December in the Dandenongs

The volunteer tomatoes that popped up everywhere in September are fruiting

Bye bye bee bee, bye bye!

Recently our wonderful, garage dwelling, feral bees ran out of space and a drone cut a hole through the interior wall into the garage.  Bees not being the brightest, they then congregated around the rear window to the garage hoping that somehow the glass would disappear and they'd be able to go on their merry way. 

With nothing to do but wait for a mating flight, one drone decided to create a new exit and gets berated by a female worker for leaving the back door open

Unfortunately, we didn't enter the garage for a couple of days and it was cool and wet overnight.  As the bees only knew of their main entrance to the nest, they couldn't work out what to do and few hundred of them died from exposure over night before we realised what had happened.

We covered up the hole they'd made with copper slugga tape as it was all we had to hand, then covered the window with a tarp and opened the door so the surviving bees could make their way out.  Which they did, slooooowly, over the day.  My DH then had the sad task of sweeping up the deceased.

Just to show that they're not fast learners, a couple of days later the exact same thing happened and again we lost a few hundred bees.

Fortunately, I know David the bee man! :)

Ode to The Digger's Club

Oh, Digger's Club you are the best,
By far a step above the rest,
So I just renewed my membership,
After a slight lapse in it.
Unlike others we won't mention,
You always pay attention,
To your members far and wide,
And keep them on the happy side.
Despite having lapsed for months times two,
You didn't hesitate, no, not you,
You give, and then, you give some more,
With a better deal than before.
A welcome gift you did bestow,
That's hard to rhyme when not in prose,
But I'll try and give it a go,
Some seeds from the tom-a-to.
Then just because that is your way,
Another gift made my day,
A book that is pure platinum,
All about the solanum.
So, thank you Digger's, Clive et al,
I promise you that I shall,
Renew my fees when they fall due,
So I may be as loyal as you.

Not a Digger's Club member yet?  You really should be ;)

Pumkins and lemon trees...

I've written this post for Margaret of Stone's Throw Cottage, who is making a fantastic effort removing environmental weeds and enhancing her already wonderful garden by planting some delicious edibles! :)

Margaret has the perfect location for a forest garden.  She has many established trees in an upper canopy, several fruit trees in the middle layer, different levels, a slope, sunny areas, cool areas and lots of native vegetation.

She has decided to clear away a big area of environmental weeds (Wandering Trad and English Ivy) and replace this with indigenous plants for attracting wildlife, providing habitat for local species and also increasing the biodiversity in her garden.

Yesterday, I saw her and her partner (well, mostly her partner!) struggling to rid an old veggie bed of a bad infestation of Wandering Trad, both being desperate to plant out some pumpkins.  When I suggested that they relax, take their time, and plant the pumpkins under the nearby lemon tree instead they thought I'd gone a bit bonkers.



They wouldn't be the first! :)

So Margaret, get yourself a cuppa and let me explain...

Bonk...bonk....

Those of you with a wildlife pond have no doubt been hearing the fantastic noise of the Eastern Bango Frogs (Limnodynastes dumerilii) calling for some time now.  The wonderful sound of the frog has given it a very evocative common name in the Dandenongs, the Pobblebonk.

L. dumerilii subspecies dumerilii
the most widely spread subspecies
and common in Melbourne suburbs

Other people's brilliant photo's from End of the Line

You just have to check them all out :)

 John Weeks!

I'm borrowing this one because it's the Safeway wall being painted.  Gone is the ghastly green!  Hopefully they'll let them extend it next year and cover the whole area :)

Katie & Sarah



I walk into town several times a week using this route and my kids always get excited when the see the cows and doggies on the walls - you can imagine how excited the bunting made them :)

Wow, what a superb day at the End of the Line Festival!

Just some quick pics of the day.  :)

Part of the Marketplace - this was a great area with music, artists, stalls and a brilliant KungFu display by Dom McKay and his students

And of course, the marketplace was also home to 2 Fat Ladies Weave a Garden (they called themselves that, not me!!).   Southern Dandenongs Landcare's very own Vicki Boyle and friend Marita Hanigan definitely improved the look of this chain link fence with their art work.  Great job Vicki & Marita.  Next time though, the kids definitely stay with you! :)

This is the main stage (more often known as the Cameo's outdoor cinema) and it was a great area to enjoy listening to Rob Moss.  Fantastic voice and definitely an enjoyable spot to take a break from the senses overload.  Note Baba Desi making, our local wizard, was in fine form despite his advanced age and the heat!

Here's some of the littlies jumping around like dinosaurs to Alice Makes Music.  It was great to have this kids area for them to have downtime and get in the shade.  Well, I say downtime but all the jumping and attempting circus acts or listening to exciting stories with Christopher from the Dreaming Space had them exhausted!

Here's Alice entertaining our bubs

It's almost time for the End of the Line Festival

I am so excited about the upcoming, inaugural, End of the Line Festival on Saturday 24th November!

Organised by Brent and CJ Dakis, 2 local artists and proactive, enthusiastic and generally brilliant people, it promises to be one local event that will be hugely successful and I predict will most definitely grow in stature in the coming years.

I know they've both put their heart and souls into this, working incredibly hard to convince both the Belgrave Traders Association and the Shire that such a festival will be a huge benefit to the area.

So please, check out the fantastic website for info on the exhibitors, musicians, artists and others involved, then make sure you're there on Saturday 24th November from 10am.

Help Brent, CJ and everyone involved make the End of the Line Festival an event they can be proud of! :)

Southern Dandenongs Landcare Group AGM

A quick message from the SDLG regarding their AGM, this Sunday 2-5pm at Selby Community House.

Join us to hear local conservationist, Betty Marsden AO., on the history of the Save the Dandenongs League and the work done by volunteers to preserve our Hills environment – vital work which continues on many fronts. This is a unique chance to meet and speak with Betty, community elder and local environmental champion.

Afternoon tea provided :)

Here I am, getting involved in politics again...

McDonalds in Tecoma... what can I say? I have nothing against McDonalds and in fact quite enjoy caramel sundaes. Do my kids eat there? Rarely, perhaps a couple of times a year, generally when travelling long distances. Have I been involved with the campaign? I signed the petition before the vote went before planning last year, but other than that no. Do I want a McDonalds up the road? Absolu

tely not.

My objections are that the site now owned by McDonalds is by a busy junction that already has traffic issues and is used by school children crossing. The store is planned to be open 24 hours, in what is still (despite it being the main street in the town) a quiet residential area. The building designs used by McDonalds are rarely in keeping with what would be appropriate for the area, something that is generally carefully considered in the planning process for a residential building. And Tecoma and Belgrave already have how many takeaways...?!

The Shire were right to turn down the original application based on community objections, but VCAT unfortunately had no choice but to accept McDonalds' appeal. That's the problem with the law - if you meet the requirements, and McDonalds did, then your application should be approved.

Although that said, what is there left that we can do? Should we get even angrier and start to protest aggressively? Should we start assuming it's all part of a wider conspiracy, like some of the commentators who have appeared on camera recently sounding, frankly, a bit crazy and not helping the cause in the slightest.

Nope.

The new councillors (and returning Cllr. Samantha Dunn - congratulations again Sam!) need to consider what can be done to amend zoning and planning rules for areas such as this to protect them in future. They were right to turn down the application in the first place, but now they need to ensure that one McDonalds doesn't open the flood gates for more inappropriate developments. If we can be strict with residential zoning, then we can be strict with commercial zoning bordering the residential areas.

NO McDonalds in The Dandenong Ranges needs to try even harder to open a dialogue with McDonalds and do what they can to get them to listen to our concerns and address them. Peacefully, calmly and with respect on all sides.

However, for the most part, this is now down to McDonalds. You know what we do NOT want, you know what our concerns are and you know that the eyes of Australia, if not the world, are on you.

Now is your chance to show us all that McDonald's Australia does listen - they you can be flexible; that you can build restaurants that are sustainable and appropriate to a location; and perhaps most importantly, that you can become a welcome part of a small community.

What do you say Maccas - are you up to it?

Woohoo!

The cicadas are singing - it's (un)officially summer! :)

Companion Planting from SGA

This dropped in my inbox this past week and I thought it was worth sharing because a) it's comprehensive and b) it's free :)

Companion Planting

Birdsland Masterplan - with pretty colours!

Thanks to Gavin Prentice from the Shire, I now have a nice, shiny, official colour copy of the draft masterplan for the Birdsland Reserve.

Click the cover to view the document in Google Drive :)

Climate Maps for Australia

I just realised I've not posted these up before and they're such a useful resource for everyone, so I thought I better get onto it quick-smart :)

Belgrave Tree Butcher Strikes Again!

One of our neighbours can always be counted on when you have any dead fall from trees or dead-wooding to be done.  Seeing us try to remove the limb as safely as we could with limited tools, he immediately turned up and took over.

Not that we minded, but the only thing holding his ladder up is a very thin dead branch...

Belgrave Platypus Community Count - tomorrow!!

For those of you who live in and around Belgrave, the first of 3 community count events will be held on Saturday 25th August.


From the facebook page:
"The inaugural Belgrave Platypus Community Count will held this year in spring, the peak of Platypus breeding season. 

We aim to determine how regularly the Belgrave Lake Park section of Monbulk Creek is used by Platypus, how many individuals may be using the creek and help to understand how any potential resident population may change over time.
Most importantly we hope to raise awareness of the threats Belgrave Platypus face, and the opportunities that exist to help them!"


Meet at Belgrave Lake Park at 5pm.

Children are welcome, there will be snacks and hot drinks provided, so wrap up warm and join in the fun :)

For more info, you can contact the wonderfully dedicated and irrepressible Vicki Boyle of Southern Dandenongs Landcare on 9754 4505.

PS - Please RSVP to either the facebook page for Belgrave Platypus above, or directly to Vicki.  Not me, as I'm not responsible for this event:)

SDCN Winter Newsletter Now Online

For those who're not members, the newsletter is now available online - please check it out :)

And, if you're not a member, why not?!

It's only $15 for an annual membership and you save a fortune on plants - plus there's the good advice from the committee members who can generally be found helping out.

You can find us at Birdsland Reserve - see you there Sunday! :)

Birdsland Discovery Day Announced!

I noticed today that Cr. Samantha Dunn has announced the Birdsland Discovery Day on her blog, so I'm presuming that this is the formal date.

Anyhoo... Birdsland Discovery Day is due to take place on Sunday the 9th of September from 11am to 3pm and there's a link to a scanned poster here, thanks to Sam.



It looks like being a fantastic day out and, if it's as successful as the Mini-Beasts Festival was, it's sure to be a great family day.

I will no doubt enjoy it from the nursery where I hope to be as busy as last time!

Perhaps I will see you there? :)

Edible Weeds Talk at Belgrave Library

For those of you who haven't yet come across it, one of the best little reference books I recommend to people who complain about weeds is Edible Weeds and Garden Plants of Melbourne by Doris Pozzi.

For those of you who are interested in learning more and chatting with Doris, she regularly visits the local libraries in Melbourne to give talks and also conducts weed walks throughout the area.

Her next talk at Belgrave Library will be on Thursday 20th September at 2pm.

This is a free event and a very popular one, so please book now if you are interested!

What Wattle?

Just a quick plug for the Belgrave South Community House and their What Wattle? course which runs on Saturday 1st September, considered the first day of Spring and of course, National Wattle Day :)

This course is a hands on workshop where you will be taught some simple guidelines to help identify some of the indigenous wattles in the local area, as well as the weedy intruders.

The course is from 2-4pm and includes light refreshments.  Total cost is $10, or $5 concession.

Book now to avoid disappointment! :)

The Fence...

What can I say?  At least it's half done! :)

Oodles of wonderful wrigglers!

No idea if I've posted this before, but here's what you can expect to see if you look after your soil and keep getting that organic matter in there!

I couldn't remember if I'd posted that particular picture before, but DD1 was asking whether her worms would have had babies by now and how many there would be...  a LOT!

Our soil is a veritable worm spaghetti :D

Treat Peach Leaf Curl Now! Lime-Sulphur Recipe

For those with peach, nectarine, apricot, plum or almond trees in particular, it's almost time to treat your trees before bud burst in order to prevent any hibernating fungal growths from infecting the new growth.

As soon as you see the pink starting to show on the buds, spray your tree - it is not possible to control the fungus once it's entered the leaf, so don't leave it for the buds to open.

Get your garden growing!

This is going to feel like a bit of product placement, but bear with me!

Recently, I was making a return visit to Heronswood and wondering through the vegetable garden area when I heard a group debating what chemical fertiliser products must have been used to have everything growing so well in winter.

Birdsland Reserve

This area of riparian bushland off McNicol Road in Belgrave Heights is important both from a community and an environmental point of view.

On occasion referred to as "the lungs of Belgrave", Birdsland Reserve is a 75 hectare reserved managed by the Yarra Ranges Council and abuts a further 36 hectares that is currently managed by Melbourne Water.  This latter area is referred to officially as the Monbulk Creek Retarding Basin, but to us locals the whole area is known simply as Birdsland.

Unless you have under 5's in your family, in which case it may be fondly known as Duckland :)

"What? Is that it?!"

Garden Diary

The flowering quince is now in full bloom on bare branches and looks amazing!

I'm also loving the colour we have from the African Daisies (Arctotis NOT Senecio pterophorus commonly known as winged groundsel or ragwort and a declared noxious weed in Victoria), camellias, cornflower and English Violets.

Growing at the moment we have the next lot of pea seedlings at about 20cm; the green manure in the bed that will have corn next year is also about that high; tiny little silvebeet that is not appreciating our cats sleeping on it and growing very slowly in it's low light position; lots of flower and herb seedlings,  including coriander, thyme, rosemary and oregano all over the garden; cosmos enjoying the sun of the past few days and starting to flower; aloe vera flower stalks starting to open, the ornamental cherry has buds all over it, and the various melaleucas, callistemons, Goodia lotifolia and Prostanthera lasianthos are also preparing to flower.

I'm keeping a look out for the flower stalks on the orchids and stylidium this year so I can get some slug and snail bait out before they get munched!

On the downside, the sunflowers finally realised it was winter and the cannas are starting to realise it too, with the flowers taking way longer to develop... The feijoa also finished it's harvest about 2 weeks ago.

Shame, as we really enjoyed it this year, but at least we've been able to give the tree a good cut back so we get lots of new growth next year.  The position of the swale and the downpipe divert near to the feijoa should also mean it gets some more water at fruit set this time, so even bigger fruit.  :)

 The nature strip has now been cleared back a bit as we need to add a retaining wall and clear out the area around the steps.  In clearing it, I found a lot of native rushes and sedges, Lomandra filiformis and L. longifolia mainly, but also what I think is Gahnia radula.  We have these now doing well through out the front garden since we stopped mowing it and it's really cool to see our "bush garden" naturally taking shape.

Finally... the fence IS going to be replaced!!

Everyone involved has agreed this weekend is the one and have also purchased the timber etc.  My concern is that the main neighbour we share the fence with has also chosen today to start building his extension and new deck, so I'm not sure how important the fence will be to him.  Better be high on the list though, as I'm running out of time to get the bare rooted fruit trees in and will have to purchase more expensive potted ones, which I can't afford.

National Tree Day Planting with Southern Dandenongs Community Nursery

We had a fantastic day of planting at Birdsland Reserve on Sunday, in support of National Tree Day (NOT I should add, of Planet Ark!), and were really pleased at the turnout - particularly as it was raining for most of the time!

Thanks go to the SDCN Committee, in particular Garrique Pergl for organising it, and of course to Andrew Van Vloten of Parks Victoria who voluntarily came on his day off to supervise the planting.

I also wanted to thank the other Parks Vic volunteers who came along, especially Sandy who, like me and my DH, had to carry a toddler and try to keep a 4 year old (kinda...) dry.  Sandy was a bit more organised and remembered the snacks, which her boys very kindly shared with our girls - lifesaver! :)

A final thank you to members from SDCN, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Cr. Samantha Dunn and family and numerous other non-member volunteers who turned up on the day - often with small children in tow!

Here are some of the pics from the day.  More will appear on the Southern Dandenongs Community Nursery facebook page and website very soon!

Getting started...

Andrew Van Vloten (Parks Victoria) and Garrique Pergl (SDCN)
looking  pleased at how the day is going!

Cr. Samantha Dunn shows that persistence pays off when a
stubborn stake won't go in
Give it what for Sam!

Sea Shepherd volunteers are regular attendendees of SDCN planting days.
Keen, friendly, cheerful (no matter what the weather) and hard working:
You're welcome back any time!

...the end
For this year! :)

Thank you to everyone who allowed me to take pics of them and their children and consented to their use.  I have opted not to include pics of any of the children here, as I specifically asked permission for those to be used by SDCN or Parks Victoria.  If anyone was there would like to see the pics I took of their family, then please get in contact and I would be happy to send them on. :)

Sepp Holzer Films

Here are 3 films on Sepp Holzer's permaculture practices, that I hope you will all find as interesting as I have!

Enjoy :)


Farming with Nature:

Aquaculture:

Terraces and Raised Beds:
(please ignore dodgy initial sound quality - it does get a bit better!  Keep volume down and skip to 15 secs to avoid it :)

Further details on Sepp's hugelkulter raised beds can be found here.

Composting with Paul Taylor of Trust Nature

So many people seem to struggle with composting and many farmers don't believe it's a viable practice for improving agricultural soils.

In Australia, there are several organisations and companies working in the world of regenerative agriculture, who aim to show farmers that composting works and can provide amazing results.

One of these is trustnature.com.au, run by Paul Taylor.

Check out this two part video of Paul's explaining how to make a biodynamically diverse compost to use as a soil improver and for making your own microbe rich compost teas.

Watch out for more from Paul and Trust Nature in future :)

Garden Diary with Winter Colour

I love this time of year!

The Protea with lots of flowers...

So many things growing like crazy and so much colour :)

Protea flower thinking about opening

This past week the protea flowers started to open and will soon be showing us it's lovely fluffy insides, which I can't help but stroke on the way past!








Unfortunately, I have no idea what species of Protea this is, so if anyone knows, please let me know :)

Farm for the Future

Here's a great BBC documentary made by Rebecca Hosking and Tim Green in 2009, which shows how peak oil will affect farming and food distribution.

Rebecca and Tim look at how a return to local food production, diversification in crops, organic methods and regenerative agriculture will help us cope.

dirththemovie.org gets a bit of a facelift!

Just a quick note to say that the Dirt The Movie guys have given their website a bit of a facelift and the new site is now live.

If you haven't already done so, now's the time to check the movie out and learn why soil degradation is such a hot issue.

Or should I say, a dirty word?

Milkwood Permaculture Design Certificate

For those of you who live in or around Sydney and are interested in Permaculture, do yourself a favour and book in for the next Permaculture Design Certificate course run by the guys at Milkwood.

These courses are not cheap, so you really need to be sure that you're choosing one where you will get real value for money: where you will be learning from those with tried and tested PRACTICAL Permaculture experience.

If you attend a Milkwood course, then you can be guaranteed that you are learning from some of the best.

Nick Ritar in particular actually has a background in systems architecture, which enables him to translate the more difficult to understand elements of Permaculture design into a language that the layman can understand.

Here is Nick at the TEDx Event in Canberra last year:

Oh, and here's a great video from Milkwood that shows you what can be expected on the course! :)

Transition Network News

Mike Grenville of the Transition Network has let me know that their new paper, The Transition Free Press, will be available online!

Note that those, like me, who jump the gun will discover that the link in that article doesn't work yet... The first copy should be made available online from lunchtime, UK time, today :)

Ohh...and for those looking for the Rob Hopkins book, The Transition Companion, and not managing to find it locally, it can be ordered from either Green Books, or if you live outside the UK, can be purchased with no postage costs from the fantastic Book Depository.

Australian Native Plants Society (Australia)

The ANPSA is a great online resource for those with an interest in native Australian plants, regardless of level of knowledge.

However, for a novice gardener or internet user, it can be a bit bewildering trying to find your way around, so I thought it might be worthwhile highlighting some of the key resources that are worth checking out.

Hope this helps! :)

More Benefits of Green Manure

I wrote about green manure about a year ago I think, but as I've done some bits and pieces on organic matter lately I thought it might be worth a revisit.

In the simplest terms, a green manure is an annual, leafy plant, that is cut down and dug into the soil at a certain stage in it's growth.

Feed the Soil - Not the Plants

Fertilisers are something that most of you will have a strong opinion on, whether you're in favour or against, however it's a term that can cause some confusion.

The first thing I want to clear up is that a fertiliser is anything that you add to the soil specifically to provide one or more nutrients essential to plant growth.  It can be an organic or an inorganic compound and can be natural or synthetic in origin.

Now's a good time to build a wildlife pond!

For those of you in Yarra Shire, and the Dandenongs in particular, who have been toying with the idea of building a frog pond - now is the best time to do it.

Between Autumn and Winter, the soil will be softer and easier to dig due to all that lovely rain, and the rain itself will fill your pond with lovely, fresh water :)

It also means you will get your pond ready for those frogs that commence the breeding season from Spring.  You might even be lucky and have other species, such as the Eastern Common Froglet, who breed all year round turn up fairly quickly!

Soil Fertility and Organic Matter

Soil quality is the capacity of a soil to accept, store and recycle water, minerals and energy for optimum growth and it's ability to preserve a healthy environment.

The capacity of each soil differs depending on the processes which formed the soil, the weathering etc it has been subjected to since and of course any agricultural practices etc that have taken place on it.  The texture, structure, chemical properties and organic matter content of a soil all of an affect on it's quality.

Garden Diary

Just a quick one today :)

The Protea is in flower now, the buds started to open over the past week.  I also noted that Arum Lillies in the area are starting to flower.  Ours are in pots and used for cut flowers, because although beautiful they are invasive...  I think this is why ours flower a bit later.

We've also been collecting feijoas for the past couple of weeks and are getting a little sick of feijoa crumble!  Will be freezing anything else we get for use later in the year.

Broad beans still flowering like mad, but so far only a few pods off those.  Dwarf beans not seeming to produce any flowers since the first lot, but could be slug / snail damage.  The peas however have done great and we've lots in the freezer to keep up going.

Rain did for the corn.  2 weeks of rain when the corn was tasseling then silking not so great for pollination it seems. Has not stopped us from picking and eating the unpollinated corn cobs though.  Not as sweet as baby corn would be, but larger and still tasty enough to eat fresh.

For those of you growing indigenous plants in the same area as me, this is a great time to be taking cuttings and increasing your stock.

Beautiful sunny day here at the moment and lots of seedlings popping up everywhere - really makes you appreciate life :)

Garden Diary

After a single day of sun, we're back to mostly dull and rainy. The slugs and snails are loving it, and winter is most definitely on the way!

During last week we planted radish, salad and iceberg lettuce in one of the raised bed and have also sown a green manure in the other. That bed will have corn in it next year, so will benefit from the extra boost.

The salad and iceberg lettuce got munched as soon as the seedlings popped their little heads up, so I've re-sown and put my home-made slug rings round them and also put a tiny sprinkling of slug pellets under the large parlsey next to them.  This should give the new seeds a chance to get a good start.

I do NOT like using slug pellets in the garden.  Partly because I am increasingly unhappy with the use of chemicals, but also because I have young children and cats.  Putting a tiny sprinkling under a thick plant should keep the pellets out of everyone's view (and mouths!).

I was also badgered into planting more silver beet for the kids, so this went in one of their tyre gardens (which was previously peas).  Their other tyre garden is still providing tomatoes, so will leave that to see if the plant dies off from the cold weather or not.

The silver beet seedlings have also met with a slug induced death, so I will try and resow these too and secrete some slug pellets in under the rim of the tyre.

The rhubarb is done for the season I think.  We now have two additional heads having grown through the season, so next year should be a good crop :)

Bush garden at the front benefitted from around 40 barrows of matured mulch and some of the composted mulch was also added to the small garden bed we have there for growing herbs that like lots of light and poor soil.  Yeah, I know this means we'll be improving it a bit, but the soil there is water repellent and acidic, so could do with the compost!

Things are now fully clarified in my brain regarding how I want the garden to look and where plants should go.  The verdict?

Wherever they like!
:)

Mulch - is it really a fire risk?

I've just spent a lovely autumn morning with my girls spreading wheelbarrow, after wheelbarrow, of decayed tree-lopper mulch around the large established trees and shrubs in our front garden.  We also took time to remulch the areas around newer plantings and generally enjoy being in our bush garden.

Whilst doing this, a tradie was working on a new car parking area next door and my girls couldn't resist in engaging him in conversation.  They frankly never stop talking, so I'm glad they found a new target for their endless questions!

The tradie had watched me carting wheelbarrows full of mulch around for about 30 minutes before he said: "You do realise mulch is a fire risk here?"

[sigh]

Garden Diary

Slacking a bit at the moment on the garden front, as there's been so much other stuff going on!

Garden Diary

It's obviously the time of year for aphids!

I managed to rid the broad beans of the black aphids, but the corn now has green corn aphids...

Garden Diary

Peas, dwarf beans and broad beans sown on the 8th Feb began flowering over the past week.

That was 6 weeks from being sown, which is pretty bang on and the plants are very healthy.

Getting to Know Your Soil: Colour

Every soil has it's own combinations of characteristics, that affect the nature of your soil and how it performs.  These characteristics can be broadly grouped into three, inter-connected, groupings:

• Physical
• Chemical
• Biological

Lets Get Physical!

The physical characteristics of your soil are the aspects that you can actually see and feel.  They include it's colour, texture, structure, strength, depth and stoniness.

In this post, we're going to look solely at the colour of your soil.

Soil Profiles

"dark, crumbly with a hint of stickiness,

3000 years young, 

seeks similar for fun and good times!"

Okay, so not perhaps the kind of profile you were expecting... :)

The soil profile is a 3-dimensional section of the soil.  In this, you can detect different layers (the 'horizons'), which are influenced by different factors in soil formation (see the 'Soil: What it is and where it came from' post) and also drainage and management practises.  A soil profile can vary from as little as a few centimetres, to many metres in depth.

The different horizons can be detected by being able to distinguish the separate colours, structure and textures from one to the next.  In theory...

Soil: What it is and where it came from

It has always amazed me how many of us are ignorant of the earth we stand on.

Even gardeners are often confused about where their soil came from, what type it is and how it can affect the plants that they grow.  Many will follow standard instructions on adding sand to clay to help it drain, and lime to sweeten it, without really understanding why they're doing it or the effect these actions may have.

So, to try and increase our knowledge a bit, this is going to be the first of a series of posts designed to give the average Joe (or Wayne if you're an Aussie!), a good working knowledge of soil.

Glyphosate: a revisit

Back in the UK when I was a lowly agri student, the prospect of reducing costs in an agriculture enterprise by being able to happily spray a broad spectrum herbicide, that apparently had no affect on fauna or the soil, and having crops that were resistant to this, was interesting.

I had always been uncomfortable with the use of chemicals, but willing to use them in certain situations, when I could ensure that they were being used as safely as possible.  So, to me, glyphosate was "just another chemical".  One of the many that were used in agriculture.

Weeds: a revisit

I've just come back to writing this blog after a bit of an absence, and found that my views on some things have grown and, perhaps, matured.

For example, the What are weeds? post I wrote originally for the purposes of the HomeOne forum and then duplicated here.

Since writing it, I have decided I am in fact happy to have dandelions in my veg and flower beds too!  

What is our greatest terrestial carbon reservoir?

For as long as I can remember, the world has been obsessed with the protection of rain forests.  As the threat of global climate change becomes reality, we are now obsessed with things like pollution levels, carbon capture and our own individual carbon footprints.

The other day I was told by a lecturer that an increase in terrestrial carbon levels (that stored in the soil and vegetation worldwide) of 15% would reverse the impact of fossil fuel pollution that has occurred since the industrial revolution.

My take on organic gardening...

A question I'm asked often, is: "where do you stand on organic gardens?".

Generally, I answer this with a smile and a dismissive: "on the soil of course!".

The reason for this awkwardness is not to be rude or to belittle the questioner in any way, it's simply to cover up my own embarrassment because, to be honest, I haven't yet made up my mind.

Sustainable Gardening Australia (SGA)

I just wanted to throw a wee nod in here for SGA. :)

I think they're excellent and I love watching their Footprint Flicks with the ever enthusiastic Helen Tuton (AKA The Barefoot Gardener).  Helen specialised in soil science and sustainable soil management, so she's a girl after my own heart.

Anyway, the Footprint Flicks are entertaining and a good starting point for those in particular who want to increase their knowledge in certain areas, so please take a look.

As for Helen, she hasn't done much on her own blog, but you can follow her posts and those of the other SGA writers on their site.  Helen's "In Your Patch" posts are good for those of us who're not entirely sure what we should be planting or doing in our garden and give a good summary by climate.

SGA also provide workshops and training, produce booklets and have an online shop.  I like the Home Harvest Booklet, which is a good read for those who are completely new to gardening, especially growing their own food, and don't know where to start.

Why not take a look?
:)

Myrtle Rust

Myrtle Rust, the Uredo rangelii fungal pathogen, was first discovered in NSW at a cut flower production property.  This was in late April 2010.

Action was taken quickly to try to prevent it's spread: a quarantine area was established around the property; affected plants were sprayed with a fungicide, before being removed and destroyed; movements of people and plants to and from neighbouring properties were traced; a surveillance program was put in place; properties approved to import plants in the family Myrtaceae were investigated, but no signs of disease were detected.

Myrtle rust on a Melaleuca paperbark (courtesy of the DPI)

Digging the Dandenongs

I've had people ask me about the title for this blog, which I had thought was mostly self explanatory, but for those who don't get it...

There's a little bit of a dual meaning, or if you prefer, a play on words. :)

The Beginning

We moved into our little hill cottage in the Dandenongs on 30th October 2009 and loved it instantly!