'm doing now. I'm going to face-to-face the rotted sides of the timber, screwing them in place. The liner -- basically a bit of 'throw-away' banner we have lying around -- will be attached to that. I might replenish the soil with some of the fresh compost I've been creating down the back. Job done: re-used rather than recycled:
- rotted timber
- rusty screws
- banner material
I reckon this might be the last bigger project I'll be undertaking by myself. As I sit here at my PC tonight, the lactic acid in my arm muscles is causing fierce spasms.
Yes, I do still have the footpath to finish, but I'll be a lot slower getting that done.
20.Oct.2025
Eating my frog. Up at 5:30, had my coffee, checked my email, steeling myself. Didn't start making noise -- Skillsaw, etc -- until after 7:30, out of deference to the neighbours.
Two hours later:
The timber is in. I'm drenched in sweat, starting to warm up a bit, and the flies are becoming annoying. I was able to use up all of the shorter stuff lying around and all of the rusted screws. I had soaked them in half-strength cleaning vinegar and water with the intent to restore them, but didn't.
I'm glad Julia insisted on John doing the mowing so I can finally get on top of all these other jobs.
Now, there's ONE particular fly I can't abide at all: this one. ('March fly' or 'horsefly': you choose, same-same):
Looks like a common housefly, doesn't she? However, she's at least three times as big, and has a bite that, in the past, has made me physically ill. Pretty sure I'm allergic to that bite: not just redness, swelling and cellulitis at the bite site, but feverish and weak.
Like, ILL.
And yes: "she".
Male horseflies do not bite; only female horseflies bite to obtain the blood they need for egg development. Males feed on nectar and plant nectars instead. Female horseflies need a protein-rich blood meal to help develop their eggs after fertilization. Males do not reproduce in this way and therefore do not need blood. Male horseflies feed on plant nectars and other plant exudates. Also, male horseflies have weaker mouthparts that are not capable of breaking skin to feed on blood.
So, when this lass showed up, I decided it was time for a break.
Right-o! Done!
Boy howdy... talk about hard yakka. But yeah, Done. I'll need to finish filling the bed with compost and soil I'm pulling out of the beds next to the living room that are going to be replaced by a sandpit for the little ones. However, I'll be getting John to help me with that.