Heide Museum of Modern Art

Heide Gardens

Gardening Australia

Peter Cundall and the team from ABC TV’s Gardening Australia visited Heide Museum of Modern Art and our 16 acres of gardens and Sculpture Park. The episode featuring Heide aired Saturday 28 April 2007 and included Head Gardener Nick Harrison’s famous recipe for Magic Dust, a fertiliser specifically devised for Heide’s flourishing Vegetable Garden and Kitchen Garden. It’s a mixture of different types of meal and to quote Peter Cundall is ‘amazing stuff’.

MAGIC DUST
Ingredients:50 litres seed meal
5 litres gypsum
5 litres dolomite
10 litres kelp meal
10 litres blood & bone
(Note: vegetarian gardeners should find a suitable non-animal alternative for blood & bone)

This fertiliser can be used at the time of planting and also as additional side dressing during growth period of the plant.

Use 1 litre for every two square metres of soil.

Please note, this fertiliser does not increase yield dramatically, rather it galvanises plants to cope with different stresses and may help increase nutritional value for vegetables.

It should be only used for vegetables, the main reason being that it is too expensive to be considered as a general all-purpose fertiliser.

Heide Museum of Modern Art Water Management Policy

• Heide Museum of Modern Arts observes current Melbourne Water and Yarra Valley Water water-saving guidelines, and exercises responsible water usage across the 16.5 acre, heritage-listed property.

• Heide has a special license from Melbourne Water to pump a limited amount of water from the Yarra River for irrigating the Kitchen Garden only.

• Heide I and its surrounding gardens are exempt from Stage 3a Water Restrictions. The Museum is working within water restrictions under an approved Water Conservation Plan to save water.

• For the remainder of the property, Heide uses limited mains water and complies with Melbourne Water’s restrictions (Stage 3a).

• In 2007 Heide has twice been a recipient of 36,000 litres of water under Yarra Valley Water’s Community Water Tanker Program for use on our heritage trees.

• In keeping with the general community, the Museum prioritizes cultivated heritage garden areas, allowing the parkland to survive naturally.

• Heide is currently planning long-term strategies for the further reduction of our water use.

Please contact us with any questions relating to water use at Heide Museum of Modern Art: info@heide.com.au