There is a lot of Cupressus bark beetle or borer about at the moment too. I looked back over past issues of this column for the past 3 years and it has been a problem at this time each year. The tell tale signs are a dead branch broken off by wind and on closer examination it is totally eaten through by a white witchetty grub or larvae which is one stage in the life cycle of the black and brown Cupressus bark beetle, that will escape your detection.

Probably the only form of control is to use Confidor or Rogor as a drench under the root zone of the affected trees in their period of growth, which is now. Spraying with these systemic insecticides is not realistic, since the waxy conifer leaf repels the active agent or by adding enough wetting agent you defoliate the tree and of course the conifers are generally large and difficult to spray anyhow.

I get sent a lot of magazines and newsletters from gardening clubs and fanatics from all over the place, but one that is always a treat is a local, The Living Soil, from the Soil Association of SA. This month they tell me that “Catnip” Nepeta cataria, has been found by the Iowa State University in the USA to repel more mosquitos and cockroaches than the active agent in most fly sprays (DEET). I’ve been most unkind to Catnip over the years too, just because it attracts cats, which go delirious rolling about in it!

I’ve spotted a Thrips invasion this week on my Daylilies. As soon as I get on top of the snails, in move the Thrips. Tiny cream coloured sapsuckers that are almost invisible to the naked eye and only apparent as the tell tale yellow stripes on the spent leaves. When things warm up they also attract ants to the sweet exudates they deposit on the leaves too. A single spray of the systemic Confidor brings control. I’m told garlic sprays work, but they haven’t in Annie’s cottage garden!

Speaking of garlic, mine looked all stripy a few weeks ago, so I dug a few holes nearby, suspecting poor drainage due to the high water table at present and sure enough they are slowly responding, so don’t give up. The holes aid the soil to dry out by the way.

The spring flush of luxurious growth on local lawns, soon fades, unless you are feeding yours right now. The double whammy of organic and water soluble fertilizers gives both an instant effect (great fro self gratification) and the organic provides for a longer term benefit after the initial smell has died down. I saw a local commercial business putting out solid organic pellets on their narrow lawn last week and a week later it still smells! If you use the pulverised pellets on your lawn the smell disappears much faster!

Planting bedding plants where they will eventually spill on to a path or driveway, can be a pleasant task, but while many plants thrive when planted in spring, as summer progresses they look pretty average. The best bedding plants for a path spill that will get pretty hot later in November are Alyssum, especially the white ‘Tiny Tim’ (totally prostrate to 10cm tall), the purple Verbena (prostrate to 4cm tall but will cover 2 square metres with one plant) and the tiny ‘Camelot’ Antirrhinum mixture to 25cm tall. In full sun and radiant heat, these thrive.

I need to apologise to Pedro the Fruitman at the Gananis Bros. Greek market in Bacon Street at Hindmarsh about calling him ‘Con the Fruitier’ on radio last week he is of course Pedro the Fruitman, who propagates the Eggplant trees and they are due in at Gaganis in 3-4 weeks time, so if you want an eggplant tree for rootstock to graft, you’ll need to order one soon. I grafted a couple last week, but only one took, so it’s still a bit early. November seems to be best.

I noticed some of my garlic crop looking all mottled last week and thought surely that cannot be nutrient deficient so I dug one up and noticed the corm or bulb-like root was rotting due to the high soil moisture levels at present. So I replanted it and dug a hole right alongside that has dried the soil out quickly and the vigour is returning. I’d forgotten that’s why they plant garlic on mounds in parts of Europe.

I spotted some ‘Camelot’ Antirrhinum seedlings recently planted on a roadside verge in front of some shops that get a lot of foot traffic and they were flowering their heads off. I recall seeing a similar aspect in Croatia once, where they grew amongst limestone rocks on the roadside and not a sign of rust, which commonly afflicts then in well-tendered gardens. Here is a really hardy bedding plant that we need to take to heart and plant in our exposed curbside gardens.