(Via Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas)

Posted by admin to Gardening on 2008-03-27, 14:47:44

Imagine your garden five years from now? The veggie patch is going stronger than ever, the compost is rotting just nicely and the residue from all those herbicides you used in the last century has finally dissipated. Going green wasn't as hard as you thought...

Or, would the picture look very similar to today? Even though you started out with the very best of intentions, achieving 'GREEN-ness' just seemed a little out of reach. While you did try natural pesticides their success was very limited and short-lived. You're left wondering whether your paranoia levels have increased but you swear that your exotics have now become the biggest target to every critter that ever lived.

It amuses me somewhat, the effort that organisers of LIVE EARTH, EARTH DAY and EARTH HOUR are going to when honestly, it all comes back to us...the individual. We can make commitments, evangelise our friends, sit in the dark for an hour - I'm sure we've been kept in the dark longer than that - and spruik the many virtues of going green but unless we DO we've got a swallow's fart chance of improving this world we call home.

What are we missing? Measurement!

We talk about what we will DO but very rarely communicate what we have DONE. We fail to keep ourselves accountable to the "THIS-IS-WHAT-I-WILL-DO" statements we brandish at dinner parties.

To get the ball rolling here's a list of things I plan to achieve in my quest to GO GREEN within the next 5 years.

• Reduce my lawn by half (currently 275 sq.m) and replace with some paving and substitute groundcovers
• Replace my gas guzzling mower with a manual-powered alternative
• Start my backyard aquaponics setup
• Replace many of my cottage plants with drought-tolerant alternatives and/or veggies
• Replace 90% of my exotics with indigenous plant species
• Plant 2 more fruit trees
• Use only my own compost for potting mix, mulch, soil improver and fertilisers
• Watch "An Inconvenient Truth" without gagging

and here's what I've done so far;

• Created a 3 bin compost system for dealing with garden and kitchen refuse
• Proactively discarded and not used synthetic herbicides and pesticides in the past 5 years
• Planted more indigenous species to encourage birds, butterflies and other helpful insects into the garden as natural pest controls
• Used only cloth gloves - which are later composted - rather than synthetic fabrics
• Reduced my watering to more acceptable levels
• Bought most of our landscaping materials as recycled rather than purchase new

Not bad but still a long way from where I would like to be.

So, how are you going? Is your garden getting GREEN-er and will it be more organic in 5 years time? Are you making changes now that will impact your garden for the future and make it not only more green but more sustainable as well?

Tips and Helps for Going Green

Here are some resources (aff.) that may even help you in your quest for going green;

• 50 Plus One Tips for Going Green - Alicia Marie Smith
• Living Green: A Practical Guide to Simple Sustainability - Greg Horn
• It's Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living - Crissy Trask
• The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time - Elizabeth Rogers, Thomas M. Kostigen

(Via Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas)

Posted by admin to Gardening on 2008-03-24, 14:23:35

Whenever we see pictures of hanging flower baskets you can almost always note that they are a combination of violas, pansies, petunias, heartsease or a myriad of other flowering annuals. The reason they're so popular is basically because they're easy to grow, flower abundantly and can simply be replaced once they've finished their performance.

Well, as promised in my recent post; How to make Hanging Flower Baskets I would introduce a few more alternatives for you to consider. While you won't end up with the classic suspended flowering ball, you will create some interest that is possibly a little more different to what everyone else is doing.

I want to introduce you to my Correa 'Dusky Bells'. It resides in one of my garden beds but I have been debating the notion to move it into a hanging basket. The reason is quite simple.

Firstly, while it is not classed as a groundcover it fails to exceed more than 40cm in height. It spreads to between 80cm - 1m wide and sports such spectacular evergreen foliage all year round that makes it an attractive shrub.

But, the real reason for its possible move to a hanging basket are its proficient flowers. However, while it blooms is head off for nearly six months of the year (through the winter months here in Oz), unless you're a pygmy you will very rarely spot them. In fact, I only found them yesterday while I was raking leaves and had to lift one of its branches to get underneath it. Lo and behold it was packed with these gorgeous pink bells dangling under the foliage.

So, while this correa sucks as a garden specimen, it could be an awesome standout in a flowering hanging basket viewed from beneath. Looking up into its foliage would far exceed the view from above because you wouldn't miss any of these awesome little bells.

Herein lies the secret to our first part of producing hanging flower baskets - bells! They mainly all droop downwards and are best viewed from under the foliage than above it. So, the question becomes which plants are small enough to keep in a hanging basket and yet produce bell profusions?

Here's a quick list;

• Correas
• Darwinias
• Hellebores
• Campanulas - especially C. cochleariifolia
• and obviously, fuschias

There's a couple to start you off. The next part of the Hanging Flower Baskets series will look at some of the trailers - though they may not all be bloomers.

(Via Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas)

Posted by admin to Gardening on 2008-03-24, 14:23:35

Whenever we see pictures of hanging flower baskets you can almost always note that they are a combination of violas, pansies, petunias, heartsease or a myriad of other flowering annuals. The reason they're so popular is basically because they're easy to grow, flower abundantly and can simply be replaced once they've finished their performance.

Well, as promised in my recent post; How to make Hanging Flower Baskets I would introduce a few more alternatives for you to consider. While you won't end up with the classic suspended flowering ball, you will create some interest that is possibly a little more different to what everyone else is doing.

I want to introduce you to my Correa 'Dusky Bells'. It resides in one of my garden beds but I have been debating the notion to move it into a hanging basket. The reason is quite simple.

Firstly, while it is not classed as a groundcover it fails to exceed more than 40cm in height. It spreads to between 80cm - 1m wide and sports such spectacular evergreen foliage all year round that makes it an attractive shrub.

But, the real reason for its possible move to a hanging basket are its proficient flowers. However, while it blooms is head off for nearly six months of the year (through the winter months here in Oz), unless you're a pygmy you will very rarely spot them. In fact, I only found them yesterday while I was raking leaves and had to lift one of its branches to get underneath it. Lo and behold it was packed with these gorgeous pink bells dangling under the foliage.

So, while this correa sucks as a garden specimen, it could be an awesome standout in a flowering hanging basket viewed from beneath. Looking up into its foliage would far exceed the view from above because you wouldn't miss any of these awesome little bells.

Herein lies the secret to our first part of producing hanging flower baskets - bells! They mainly all droop downwards and are best viewed from under the foliage than above it. So, the question becomes which plants are small enough to keep in a hanging basket and yet produce bell profusions?

Here's a quick list;

• Correas
• Darwinias
• Hellebores
• Campanulas - especially C. cochleariifolia
• and obviously, fuschias

There's a couple to start you off. The next part of the Hanging Flower Baskets series will look at some of the trailers - though they may not all be bloomers.

(Via Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas)

Posted by admin to Gardening on 2008-03-23, 15:03:48

Time-lapse photography has always impressed me. I just imagined there was someone spending a lot of time behind a camera taking heaps of photos as a flower began to bloom or an egg started to crack open. It seemed logical to capture these incredible events, but who really has the patience for this stuff?

Well it seems that one guy, Ross Ching, not only has the patience for it but is also willing to explain how he does it. If you're wondering whether he has any credibility check out his latest work Eclectic 2.0. While the images are stunning it simply takes your breath away when you realise that this was all performed using his DSLR and not a video camera.

So, you want to know how he did it? Check out his <a href="
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/how-i-made-a-time-lapse-movie-with-my-dslr/" target="_blank">guest post at the Digital Photography School blog.

Which got me thinking, is it possible to do time-lapse photography with my non-DSLR? I've previously introduced my Olympus SP-560 UZ - which I still think is an awesome camera IMHO. After checking out what Ross has done, I can't imagine that it would be too hard to achieve with my digital camera.

Sure enough, it's not. The SP-560 comes complete with, as many digital cameras now do, time lapse as an option. It will let me take up to 99 shots with intervals of up to 99 minutes. Provided my batteries are fully-charged and I have some continuous lighting available it is possible to film a flower blossoming over a period of almost 7 days.

Knowing one has the power and using it are often two completely different paradigms. Yet I'm keen to put this feature to the test. It's now just a matter of finding a worthy subject. However I'm guessing there are also some other limitations to the equation.

1. Security - I can't just leave this propped up and unattended in the front garden.
2. Weather and/ or condensation - this could be a real problem especially if the time-lapse period extended throughout the night, which is very possible given the length of time some blooms take to open. There is an after-market waterproof housing (aff.) available and probably worth the effort if this is going to become something I explore more.
3. Batteries - obviously extending the camera's usage over a long period will drain the batteries even though it does go into sleep mode between intervals. The best bet for this is some high mAh rated rechargeables and even replacing them between days may be a helpful option.
4. Lighting - unless you want to use the effects of changed lighting over the time lapse period you may want to install some lighting that will be consistent. This benefit will obviously take some extra thinking through as well especially when it comes to the power source required.

So there you have it. While your images may not come up as good as Ross's - or they may even be better - time-lapse photography is not out of reach for most home gardeners. I can't wait to see some projects from other gardeners as you explore this option.

(Via Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas)

Posted by admin to Gardening on 2008-03-20, 16:03:51

Being Good Friday it is only logical to take a look at the Ultimate Gardener. And I'm calling Jesus the 'Ultimate Gardener' because if we measured our gardening skills against his, we would all fall far short of his talents.

I know some of you are already thinking I've entered 'wacko' stage - Jesus wasn't a gardener! If anything we might get some carpentry tidbits from the Messiah but gardening, now there's another dimension. But, like all people in the spotlight these days, they all seem to have multi-facets. Take Jamie Oliver for example. TV Chef, restaurateur, writer, saviour of healthy school lunches etcetera, etcetera. He is now a gardening expert as well.

Fortunately, Jesus' skills didn't come because of his celebrity status. He had those very early on. If you're trying hard to follow me then stick around and I'll share some examples of his gardening acumen.

It all started in a garden

Firstly, if you ascribe to the Creation theory, of which I am a proponent, then you will notice that life on earth started in a garden. For those who like to go back to grass-roots gardening then doing it in the buff is certainly not as unnatural as one might think - check here and here.

In God's first piece of gardening advice he told the man and woman to;

"...fill the earth and subdue it." Gen 1:28b [NIV]

As gardeners we all know that this is our greatest challenge - subduing the earth. Leave it unattended for a week or two and you will notice how well you're going with subduing nature!

Fertilising and Planting Tips

We all know that no gardener is worth their 'salt' unless of course they can tend plants well. Anyone can stick a plant in the ground, but it's a gardener who can help it grow. Here's Jesus' gardening tips on planting fig trees;

Then Jesus told this story: "A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. Finally, he said to his gardener, 'I've waited three years, and there hasn't been a single fig! Cut it down. It's just taking up space in the garden.' "The gardener answered, 'Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I'll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.'" Luke 13:6-9 [NLT]

Removing Problem Plants

It's one thing to give a plant a second chance - quite another to know when it is time to remove the darned thing. Jesus timing was always impeccable. I'm far too merciful with my plants hoping that they might just come good one day. Jesus realised that some plants weren't worth their time in the garden and he dealt with them swiftly.

In the morning, as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem, He was hungry, and He noticed a fig tree beside the road. He went over to see if there were any figs, but there were only leaves. Then He said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" And immediately the fig tree withered up. Mat 21:18-19 [NLT]

Quicker than trying to dig it up and mulch it!

He took time to smell the roses

Gardeners can sometimes get all worked up about their gardens that they often forget to take time and enjoy the fruits of their labour. Jesus understood the value of gardens, plants and flowers and extolled their virtues whenever he could. Take this tidbit he shared at a conference for a few thousand people;

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? "And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? Mat 6:27-30 [NLT]

He gave credit to the REAL gardeners

Only sometimes will a gardener thank, or even attribute their gardening acumen, to those who have come before. Jesus knew the pecking order and often pointed upwards when asked of his tutelage. Here's an example;

"I am the true grapevine, and My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of Mine that doesn't produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in Me. Joh 15:1-4 [NLT]

More gardening tips with Jesus

This isn't where it ends. Jesus was a font of gardening knowledge and had many things to share. Take these for example;

• He knew how to compost - Luke 14:35 [NLT] Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown away. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!"
• He understood plant location - Mat 13:8 [NLT] Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!
• How seeds grow - John 12:24 [NLT] I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels--a plentiful harvest of new lives.
• And even allotment gardening - John 4:38 [NLT] I sent you to harvest where you didn't plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest."

Jesus was the complete package - the Ultimate Gardener. If you haven't got his latest gardening book (aff.) then you might want to begin sourcing the best gardening tips EVER!

(Via Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas)

Posted by admin to Gardening on 2008-03-19, 15:08:20

Creating hanging baskets that ooze flowers from their very pores may seem a little daunting, especially if you've never tried it before. Yet, come the end of spring towards the start of summer and the 'Ooohs' and 'Aahhs' you receive from besotted visitors will make the challenge seem...well, less challenging I suspect.

Growing flowers in hanging baskets may seem to some as a gardening freak show - plants were indeed made for the ground not the air, unless they're epiphytic of course. But don't discount this form of gardening for it forces you to see your plants through 'new eyes'. Rather than looking down on them you may find yourself enjoying them from underneath or at least eye level. Perspective changing, really.

The Basket or the Flowers?

So, where do you start when making hanging flower baskets? Should the basket come first, or the plant? Or, are we going to argue semantics like the age-old debate, "The chicken or the egg?".

For me, it's the basket but only because I don't have many of them - yet! So if I want to start a new floral hanging basket, I will shop around for the basket to complement the surroundings rather than the plant. But even that's not entirely true, because I have had some hanging baskets that were specifically chosen for the plant - like strawberry planters, as an example.

My current fascination is hanging planters that resemble mythical gods where their hair can be grown with suitable plants. This is a classical example of the planter coming before the plant.

Yet in most cases the hanging basket will be chosen before the flowers because you will either (a) already have the basket, (b) have a style that you are trying to retain, or (c) you find a gorgeous basket at your local nursery and feel the need to fill it with something beautiful - though you're not sure what that might be just yet.

Obviously there are some considerations when sourcing a hanging basket.

1. Size - too big and it will detract from the rest of your garden. Too small and it could get lost.
2. Weight - and structure required - when the hanging basket is complete and the flowers are blooming profusely, will it still be able to be supported?
3. Location - full-sun, part-shade, full-shade? Plus, will it be knocked about by the prevailing afternoon wind?
4. Longevity - will the hanging basket last longer than one season?
5. Maneuverability - in relation to the Size and Weight issues is whether this planter is able to moved by yourself or will it require a small team of weightlifters to prop it in place?
6. Material - will it need a liner or is it already lined? Will you need anything else to start this project?

Ok. So you've chosen your hanging basket/s after weeks of scouring through the local garden centres for just the right one. Now what?

Adding flowers to those hanging baskets

Plant choice is paramount to making this project a success. You will find that the location of your planter will depend entirely upon which plants you choose. It's no good purchasing shade lovers if they're sitting in full-sun all day and vice versa.

Over the Easter weekend, I will list some great plants that work well in flowering hanging baskets from the sun-seekers to the shade-lovers; the trailers to the clumpers, so stick around.

In the meantime, get some premium potting mix (whether it's store-bought or home-made), some liquid fertiliser, a couple handfuls of bonemeal and set up a trickle system - unless you prefer other methods for watering plants.

(Via Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas)

Posted by admin to Gardening on 2008-03-17, 14:12:47

As I mentioned yesterday, one of our night's away had been paid for by some friends. Their rationale for such a blessing was because I had helped them landscape their garden and given them some tips regarding plant choices. Like that was hard!

As a quick disclaimer, this is not my type of garden. However, I'm realising over the years, that not everybody prefers my type of garden. Our friends aren't overly-enthusiastic gardeners, yet they were keen to explore something a little different than the usual flax, cordylines and lilli-pilli hedges that abound with new homes.

They wanted to highlight this red wall at the very front of the house so I suggested that they invest in some Silver Torch cactus, Cleistocactus strausii, a Bolivian native. The problem was sourcing cacti that were of a decent size worthy of making an immediate impact. Silver Torches can be bought at some local nurseries but they are so small they would have hardly made an appearance over the rim of the container, plus they want $20+ for each one.

So you can imagine that sourcing three of these beauties at a worthwhile size was not going to be cheap. And not surprisingly as they're not the fastest growers. While they can get up to 3m high it will probably take a few decades - depending on conditions - to get there.

Fortunately, I had driven past a house a few weeks earlier and noticed that they had a few clumps of Silver Thorns in their ramshackle front garden. So I mentioned this to my friends who then went and knocked on the door and graciously asked begged for some divisions, if possible.

To their amazement the owner was happy to dig them up and repot them and only charged them $30 for all three. In fact, this gardener was ecstatic that someone had found something in her garden that was worthwhile and was more than happy to oblige. It was a win-win for both parties and all because my friends had risked to ask the question.

Six months later all three of them are doing fine, albeit one of them has a kink. But apart from that, there's no holding these beautiful cacti back. They will complement this colour scheme even if it fades or peels over the years.

It just goes to show that it does pay to ask. If my friends had sourced these from a nursery at this size they could have been paying hundreds of dollars. Yet because they asked they saved a packet.

(Via Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas)

Posted by admin to Gardening on 2008-03-10, 15:38:18

According to this article in yesterday's Age we are in danger of losing some of our most helpful natural amphibians. Of the 220 species that reside in Australasia, 47 are now on the endangered list.

The corroboree frog is so scarce that scientists believe there may be no more than 50 individual frogs living in the wild. And they're the lucky ones. It is estimated that possibly 165 of the world's species may already have become extinct.

Recently, when trekking to a favourite camping spot, we noticed that the site had come under the local authority with signs informing us that area had now become a safe zone for a local frog. A little miffed, we assumed that it was just the government trying to control more land - and conspiracy theorists may still conclude that is the case. Yet, while us humans love to enjoy the outdoors it appears the outdoors no longer enjoys us.

The problem is that we're using too much of their habitat. Areas that were once popular breeding grounds for these little amphibians have been filled in and developed for human dwellings. Our desire to get closer to nature is becoming the source of nature's downfall.

But we shouldn't beat ourselves up too much. Our frogs are also facing a more sinister foe in the form of a fungal disease known as Chytrid Fungus which still has no cure. The epidemic is threatening to wipe out many species unless something is done about it.

Fortunately, our scientists are coming together on this issue and announced 17 projects to help 14 different types of frog. Their coordinated efforts to curb the decline will result in many of these endangered frogs being bred in captivity and hopefully released back into the wild once the threat of disease has passed.

Fingers-crossed we may see the return of these very important amphibians into our ecosystems. Hopefully their numbers may also increase.

(Via Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas)

Posted by admin to Gardening on 2008-03-06, 14:00:05

I don't know about you, but for me hearing people extol my garden gives me such a boost. Admittedly it's one of the reasons why I enjoy blogging about my gardening exploits so much. Sharing images of my plants, garden features and beautiful aspects usually results in applause and positive comments - for which I'm truly grateful as I'm sure we all are.

Yet, I noticed something quite different one evening during this week. I was out in the front garden, during twilight, dead-heading some of my roses and other perennials when I noticed a lady approaching with her young son leading the way. I recognised her as a neighbour who lives a few houses down the street but whom we've had very little to do with.

We exchanged pleasantries as she passed by and then she made the statement, "You have a wonderful garden." I thanked her, as modestly as I could after hearing such an endearing comment, and then began dwelling on her remark long after she'd continued by.

Somehow it was radically different from the comments I get on my blog. Somehow I felt strangely proud of my garden and I began to scour it with a new set of eyes. This random comment had lifted my spirit immeasurably - as one can understand viewing their garden at the end of summer.

Why had her encouraging comment impacted me so deeply? As I reflected on this very question I began to understand that her praise had come from someone who had seen my garden "warts and all" - and still liked it.

When I post pictures on my blog of my garden or my plants, I get to choose what you get to see. I can photograph plants from different angles to highlight a plant's 'better side'. I can choose to not publish the photos of plants that are suffering or look straggly. Or, I can choose not to use any photos from my own garden and explore Flickr's bountiful array instead - just like the one above.

And while that's all wonderful, a positive comment from someone who can see the holes in the garden bed - or worse still, an empty bed - plus notice the rose that's dying in the corner and the brown patch in the lawn, seems far more uplifting.

I guess that hearing a comment like this from someone who's obviously seen my garden more than once, and more than in the twilight hours, seems to carry a little more weight. My friends also comment on how much they enjoy my garden - but they're my friends. As if they're going to tell me they don't like it!

So I'm truly thankful for the praise it shall keep me going through the next two seasons until we ransom spring back from the Northern Hemisphere.

When was the last time you received a positive comment about your garden that altered your heartbeat for a second? Can you remember the comment and why it was so special coming from them?

(Via Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas)

Posted by admin to Gardening on 2008-03-03, 14:14:37

To be honest, I'm a big fan of sheep manure. It's a deserved attraction because, as animal manures go, it has countless benefits - one of the major ones being it won't stink out the garden and be the cause of neighbour angst.

Odour aside, sheep manure is an incredibly versatile animal manure. One of the benefits that I like the most is its ability to be used for more than just a soil ammendment. As it's so cheap here in Australia, being the 2nd highest producer of sheep in the world (China -1st, NZ - 6th, UK - 7th and US - 11th), I've started using it as mulch. Mulch? Are you sure that's wise?

Sure it is. Sheep manure is low in nitrogen - compared to other animal manures - so it won't burn your plants. Plus, it's a natural slow-release fertiliser and this is part of the versatility of using it as a mulch. I usually pour it on to about a depth of 50mm (2") ensuring that it doesn't touch the plant's stem. Then I just water it as I would normally reticulate the garden.

I've found a local supplier where I can get guaranteed weed-free marbles at a rate of $10 for a 100L bag which is fairly cheap (comparably cow manure costs $8 for 25L and chicken approx $11+ for 25L). The only down-side is that the manure is very dry and takes a few days before it will retain enough moisture to begin breaking down.

Some gardeners will only ever dig it in to their beds arguing that unless you do it will become so hard that it will never break down. This is not the case, and when piled as high as I do you can dig into the manure mulch within a few weeks and see the layer directly above the soil beginning to decompose.

So what are the myriad of benefits for using sheep manure;

• Natural slow-release fertiliser
• Can be used as an organic mulch
• Low-odour
• Easy to handle
• Relatively inexpensive
• Fairly easy to obtain and most providers usually offer door-side delivery
• Lower in nitrogen than other manures yet still high in Phosphorous and Potassium - great for plant growth
• Depending on the source can be obtained weed-free
• Looks great

While I do use other manures in my garden - chicken in the veggie patch, horse and cow as additives for the compost heap - I much prefer sheep manure in my garden beds.