Sustainable Gardening in our Continually Surprising Climate
“Parasites aren’t all bad, and mistletoes deserve a rethink. If you study them, you’ll discover that they’re fascinating Australian plants making a valuable contribution to the environment.”
This is a call on gardeners to send me a photograph showing how you have put the nature back into your nature strip. A short sentence explaining what footpath gardening means to you would add value. Please email your images to: bellis_brisbane@me.com
Cheers, Jerry Coleby-Williams
Nature strip gardening can beautify streets capes, improving the retail sale prices of real estate. Reseach has proven nature strips provide valuable social and environmental services.
Public safety is vital. Plants in nature strips should not be spiny, caustic, toxic or allowed to overgrow, or cause trip hazards, impede wheelchairs, or block lines of sight. The effect should not be overgrown, full of litter or claustrophobic, it should be park-like.
Two years without rain is a long time between drinks in the garden town of Barcaldine, but it’s not out of place in western Queensland’s desert uplands. With a population of under 1,400, Barcaldine’s Get Gardening Expo attracted 600 locals and tourists to celebrate the region’s best food, wine, art, plants, gardens and gardeners. Not bad for a region where even desert cacti need shade, occasional watering, and have been known to explode in summer.
“This gardener wonders if the Carnival of Flowers date will alter in order to keep up with changing climate?
Vale, John Morgan of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney: greenkeeper, gardener, ranger, friend since 1992. I’m reminiscing about the Turfculture team, a vital service, where John Morgan began his career in my department. Together, from 1992 to 2003, our team transitioned the lawns from conventional horticultural management to almost organic standards. When I moved to Brisbane,…
“Over the spring to autumn growing season I hope to demonstrate which species – either Comfrey or Queensland Arrowroot – uses the least amount of water to grow successfully, and which produces the greatest amount of organic matter”.
Meet Brigalow, a National Treasure.
In June I was on a gardeners’ tour of Vietnam, great fun, but I returned to a lot of weeding! This winter has been mild and damp with just two cold snaps so far. Ideal conditions for weeds and watercress are not ideal conditions for snow peas, which prefer it cooler. Drizzle and humidity haven’t…
An East Coast Low weather system, delivering force 8 wind gusts, is rattling my windows. Australia’s east coast can experience around ten of these weather systems during the cool seasons. Today’s gales are causing minor delays to some flights leaving Brisbane, and major delays to filming with the ABC’s ‘Gardening Australia’ show. Close to the…
The Vietnamese depend on rice (Oryza sativa) for food security. There’s a long list of ways rice can be served, this staple grain is routinely eaten three times a day – rice noodles for breakfast, either rice noodles or rice for lunch, and rice for dinner. Growing this staple in Vietnam’s fertile soils and wet tropical climate…
Jerry Coleby-Williams 