Whether you're experiencing a drought - like most of Australia at the moment - or you're just trying to be waterwise when it comes to your garden, there are quite a few way to save water. And, they don't always lead to installing expensive rainwater tanks.

Here's a list of 10 water saving ideas but I'm sure they can be added to and I will update the list if others have some neat ideas as well.

1. Re-use your greywater - greywater is a byproduct of your sinks, dishwashers, laundry washing machines and bathroom showers. Depending on how much you wish to save - and what your local authorities will allow - will determine how much this exercise will cost.

   If you're wanting to keep it cheap you could limit your water saving to the kitchen and laundry sinks. A simple plumbing deviation can give you the option to save the water into a bucket or run it straight off into the garden.

   A more expensive option is to have all your greywater plumbed into an underground reservoir for later use by your garden reticulation.

   Keep in mind though that greywater will be high in alkalinity due to many of the soaps we use to was ourselves, our dishes and our clothes. Therefore, this water is not generally useful in vegetable gardens as vegies much prefer more acid soils.



2. Use drip irrigation - drip irrigation is one of the most effective methods for dispersing water into your garden as it's aimed at the plants roots rather than a generalised broad spread. If you currently use sprinkler reticulation, try modifying at least part of your system to accomodate drippers instead. You'll save mobey and water.


3. Grow drought tolerant plants - lawns are the biggest users of water so to cut down on your water use, cut down on your lawn. Also, when buying plants choose ones that have low watering requirements and plant them together.

   You can still have some high watering plants in your garden but don't disperse them through your gardens. Rather clump them together where only one watering station is needed to operate on a daily basis. The others may only require watering once or twice per week.



4. Collect rainwater - this option, like the greywater idea, can be as cheap or as expensive as you like. You can opt for a quality rainwater tank to be professionally installed or another option might be to harvest the rain using barrels or buckets.

   Large barrels can be accessed through many food wholesalers who've used them for pickling or storing food items. These can then be plumbed using some DIY resources to feed into your garden reticulation or just oozed into garden beds.



5. Install a lap pool, instead - if you're planning to add a pool to your backyard landscape then choose a lap pool, like the Endless Pool I've previously reviewed. They take up less space, use less water and can be just as effective.


6. Divert your gutters - rather than allow your rainwater from your gutters just empty into your soak wells, divert them into drainage pipes that run the length of your garden beds. These drainage pipes are usually peppered with holes allowing the water to disperse into the soil. They should be encased with a layer of aggregate to stop them from getting clogged up but they are a very effective means of saving water.


7. Try aquaponics for growing vegetables - Aquaponics is another idea that I've already discussed on this blog. As a water saving idea it is by far one of the most effective.

   With normal vegetable production, any watering seeps through the soil and drains away but with aquaponics, and it's sister hydroponics, the water is constantly reused.



8. Use water bottles for container plants - the beauty of using water bottles for container plants is that they give a measured dose of water each day. It's a great alternative to using watering cans which can be cumbersome and ineffective at watering your plants.


9. Mulch your garden beds - one of the greatest forms of water loss is evaporation so if you mulch your beds with a decent blanket of mulch this will slow the process down and reduce the amount of extra watering your plants will require.


10. Angle your garden paths - most landscapers will try to convince you to keep your paths level or at least so that any runoff is diverted away from your garden. Do the opposite. Use some fall from your garden paths to allow water to filter back into your lawns or garden beds where it can be used.

I'm sure this isn't an exhaustive list so if you have some other great water saving suggestions add them in the comments below.

Posted by Stuart at 7:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Fortunately, we're all becoming so much more aware of our environment these days that we're looking for new and better ways to garden. And one of the most interesting ideas is the push for organic weed control methods and products.

The new star of the show is corn gluten meal, a byproduct of the corn industry that has until recently only been fed to pigs and poultry. However, research has now shown that it's qualities are far more beneficial that just feeding a herd of hogs.

Firstly, the NPK ratio of corn gluten meal is 9-1-0 which is perfect for lawns as a spring fertiliser. The boost of nitrogen will feed the grass and produce a flurry of dark green blades while the low levels of phosphorous will allow the lawn to grow without seeping out into our watercourses.

But that's not where the benefits of corn gluten end. In fact, using corn gluten meal as a fertiliser is really on a byproduct of this byproduct. The real beauty of this substance is it's effectiveness at killing weeds without damaging your lawn or using chemical herbicides.

Organic Weed Control

Corn gluten meal is a 'pre-emergent' form of organic weed control in that it dries out weed seeds before they begin to germinate and sprout. So, an application of corn gluten at the start of spring will see most of your lawn weeds (crabgrass, dandelions, barnyard grass, bindii, purslane and others) fail to grow while your lawn gets a head start.

An application of corn gluten meal will last as a weed killer between 4-6 weeks and can be reapplied after that. In fact, as a weed killer it has a cumulative effect and will build up in the soil and become even more a powerful form of organic weed control.

Where can I buy corn gluten meal?

You can buy it readily in the stores prepacked like Concern's Weed Prevention Shaker (aff.) or you could even buy it bulk from a rural supplier or stockfeeds outlet.

In it's unprocessed form, such as how it would come from a stockfeeds outlet, it can only be used on new plantings such as prior to laying your turf. While the pelletized and granulated forms can be applied either by hand sowing or using a lawn spreader.

Posted by Stuart at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The seasons are changing. The northern hemisphere is warming up (and it's not in relation to global warming) while us southerners are cooling down.

But that's not stopping the global garden and here are a few helpful posts from around the world that should help , or at least inspire, you in your garden.

• It seems that moving compost or mulch is high on the agenda for a few gardeners at the moment. Both Nada from Grandiflora and M. Sinclair Stevens from Zanthan Gardens are getting into the swing of the action at the moment.

  I suggested that they throw 'compost parties' where they invite a group of friends to give them a hand and reward them with a scrummy afternoon tea.

  BTW - if either of you decide that you will provide the scrummy arvo tea, I'll book the next flight.

• If you're looking for new plants to grow, Nelumbo has a great post on the Easter Tree, Easterii decoratis. They only flower in the lead up to easter and children desire their fruiting blooms.

  I'm guessing these are native to the Easter Islands? Or, do they only grow in South Carolina?

• Melanie from Bean Sprouts has a great post on 10 Movies that illustrate self-sufficient gardening. It takes a keen gardener to pick up on these things.
• Tobi from Garden Gremlin shares his seed starting set-up which is has become more sophisticated as the season's have come and gone. I'm yet to get my seed raising apparatus together so I'm always insanely jealous when I come across another gardener who's got it happening.
• Yolanda Elizabet's Bliss garden blog is sporting some new frilly and frivolously flirty voilets. She even documents the equipment she uses to plant them and to weed her garden beds.
• And finally, if you've ever need convincing that grow lights are essential for indoor plants Malin from Indoor Gardener has photographic proof. Her mini sage and mint garden took off almost immediately.

And so concludes another awesome week in the Gardening blogosphere.

Posted by Stuart at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now here's a website for all you women who are tired of living in a man's world.

I was stumbling around the web looking for some inspiration and I happened to come across this very chic gardening tool site. It had two things going for it that made it stand out as a site of note. Firstly, it was Australian - a definite winner for an Aussie blogger, and second it was purely designed for women - a very brave notion targeting your audience to a maximum 50% of the population.

But it didn't seem like it was suffering at all from a reduced target market. In fact, if anything, it appeared to be creating a formidable niche - tailoring DIY tools (not just for the garden) to women.

Apparently, the tools are designed with a women's hand size and shape in mind rather than a brawny male. And they're designed in colours that, ...well, they're a little more effeminate than most guys would appreciate.

DIYWoman was started by Sandra Dobbin, the CEO of Master Distributors, after more than two years of extensive research into the industry. Her dream was to give women the ability and confidence to do their own projects around the home whether it be screwing a painting to the wall or replanting some annuals in the garden.

DIYWoman has a great range exhibiting everything from potting tables, garden tools, hammers and screwdrivers. All in purple and green.

They are also major contributors to the National Breast Cancer Foundation donating tens of thousands of dollars each year.

Posted by Stuart at 6:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was not a good day. The day before that was marginally better and the day before that was a vision in white - white tissues, that is.

Yes, my name is Stuart and I suffer from hayfever. I have struggled with this physical blight since I was eleven years old and I can't see it being cured anywhere in the near future. It comes and goes and attacks randomly throughout any season, not just spring.

When you suffer from hayfever, relief comes only from keeping a tissue - or if you like keeping snot in your pocket, via a hanky - constantly under your nose as it drips like the proverbial tap. You begin sneezing as soon as someone mentions the pollen count and your eyes heat up like you've just rubbed them with chili. And that's a good day!

So how do people remain bouyant and enjoy life, their gardens and their pets when they suffer from this annoying - it's the only word that could describe it - affliction? Firstly, you need to know what it is before you can understand how to treat or manage it.

What is hayfever?

Hayfever, or seasonal allergic rhinitis, is the abnormal reaction to substances such as dust, pollens and dander (hair follicles, airborne skin flakes). It affects the respiratory system via the mucous membranes causing the eyes to weep and runny noses and sneezing to occur. - Wikipedia

In basic form it means that your body is abnormally reactive to basic substances. Admit it, you're a freak!

You contract hayfever because your body can't deal with these substances and it affects you seasonally, predominantly in spring when the pollen count is extremely high. Once you've been diagnosed with hayfever allergies you are most certainly endowed with this gift for life. Some seasons will be better than others but for the most part a cure for hayfever has not yet been found.

Does hayfever treatment help?

Sometimes. I take an over-the-counter drug to combat the onset of my allergies and most times it's very effective. However the last couple of days it's done diddly-squat and I continue to race through tissue boxes faster than a toddler with a new plaything.

Antihistamines are the main relief for most hayfever allergies and those with more serious symptoms will opt for steroid based anti-inflammatory medicines.

Are there natural remedies for hayfever?

Is the Pope, Catholic? If filling your body full of chemicals every spring doesn't excite you then there are some natural remedies available, but not all palatable!

One anecdote shares how contracting hookworms cured this guy not only of his hayfever allergies but also from asthma.

Then there are the countless natural remedies using herbs and other plant materials. Everything from chamomile to eucalyptus oil, St John's Wood to ginger all play a part as natural remedies of hayfever.

Controlling your hayfever allergies

In most cases - unless of course you're willing to walk barefoot through West African latrines - a cure for hayfever is unlikely. But there are ways of controlling and managing the symptoms so that most of your suffering can be abated.

Here are a few handy hints gleaned from the College of Family Physicians of Canada;

Pollens. Shower or bathe before bedtime to wash off any pollen and other allergens that may have collected in your hair and on your skin. Avoid going outside, especially on dry, windy days. Keeping the windows and doors shut can be helpful, as can using an air conditioner both at home and in your car.

Mold. You can reduce the amount of mold in your home by not having houseplants and by often cleaning shower curtains, bathroom windows, damp walls, areas with dry rot and indoor trashcans. Use a mix of water and chlorine bleach to kill mold. Repair areas as needed Don't carpet bathrooms or other damp rooms and use mold-proof paint instead of wallpaper. Throw away old books, shoes and bedding, which can be a source for mold. Lower humidity in your home by using a dehumidifier.

Pet dander. You may need to give your pets away or at least keep them outside because they bring pollen as well as animal dander in with them.
Cat or dog dander is often in house dust and takes four weeks or more to die down, so a short-term trial of no pet at home may not help you find out if this is a problem for you.

Dust. You can reduce dust mites by getting rid of the places where they like to live and breed, such as carpets, drapes and feather pillows, and by making your home less inviting by keeping low the humidity and dusting often with a damp cloth. See the box below for tips. Pay attention to keeping your bedroom clean. This is where you spend much of your time at home.
Wear a mask when you clean. Even better, have someone else at home clean for you or hire someone to clean.

Posted by Stuart at 6:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Occassionally I will make my way to a local Saturday market hoping to find a bargain and always finding myself amazed and entertained by the diversity of items that people peddle.

But it's always the plant stalls that stop me (and attract me) as I fossick my way through a heap of reused pots sporting the obligatory common plants through to species I've never seen before. You have to be early to pick up the good plants but a bargain is usually available by the end of the morning.

Most of these plant junkies are home gardeners just like you and I. They propagate their own garden stock to resell either because it's an added benefit to their hobby or they're after a few extra dollars.

So, I'm curious as to how many of us have ever done this before? Are you currently in the process of potting up some plants for market sale? And, if so how do you go about labelling your plants and how do you set your prices?

For those who have no intention of ever selling their plants, do you buy from these market stalls? Do you expect the plants to be cheaper here than from a nursery, and if so, how much cheaper?

Posted by Stuart at 6:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Chrysanthemums are the traditional Mother's Day gift, and there's no debate that they are well qualified to carry this mantle. In fact, I've never seen a mum scorn a child with, "What? More chrysanthemums?" They're like socks on Father's Day, we just thank our kids for them and put them in an appropriate place. Wherever that may be!

But the beauty of chrysanthemums, like socks I guess, is that they come in so many different shapes and sizes. Just about every colour is catered for. Flower sizes differ, foliage textures are incredibly diverse and even the petals can resemble the iconic daisy look or can be like hairs on a toothbrush, or something even more incredibly different.

So, just because you bought your mum chrysanthemums last year doesn't mean they can't be an option again this year.

However, the challenge may be to try and grow your own rather than buy shop-bought chrysanthemums. If you're planning to grow them from seed, I'm sad to say that you've missed the boat already. For us plant lovers in the southern hemisphere we'll have to wait two more seasons before we can start planting out seeds while in the north it's almost perfect for seeds to go in now, but they won't be ready until Fall.

How to grow chrysanthemums from seed

The best time to start planting out chrysanthemum seeds is mid-spring. Raise them in a good quality propagating mix and if possible start them on a heat mat (aff.) so that they get the best possible start.

When the seedlings start to produce more than their first two leaves (preferably after 4-6), you can gently prise them out of their seedling tray and replant into individual starter pots. Newspaper pots would be appropriate for this level. This stage usually takes between 4-6 weeks with a heat mat and may be up to 10 without one.

Care needs to be taken when moving chrysanthemum seedlings at this stage because they are so fragile and any stem damage will render them lifeless.

After a further 4 weeks in these small growing pots, your chrysanthemums can be repotted into 200mm pots and slowly introduced outdoors. They can remain indoors and fed artificial light indefinitely but if you plan to let them grow in the garden they will need to be acclimatised first.

How to care for your chrysanthemums

Once chrysanthemums are established they are fairly easy to care for. Apply a liquid fertiliser when your mums are blooming at 3 weekly intervals and supplement this with a slow-release fertiliser at the start of their growing season.

Some gardeners treat chrsyanthemums as annuals and replace them year after year while others choose to prune them heavily and let them rebloom as biennials. They can even be treated as perennials if you have the right climate.

Deadhead the flowers after they've been spent to encourage more blooms and to discourage seed growth. If you're after seed production remember that their seeds are incredibly tiny so you will have some work to do to distill the seed from the brown foliage.

Chrysanthemum tea

And just when you thought you knew everything about chrysanthemums another use hits you between the eyes. Apparently, chrysanthemums are a favourite ingredient in Chinese herbal teas. In fact, chrysanthemum tea has been used for centuries being used for warding off sore throats and helping people recover from the flu.

See, they're a much better Mother's Day gift than socks.

Posted by Stuart at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

If you're a little bored with your current computer wallpapers and you want to tizz your desktop up a little, there's a great resource available from Desktopography.

It's actually an exhibition of nature-themed computer wallpapers, all free of charge and all readily downloadable.

Each year Desktopography, a non-profit project, has encouraged artists to create images for people to download and install as their desktop background. The only restrictions on their masterpieces is that they need to be based on a nature theme and they need to be easy on the eye.

If you consider how often we sit in front of our computers, finding a desktop that you can enjoy is worth searching for. But, your search is over. With 40 new images in the 2007 collection and 25 and 10 respectively in previous years, you're bound to find a computer wallpaper that suits.

Posted by Stuart at 6:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dracaena Marginata is not a plant that you grow for flowers - it's the foliage you're after. You can either grow it in the ground, planted en masse, or as a stand alone feature planted by itself in a decorative container.

And, it can grow just as well indoors as it does outdoors (that's if you live in a semi-tropical to tropical planting zone, that is). Dracaena's aren't very fond of frost but they can tolerate colder climates so long as they're protected. They don't like too much water but prefer their growing medium to be moist.

Draceana's come from the Dragon Tree, dracaena draco, which is a native plant to the Canary Islands, so their growing habits, likes and dislikes, and temperamental preferences are all very similar.

They can grow to more than 4m (12-13ft) but can easily be kept smaller by pruning the stems prior to spring.

The stems of a draceana marginata are commonly flexible and thin and seem adequately disproportionate to its height and also the foliage that tops it. They can easily be bent and shaped to conform to your structural desires by using bonsai wire to contort each stem.

If your dracaena is only single-stemmed and you want it to branch out, cut the foliage from the top and reduce the stem to the desired height. Within a few months the foliage will begin to bud from the wound and new branches will grow.

How to propagate dracaena maginata

Draceana's can be propagated by a variety of ways but the most easiest is by taking a cutting from the stem and after applying some rooting hormone to the base (don't forget which end is 'up') firmly push it into some potting mix. Water frequently and apply a liquid fertilizer when the foliage begins to appear.

Other methods of propagating dracaena include air-layering and basal root cuttings.

Fertilising dracaena marginata

Soluble liquid fertilisers are the best form of nutrient release for dracaena's but during their dormant period you can also add some slow release pellets to their growing area or container.

Posted by Stuart at 6:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Even at 34 years of age, I'm already noticing that there are some things I'm no longer able to do. So I worry that when I'm 60+ the limitations of my body are going to be to acute to continue in my preferred hobby.

"Nonsense!" Bob Souvestre, instructor of horticulture at LSU and Louisiana Master Gardener program coordinator, would say.

"I am 52 and have arthritis," he said in a telephone interview. "I know nerve deafness. My eyes. I wear glasses. My back hurts. I have bursitis and tendinitis."

And still he lectures!

Maggie Martin's recent interview with Souvestre highlighted that while we age and need to adapt to our limitations it shouldn't be an excuse for no longer being involved in our favourite pastimes.

Ida Hayden, 84, a gardener for 50 years, said stability and endurance are the only problems she faces.

"I haven't changed tools. No pads, but I do have a stick that (husband) Harold made that helps me get up when I get down. It is a walking stick with a flat bottom. It gives me stability. We do lose stability."

Bob comes up with some great garden adapting ideas and lectures on these very issues.

Posted by Stuart at 6:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lifehacker linked to Frugal Gardening's vinegar uses in the garden post yesterday and while it's a good resource, it's certainly not an exhaustive list. Here's FG's list and then I shall add some other ideas from equally reputable gardening sites on how to use vinegar in the garden.

1. Clay Pot Cleaning Vinegar will remove the calcium buildup on terracotta pots. Simply soak the affected areas in full strength vinegar.


2. Kill grass Undiluted vinegar will kill grass between bricks and sidewalk cracks. Simply spray where needed.


3. Kill Weeds Spraying full strength vinegar on weeds will kill them - be careful not to spray it on the surrounding grass as it will kill that too. If you heat the vinegar up it will have a greater success rate as well.


4. Deter Ants Spray vinegar around doors, appliances, and along other areas where ants are known to gather and the vinegar will keep them away.


5. Keep Cats Away Vinegar will help keep cats away from areas you don't want them. Sprinkle vinegar on any areas where you don't want the cat walking, sleeping, or scratching. Pour it around the perimeter of your children's sandbox and repeat every two months and this will discourage cats from using it as their sandbox.


6. Freshen Cut Flowers Vinegar will help fresh cut flowers last longer. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 teaspoon sugar for each quart of water.

And then this paraphrased list comes from About.com;

7. Septic Tank Care If you have a septic tank, use vinegar instead of harsh chemicals to clean the toilet bowl. Let it set overnight if you can; it will keep germs down.


8. Protect your pool from flies Pour vinegar around the sides of your pool to help keep flies away.


9. Make yourself unattractive to mosquitoes Drink a couple of spoonfuls a day to keep mosquitoes away from you - your perspiration will be unpleasant.


10. Clean sprinkler residue I use full strength vinegar on a rag to wipe away the lime deposits the sprinklers leave on my car's paint and windows. You can also dip your clogged sprinkler heads into some vinegar to break down any calcium deposits.


11. Kill snails and slugs If you have a slug problem, drop a few drops (an eye dropper works well) of white vinegar on them and they will dissolve. But be careful not to get the vinegar on plants, it will kill them.


12. Cure Lawn Brown Spots Put a tablespoon of vinegar in your dog's drinking water every day and you will no longer have those brown spots in your lawn from the dog's urine.

and some other generic advice vinegar uses;

13. Help your azaleas bloom Azaleas love acid so add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar to two cups of water and pour around your azaleas during their flowering season.


14. Sanitize your outdoor furniture Pour some vinegar onto a rag and wipe over the furniture. It's a great sanitizer if you've had birds or small animals perching themselves on it.


15. Remove berry stains It's always hard to remove stains from mulberries and boysenberries especially. Pour a little vinegar on your hands before washing and the stains should come off much easier.









Posted by Stuart at 5:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Claiming that it is the biggest show of it's type in Australia, the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show kicks off this Wednesday in Victoria's capital city.

It's rated among the top 5 garden shows in the world and even claims that it is the biggest in the southern hemisphere - bigger than New Zealand's Ellerslie - which gives you an idea of its reputation.

The show has been going for 12 years and is housed in the Royal Exhibition Building and the Carlton Gardens just a stone's throw from inner-city Melbourne.

Many exhibitors have gone on from the MIFG show to win major awards at Chelsea and other renowned gardening exhibitions.

The show finishes Sunday afternoon and will most likely see more than 125,000 people visit this awesome spectacle of gardening. For more info check out the show's dedicated website.

Posted by Stuart at 7:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Hedges can be the most beautiful and useful plantings that gardeners could ever turn their hands to. But, they can also be the most infuriating.

Why? For a hedge to work well it relies on teamwork. Every plant in the hedge needs to pull its own weight and grow at the same rate that all the others do. If they don't, you end up with a hedge that looks incomplete.

When we arrived back from our weekend away we discovered that some drunken louts had decided to try and jump our lavender hedge, and unfortunately they failed.

Rather than break a few twigs they left a complete hole in the hedge that will take years to rectify. And this is the problem with hedges. It only takes a single plant to throw the whole hedge into disarray. One minute the hedge looks fantastic - the next it looks like a 6 year-old's row of pearlers when they lost their first tooth.

Is there a way to fix hedges?

Sure. If you're willing to take the time. Here are a few options;

• Leave it to grow - most fast-growing hedges can repair themselves within a season or two if the damage isn't too great. The plants either side of the hole should be able to knit themselves together and cover the gaping void.

  The same may happen with slow-growing hedges but the time needed to repair themselves may be considerably longer.



• Add a substitute plant - this may also be a viable option and would be more successful for those with slow-growing hedges. One of our hedges is grown from planting African Box and while we bought them as small plants because of their cost (A$8 each plant) if we had to substitute one we would pay the dollars for a mature plant. This would considerably cut down the time needed to repair itself.


• Shape your hedges - if your hedge has just been trimmed or allowed to grow naturally in the past, consider shaping it to utilise the hole that's been created. You could fashion it as a topiary hedge or even be creative by displaying another plant through it.

  Turn a disaster into a positive and find ways to use your hedge that you wouldn't normally have considered before.



• Add a feature - a hole in your hedge will obviously open up a new dimension in your garden so why not try and make it a feature? Rather than try and regrow the plant that has been damaged install a garden feature. A bird bath, sundial, gnome (if you have to!) or any sort of garden whimsy could turn your hedge problem into an opportunity to be creative.


• Reconfigure your hedge - up until the point of disaster you were probably only growing one type of plant in your hedges. Why not start replacing some of your plants with another species to mix your hedge up? Use a random pattern or try something more formal and remake the hedge. Try a different foliage tone, or leaf texture. Maybe even add some flowering or non-flowering plants. You could even introduce some standard plants and allow the hedge to grow around them.


• Start again - this is certainly not the greatest option for repairing a hedge. Hedges, even fast-growing ones, take a while to grow so starting again can be more demoralizing than helpful for most gardeners. However, we have been considering changing this hedge for some time as we've found it has just taken up more room than we anticipated it would. So in effect, this act of random vandalism may just turn out to be a God-send.

Hedges can be more maintenance than they're worth some times but if you're willing to persevere they can easily become the 'thing' that sets your garden apart.

Posted by Stuart at 6:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

We set off this weekend for a place known as Honeymoon Pool for a little R&R with the family. With two other families we had been planning this little expedition for some time and the kids thought it couldn't come soon enough.

We camped less than 100m from this pool under the shade of some towering peppermint trees (agonis flexuosa). The area was so shaded that it was until 10am that we eventually saw the sun and would begin to defrost from the previous cold night - which would have been a great excuse to stay in bed if the 10 children that were with us had the same idea!

Most of the two days were spent canoeing up and down the river traversing some low level rapids and ascending them again when we overshot our destinations. The kids really enjoyed themselves and the parents are now just glad to be back in the world that has showers and soft, comfortable beds.

Posted by Stuart at 5:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Wonderful Colleen from In the Garden Online has finally filled the obvious void in the blogosphere by offering awards that recognise the gardening niche we're all a part of.

I, like many bloggers noticed the absence of our favourite hobby (more popular than craft BTW - what's going on?) at the recent Bloggies. So, if you can't join them, beat 'em I say.

So Colleen has produced the very impressive garden blog (and website) awards called the Mouse and Trowel Awards. Bloggers can vote for their peers in 8 categories for blogs and 5 for gardening websites with the winners to be announced on Sunday May 13.

You have until Monday 15 April to get your nominations in but don't wait otherwise you may get caught up in the stampede. I'm so excited that this is finally happening and look forward to seeing the results.

Kudos Colleen.

Posted by Stuart at 5:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Each week it amazes me at the helpfulness of many gardening bloggers as they share their knowledge or things they've found out with the rest of the world via their blog. And it's all free of charge!

Here's this weeks roundup;

• Seems like every second week I'm linking to Andrea's Heavy Petal but it's always for good reason. This week she shares how to make your own seedballs (and they're important, how?). Seedballs are the new ammunition for guerrilla gardeners and are so easy to make. Read Andrea's great post on how to make them.


• If you're into butterflies then Angela from Angela's NorCal Garden Blog has a few links to some great butterfly photos and resources about them.


• Nelumbo from The Garden Blog (of a gal growing Southern) shares how not to grow plants in an indoor terrarium.


• If you've ever been wondering what to do with all that left over urine at your place, Peter from Backyard Organic Farming has a ready made solution.


• The Greenhouse Girl writes an interesting post on some of the myths and legends surrounding sunflowers. Did you know that it's been designated the symbol of a world free from nuclear weapons?


• And, finally, Katina from Katina's Little Gardeners links to a great article on starting seeds by Better Homes and Gardens. Katina also shares some insights from her own experiences.

Posted by Stuart at 6:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have this ongoing argument with our kids as we plan our future staged rainforest garden. My idea is to have a spa that seats 10-12 and you can relax while you enjoy the landscaping. The kids idea is to get a pool. They're not quite as excited about sitting around relaxing as the parents are.

My excuse has always been that our garden isn't big enough to house a pool and from a suburban sized viewpoint it's a valid response. That was until I came across the Endless Pool.

The pool is only 8' x 15' (2.4m x 4.6m) in dimension so it could easily fit most backyards. Our spa design is 3' x 3' (10m x 10m) so you can see that it's not an impossible option.

The real beauty of this product, apart from its aesthetic landscaping features, is that it offers swimmers the ability to use it as a swimming pool. A constant current can keep a swimmer exercising against the flow much like a runner on a treadmill. So not only is it good for the kids to splash around in but it's also useful for your fitness and training regime as well.

The Endless Pool can be installed above or below ground - or somewhere in between, if you can't make up your mind. It won't require connection to your household plumbing but can easily be filled by your garden hose and it comes with an optional gas heater so that you can use it more throughout the year.

Obviously, you will need to consult your local authority for protecting your pool installation as many have rigid fencing laws that need to be adhered to.

Sponsored post. Read my view on sponsored posts.

Posted by Stuart at 5:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

By definition potash is any compound that contains potassium. It can be sourced from plants such as comfrey, from ash from your fireplace or in chemical forms such as Nitrate of potash (potassium nitrate) or Sulphate of potash (potassium sulphate).

Potash is an amazing element to be used in the garden as potassium is the key to helping plants produce fruit. While nitrogen (N) increases foliage and plant growth and phosphorous(P) helps root structure, potassium (K) is the chemical lacking if your plants don't flower or fruit.

One of the easiest ways of getting potash is from your fireplace. Wood ash is a great source of potassium and can be sprinkled liberally around your plants. Lemons and citrus trees are great lovers of potash and sprinkling wood ash to their drip line will encourage new fruit to set and help the plants hold more fruit.

If you leave the wood ash out in the weather before applying it to your plants it will gradually become useless. The potash will seep out of the ashes and it will lose its effectiveness. Therefore, it's actually better to allow your fire to burn out by itself than dowsing it with water as the wood ash will retain all its potassium.

Many organic gardeners grow comfrey for their source of potash. The comfrey can be used as a mulch around the base of plants or even inserted into a planting hole. Mixing the leaves after soaking them can produce a great liquid fertiliser as well.

But for those gardeners who lack the space to grow crops of comfrey or who don't have a fireplace, the next best source is available from your nursery of hardware store. Sure, the puritan organic gardeners won't approve of using chemicals but regardless of whether it's come from a plant or out of a box - it's the same thing.

Posted by Stuart at 5:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Any other's you'd like to see?

Posted by Stuart at 5:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Jen from So you wanna be a Domestik Goddess? has just blogged a great post with 5 ways to fake a show-off garden. I'm not much into faking the whole garden experience but Jen makes some good points that get you out of some embarrassing moments - like when the MIL drops over.

Heres the list;

• Planter Magic - Jen points out that adding some containers to your garden can instantly rectify any boring spots. However, she adds that the trick is to keep them all of the same material, ie. if you're using terracotta don't add a plastic or Malay pot. Hmmm...good point.


• Weed Wisdom - This has to be Jen's best advice. If you don't have time to weed your whole garden then just weed the front few inches from each border or garden bed. Clean lines will always steer your visitors eye to the most important things and most will just assume the weeds at the back are part of the effect.


• Artful Dodges - For those looking for ideas on where to move those garden gnomes feel free to email me. I have a few ideas that might help.


• Put it in perspective - if time is limited then cleaning up the areas around the house or that visitors are more likely to notice pays greater dividends than tizzing up the woodlands down by the creek.


• Cosmetic Measures - Jen recommends that you take a look at your garden from your visitors viewpoint rather than the familiar one you've been using. Remove the clutter and display your best bits.

We all get caught at some stage by unexpected visitors so if you have a little spare time take a leaf out of Jen's book and fake the garden makeover. They don't need to know...do they?

Posted by Stuart at 5:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is just another one of those nosy "what do you do?" blog posts because I really enjoy getting to know garden bloggers and how they tick. So if you have your own garden blog I'm asking the question "What is your garden blogging routine?"

Do you post everyday? Do you take days off? Are you a morning blogger or a night blogger? Have you ever scraped a post together while at work? Do you have a routine or do you just blog when it's convenient?

I can see that there's no point asking the question if I'm not going to share myself. So here goes,

• Monday - I'm back in the blogging seat after taking Sunday off so I'm really keen to catch up on what's happening in the garden blogosphere. I check my stats (I always check my stats - OCD!!) and then try and put two gardening posts together before heading off to work.
• Tuesday - Tuesday morning's a little stressful. I always feel that I'm still behind the eight-ball here as there are comments that need to be made, blog directory submissions needed to be updated and bloggers that I want to connect with. I head off early to a church prayer meeting so I only have time for one post on these mornings.

  I will often try and use my lunch break at work to comment on other blogs and send emails to those who have contacted me or that I want to make contact with.

  Tuesday night is my 'blogging' night. I update the garden blogs directory and try and write a post for each of my other two blogs. By Tuesday night I'm starting to feel like I'm getting it under control again. I love Tuesday nights - so don't bother inviting me out for a Pizza and Beer night on Tuesdays. It won't happen.



• Wednesday - two more gardening posts and I'm catching up on reading some other gardening blogs.


• Thursday - another two gardening posts, a chance to comment more on other blogs and keeping up on my reading. Depending what else is going on in my world I may even get in some extra blogging time on Thursday night but It doesn't always happen.


• Friday - you guessed it, another two gardening posts.


• Saturday - Saturday mornings are my easy morning. There are no deadlines (although my kids soccer season is soon to start which will throw this routine out a bit, especially now I'm coaching one of the teams) so I can just enjoy being creative.

  This usually results in two more gardening posts and one more post each for my other two blogs. I also try to come up with some ideas for the following week or adjust my routine if I'm going to be away.



• Sunday - I rest. The computer gets turned off on Saturday night and doesn't go back on until Monday morning not for any religious reason but I find I just need a break. I have actually discovered that I can be far more creative if I've taken some time away from blogging than if I just blog everyday. And it means my family gets my undivided attention.

So there's my sad little life in a nutshell. What does your blogging routine look like?

Posted by Stuart at 4:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It's hard to miss that our gardening culture is changing. Where once we would till the soil, get dirty and possibly sweat after a gardening workout, we have exchanged this for a hobby that is fast becoming sterile and comfortable. One indicator of this shift is the grow bags phenomena.

What are Grow Bags (aff.)?

Predominantly, they're made from poly plastic although there has been a shift to more eco-friendly alternatives. We may have already used them to pot up trees and small shrubs as a substitute for a plastic pot but the real trend starter is the grow-in-a-bag, grow bags.

We've all seen the upside-down tomato planter where you suspend the grow bag from your patio and the plants grow from the bottom upwards. And the trend hasn't stopped here. Now you can buy grow bags that accept your flowering plants as well and may even seem a better way to plant.

What are the advantages of grow bags?

• More growing space - the traditional container planters have the ability to only grow from the top of the soil, vertically. Grow bags can grow all around the bag allowing you to display more plants.


• Less mess - grow bags can come prepped with all the organic material you need. Just add plants, water and Voila! You have an instant garden.


• Inexpensive - these products are relatively cheap and compared to buying your own hanging baskets or container planters the set up costs are minimal.


• More planting options - Europeans have been growing plants via grow bags for aeons. They mainly grow them horizontally as a poor-man's pot plant but now the trend has been to use grow bags vertically. This allows more options for where you locate your plants.


• Ease and convenience - any home owner could start growing plants quite successfully with a grow bag. Kits are available that take all the guess work out of planting and may actually be a good starter for novice gardeners.

What are the dis-advantages of grow bags?

• Dumbing down gardeners - if you weigh up all the advantages of grow bags it's hard to see that any negatives but my concern is that we are breeding a McDonald's culture of gardening enthusiasts. One where if it can't be finished in 45 seconds then it's probably not worth doing it.


• Environmentally irresponsible - as many grow bags are constructed from poly plastics they don't break down and many can't, or won't, be recycled. Admittedly there are more eco-friendly options becoming available but they're a more expensive proposition and people will often tend for cheap over environmental concerns.

While grow bags may be a growing phenomena there is some cause for concern. They definitely have a place in our gardening worlds but we should be wary that they may just be another Garden by numbers trend.

So, are they a useful product or do you snub your nose at them too?

Posted by Stuart at 6:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

A garden screen is becoming an essential item for many home gardens as population density increases and it seems your neighbours are getting closer than ever.

So, to make our gardens a little more private and reclusive gardeners are creatively adding garden screens. It's not that we don't like the neighbours - we just like plants more. We would rather walk out the back door and be transfixed by a collage of colours, smells and textures than confronted by the neighbours washing line or sea of car bodies and parts.

Call us hermits if you like, but most gardeners enjoy a sense of tranquility around their homes. I would even venture that most home owners seek the same thing - a place where they can escape the busyness of daily life and relax without focusing on the neighbours lack of gardening imagination.

So, how do you create a garden screen? Well, there are many options available and they can each be assessed by your desired level of ongoing management. For some, a garden screen needs to be a living thing such as plants while for others it may just be a thing of beauty such as a mosaicked wall or a textured fence.

Here's a list of options;

• Hedges - certainly not an option for the person looking for a low-maintenance idea. Hedges can be created from a multitude of plants including, but not limited to, conifers, gardenias, murrayas and even agonis. They can be shaped either formally or in contemporary designs to reflect your garden style.
• Screening Plants - while hedges are created from plants using screening plants usually requires little pruning or maintenance. Provided the shrubs are planted close enough and can grow well together they can form an informal hedge or a just a random planting of more than one species.

  Options as screening plants may be hibiscus, hop bushes, grevilleas and pittosporum.



• Bamboo - is a great option for creating a garden screen. I've talked about bamboo before and the great alternatives to using non-invasive species. In the right setting, bamboo can easily create an idyllic hideaway and mesh with your garden design.

  Bamboo are screening plants that can quite densely, and quickly, fulfill your garden screen needs.



• Fences - now plants have one downside - they take time to grow. And if you can't wait two or three seasons before that hideous view is blocked out then erecting a new wall or fence may be the only option. You may even find that extending the current fence is also an achievable possibility.


• Climbers and Creepers - if you do go down the Fence or Wall path then covering them with a creeping plant or a climber can hide the harshness of constructed materials. You may also find that rather than building a fence or a wall you could erect some trellising that will allow a creeper to cover it.

  Here's a couple of options for some different creepers and climbers.



• Trees - if you have enough space, the canopy of a small-medium sized tree may even be a possible garden screen option. Growing trees will usually be the slowest method of screening out unwanted views but they can be very effective. When selecting trees as an option choose evergreens rather than deciduous or you will find that for half of the year that unwanted view will continue to reappear.

It certainly isn't hard to create a garden screen and depending on your design, time availability and climate conditions, you should be able to find an easy answer to enjoy your privacy.

Posted by Stuart at 5:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

How time's are changing... Centuries ago, the sundial was an important piece of technological advancement and essential for keeping the time. Today they are just another garden ornament.

But, garden sundials have a certain dynamism that normal statues and ornaments don't. For we can gaze upon a statue and enjoy its beauty but that's where the interaction ends. With a brass sundial, not only is it aesthetically pleasing but it seduces you to enjoy its workings as well.

A garden sundial can feature in many types of garden from the formal topiary design to the informal cottage garden. They work just as well in a Mediterranean setting as they will in a xeriscaped urban garden. In fact, it seems that with the right type of garden sundial it won't become a misplaced object of beauty.

So, how should they be positioned?

Firstly, as garden sundials work via the sun's movement across the sky (or to be technically correct, the earth's rotation around the sun) they have one essential requirement - the sun. It's no use hiding a brass sundial under a grove of trees unless, of course, you wanted it purely as an ornament - but even then, it might look a tad silly. The best position for a garden sundial is in full sun.

Garden sundials are available in many shapes and sizes and can either by displayed on a plinth, set into the ground or attached to a garden wall. Depending where it is located will determine how much effort is required to prepare the sundial's position in advance.

Most sundials will come with a north indicator (if you live in the southern hemisphere) or a south indicator (if you live in the north). This indicator needs to be aligned with True North or True South which is different to the north or south displayed on a compass. True North is approximately 11 degrees west of magnetic north and True South is 11 degrees east of magnetic south.

Most garden sundials are made of brass because they can withstand the elements and still retain their appearance. Over time they will even mature with an aged brass patina look.

Posted by Stuart at 5:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the person who has everything you might consider a little piece of eco-art, maybe a herb to decorate that blah! wall which once housed the outdated suede effects.

Drosera, a New York urban ecology-focused company has prepared some great herbarium sheets for customers to purchase. The sheets, which are unframed, carry a pressed original native plant (originally considered 'weeds'), their origin and a little of its history.

They aren't forthcoming with the price of each piece but one could safely assume they're targeting the organic-Chardonnay set.

For those who live in New York, Drosera's site has a wealth of information about many of its native flora.

Link via Treehugger

Posted by Stuart at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'd never really taken much notice of thistles until I was traipsing through some of Tasmania's pastoral areas. Then their flowers seemed to bob in the breeze creating as much attention for themselves as possible. Their artichoke shaped head covered with a punk rocking blaze of pink follicles are beautiful - but only when contained.

The moment they escape their boundaries - and that's not a difficult feat for a successful self-seeder - they can grow with amazing rapidity. The seed is either dispersed by the wind or scattered via small birds who view the seed as a delicacy.

But Scottish thistles, or cotton thistles as they are also commonly known, can be grown in your gardens and treated as a flowering biennial. They are part of the Asteraceae family and are found in the Cirsium genus, which is by no means a small variety.

It's the same genus that sports Arizona, Japanese and Mexican thistles which are all fairly similar to look at but accommodate various leaf and flower shapes.

After seeing them growing profusely in Tasmania, I noticed a few creeping in our native wetlands while on a walk yesterday. They are extremely hardy and invasive and unless they are removed their attack on the native vegetation will continue.

If Scottish thistles are an unwanted weed in your garden the best management practice is to pull them up prior to flowering. Once they have flowered, the thistles next goal is to set seed and having done this will allow the seeds to be scattered so that it can reproduce.

However, if you like the look of the Scottish thistle it could be a welcome addition to a cottage garden but if you live near native vegetation you will need to remain vigilant against any escaping proteges.

Posted by Stuart at 6:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Crop rotation is a practice that's talked about ad nauseum in the gardening world but has the idea passed it's use by date?

It's a theory that's been utilised since the Roman Empire gaining momentum via agrarian farmers in the Middle Ages. The idea suggests that growing the same plants in the exact spot or bed they've previously been grown in will eventually deplete the soil of its fertility and increase the risk of soil-borne diseases and pests.

For the past few decades we've tried to go against conventional thinking and have resourced our gardens with a plethora of pesticides, herbacides and chemical fertilisers. These inorganic products have allowed us to grow our annual crop of tomatoes, melons and corn in the same vegie patch without ever having to rotate their positions.

And what have we achieved? Pandora's box filled with problems. It appears that our forefathers might have been right on the money with their idea of crop rotation.

So, how does crop rotation work? And, is it just a matter of moving crops each year so that they don't grow in the same beds?

There's more to crop rotation than just rotating crops. It's a mix of science and art - like most things. Rotating crops is all about trying to use each crop so that it achieves the best produce but also leaves the soil in a better condition for the next crop. For example, beans and peas add nitrogen to the soil and tomatoes and capsicums love nitrogen. So it would make sense to grow the beans prior to your crop of solaceous vegetables.

There are seven main family types of vegetables that the home grower might want to plant in their vegie patch;

1. Brassicas - Cabbage, cauliflowers, brussell sprouts, broccoli, Asian greens


2. Legumes - Beans and peas


3. Umbelliffers - Potatoes, carrots, parsnips, swedes, celeriac, turnips


4. Alliums - Onions, garlic, leeks


5. Solanaceae - Tomatoes, aubergines (eggplant), capsicum


6. Cucurbits - Cucumbers, squash, marrow, pumpkins, gourds


7. Mescluns - Lettuces, chard, kale, silverbeet, rocket

These vegetables can be grown in a number of ways and it depends primarily on the amount of space you have. Ideally it would be best to have 8 beds so that each vegetable type could grow a season in their own bed leaving one fallow for a season and then rotating them around.

However, very few home gardeners have the luxury of this much space so it takes some coordination to grow these crops and rotate them in fewer beds.

Here's a few options;

• Six bed crop rotation - Combine your Solanaceae and Cucurbits into one bed, keep the Alliums by themselves and Legumes into another. Your Brassicas and Mescluns cna be planted into yet another and your Umbellifers are kept by themselves. The sixth bed is left fallow to be planted with a green manure like clover, barley or rye grass.

  The fallow bed for the next year is the one that the Solanaceae and Cucurbits grew in. They follow the Legumes which follow the Alliums. These follow the Brassicas and they follow the Umbellifers.

• Five bed crop rotation - Combine your Solanaceae and Cucurbits into one bed, Alliums and Legumes into another, your Brassicas and Mescluns into yet another and your Umbellifers by themselves. The fifth bed is left fallow to grow a green crop and have compost added.

  The Solanaceae bed becomes the fallow one next year as they follow the Legumes and Alliums. These follow the Brassicas and they follow the Umbellifers.

• Four bed crop rotation - Combine your Solanaceae, Alliums, Cucurbits and Legumes into one bed, your Brassicas and Mescluns into another and your Umbellifers are kept by themselves. The fourth bed is left fallow and a green manure is grown.

  Your Solanaceae bed becomes the fallow one next year and these follow Brassicas while they follow the Umbellifers. The rooting vegetables get first shot at the new bed each year.

Crop rotation can be achieved without leaving a bed fallow for a whole year however it should at least be left to grow a green crop over one season and composted heavily.

Many gardeners are now divided over whether crop rotation is a worthwhile endeavour and those that disagree support the view that companion planting can solve many of the problems that rotating crops can do without the effort.

Posted by Stuart at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Another incredible week has passed in the gardening world but we haven't missed a second of it - well apart from the few catchup days after arriving back from Tassie. If you found yourself playing catchup as well, here are some of this weeks most helpful gardening tips that other bloggers have been posting;

• Molly Day from All the Dirt on Gardening wrote about growing tomatoes from seed and then followed up with a post on what to plant once your soil starts to warm up. Her tomato post linked to a very helpful article from Renee's Garden as she goes step-by-step through planting tomatoes from seed to harvesting them.
• If you're thinking of putting some peas in the ground this season then Steven Wilson from Granny Grunners Garden is your man.
• A little off topic, but nonetheless helpful is a series of posts from Rob of Sustainable Garden who discusses with his local MEP the seriousness of GM foods. Interesting read...
• Mary Ann, Idaho Gardener's author links to a helpful post by Marianne Binetti from Seattle who discusses how to prune mophead hydrangeas. Useful and timely advice for both sides of the hemisphere.
• After Val's great post here about harvesting rainwater, I noticed LadyLuz from Costa de la Luz Gardening has also put in some rainwater tanks. They are such a great way to tap into a very limited resource.
• And finally, it's that time of the month again when everyone posts what's blooming in their garden. Carol from May Dreams Gardens encourages bloggers to share their flowers with the blogosphere on the 15th day of every month. March is an interesting time of the year on both sides of the equator but it is still interesting to see what others are growing.





Posted by Stuart at 5:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Taking stock of what's happening in the garden is a wonderful practise so I thought I would participate in Carol's Bloom Day extravaganza and keep an online journal of what's flowering each month.

This month, being the start of Autumn (Fall), has left the options a tad limiting. Most of my spring/summer flowering plants have finished and there are only a few that are continuing to bloom. The lack of blooms has actually made me consider what I might plant so that this time next year the selection won't be so dismal.

Anyway, starting out the front I have a few gerbera's poking their heads up for a last look at some warm temperatures. The roses are still producing blooms and the lavender hedge is fighting hard to flower again. My guara is looking a little worse for wear yet the buddleia's are still keeping the bees interested.

Down the maintenance side, my cumquats are constantly producing fruit and new blooms, the browallia's are covered in blue and the westringia is doing well considering the hair cut it recently received.

The backyard is gearing up for winter so only the flowers blooming here are the Sedum "Autumn Joy" and the yellow shrubby lantana. Even the alyogyne's are closing down since their star performance over summer.

Finally, the restful side of the house is experiencing a little diversity. Our hydrangea is popping out some new blooms and the camellia's, rhododedron and azaleas are all preparing their blooms for the winter. I even had a bromeliad cast its gorgeous flower last week even though it's been limited to a pot.

All things considered I shouldn't be too hard on myself but it is good to reflect and plan for March 2008.

Posted by Stuart at 5:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Pam from Digging has just pointed out that some of her comments were not being published. After a short investigation I found that quite a few of the comments were being 'Junked' by my overzealous spam detection plugin and would have eventually been wiped.

I have finally cleared up all the junk comments and rescued the 'real' ones but I just wanted to apologise to those who have been taking the time to write great comments and they haven't shown up. Trust me, I haven't been deleting them through choice.

I truly appreciate readers who are willing to contribute and love hearing your comments and adding them to the discussion. So, if your comments haven't found their way to the posts - please accept my deep remorse. I shall continue to be vigilant...

Posted by Stuart at 5:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Where are all the Australian garden bloggers? Pam from Digging, in Austin, Texas is querying where all the Aussie bloggers are to which I have no response. I know you're out there and there are definitely more than two in a nation of 20 million +.

The Garden Blog Directory continues to go from strength to strength displaying more than 100 gardening blogs from right around the globe. I'm still looking for some African and South American garden bloggers but every other continent is now represented. It won't be long and I will have to start breaking some of the locations into more detailed maps.

I received a very encouraging letter via Julie from the Human Flower Project demonstrating how helpful it can be;

I have been receiving emails over the past two weeks from somebody wanting to buy plants and get advice on her garden. After several back-and-forths, I realized she lived in California (I'm in Texas, a mere half continent away!) I was able to send her your blog map and suggest she click on the blogger closest to her town, which she did, and writes back, "This really helped!"

Thank you for setting up this wonderful service to us all.

My pleasure and thanks for the email Julie. I hope this encourages others to get their blog on the map too.

A big thanks to Telsing from Ottawa Hortphilia (I can safely say he's a Canadian blogger) who produced a very creative interview with me about the Garden Blog Directory and my views on gardening. It was an honour to be interviewed and I really enjoyed answering Telsing's questions - they were probing yet enjoyable to respond to. Kudos Telsing.

Posted by Stuart at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Although it was incredibly awesome to visit another state, one that I had never been to before, it was even better to get home and reunite with my wonderful family. I could never be a traveling professional as I’m such a homebody and miss my family too much.

But, spending some time in Tasmania was an incredible experience. My pastor and I flew over for a conference so we didn’t get much time to travel around and see the sights. However, we did get a little taste.

You can always get a feel for a place by what people grow in their gardens. While I can’t account for more than 98% of the Tasmanian population, the gardens I saw in the North-East could easily be categorised by four plants; conifers, pittosporum, proteas and hydrangeas – in that order.

Spruces, pines – of every size and description imaginable, firs and cypresses seemed to abound. This wasn’t really surprising considering the climate. We were told the week before had produced a heat wave for the region of 26°-28°C (a warm spring day for sunny Busselton – our heatwaves are measured in 40°C+).

Colder climate vegetation seemed to prevail. Even Tasmania’s forests were inundated with tree ferns that towered overhead and bracken that filled the undergrowth void.

Our greatest treat was trekking to Stanley a seaside town about 10km east of Smithton. Here we climbed the Nut, a rocky outcrop produced by volcanic activity that was home to mutton birds in the spring and an abundance of flora throughout the year.

The Stanley Nut

The winds that motored over this outcrop roared like a jet engine and it was amazing that anything grew here at all. Still, banksias, genistas and scrubby grasses kept the soil intact. There were even groves of eucalypts that seemed intent on keeping their ground.

You can see that most of the hills are dry and brown - ironically named Greenhills - as Tasmania has also suffered from the drought that most of Eastern Australia is experiencing. The locals informed me that these hills are green most of the year, including the summer months.

Tasmania is a very beautiful place, and sometime in the future I would like to return with the fam and discover what I missed this trip.

A special thanks to Val, Kerri and Colleen for their excellent posts which I can already see most of you enjoyed. They are wonderful ladies and a credit to the gardening blogosphere.

Posted by Stuart at 5:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Meet Colleen. The effervescent garden blogger who oozes sanguinity as she comments and shares her garden posts. I've been following her blog In the Garden Online for a little while and really enjoy her spontaneity and obvious love of her garden and gardening in general. Her generous spirit like Val and Kerri before her has given yet another great post to move our gardening efforts forward.

I'd like to thank Stuart up front for inviting me to be a guest blogger while he's gallivanting around Tasmania. Unfortunately, it's winter here, so I'll have to forgo talking about gardening. Instead, I'll talk about one of my other favorite subjects: garden blogging.

Can garden blogging make you a better gardener?

This is one of those 'chicken and the egg' questions, but as far as I'm concerned, the answer is a definite, absolute YES! I've been a gardener for a long time, first in a small bed in the first place my husband and I rented, and now in my own quarter of an acre outside of Detroit. I've loved it since the moment my first seed sprouted, but something happened when I started blogging about it in the summer of 2006. I noticed more. I became not just a gardener, but an observer of my own garden.

The strength of any blog lies in not only having something to say, but in posting frequently. There have been so many times when I've thought "I have nothing going on in the garden, but I really should make a blog entry". On those occasions, I've gone out to the garden, walked around, and, lo and behold, found something interesting to write about, whether it's been my adoration of all stages of a flower (not just the full-bloom stage) or a rant on the compost restrictions in my neighborhood.

And, when you observe more, you end up doing more. You catch problems early on, before you have a disaster on your hands. Maybe most importantly, blogging has made me a more active gardener. I'm one of those people who has thousands of ideas 'the type of person who's always saying "oh, I'm going to do this in the garden...."' and among all of the other parts of my life, the garden projects get neglected. Now that I'm blogging, and posting my photos on the blog, I feel like I have to do those projects I say I'm going to do. It helps me fight my tendency toward procrastination. And I need all the help I can get :-)

But perhaps the biggest benefit to blogging about gardening is the community you become a part of, and, even better, the friends you make. The best place for gardeners to learn, more than books, magazines, or television shows, is from other gardeners. I have learned more about plants, compost, tools, and garden design in this last year of garden blogging than I had learned in several years before blogging.

When I'm stumped about a problem in my garden, or trying to figure out whether a seedling that popped up in one of my beds is a weed or a perennial, I know I can post it on my blog, and someone will have an answer for me in no time. As I alluded to above, it goes deeper than just getting cheerful advice from fellow gardeners. I consider some of the garden bloggers out there to truly be my friends, even though I'll most likely never meet them.

I'd be hard-pressed to find cooler, more enthusiastic people anywhere else. I'm biased, of course, but if you're looking for what a blog should be, you would do well to take a look at any of these blogs, all created by bloggers who I consider to be friends:

Kim's A Study in Contrasts: For beautiful writing, gorgeous photos, and a keen eye for stunning plant combinations, this is a can't-miss. Besides that, I have the nagging suspicion that Kim is my long-lost sister :-)

Carol's May Dreams Gardens: Carol is one of those people who has helped make garden bloggers into a true community by founding both the Garden Bloggers Book Club and the new Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

Annie's The Transplantable Rose: Annie has a way with words and a penchant for storytelling that makes you lose yourself in her blog.

Anthony's Compost Bin: Every gardener should be in love with compost. Anthony's enthusiasm for it is contagious.

And, finally, Stuart's Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas: I remember the first time I read Stuart's blog. He was writing about his frustration with garden blogs, and how he wishes there was more real, meaningful dialogue on the blogosphere. I was fairly new to blogging, and took his rant to heart, especially his hope that gardeners would start extolling their gardening passion rather then just quietly walking by. So, you could easily say that Stuart is one of those people who helped me become the kind of garden blogger I am.

I think, soon, those of us who blog about our gardens find that the blogging becomes almost inseparable from the gardening, and that the gardening is inseparable from who we are as people. Garden blogging is addictive, but so is garden blog reading. Here's a salute to those of you who blog, and my hope that those of you who don't yet blog will consider starting! Drop me a line when you do :-)

Posted by Stuart at 5:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Meet Val. Val's the one-eyed Carlton supporter who owns the the blog domain carltonrules.blogspot.com and keeps me up to date with all things happening at Princes Park - and no, that's not a garden. Val is great fun and comments abundantly here on this blog and every other blog I find. Yet Val will often beaten me there.

A retired librarian who loves to create books, not write them - but create them (you will understand when you've spent some time on her blog). She spends her days camping, touring the world, exhorting the 'man who cooks' and writes a great post or two, or three or ....

To guest blog or not? At first I thought, nah, I don’t really concentrate on the garden in my blog, even less so now than before, what with the effects of the 10 year drought and all. However, I had recently thought I might post something in my own blog about the water harvesting devices hubby has installed, waiting until our 5000 litre tank was delivered (more than a month’s wait). But here was Stu, a blogger buddy, asking me to do a guest blog, and as he supports the same football team I do, how could I say no?

So 10 years of drought in Victoria, previously known as the Garden State. What does this mean to a city dweller not locked in daily battle with Mother Nature like country people are? Did I ever think I’d miss rain or feel overjoyed hearing rain on the roof? What about the intense interest in how full the reservoirs are? I would bet that many Melburnians could now give you the percentage of the current water storage in Victoria to within a few percentage points.

Here in the city we are currently on Stage 3 water restrictions which means, amongst other things, that there are only 2 days a week when we can water gardens (NOT lawns), between the hours of 6 – 8 a.m. and 8 -10 p.m. Drippers and handheld hoses or buckets only, no sprinklers.

When this was first announced, every man and his dog raced down to their local Hardware Heaven, otherwise known as Bunnings, to completely buy out the entire stock of drippers. Of course, buying them is one thing, installing them and/or converting from a sprinkler system is another.

Fortunately, my hubby has had quite a bit of experience at installing irrigation systems in the 3 gardens we’ve had over the years. He is sorry now he didn’t go for drippers years ago because with that system the plants get water directly to the root system, and it’s more efficient than spraying water around which is not only ill directed but can evaporate. He has noticed that some plants are very happy with drippers, despite the drought.

However, Stage 4 has been predicted for May, which means that there will be NO WATERING OF GARDENS as well as lawns. This refers to water from the tap, but now people are starting to think about the water that oh so occasionally falls from the sky onto the roof, flows down the downpipes and into the storm water system, lost to the land. How to trap that? The new buzz words around town are “water harvesting”, and amazingly quickly new products have appeared on the market that help capture water for the garden, and reuse elsewhere.

Overnight we have seen a whole industry develop, specialising in diverting the water from the downpipes off the roof, either directly onto the garden or into holding tanks. Here’s one of 3 installed at our place.

Then there’s the water from our washing machine, which is a water efficient front loader. The water goes from the laundry trough out to a place where hubby has intercepted it with a “kit” he bought. And there I thought he had cobbled it together himself! Those green twist ties are a bit amateurish looking but so far there have been no leaks.

And then there’s the latest trendy “must-have”: your very own tank for the serious water harvester. The suppliers have not been able to keep up with the demand. Hopefully we’ll have ours in 4 or 5 weeks. We’ll be putting it at the back of the carport, in a designer color to blend with the house. Here is a simulation of where the tank will go. It will be 5000 litres. Then we pray for rain.

There are other ideas to follow up, but of course we’re participating in the latest craze, the Shower Shuffle, where you capture water in a bucket while waiting for the water to warm up and while showering. Sorry, no photos.

Posted by Stuart at 5:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

What tips and helpful posts are other great gardening bloggers offering? Check this weeks half dozen out.

• If you're like Anthony from Compost Bin you might find yourself using one of these little gardening lies. I'm notorious for using the "I’m going out to the garden, I’ll be back in a minute" one. I could actually guess that it might be standard practice amongst gardeners anyway.
• Mary Ann from Idaho Gardener has come out with a list of gardening predictions for 2007. Her tip for big, bold containers certainly seems to be a correct forecast as garden supply companies have really lifted their game in this area.
• Rick, The Whispering Crane Institute's owner shares some history on Linaeus' Flower Clock. In a nutshell, it was a method for trying to calculate the time based on when flowers, predominantly wildflowers, would open up. Uncanny, but as Rick states - fairly impractical.
• Mr Brown Thumb reminds us to keep our eyes peeled for cheap bulbs. Rather than pay full retail on our plants, it's best to take some time to peruse the discounted aisle.
• If you're looking for a little inspiration for landscaping that tight driveway, Roy from Frog Garden and his wife Larraine have come up with a great way to enhance it.
• And last, but certainly not least, Kenny from Veggie Gardening Tips shares how to grow potato onions. That's right - potato onions! You heard it ...second, right here on Gardening Tips n Ideas. (The lengths we go to)

Posted by Stuart at 5:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kerri from Colors of the Garden is the star guest blogger today as she shares of her passion with fuschias. I've really enjoyed conversing with Kerri over the past year and she epitomizes what blogs are about - they really are just an international cyber-fence that we can hang our heads over and have a natter. If you haven't met Kerri (or her husband Ross) yet, pour yourself a cuppa and spend some time delving through her archives. They're all as good as this one...

Stuart has generously offered to give me the run of his blog, in a guest post, while he’s off gallivanting in Tasmania. I thought, “Why not? I haven’t had a trip to my beloved birth country since 2003, and I’ve never been to Western Australia. If I can’t go physically, at least I can have a virtual trip”. So here I am!

My first thoughts were of the glorious gardens my mother used to grow, and specifically, her magnificent fuchsias.

Mom lived in Palm Beach, NSW during my teen years, and then later at Nelson Bay in Port Stevens, NSW. She had the greenest thumb imaginable, and grew a great deal of her plants from cuttings.

She had many different fuchsias. Some in hanging baskets, some in containers and others in the ground, almost all grown from cuttings. The plants in the ground grew into very large shrubs, up to 6ft tall, laden with beautiful ballerina-like blooms dancing from gracefully arced boughs.

Unless one is lucky enough to have a greenhouse over here in our Northeastern United States climate (we are just barely in zone 5…surrounded by zone 4), we must buy our fuchsias in hanging baskets or containers from plant nurseries early in the spring.

The hard part is deciding which variety to buy. I make myself stick to one basket of fuchsia because there are so many other plants I want as well. For the past 3 years I’ve chosen ‘Marinka’, a red variety, for its vigorous growth habit and the fact that hummingbirds adore it. And for the most part, I’ve had really good luck with it.

But then there’s that gorgeous pale pink, with a hint of green on the tips that I fell in love with last year. Or the purple and red combination, or “Swingtime”, which is red and white, or…..well, you get the picture. I have a little trouble making up my mind….and this is just the fuchsia! I still have all those other plants to decide on. A trip to the nursery can become a long, drawn out affair for me.

If I’m lucky, and don’t kill the plant by under or over watering, I can enjoy about 4 or 5 months of lovely blooms. As a rule, we don’t get a great deal of hot weather during our short summers, but I find it’s best to move the fuchsia out of the afternoon sun if the day is a hot one. I just move it over one hook, from the edge of the porch roof, to underneath the roof. And I usually need to water it morning and night in very hot weather, because the container dries out very quickly. I’ve found that if I feed it about every 10 days with Bloom Booster flower food (15-30-15) it will produce blossoms continually all summer.

As the cold weather approaches I’m always very reluctant to let the container plants suffer their fate of being killed by a frost, so I carry them back and forth between the inside and out until it gets to be too much of a chore. But this winter was unusually mild until half way through January, and the fuchsia and several other plants survived on our enclosed side porch all that time. When the temperatures finally began dipping to freezing and below I brought the plants inside and put them upstairs in a spare bedroom by a sunny window.

I cut the fuchsia back, and was surprised to see a few blooms on it during these last couple of months. It’s looking very healthy, which leads me to believe that I might end up with another season’s worth of enjoyment from this plant. What a bonus!

And just think, around Mother’s Day I’ll be able to treat myself to a brand new fuchsia, feeling free this year to choose one of those other wonderful varieties

I certainly would love to be able to grow 6 ft high fuchsias like my mother did though. Perhaps I could do it vicariously through Stuart. I’ll have to talk to him about that when he gets back from his trip.

Posted by Stuart at 5:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

I fly out for Tasmania tonight and won't be back until Monday next week. I'm off to enjoy the sights and sounds of an untamed wilderness in that little island they keep missing off the Australian map. Basking in some of the great gardens Tasmania has to offer, and home to Australia's legendary Peter Cundall, I'm sure I will be able to fill Flickr completely with my photos - NB. don't try accessing Flickr on Tuesday!!!

It has been erroneously mentioned that I am HOLIDAYing, GALLIVANTing and one close friend, not mentioning any names - Marcus - even used the word JUNKET to describe my time away in Tassie.

Let it be known that I will be working. Not very hard mind you, but it is still classed as a working trip.

My pastor, Noel, and I are heading over for a conference which should take up most of the time but I'm hoping that we'll get a little sightseeing in between.

I was hoping to make it to Pete's Patch at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens but unfortunately we will be at the other end the island. (I might need to abscond and GTA a plane)

In the meantime, I have handed the reins of my blog over to three wonderful women who will entertain and inform you while I'm away. Val from Val has her say fame, Canadian blogger, Kerri from Colors of the Garden and Colleen, the star of In the Garden Online have some great posts lined up.

So don't go anywhere or you'll miss all the action. Instead, pull up your favourite couch and enjoy these gracious ladies and please make them feel at home.

See you all next week.

Posted by Stuart at 5:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

As lawn mowers get more and more bad press, properties shrink in size and keeping a lawn healthy seems to contradict every thought on environmental harmony, maybe it is possible to see artificial lawn in a new light.

When I was offered to review Artificial Grass Ltd, a UK site selling this product, my initial reaction was not a positive one. But I knew I owed it to readers of this blog to be more open in my views on what products and services are out there.

Now, don't get me wrong, you won't be seeing it at my place anytime soon. Certainly not while the Sir Walter soft-leaf is wooing the neighbours, anyway. But, I can concede that there are places that artificial lawn would be suitable and probably more so than natural grasses.

What if you suffer from chronic allergies? Many grasses are highly allergenic and can keep sufferers indoors for days, if not weeks. For the elderly, having a soft undertread and the visual aspect of lawn is now a possibility where they would have needed to hire a contractor in the past just to maintain it. And, then there are those postage stamp lawns which seem a waste in upkeep and could easily be replaced with some artificial grass.

So, while there will hopefully always be real lawn to manicure and dote over, there are more than a few applications where the 'real thing' is more nuisance than a help.

Artificial Grass Ltd. has a good range of lawns for different situations. If you want the putting green - it's possible. If you want something a little more 'family-friendly' it's also possible. And you're no longer stuck with the same dark green that we mocked at the shopping centre. Variegated colours and tones make the lawn almost appear real but with less hassle.

The site offers some great helps as well including some Guidelines for Measuring, a list of local installers (albeit in the UK), and some answers to frequently asked questions.

An artificial lawn won't suit every garden, but it might suit yours.

Sponsored post. Read my view on sponsored posts.

Posted by Stuart at 4:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Surfing through some interesting gardening articles, I came across this post [article no longer available] about the 2007 Lawn and Garden Show in Springfield, Missouri.

It seems that more gardeners are on the lookout for better trees that are able to survive climatic conditions. Trees that are stronger, shorter and have a better overall appearance are being pursued by gardeners keen to replant.

The most fashionable trees that top the list are; flowering cherry, Amur maple, redbud, dogwood and the crab apple. Bradford pears which have been popular for quite some time are getting a mixed reaction. Some swear by them while others feel they are a vulnerable tree.

Here in Australia many gardeners steer clear of eucalypts unless they're grown on large properties. Most gums have a eagerness to shed their branches whenever a storm hits, but are so temperamental they may only need a short gust of wind.

So which trees are the best at standing up to the storms that will often rip through our gardens? For me, I find that our agonis flexousa's, along with the willow's and birches, are by far the ones I worry about the least when I hear the wind whipping up.

Most home gardeners would be wise not to plant trees that overshadow their houses and as property sizes continue to decrease this means that the choice then becomes somewhat constricted. Yet it doesn't mean that trees have to be taken off the shopping list altogether.

When determining the strength of a tree, we can sometimes incorrectly apportion this virtue to size and width. However, many of the strongest trees for home gardens are the ones with flexible trunks, branches that aren't overladen, deep root systems and are more columnar in nature.

When the climate changes they can easily adapt and stand their ground.

Posted by Stuart at 3:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My mother, and many gardeners who are part of her generation, seemed to marry both gardening and flower arranging and do it quite well. She took a flower arranging course when I was young and has since continued both hobbies as if they were joined at the (rose) hip.

So I wonder which hobby benefited the other or was it a type of synergy that was created because they both had similar characteristics.

From what I understand, and observed from my mother's flower arrangements, arranging flowers is really no different to gardening. The arranger, like a gardener, has a plethora of considerations to be made before they plonk a few stems into an awkward shaped vase.

Firstly, the flower arranger needs to imagine the end product. This isn't unlike a gardener who needs to plan out their garden design with the end result in mind. This initial design period is essential for both the person doing the flower arrangement and the gardener and if not conceived properly will lose focus and the result will look catastrophic.

Second, both the floral designer and the gardener need to choose the main elements of their masterpiece. I noticed that my mum would always work with one or two main elements (the flowers that usually cost the most) and then fill in the rest with other secondary pieces. This is exactly the same as gardening. Most of us don't have the luxury of unlimited space and so we're forced to make a decision as to which plants will feature more prominently in our gardens.

Another similarity that gardening and flower arranging share is they both require an 'eye' for working with colour, texture, shape and height. Flower arrangements, like gardens, look much better when they're multi-dimensional and can imbue a sense of visual order and beauty.

Yet it seems the biggest difference between the two is eternal 'time and money'. Flower arrangers have the luxury of creating a masterpiece in a few hours while it can take years for a gardener to see their artwork come to fruition. And , it's far cheaper to do flower arranging than to create a garden.

But, I have a hunch that many people who enjoy gardening also derive pleasure from flower arranging and vice versa. They're certainly not mutually exclusive activities, yet they can be.

So it comes back to the question; Do flower arranging skills help make better gardeners, or do gardeners make better flower arrangers?

Posted by Stuart at 3:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A plant that's used extensively (shall I use the term - 'used to death') are Clivias. Their famed orange heads have become quite popular over the past decade or more and they will quite often be seen lining the base of evergreen trees.

They're a popular plant because they give maximum effect for very little effort. Clivias, given the right conditions, can almost look after themselves and repopulate any free space - which can be viewed as a blessing or can easily become a curse.

Clivias, clivia miniata, are similar in appearance to the agapanthus family. They sport dark green strappy foliage and their flowers sit atop a fleshy wand-like stem. They're a clumping plant and will grow quite well if clumped in large drifts.

If you don't have any clivias already growing in your garden, the best way to get started is by finding a friend who does and dividing their clump. They're not the cheapest plant to purchase and the more rare the flower colour, the more expensive they become.

Lighting requirements

Clivias are a great shade-lover. They do best when they're out of the sun and hidden under the dripline of a large shady tree. They will also grow really well in woodland areas where dappled light is the most light they come in contact with.

Feeding requirements

As a rule, clivias aren't necessarily heavy feeders although they do appreciate a rich, free-draining soil. It's best to give clivias a boost of organic fertiliser during their flowering period or immediately afterward as this will help them conserve energy for next year's blooms.

Watering requirements

Clivias should never be allowed to dry out and a good covering of mulch at the start of spring will help them retain a good amount of moisture. If they're watered well during spring and summer they should do amazingly.

Soil requirements

These plants aren't fond of clay soils because they don't like their 'feet' to remain wet. A loamy soil rich in humus is the perfect setting for clivias. Make sure the loam is leaning to the sandy side offering good drainage yet able to retain all the nutrients needed by these plants.

Height and shape considerations

Clivias are a fairly low-growing plant managing to reach no more than a metre (3ft) but most will be much shorter than this. They are best planted en masse to achieve an awesome display as on their own they can appear a little lost.

Flowering Time

Clivias flower through spring and summer and will only flower once per stem. Each plant, however, may produce multiple stems adding to their length of flowering.

Although clivias are often thought of as an orange flower there is quite a diversity in flower colour these days. Reds, corals, yellows and even a more rare creamy-white can be found and used extensively through your garden.

Where do Clivia's grow best

These plants aren't the best in areas that are prone to frost or tropical heat. They prefer a mild climate where they can't be scorched by either element.

How to propagate Clivia

Clivias are best propagated by division. In late winter or early spring, clumps of clivia can be lifted and the rhizomes cut through to generate new plants. Replanted in the same location or in pots which a good free-draining mix will help these successfully recreate themselves.

They can be grown from seed that has been collected from the spent flowers but this takes more time and has less chance of success.

If you want to grow them from seed the trick is to impress the seed into some good seed-raising mix allowing the top half to remain exposed. Keep the mix moist and the seed should germinate within a few weeks. Plant up into larger containers as the rhizome continues to grow and you should see its first flowers within 3-4 years.

Posted by Stuart at 3:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I'm a sucker for wood furniture especially in my garden. It looks natural and contrasts well with the scene that I'm trying to create without appearing tacky or cheap. And, it usually goes the distance for wear and tear and is able to withstand the elements outdoor furniture needs to cope with.

Online Discount Mart has a great special running at the moment on their outdoor chair and table set. For a wee $349.95 you could have one of these adorning the patio as you sit and enjoy your gardening efforts. And I say "wee" because it's the best price I could find on the net for a brand new one.

The beauty of this outdoor set is that it's crafted as a one piece which means you don't need to fold or unfold chairs or find a table to suit. And because it only has two seats, it means that you and your spouse or partner can relax by yourselves. It could fit in a cosy alcove along one of your garden paths as a resting point or feature as a design element under your gazebo or pergola. Whichever way you choose, this outdoor setting will suit your garden.

The whole set is completely crafted from quality cedar hardwoods putting your mind at rest knowing that it's going to last. By their own admission, Online Discount Mart warn that the outdoor set is prone to checking but if you're vigilant with oiling it and keeping it covered during extreme weather conditions you shouldn't have a problem. The cedar used is also resistant against wood pests and can be painted to meld in with your current colour schemes or left natural to age to a silver-grey shade.

Sponsored post. Read my view on sponsored posts.

Posted by Stuart at 4:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

• Jane Perrone's Horticultural blog reviews some alternatives to using plastic bags. I can see their purpose for allotment gardeners but I think they could also be helpful for gardeners across the board.
• Katie from Gotta Garden demonstrates how to repot a dendrobium orchid. BTW - she even has a banner for the Garden Blogs Directory - Kudos Katie.
• Katina offers some helpful tips when planning a kids garden on her Katina's Little Gardeners blog. Great tips if you've got a few ankle-biters running around destroying your the heads of your flowering hippeastrums.
• Marc from the Garden Desk wrote some great ideas for what he's planning to do in the garden in 2007. I especially liked his take on planting more heirloom tomatoes.

Posted by Stuart at 5:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I offered some of our new Garden Bloggers the opportunity to introduce themselves via a "Native Plant" guest post here on my blog. To date, only Telsing Andrews from Ottawa Hortiphilia has taken me up on the offer, but I'm so glad he has. Here, he features as our guest blogger with this great post - Kudos Telsing.

Wild food is all the rage in restaurants of late and one of the much sought after edibles is the wild leek, a.k.a. ramps, wild garlic or Allium tricoccum. It pops up with the other spring ephemerals such as trilliums and trout lily in eastern North American forests. Apparently, it is delicious with a taste somewhere between garlic and scallions, though I have never tried it.

It is also at risk*.

Like any number of wild plants, over enthusiastic collection has lead to a decline in numbers. While walking through Gatineau Park, and after passing numerous signs asking people to please not pick the wild leeks / d'ail des bois, I saw a women lean over and pull something from the ground. She turned to her companion and said, 'Smell. It's an onion. Very good.' The companion did, but after taking a nibble, she tossed the remains back into the woods. I was shocked. Hadn't they read the signs? Didn't they care? But to some people, who've grown up with them, wild leeks are like wild raspberries, and you aren't about to run out of those, are you?

According to the Canadian Biodiversity Project:

"Despite the legal restrictions on wild garlic harvesting, overharvesting continues to be the number one activity causing wild garlic populations to decline. Even moderate harvesting levels have a negative impact on wild garlic populations. Mathematical models show that the maximum harvest tolerance for wild garlic is five to fifteen percent of large populations. Under higher harvesting pressures, populations will rapidly decline and possible disappear (Couillard 1995). A thirty percent harvest rate will bring a population of a few thousand individuals to the brink of extirpation in as little as twenty-five years (Gagnon 1993 in Couillard 1995)."

In fact, its status under the Quebec Act is 'vulnerable.' This word conquers up images of fragility, needing protection. So if you happen upon a clearing bursting with wild leeks in spring, resist the temptation to think that taking a few will not hurt. If I had a wild leek for every time I heard a variation on that thought, then well... there would not be any left, would there?

* This is true of populations in Quebec and nearby Ontario. You may have healthy populations in your area. If you do, lucky you, let's keep them that way.

Links:

Ontario Wild flowers

Gatineau Park

Wild Leek / Ramps, Photo by Niemster CC

Posted by Stuart at 3:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The changing of the guard is occurring in gardens all over the world so "March" seems such an appropriate name for this month. The southern hemisphere is facing autumn and the slowing down of our gardens, while the north is preparing for spring. Such a contrast.

While those below the equator are putting their tools away, those above are excitedly getting there's out as they wait for the snow to melt.

For those who aren't quite ready for what's ahead, I thought I'd prepare some gardening tips to help you March forward and embrace the current season.

Southern Hemispherean Gardens

What to plant.

• Bulbs - the start of autumn is always a great time to start preparing for spring. Some bulbs can start going in the ground already, though many will need to wait until the end of autumn. If you're a garlic fan, try burying a few cloves in the soil with the point facing upwards.


• Winter Annuals - you could plant the typical choice winter annuals such as pansies and violas or you could try and stretch your imagination a little further. Why not try raising some seeds for winter flowering with plants like; dianthus, kale, calendula's and marigolds, lobelia, primulas and cyclamen.


• Vegetables - March is a good time to sow your vegetable seeds as well. Celeriac, celery, another row of carrots, swiss chard and broad beans should be going in the ground this month.

• Get some more compost going - March will still produce some warm temperatures and with the flood of leaves you're going to start getting from your deciduous trees, it's the perfect time to get another batch underway.


• Take cuttings - Most of your perennials will begin to slow down as they prepare for their dormant winter. This is a great time to take some cuttings to grow on for spring.


• Transplant Perennials - If that perennial plant has become a perennial problem it might be time to move it. March is the perfect time to start moving some of your shrubs and trees that need a new location.


• Prune diseased plants - It's best to hold off pruning most of your plants until late winter but if you have diseased stock, use this slow-down month to remove it. Don't throw it in with your compost as this will cause further problems with your garden, but either burn it or discard it off your property.

Northern Hemispherean Gardens

What to plant.

• Summer-flowering bulbs - You can never have enough bulbs in the garden and you will become disappointed once all your spring flowering bulbs have finished. Instead, throw a few of the summer flowering bulbs like; dahlias, calla lillies, Lily Longiflorium and gladioli can start to be planted amongst your spring flowering beds.


• Vegetables - if you haven't got any tomatoes in the ground yet, or at least in seedling trays, now is a good time to get some going. Once the snow melts, you can also start planting out your carrots, parsnips, marrows, cucumbers, eggplants and any other vegetables that enjoy the warmth.


• Spring Annuals - you can either raise them from seed sown in position or buy some seedlings ready to go in the ground.

• Fertilise - Your soil and plants are going to be ravenous after the winter break and as most of your nutrients will have been leached out of the soil with the rains or snow it's time to build them up again. Your flowering annuals and vegetables will need some one-off soil boosters plus a liquid fertiliser every few weeks.


• Start pruning - if you missed the end of winter deadlines, March is still a good time to start pruning. Your roses should be trimmed back as well as your fruit trees. Perennial shrubs and ornamental trees will also need pruning, mostly for shape.


• Begin mulching - the warmer areas south will most likely need this before the north. Start dressing up your beds with a thick blanket of mulch to add some nutrients to the soil plus also smother any weeds that are beginning to germinate.

For those gardeners above the equator, your time is going to get really busy while for us southerners it's time to slow the clock down a little.

Posted by Stuart at 4:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)