The last thing we want is for any water to go down the drain. By mid-morning today, heavy showers filled our 21,000 litre rainwater tank. It’s starting to overflow into our network of drainage pipes, which soak the soil deeply from 70 cm down and below. When this network has done its job the subsoil…
Tag: Brisbane
Autumn Harvest And Wild Weather
We’ve just enjoyed a good picking of autumn crops from the garden On Friday I planted out the mangelwurzel seedlings in their final positions. We ate the tender, leafy thinnings which taste like silverbeet in a stir fry. Damo provided sugar syrup for the honeybees, which aren’t foraging in this wild weather. The native honeybee…
Hive Society! A Bee And Wasp Gallery
Gardens are full of surprises if you keep your eyes open – and have a camera handy. This autumn, flowering Pigeon peas proved irresistible to six different native bee species. What’s going on in your garden?
Is Duncan Street’s Nature Strip Now Safe?
Bayside residents have vowed to stop council plans to eliminate this nature strip. Subsequent media coverage by ABC Radio and Channel Ten TV on Tuesday 27th May 2008, it now appears that Brisbane City Council are willing to discuss ways to retain and improve this community asset! Here’s the original story
“Queensland Gardeners Too Dumb To Grow” – Minister
In a recent guide, ‘Waterwise Queensland: Gardening with greywater’*, published on 26th April 2008, Queensland minister for Natural Resources and Water, the Honourable Craig Wallace hopes to popularise grey water in home gardens. During the ongoing drought in SE Qld, home gardeners have grabbed their buckets and answered government calls to reduce their mains water…
Climate Change Flora For Brisbane
This stocktake was completed two days ago and it helps me answer some of your FAQ’s:
Native Bee Day
On Saturday I became the proud owner of a hive of native stingless bees, Trigona carbonaria. A little web-searching found that Dr Tim Heard, a CSIRO entomologist and native bee specialist, supplies colonies and his brother, Frank, makes specially designed hives for them. Stingless bees and honeybees happily co-exist. Happily Brisbane provides an ideal climate…
Honey Flora Report – May
We’re members of the Bayside Beekeepers Association, and every month they release a Honey Flora Report listing significant flowering local native plants useful for honey production. Our hives are busy harvesting pollen and nectar from the urban forest and garden plants as well, so we’ve decided to add them to the BBA report.
Bellis On The BBC’s Radio 4
An interview will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 next week discussing the water saving aspects of ‘Bellis’. Jeff is particularly pleased as Radio 4 is the home of such favourite cultural icons as the Shipping Forecast and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy…Yes, he can be quite strange at times. The Sunparched Country website…
Water – Decisions And Dilemmas
Jerry talks about the hard decisions he’ll have to make in the productive garden if the summer rains fail again…
Seasonal Sizzling
It’s sizzling outside. Just enough cloud cover to bathe everything in a white UV glow. It’s certainly humid. Here’s some local gossip: a gardening friend says a local water diviner told her that in February Brisbane will see rain like it’s never seen rain before. I’m sure that’s reliable testimony. I’ve chocked everything up under…
A Beneficial Orgy
Sustainable gardens are safe havens for all sorts of activities, but I’ve never witnessed a scene like this. Last summer they did it amongst my pineapples. Last autumn they were hard at it in my sweet potatoes. This week it’s the cardamom that are the silent, involuntary witnesses. I can’t water these plants without wetting…
Jerry Coleby-Williams 