Early-morning fog shrouds the garden at Providence, Gail and Robert Favaloro’s 100-acre (40-hectare) farm near Goulburn on the NSW Southern Tablelands. As the morning progresses, the veil lifts to reveal the 3ha garden they’ve built from a practically bare paddock during the past 16 years.
In parts, it’s hard to tell the garden from the paddocks, as there are pockets of native vegetation in both. The dam, the Dorper/Aussie White sheep including poddies, Vicky and Micky, and the micro forests Robert has planted in the paddocks add greater dimension to the property, which the Favaloros are regenerating after years of degradation due to overstocking, tree clearing and soil erosion.
Robert, a GP for 45 years, who grew up in fruit and vegie shops, and Gail, who worked various admin and service jobs before studying nursing as a mature-age student, had previous marriages behind them when they met in 1991. When they married in 1995, they had five daughters between them and there are now 12 grandchildren in the family. They both realised long-held dreams of country living in 2003, when they bought a weekender in the Southern Tablelands. “It was so cold, we had to eat in bed,” Gail recalls. “So, in 2010, we went upmarket and bought this place, which came with a beautiful house, though the rest of the block was pretty much bare except for a few eucalypts and wattles.”
Starting at the entrance at the top of the farm, they planted a rocky and sandy section to natives recommended by Sydney Wildflower Nursery at Heathcote on Sydney’s southern periphery. They shifted a frame of white cedars surrounding the house further back, added beds and water features close to the house and planted a line of Manchurian pears to delineate the house paddock from the rest of the farm. Next came walls made from paddock stone and railway sleepers to create garden rooms, as well as countless trailer loads of organic matter — mulch from green waste, plus fertiliser from green and food waste from the Goulburn Waste Centre — to improve the fertility of the soil. While the garden is predominantly planted to natives, Gail has created a “room” devoted to some of her favourite exotics — roses, hellebores, peonies, dianthus and crepe myrtles, to name a few.
Early on, the Favaloros successfully applied for a government grant to fence off an area of remnant box forest to keep the livestock out. “They provided materials and we did the work,” Robert says. They also hired a contractor to give the ground a deep rip to repair areas where overgrazing had compacted the soil. “He ripped three lines on the inside of the boundary fence and we put another fence in so we could set up an eight-metre-wide windbreak,” Robert says. “We planted 2500 tubestock, mainly eucalypts and wattles, to protect the land and provide shelter for the animals.” The duo also opted to create 10 small paddocks on the block so they could cell graze the sheep to reduce their impact on the grass and soil.
Robert’s personal passion are three micro forests, each no bigger than a tennis court, which he planted to attract birds. He’s committed to drenching less to build up dung beetles in the hopes of keeping the fly and parasite count down. “Eventually, we hope to stop using chemicals completely,” he says. “African lovegrass is a problem as it dominates the pastures, so we’ve placed loads and loads of compost on the higher land, so the fertility travels downhill and the natural pastures can grow better.”
As a follower of regenerative agriculture pioneer Peter Andrews’ principles, Robert says that instead of spraying scotch thistles, they cut them off at the base. “That way, we don’t lose the roots, which are very deep,” he explains. “They allow water to penetrate deeper and the grass grows better around the thistle.”
The cumulative impact has been phenomenal. A bird count conducted every October revealed 17 varieties in the beginning and that’s now risen to 35 species. “We have galahs, cockatoos including gang gangs, rosellas, red rumps, fairy wrens, kookaburras and wedge-tailed eagles, to name just a few,” Gail says. “The reptile population has also increased.”
They’re no strangers to charity work — Gail and Robert can be found volunteering at the Goulburn Railway Station rose garden and helping out with any number of community projects. Robert belongs to the RFS and they both jumped on board to help run the Goulburn Spring Garden event, in which eight gardens — four in town and four in the country — were opened for the first time last year.
“We hoped to get 400 people to visit each garden,” Gail says. “We ended up attracting more than 1000 to each, so it was a huge success. This year, we have been invited to open our place as well and we’re honoured that what we have been working towards is considered worthy of being part of the program.”
The Goulburn Spring Gardens event will be held this year from October 17-18. For more information, visit stoga.org.au/goulburn-spring-gardens. AC
