Plants at Adelaide Zoo
Adelaide Zoo is great! We took our daughter to the airport on Tuesday morning and after a detour via Bunnings Garden Centre to see if there were any interesting Correas, went to the Zoo. With a shock we realised when we got home that it is four years since we visited.
The new developments are wonderful. We had seen the Lions at Monarto Zoo, but not those at Adelaide Zoo. Magnificent! The male was very superior in his attitude. The new plantings around the walking tracks are lovely.
I must say that I go to the Zoo with one eye on the occupants and the other on what is flowering. The Correas are just beginning to flower. Correa alba, a form of Correa glabra with narrow green tubes, a form of Correa reflexa were three that I saw. Various forms of Westringea fruticosa-Morning Light, Highlight, Westringea ‘Wynyabbie Gem’, Westringea rosmarinifolia were being used as a hedge to create walkways.
In the new rainforest areas there are many plants that I am not familiar with, but I have seen in many gardens, although of course not in the quantities seen in these larger areas. It would be a great place to go to see the plants ‘in function’, providing shade, screens, hedges, nesting sites, foraging areas.
Native Grasses
No Comments »18th April, 2006; Category: Native Grasses
Talk about famous last words! I was looking at a proposed site to set up a plant sales area and discovered in my wanderings a nice new patch of Horehound. The last lot of decent rain was enough to germinate seed while the soil is still warm. I noticed the onion weed has shot again also, so there is a lot of work ahead in the next week or so after Plant Sale in Adelaide.
One great thing I did notice were the native grasses which have returned to our block. They have sprouted new growth. The Austrostipa species are looking like lawn at the moment. There are a couple that I would like to get going as lawn substitutes in areas where a ‘lawn’ would be growing.
The small patch of Enneapogon nigricans is looking quite lush. The larger area of Austrodanthonia caespitosa is looking great too. As this patch has grown, there has been an excellent suppression of weeds. In fact wherever the native grasses have colonised the weedy plants have diminished.
I have had some species identified by members of the Native Grasses Resource Group, based in Mt Barker, about 30minutes from Adelaide. This group is worth joining if you have any level of interest in Native grasses.
Assistance and information are given to enable whatever your level of interest to be satisfied.
Bridal Creeper
No Comments »17th April, 2006; Category: Weeds
The ABC TV Gardening Australia programme tonight featured an article about Bridal Creeper, a member of the asparagus family (Asparagus asparagoides). This plant was brought into Australia as a garden plant and now is one of the most rampant and damaging weeds all over Australia.
There are a couple of patches on our block, growing in the shade of the Eucalypts. According to the programme, seed can be viable for at least 4 years. Which accounts for the occasional plants seen. I neglected one and it flowered and seeded so I keep getting the pesky plants popping up. I have been able to get rid of most of it with glyphosate spray.
The programme mentioned a fungus that has been released in many parts of Australia which is having a successful affect on the plants. It is specific to Bridal Creeper.There is also an insect which feeds only on Bridal Creeper. The spray unfortunately will kill all green plants.
The presenter was urging that all plants of the Asparagus family be removed from gardens before they escape to bushland.
Weeds in South Australia
1 Comment »15th April, 2006; Category: Weeds
I came across a great web site whilst looking for possible garden uses for horehound. Not that we get much of it now. When we first moved here the horehound had tree trunks! After years of pulling the plants out and occasional spraying with glyphosate it is under control. A friend informed me that the seed had at least 22 years viability, and that after sitting on an iron roof roasting in summer temperatures! I nearly gave up at that point. Knowing how sort after it is as a medicinal herb, I did have thoughts of actually cultivating it for sale, except that it is a noxious weed here!
Anyway, back to the website. It is an identification site for weeds in Australia. One of my phobias is to find myself actually cultivating weed grasses and it has happened. This site gives a listing of weeds state by state with photos. Most useful. The weeds are divided into categories, eg herbs, grasses, vines etc.
Non Toxic Sprays
I have always been interested in using methods to deal with insect pests and diseases that did not involve toxic chemicals. Although, what is meant by that can be debated. After all when making sprays from such things as rhubarb leaves, which are poisonous, am I making a toxic spray or not?
Using pest plants seems to be a good vengeance on them. Also using readily available Australian native species seems to be good sense. Eucalyptus has long been used as a remedy for many ailments of humans. I came across the use of Casuarina (or Allocasuarina) needles to make a fungicide which is good for damping off fungus in seedlings, and black spot and powdery mildew on plants. Use any available species. These trees are often used in windbreak and border plantings.
One recipe is 10 grams Casuarina needles to 2 litres of water, boiled for 20 minutes. Stand to cool. Make this solution up to 10 litres with additional water and stir well. Strain through cheese cloth so that it will not clog the spray nozzle. Spray over and under leaves, and around the soil beneath the plant. This much will spray 100 square metres. See this ABC Gardening Australia Fact Sheet of a few years ago for other details.