Author: Jerry Coleby-Williams

Freelance curator, sustainable horticulturist, conservationist, writer. "Sometimes, the only thing more dangerous than a question is an answer." 208th Ferengi Law of Acquisition

Protecting Pawpaw Plants Against Black Spot Disease

If you live in south eastern Queensland and grow pawpaw, it’s worth a quick health check right now. Mild, calm, showery, humid winter weather is perfect for observing outbreaks of pawpaw black spot disease. But how best to manage this common problem?

‘Putting sustainable food production into context’; Jerry Coleby-Williams, Patron, National Toxics Network Inc.

We ignore the following key aspects of sustainable food production at our peril:
* A culture of forgetting – we forget our horticultural history;
* Declining crop diversity, both in the range of species grown and in the genetic diversity within each crop;
* The oversimplification and impoverishment of systems of food production;
* A reluctance to apply the precautionary principle where using the least toxic solution in crop protection comes first;

Oil, Rust and Global Crises. Ten Years On…

Ten years ago British Petroleum closed Prudhoe Bay, the largest oilfield in the USA. Rusted, leaking oil pipes heavily polluted a region already suffering from accelerating global warming. At the same time, melting permafrost had started to cause forests, roads and homes to start sinking into mud. Methane gas, once frozen under the ice, started…

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Wallum And Kwongan: A Very Australian Paradise

Heathland is a general term for a gardenesque plant community found in parts of Australia where conditions are too tough for forest. In NSW, heathland is associated with sandstone, while Queensland’s Wallum heath (named after the Wallum Banksia, Banksia aemula) occurs on coastal sand. Kwongan is Western Australia’s version of heathland. Kwongan also occurs on various…

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Mealybug: Kill! Kill! But How?

Question: “Hi Jerry, This year I have had the worst infestation of mealybug ever. My garden has never had them in the past, but this year everything including established Gordonia’s five metres high are white with them. I have lost quite a few hibiscus to them. Is this a bad year? Do you have one of your…

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Three Cheers for the Kaffir Lime

I invite you to join me in calling the Kaffir Lime a Kaffir Lime. Researchers and editors take note: it’s hip and more accurate to call the Kaffir lime by its original name!

Hello, Emerald City! Tour Singapore With Jerry Coleby-Williams, 22-26 July 2016.

Gardens take pride of place in tropical Singapore. It’s never been a more exciting time for an Australian gardener to visit. Singaporeans are obsessed with chlorophyll… They have long talked up the benefits of a city upgrade – from one of the world’s leading garden cities into a 21st century garden utopia. Now, they’re building it. Gardens by the…

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Picnic On Lion Rock: Sigiriya, Sri Lanka’s Ancient Garden Palace

“Come as tourists, return as friends” said Sujee, our guide. The summit of Sigiriya was a 1,000 step climb in the western sun, but the reward was stunning views of one of Asia’s oldest landscapes. Also known as Lion Rock, Sigiriya is a fortified palace-garden-complex similar to South America’s 15th century Machu Picchu, only the…

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