A Taste of Mount Perry

08/12/2025

We often plant trees within a guild. This is more of a cold climate guild, but you can work out what to replace some of the plants based on what grows well in our region.

We use comfrey, Ipomoea and spring bulbs. Society garlic and wormwood would thrive too!

💚🌿👣

Want Your Apple Trees to Truly Thrive? Build an Apple Tree Guild 🍎🐝

One of the most reliable, time-tested ways to grow healthier, more productive fruit trees is to plant them as part of a guild—a small, supportive ecosystem designed around the tree.
This is a core principle of permaculture: instead of planting a lone apple tree in turf grass, you surround it with plants that protect, feed, and strengthen it.

The layout in the image you shared is an excellent example. Every plant in the guild serves a specific function, creating a self-supporting system that reduces pests, improves soil, and boosts pollination.
Below is a breakdown of why each companion plant is included and the role it plays.

Chives (or other Alliums such as garlic)
Role: Pest and disease deterrent
Why it works:
Alliums naturally help suppress fungal issues like apple scab, and their strong scent confuses common pests, including aphids and deer. When allowed to bloom, they also draw in pollinators.

Yarrow
Role: Beneficial insect attractor
Why it works:
Its flat flower clusters attract predatory insects—ladybugs, lacewings, and parasitic wasps—that feed on harmful pests.
Yarrow also pulls minerals from deep in the soil and returns them to the surface as its foliage breaks down.

Borage
Role: Pollinator magnet and soil enhancer
Why it works:
Bees of all kinds are drawn to borage more than almost any other flower, which increases your apple tree’s pollination rate.
Like yarrow, borage mines nutrients from deeper layers of soil, helping enrich the topsoil around your tree.

Nasturtium
Role: Trap crop and living ground cover
Why it works:
Aphids prefer nasturtiums over nearly anything else, keeping them away from your apple tree.
This spreading plant also functions as a natural mulch, shading the soil and suppressing w**ds.

Marigold (Tagetes spp.)
Role: Root protector
Why it works:
Specific marigold varieties release natural compounds from their roots that deter root-knot nematodes—microscopic pests that damage tree roots. Their strong scent also discourages several above-ground insects and even browsing animals.

Artemisia (such as wormwood or southernwood)
Role: Strong-scented repellent
Why it works:
Artemisia species produce aromatic compounds that confuse and deter pests, including the codling moth—a major apple pest. Their scent also discourages deer and rabbits from approaching the tree.

What This Guild Achieves
Together, these plants create a powerful support system that:
Brings pollinators to the orchard (borage, yarrow)
Reduces pest pressure above and below ground (chives, marigolds, artemisia)
Attracts natural predators to control harmful insects (yarrow)
Improves soil structure and fertility (borage, yarrow)
Minimizes w**d competition (nasturtium)
Helps maintain tree health and disease resistance (chives)
This combination allows the apple tree to devote its energy to growth and fruit production instead of survival.

06/12/2025

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06/12/2025

Happy World Soil Day 2025! We have come leaps and bounds in understanding how soil works, and it's all down to the interaction between the microorganisms that live in it, plants and animals. Without one, the others will not survive. Let's take a moment to think what we do to soil, and how we can promote healthier soils in our own backyards. We are all in this together

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21/11/2025

Well that is a wonderful surprise! The Sharwill avocado tree held onto one avocado, despite the relentless hot, dry winds.

The midjym berries are flowering. We timed forest mulch additions with rainfall well.

The last couple of pics are of the huge bumblebees that absolutely love our Natchez crepe myrtle flowers. Every year they can be found busily collecting pollen. They have the loudest buzzing sound too!

Late spring is such a beautiful time for gardens in Mt Perry 💚🌿👣

08/11/2025

It’s a spring fruits and flowers appreciation post 💚

After all the hot, dry and windy weather we thought we would lose all fruit off our fruiting trees, but alas, here’s a few pics of what remained. I did miss capturing the handful of peaches on our young but vigorous tree and all of the citurs (mandarins, limes, oranges, lemons and blood oranges).

We seem to have lost all avocados, cherries and apples unfortunately, but over time these trees will acclimatise to our region’s unique climate, and along with maturity and some more hard lanscaping to minimuse destructive winds, should produce more.

Small or new fruit trees usually start off slowly, putting energy into roit development first. Over time they mature, can access underground water and can survive on minimal irrigation.

With over 100 fruit trees on our property (mostly grafted and/or dwarf), both native and introduced, we aim to have fruit for every season.

How are your fruit trees coming along? 💚🌿👣

21/10/2025

Growing micro forests, one tubestock at a time…

This diagram compares the natural vegetation succession process with the Miyawaki Mini-Forest method. In natural succession, the ecosystem evolves over centuries, starting with annual plants and progressing through stages of perennial herbs, shrubs, pioneer trees, and eventually reaching a climax forest over 100–200 years. In contrast, the Miyawaki method accelerates this process by densely planting local climax species seedlings. Within just a few years, the forest canopy quickly establishes itself, shading out w**ds, and within 15-40 years, a multi-layered, quasi-natural climax forest develops, creating a self-sustaining ecosystem in a much shorter timeframe. The Miyawaki method provides a rapid and efficient way to restore biodiversity and promote forest growth.

08/09/2025

We often think that what we do has no effect on the climate. Scientists have been providing detailed insights for close to 200 years.

Climate science is not rocket science, and it is something we can all observe, if we sit still and watch over time.

Look at the dry creek beds devoid of trees, where once creeks flowed.
Look at the dry dusty dirt, where once organic matter rich soil once was.
Look at the pastures overrun with w**ds that die down in winter, where once native pasture grew.

Take the time to look around, I mean, really look around!

We are all this together 🌿💚👣

10/08/2025

Earlier this week I pruned our stone fruit and pommes and they have responded with beautiful nectar-rich blossoms.

I thought I was taking a video, complete with tips and other commentary, but alas, just a few photos.

For most of our apple trees I use the vase shape, or sometimes known as the wine goblet. There are a few central leaders, and I remove any branches pointing in or crossing over, to keep airflow optimal through the centre. We do have one apple pruned in traditional style, with a single trunk and a head of mass of branches.

The apricot didn’t need pruning this time of year as it is pruned after fruit is harvested, at the start of autumn.

I took a third off the height of the cherries, plums and peach but left the nectarine to grow as tall as it wants. It is sat in a position in our orchard to block out an unwanted view. It is full of flowers and the sound of bees, beetles and wasps fill the air.

The Nashi pear has been slow to start so I have left it for another year and we only put the almond in today, so we will let it grow for a year or two, doing a rough shape at this time of next year if needed.

We are so looking forward to the summer stonefruit season 💚🌿👣

01/08/2025

For smaller producers in our region, the hard work of Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance in Victoria have paved the way for micro abattoirs. Read on…

Victorian farmer Tammi Jonas says it has taken her several years to get the planning permits for her micro abattoir, but she is now celebrating changes that will substantially lower the red tape.

23/07/2025

Not only does the tiny village of Mt Perry host the famous and rare Mt Perry cycad (Macrozamia mountperriensis), but we also have a newly identified wasp close by!

Read more 💚🌿👣

DNA barcoding in Canada identifies a wasp collected during a citizen science program by Gin Gin High School students as a new species.

16/07/2025

Community sufficiency. What is it?

13/07/2025

Imagine using goats to help clear waterways in QLD? What an environmentally friendly solution, manure for soil fertiliser and feed for goats at the same time!

The key is moving them on (cell grazing, regenerative grazing), so they encourage regrowth of native species.

If you leave goats (most livestock) in a paddock, they’ll decimate the soil in a short period of time, reducing soil health and increasing desertification.

In nature the large herbivores (think deer, bison and zebras) are followed by predatory animals like wolves, bears and lions, so the prairie flora (grasses, herbs and sedges) have evolved to be eaten down a small amount before springing back to life.

Cell grazing mimics this phenomena. Working with nature rather than against it! 💚🌿👣