The History of a Country Garden
The first land grant for the farm was issued in the 1860's. and three generations of the Wolf family have lived and farmed on the land since the 1880's. The first Mr Wolf was a saw miller and built the house using wood from the surrounding hills [blackwood]; the second and third generations became orchardists and small fruit growers until we purchased in 1986.
When we took possession we found there had been very little alteration made to the house or surroundings since the first Mr Wolf. The house had been empty for approx. 3 years, so our first task was to make the house habitable
There were about two and a half thousand apple trees and five acres of commercial raspberries and we have forty acres of near rain forest to rescue from blackberry bushes. The reason we purchased was to build a larger garden than our town house garden and we also wanted to relieve the overcrowding in the Sandy Bay garden. We had not pictured ourselves with such a large tract of land to manage and care for but we fell in love with the quiet and peace of the property.
The bird life at "Kibbenjelok" is varied and many, especially in the last years when we were unable to find anyone to pick and handle the orchards, so many kinds of birds flock in to feast on the fallen apples. It is very sad to see that it is no longer viable to run an apple orchard and impossible to find fruit pickers.
The second Mrs Wolf had created a small cottage garden immediately around the house but, as this had been neglected for probably four or more years when we purchased, it was in a mess - completely covered in couch grass and oxalis and our first job was to rescue the roses and other plants, all of which were on the point of giving up the fight.
We have managed to save most things, including a Tree Peony, by rather drastic pruning in most cases, but we have lost the battle with one of the two large Rhododendrons. One Rhododendron was Sir Robert Peel and as I am not fond of this particular Rhododendron, it was given away. We are still battling with the Oxalis
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