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- I was reminded recently that with mushroom season is
here and that you must cut mushrooms to harvest them and not pull them up.
Pulling them is akin to harvesting flowers by pulling the shrub up. If the
mycelia or root system is removed you have effectively stopped the mushrooms
from coming again in that patch, so use a knife to collect your mushies.
- A reader is curious as to why she cannot purchase
Russell Lupin seed this year. In fact you haven’t been able to for at
least the past three years, because AQIS have listed it as a restricted
import that means you have to pay about $800 to import even one packet,
since it must go into a certified quarantine station and be grown on for a
year before the approved clean seed is released to the importer. Only a
large seed importer would bother and sales of Russell Lupins are obviously
too small to warrant the cost. Diggers Club however have it from
Melbourne-collected seed, so it’s legal to import to SA. Email
orders@diggers.com.au
or phone (03) 5987 1877.
Crickets also trouble the same reader and while they
provide some amusement to her cats in the game of chase, she is looking to
control their nightly chirping. Well they like eating grain and so get 100
grams of roughly ground wheat, barley or corn kernels and shake it up with 5
ml of 25% malathion in a sealed jar, leave overnight to absorb, then
sprinkle it around their hiding places. The cats won’t be interested and
the crickets will succumb.
Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA-SA) are looking
for participants for their “Green Reserve” over 40’s team of tree
planters who are receiving the New Start Allowance and prepared to
contribute 2 days a week for a 6 month block at local sites, planting trees,
pruning and culling weeds in Conservation Reserves and roadsides. Enquires
to 8212 0777.
For the younger troupe, Conservation Volunteers
(CVA-SA) are seeking volunteer tree planters to plant the Southern Freeway
all winter. They provide a shuttle bus to take folk there and back and there
are no daily costs involved. Very popular with backpackers and long-term
tourists, enquires to (08) 8212 0777. If reading this from offshore phone
**-61-8-8212-0777 to enquire.
It’s garlic-planting time from now and for the next
two months. If you think you don’t have room, they thrive and so will your
roses when planted side-by-side. The volatile fragrance from the garlic
keeps soft-bodied creatures like aphids and thrips away and the grey leaves
compliment the roses.
I noticed this week that some of Annie’s roses and
the Chrysanthemums have heavy infestations of black aphids that even hungry
predators cannot control. I washed some off with a jet of water and some
have returned, but so late in their season I’m encouraged not to spray,
since the small insect eating birds really rely on the aphids going into
winter, so spare them a thought too.
I visited the International Melbourne Flower and Garden
Show recently and was staggered at how impersonal their event was. The
internet appears to be having more effect on gardeners that I imagined, at
least in Melbourne. The only trade displays were those with an internet
presence and the majority of exhibits were from Florists and Landscape
designers and not nurseries or even seed merchants. Even at the Mount
Gambier Field days last week, several nurseries pulled out to concentrate on
their site business, rather than attend a garden show and deal with real
people.
It’s time to be searching out suppliers of those
dwarf Asiatic Liliums for a Christmas display. Few bulbs are as reliable and
the modern cultivars are sensational, with brilliant red, yellow and of
course traditional white flowers that provide a lavish touch in the weeks
leading up to Christmas.
The oak trees or all sorts are shedding their acorns on
the roadsides in the hills at present, but if you want to grow some from
those acorns, they need to be fresh, as the ‘nut’ only remains viable
for a short time. Sow onto a very organic media and leave it outside in your
coldest aspect. They chit or make a root quickly, but wait until spring to
make a stem.
Crickets and earwigs are particularly active at this
time of year especially is you mulch your garden heavily or leave a lot of
leaf litter lying about. That provides them with ideal cover and a protected
breeding ground. One easy form of control is to rake up the leaves and
compost and mulch both over winter. The soil will warm more quickly without
the mulch and leaves and you’ll have good aged compost to put back on your
garden beds in spring.
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