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- Gardeners are a conspiratorial lot. I planted some Youngberries down the
side of the house alongside of the rainwater tank and now Annie’s
convinced that it’s so I can eat them before anyone else knows they are
ripe! Well folks they grow better on rainwater, so that’s my excuse, it’s
closer to the tank and they will tolerate some shade too.
- We have a tall, though not very old Lemon Scented Gum in our back lawn,
that has more dead wood in it than living green branches, yet it’s
flowering it’s head off at the moment. A last hurrah maybe? Anyhow I’m
convinced the neighbour is trying to kill it to create more sun for his
Kalamata olive tree planted on my fence line. I contemplated removing the
gum or at least the dead wood, but everytime I stand there saw in hand, I
had a flock of birds up there looking down pitifully at me.
- I haven’t the heart to remove a single dead branch with all those little
insect eaters up there doing silent service in my garden, just for the sake
of my horticultural pride. So that’s why I have an ‘almost dead tree’
in the yard.
- I used to use Bordeaux Mixture on my vines to stem the spread of fungal
diseases and some will notice that in my column last week I recommended the
use of PestOil™ for that purpose rather than Bordeaux Mixture. Well the
Bordeaux contains copper compounds of course and that’s why it’s an
effective control of fungal diseases, but that copper also kills your
earthworms. Now I figure I can use something other than Bordeaux and still
control mildew and black spot and keep my worms burrowing.
- I was chuffed recently when Unley City Council came along to do their
seasonal kerbside spray for weeds and when they hit my weed-free nature
strip, they turned the unit off. Thank’s fellas, all nature strip owners
appreciate that.
- Only snag is I’d staked out some local verges to do some filming for
ABC-TV’s Gardening Australia this week and guess what, all the patches are
now dead weeds. Except for the Stinging Nettles, they survive glyphosate for
some reason. Asking home gardeners if you can film their weeds, gets a very
strange reaction! Reeks conspiratorial!
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