‘Bellis’, Brisbane’s award winning sustainable house and garden, is now seven years old. Last October this place won a national Save Water! Award in the Built Environment category. Since its inception, this 810 square metre property has collected over 7 megalitres of rainwater and recycled over 3 megalitres of sewage water. In the ornamental subtropical…
Tag: Jerry Coleby-Williams
A Rare Honour
Our Phillip Island Hibiscus, Hibiscus insularis, has been immortalised in a botanical illustration by Halina Steele. This work is now part of the collections of the National Herbarium of NSW… “Dear Jerry I have finally finished my painting of Hibiscus insularis and as you were kind enough to send me photos of this plant, I…
How Can I Avoid Buying Plastic Bagged Potting Mixes?
Question Hi Jerry, I don’t know if you remember me…I’ve seen you at lots of Save the Mary things and on Gardening Australia, which I love! I have a vege and herb garden in pots and need to find a soil solution. Presently I buy bags of potting mix at Bunnings, choosing one that’s free…
Queensland’s Flying Foxes Are Starving – Again
Pictured: driven by famine, a black flying fox drinks nectar from my banana flowers before sunset Bat Conservation & Rescue Qld President, Louise Saunders, is alarmed by the large number of reports about hungry flying-foxes staying by food trees through the day and not returning to their camps. “This is of huge concern as bats…
Symbionts In The Shrubbery
Whilst scrabbling around on my knees this morning, mulching the front garden with chopped sugarcane, I noticed the biggest and best display of coralloid roots is currently bursting through the surface of the leafy soil.
Catalyst – Informing Growers And Conservationists About Climate Change
Gardeners, farmers, conservationists and planners should watch this recent segment produced by ABC’s ‘Catalyst’ show on how climate change is affecting the health of our harvests. Rising CO2 levels will mean:
Darwinia polychroma
I’ve finally found the original slide I took when I discovered this new species of Darwinia (Myrtaceae) whilst in Western Australia on the Thornton-Smith Scholarship in 1982. Each year the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew funds a botanical expedition for one of its students on completion of the Kew course. I spent six months travelling, collecting…
Rudd Gives Up On Reef And Climate Leadership
According to Queensland Conservation (QC) and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS), Kevin Rudd has accepted the inconvenient truth of climate change and then given up on solving it. They say he has ignored the science of climate change and let down so many who voted for him at the last Federal election… “The best…
The First Digger Was A Great Guerilla Gardener
360 years ago on April Fools Day, Gerrard Winstanley, became a very influential guerrilla gardener when he planted vegetables on an English hillside. The repercussions live on.
Growing And Cooking Plantains (and other green bananas)
Plantains are big bananas. While they may be unfamiliar in Australian home gardens and restaurants, plantains and dessert bananas are important foods in tropical and subtropical regions. Their starch has a low glycaemic index (low GI) and also gluten free, so they are a source of sustained energy for physically active gardeners as well as…
How Do I Prevent My Garden From Spreading Mosquito-Borne Diseases?
Is gardening fashion fanning ill health? Cairns City Council has increased on-the-spot fines for homeowners found to have mosquitoes breeding on their property to $400. John Pilspanen, of Queensland Health, says the disease will keep spreading until everyone takes the necessary precautions. Queensland Health is concerned about the increasing infection rate of the current dengue…
King Tides Now – Commoners By 2050
Rising sea levels have major implications for coastal gardens. Yesterday’s king tide gave us the perfect opportunity to see what will be commonplace by 2050. One corner of the world that is experiencing greater than average sea level rises is north eastern Australia. Even if all greenhouse gas emissions ceased immediately, oceans respond more slowly….
Jerry Coleby-Williams 