Photo of the week - Lady and the tramp



 

In amongst my vegetables, there are lots of little creatures going about their day. Just a little bit of patience is all it takes to get a glimpse into their busy world. My favourites to watch are the lady beetles, members of the family Coccinellidae. They are all rounded, most are yellow,orange or red, and have a number of spots on their wing-covers. In my garden, there are 2 common types: the small orange beetles with 2 large black blotches, and the larger yellowish beetles with many small spots.

 



Coccinella transversalis

 

"28-spotted Ladybeetle" Epilachna sumbana

The first is a friendly little fellow, and seems to hang about feasting on the occasional aphid or scale, or the mildew that grows on the leaves of my zucchini and squash. The second actually eats the leaves themselves. My simple rule of thumb for ladybeetles is: A few spots is good. Lots of spots is bad. If in doubt, I tend to think of Cruella DeVille. Even the babies don't look as friendly! See:

 

 

I'm sure in this case you can guess which is the unfriendly visitor just by looking, but if you were in your own garden, just have a look what they're doing. Beetles go through a number of larval stages so it's sometimes difficult to tell who is who, but the tell-tale scraping marks on the leaf are a good sign that this is a leaf-eating beetle.

 

The good news is that in general, they don't eat much. I don't spray the 'bad' insects at my place for fear of scaring off (or killing off) the good ones. If you have a healthy balance in your garden, a few nasty beetles aren't an issue and will only result in a few unsightly half-chewed leaves. Their populations can boom quickly if the weather is right, but birds generally catch up pretty quickly. I have a few larger shrubs and trees growing between the veg for insect hunters to gather in, and as they grow I'm seeing more birds all the time. As always, variety is the key!

 

 

And for those that are curious, my apple tree is still flowering away... sigh...

Photo of the week - friends in the garden

Rainbow lorikeets in our palm tree, feasting on flowers

January is for... out with the old, in with the new!

Now is a great time to celebrate the achievements of the last year, finish off old jobs, start some new jobs and make some new plans!

Back in September's post, I mentioned that the old ugly carport was being removed ( http://hunterharvest.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/september-is-for-celebrating-in-style.html ). We managed this month to finally finish up the new 'carport garden', with the last poles coming out, and the last plants going in. Before planting, we built up the centre beds with good quality soil from the landscape yard to help with drainage and to improve the compacted soil that was the floor of the carport.

The removal of the carport left quite a big opening at the back fence, which is now a large space facing into our neighbours' yard. Thankfully, we know a thing or two about living screens, and planted some fast-growing large shrubs that will give us some privacy (eventually) and provide a nice green background. This area is also designed to be bird attracting, and so the plants were carefully chosen for their habitat and food value. Think nectar-rich flowers, dense or prickly foliage, tasty seeds or flowers to attract insects. To maximise this, there is a lot of variety and little repetition, except for the clumps of groundcovers. To avoid looking too 'hodge-podge' there is a colour scheme of purples and whites, with a couple of pinks, blues and yellows here and there and some interesting foliage for year-round interest. The mix is all native plants, and consists mostly of Grevilleas, Melaleucas, Banksias, Acacias and Callistemon, with plenty of little surprises thrown in. We are hoping to build a pergola and BBQ area on the concrete slab, so I've planted some edible natives like midyim berries, ruby saltbush, muntries and mint bush along that edge for easy access.

Prostanthera cryptandroides (mintbush)

In the back corner we have marked a spot for a garden seat (there's a special one at a local nursery that we're putting money in a jar for) and the middle section of the beds are all low-growing shrubs and groundcovers, 1-1.5 m high so that we can sit in the chair and look over the garden towards the house and pool.

There is also a stepping stone path to the seat made from sandstone offcuts and some home-made mosaic pavers. I love mosaic and have mostly made pots in the past, but the pavers are great fun and not so time-consuming!

A nice thick layer of forest mulch will keep the weeds down and the soil moist, so eventually I won't need to water it much, if at all.

They are already looking better every day and the butterflies have started to visit the little native daisies, I'm so excited to see it all grow and watch the birds playing around instead of the neighbours and their dogs... they will probably appreciate it too!

I have a few favourites among the plants that I'd like to introduce:

Homoranthus decumbens

 

This gorgeous blue-green shrub grows horizontally and forms little cream flowers along the branches like icing on a cake. The colour is fantastic, and insects love the flowers when they come out in spring.

 

Acacia cultriformis

 

 This quirky wattle forms a dense shrub with these interesting wing-shaped phyllodes. The prickly foliage will help to shelter wrens and finches that may want to nest there when the garden is more established.

 

Melaleuca nesophila

A large shrub with fluffy flowers that start out bright purple and fade to almost white, so that there are a number of different shades at one time. I wrote an article about these as part of my internship, you can see it here:
http://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/interns-2012/melaleuca-nesophila.html
Obviously I still have a soft spot for them!


This week Matt also managed to pull up the mashy-pea-green carpet in the lounge room, the surprise layer of lino underneath, and the funky layer of 1955 newspaper underneath that. Some of the ads and stories are so funny, I might have to make a collage to hang on the wall for a bit of vintage style and a nod to the house's history.

Eventually we will sand and polish the boards, but for now I'm just happy for the old carpet to be gone. There is only one small patch remaining, we are slowly making progress!

If anyone is interested in a comprehensive list of what's in the garden, knock yourself out:
Acacia amblygona
Acacia cultriformis
Actinotus helianthi
Austromyrtis dulcis
Banksia integrifolia
Banksia spinulosa 'Honeypots'
Brachycome multifida Blue, White and Break 'o' day
Bursaria spinosa
Callistemon 'Wilderness White'
Calothamnus granitica
Enchylaena tomemtosa
Eucalyptus caesia
Eucalypus macrocarpa
Grevillea 'Fruit Box'
Grevillea rosmarinifolia 'Lutea'
Grevillea 'Pink Surprise'
Guichenotia macrantha
Hakea sericea
Hardenbergia violacea
Homoranthus decumbens
Kennedia nigricans
Kunzea pomifera
Leptospermum 'Lipstick'
Leptospermum sp.
Melaleuca decussata
Melaleuca nesophila
Melaleuca thymifolia
Myoporum parvifolium
Poa labillardieri
Prostanthera cryptandroides
Thryptomene saxicola
Verticordia plumosa
Wahlenbergia gloriosa
Westringia 'Smokie'

 

 

 

December is for...seeking out the mistletoe

It's New Year's Eve, and I've been lurking around at the local pigeon club. Not because I'm into pigeons, they're not really my thing. More because they have the biggest Silky Oak in the street, and it's host to a number of big, healthy mistletoes. And I've struck gold...

But I've already missed Christmas, you say. No, I'm not collecting mistletoe in order to get extra kisses, although it might be a tradition worth encouraging in Australia. From what I can tell, the Europeans are winning in the mistletoe respect stakes, but I've become quite intrigued by it in the last few years. My inner ecologist is delighted, my inner horticulturist is horrified. Horticulture training recommends the removal of mistletoe from trees and shrubs as quickly as possible, as they can cause water loss and death in some cases. These clever plants are considered parasites, but I prefer to think of them as piggy-backers. When a seed germinates on a branch, the root grows into the host plant and proceeds to live off its water and nutrient supplies instead of growing its own root system and getting these from the ground the old fashioned way. The downside for the generous host is that in general, mistletoe is greedy and wasteful, allowing water to escape from the leaves that is normally trapped carefully by waxy cuticles and closed pores.

But it's not all bad news... mistletoe berries are an important food source for Mistletoe Birds and  the nectar is a nutritious food for Painted Honeyeaters, among others. I wouldn't mind having some of these sweet birds visit my backyard, and so I decided to try and infect (or introduce) some mistletoe into my plants. Until today, that wasn't as easy as it seemed. You can't simply transplant it, as it's anchored into another plant... so the only option is to plant a seed. Again, not so easy, as the berries are eaten by well-meaning birds and spread all over the place. I've been watching the whole process, as the flowers opened a few weeks ago, and the berries have now followed. Imagine my excitement in finding some berries on the ground under a bottlebrush tree in my street! But if I'm realistic, I know the seeds will germinate much better if they have been pre-digested by a helpful feathered friend.

Hence the visit to the large Silky Oak tree. There are so many mistletoes here that the birds hang around for ages, depositing their packages of seedy goodness as they feed and play.

I graduated from my horticulture degree this month, and 6 years ago I'm sure I wasn't imagining collecting bird poo from the ground when I enrolled. But what I also didn't anticipate was how exciting I would find it. I've waited patiently for months for these sticky little deposits, and I'm rapt to be attaching them to my own bottlebrush tree so that I can have the wonderful mistletoe birds to watch on a regular basis. I can't wait to see if they grow! 

I'm even planning to try some seeds on my lovely big gardenia, as it's right next to our birdbath and might be extra encouragement for shy birds. Some mistletoe were growing on the Crepe Myrtles in the street, so I know they're not too strict about who they piggyback onto.

If anyone is interested in Australian mistletoe and its importance to the environment, this short radio interview is worth listening to. It was extra inspiration for me to get out there and find some seeds!


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-20/native-mistletoe-good-for-the-environment/5170040

 

January is for... turning over a new leaf

I have a confession to make. I've been accused of being grassist. In general I can find something to appreciate about most of creation, and plants especially, but for a long time grasses have left me cold. It's just that I find their strappy leaves predictable, the lack of colourful flowers a bit uninspiring, and most of them you can't even eat! Part of the problem is that I feel like grasses and grassy looking plants are overused in 'modern' or 'low maintenace' gardens without much thought going into the combination or design. Once my garden discrimination was pointed out, I felt the need to find some sort of common ground with grasses so that I could better appreciate their unique qualities. Over the last couple of months, a few major benefits have come to light.
1. Finch food
One main objective of our garden design is its ability to attract and feed birds. I have a couple of wonderful books to guide me; my favourite being 'Birdscaping Australian gardens' by George Adams. I've learned that different birds all eat different food, whether insects, fruit, seeds, nectar or other garden goodies. To provide for a variety of birds, I will need a variety of plants. Simple, right?

At work I have been taking more notice of where I see my favourite birds regularly visiting. The white-plumed honeyeaters and eastern spinebills seem to love chinese lanterns and salvias at this time of year, and the blue wrens, silvereyes and yellow thornbills seem to form mixed groups, hunting ferociously in dense bushes where the best little bugs hide. The red-browed finches and double-barred finches, however, feed in flocks as they carpet the ground, eating grass seeds in the open areas. I have seen a couple pass through my garden at home, stopping only for a drink in my little waterbowl. I would hate for them to feel left out of the grand plan!

2. Pool maintenance
My next project is the garden that edges the pool area, now that the fence is up. Now as much as I love being outside, cleaning the pool is really not my thing. We have a great gadget that crawls around on the bottom vacuuming everything up. He's not perfect, however, and I'd like to make his life as easy as possible by not planting things around the pool that will drop too much leaf or flower matter into it. Most grasses will be perfect for the pool area, I just need to avoid any with big fluffy seed heads.

                                          Anigozanthos 'Bush Diamond'

And so, I began shopping around for plants with just the right attributes. My first choice was a lovely kangaroo paw that has been catching my eye around the nurseries lately, called Bush Diamond. Its velvety white flower is held above the strappy leaves to bring a bit of brightness to the garden and attract nectar feeding birds.

 

                                            Anigozanthos 'Bush Pearl'

I also bought a few pots of Bush Pearl, its cool pink cousin, to add colour, and the taller black kangaroo paw for some height in the back corner. Aiming for a cool palette,  the silver-blue Festuca was a must. Small and feathery, it will be mass planted to tie the whole garden together. Lomandra 'Shara' is a native that looks a bit like a larger version of the Festuca, so I will use it to fill out and accent areas.

                                          Festuca glauca

To soften the effect of all those spiky leaves, I have made sure to plant in curves and waves, and have also added some mound-forming native plants for their lovely rounded shape. Acacia 'Limelight', Banksia 'Rollercoaster' and a lovely endangered plant called Zieria 'Carpet Star' will be dotted singly through the bed.

                                          Zieria 'Carpet Star'

                                         Banksia integrifolia 'Rollercoaster'

As per usual the month has flown by and I would have loved to include a finished photo of the bed, but January has somehow escaped me and it is not yet complete (a good gardener knows that a garden is never finished!). I will include a finished photo as soon as possible, until then I will leave the rest to your imagination...