Gardener meets Peach pincher

Our peach pincher, parsley pecking, chive chomping, beetroot biting, spring onion stealing, rose ripping wallaby now visits during the daylight hours as well as at night giving us the opportunity to take a portrait shot or two. Here is  our native neighbour who is as fond of eating from our garden as we are...

I am calling him Old half-ear. He is an old male Swamp Wallaby who has obviously come off second best in a fight or two. We have noticed him on our walks into the Nature Reserve next door, he is always alone and never seems afraid, he has seen it all I suspect.

As well as his tattered ears he has a big scar on his back and lumps and bumps on his tail but I think a proud stance. The fence line provides no barrier, he hops right through.

I am ok sharing my peaches with him now, I have more than I can eat and use anyway. It is possible that, as this property has been vacant for a good while, he has been eating the peaches here for years. Old half-ear may be cross with having to share his peaches with us?

He can no longer get into the vegetable patch - thank goodness, the beetroot are now all our own!

Fruit pies

Long time no blog, not even a Zucchini Tuesday, I have been busy.  I have been away from hearth and internet doing courses on being a farmer, grazing cattle, keeping chooks and  building soil and have come back with my head swirling and full of ideas (and just think, some of my workmates thought that I'd be bored here).

On my way home I couldn't resist a little gleaning. Whizzing down the Hume I saw many trees laden with fruit, very few of them with a handy spot to stop close by. But on the Sydney side of Goulburn there was a perfect spot for gleaning. There were two apple trees dotted with rosy fruit near a handy layby so in no time at all I had collected a large basket full.

On arriving home I found that we had 4 enormous bowls of peaches waiting for me. Beautiful orange skinned ones  -  all cling stone and with very little blush. Despite nightly wallaby raids, there was still ample fruit for the wallaby and us.

My immediate thought on dealing with the glut? Fruit pies, so I got skinning the peaches and stewing them,

and stewing the apples, and with the assistance of the Lad's masterful pastry hands I had made 12 beautiful fruit pies - 6 peach pies with stars,

and 6 apple pies with flowers.

They have a rich shortcrust on the bottom and flaky on top. They are pretty good...

Now my problem is, how to eat them all.

Oh and now the Wallaby visits in daylight hour as well as in the evening. He is quite an old male wallaby with tattered ears and a fat tummy!

So that's 2 of the 4 bowls full of peaches dispatched, not sure what to do with the remainder. You can't eat that many peaches fresh.... I have lots of jam put away already and don't need any more and I have already a stash stewed in the freezer for winter eating and a jars of peach chutney -  any suggestions?

And I also have 3/4 of a basket of apples  to dispatch!

The battle for the peaches

I have had a victory of sorts!  The Wallaby has been successfully excluded from the vegetable patch. Now we are battling each other for the peaches.

When we moved here in mid-November, there was very little growing here in terms of fruit trees but there were 4 peach trees and 3 crab apples. While the Wallaby seems to enjoy pruning the leaves from  the crab apples leaving the fruit behind, the Wallaby loves peaches.

A small sample of the peach stones left behind by the Swamp Wallaby.
To date the Wallaby has eaten about 50 peaches.

I had netted the peaches soon after moving in, but I had imagined my main competitor for the fruit would come from above from Sulphur-crested cockatoos, King parrots and such. Instead I have found that the fruit raiding comes from below. I have also discovered that Wallabies have very dexterous front paws. Even when  the netting had been secured under fruit branches, the Wallaby had found the gaps and pushed its little muzzle thru to reach the fruit.

Yesterday I went on a mission, to exclude the Swampy from the best of the fruit.

I started by closing these gaps in the netting, and then on the trees that had insufficient netting to tie up under the tree, I went about re-using the netting that I keep that comes around oranges and onions when you buy them from supermarkets (I knew there was a reason to justify visiting the bug two supermarkets occasionally!).

And when I had run out of these net bags, I deployed some wire to make a cage around some particularly delicious looking peaches. (Look thru the bird netting to see the wire cage).

Last night the Wallaby did visit - it comes every night - but this morning I couldn't find any new peach stones. (Just quietly, I think I might have won!)

So given that I think I will have some peaches to myself,  perhaps you know... at what point should I pick the peaches? When they have ripened on the tree and are ready to eat or use? Or should I pick some and ripen inside?

What Wallaby ate

Last night a Swamp Wallaby visited the garden. This morning I inspected what the Wallaby had for dinner. I was grateful for the Wallaby's grazing of the suckers that were thickly sprouting from the bottom of one of the crab apples. Thanks Swampy, you saved me quite a bit of pruning!

Swampy also had a nibble of beetroot leaves,

 

a munch of radish leaves,

and quite a bit of rocket. It seems that Wallabies also really like nasturtiums,

and new bean plants ( I didn't take photos of them because there was nothing much left to see!). Swamp Wallabies also really like the tender tips of blueberry plants,

and they really enjoy kurrajongs eating every leaf.

It's been so hot and dry, the landscape around is brown and crunchy, of course my green vegetable garden looked so delicious, I think I can share a little bit with the Swampy.

















I am grateful that Swamp Wallabies generally graze by themselves. I hope word about my garden doesn't get out to the Eastern Greys who graze in mobs!

I wonder what the Swamp Wallaby will eat tonight? After sampling the garden, perhaps the Wallaby will settle on one thing? I am punting on the rocket. I had better pick lots today -  it might be the last opportunity to do so!