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- Last week I suggested drenching your Pencil Pines with Confidor or Rogor
to eradicate the pernicious "Cypress Bark Weevil" however it seems
that the term ‘drenching’ is not widely understood in urban Adelaide
(not enough Cockies sorry read that as farmer and grazier if you are not
Australian) out there these days eh?). Anyhow that just means to mix the
recommended strength of Confidor or Rogor and water it into the area of the
root zone. You may need to scratch around to find the small feeder roots,
but they take the active agent up quickly and zappo to the borer larvae
inside!
- Vine caterpillars are starting to multiply rapidly at present and can be
controlled by spraying the Baccilus thuringiensis which infects the
caterpillars’ stomach and while it kills them, the predatory birds and
insects that eat the dead caterpillars do not get affected. Marketed as
Dipel® H.G. bio-insecticide.
- If it you want to protect other sorts of caterpillars or moths that
frequent your garden, then only spray Dipel® onto the target vines and then
your orange Monarchs will fly free.
- It’s time to plant spring onions now for those salad days and here’s
how. Remove 10cm (4") of your topsoil and put it aside, then spread
superphosphate at 200 grams per square metre over the area you want to grow
your onions, then replace top soil and line out your ‘Lisbon White’
spring onion seedlings on top.
- If you are looking for a few hints on controlling the bugs in your garden
at present that do not rely on sprays, try planting Nasturtium seed near
your vegetables and fruit trees, where they can scramble up a fence or over
the ground.
- Also plant any of the old-fashioned geranium or pelargonium shrubs under
or near your apricots and peaches. I saw these in Allan & Muriel Norton’s
pest free organic Black Forest SA garden recently and they reminded me
reminded that I’d advised them after having seen the results in an old
mallee garden many years before. What goes around comes around eh?
- It’s time to plant spring onions now for those salad days and here’s
how. Remove 10cm (4") of your topsoil and put it aside, then spread
superphosphate at 200 grams per square metre over the area you want to grow
your onions, then replace top soil and line out your ‘Lisbon White’
spring onion seedlings on top.
- If you are looking for a few hints on controlling the bugs in your garden
at present that do not rely on sprays, try planting Nasturtium seed near
your vegetables and fruit trees, where they can scramble up a fence or over
the ground. The old-fashioned geranium or pelargonium shrubs when planted
under or near your apricots and peaches, keep a lot of bugs away too.
- Vine caterpillars are starting to multiply rapidly at present and can be
controlled by spraying the Baccilus thuringiensis which infects the
caterpillars’ stomach and while it kills them, the predatory birds and
insects that eat the dead caterpillars do not get affected. Marketed as
Dipel® H.G. bio-insecticide.
- If your parsley is bolting to seed at present, there’s nothing to do
other than plant some more seedlings or sow some seed. It is a biennial and
will flower after two years then die out, but best practice is to plant
fresh seedlings every year then you have a seamless supply.
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