šŸŒ± Garden love (general chat)

Gosh that looks like my garden! I let the lemon scented basil go crazy for ground cover, the bees and the added bonus that touching it makes weeding a fragrant delight.

Choko - I have planted many sprouted chokos without success. They either just die with a small sprout, or do a spindly vine and then die. No idea what I am doing wrong. They are in compost rich soil in the sub tropics, no frost. Maybe it is too warm? I planted two and only one is growing, but very slowly. I have about 3 leaves so far.

Any advice?

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To see bees and not just background try to get as close as your camera will focus so that they fill the frame more. You will need to ambush them on a flower where they will land or hover, getting them zipping between flowers is very difficult to impossible depending on your patience.

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I have no problem with chokos. The only thing I can suggest is are they getting enough water? The ones I have are easy to grow & they are the biggest chokos Iā€™ve ever seen. They will sprout if I just leave them on the kitchen bench. I have to cut back the vine every week to stop it smothering the pawpaw tree. Iā€™m in Ipswich.

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I only have my phone so itā€™s not really made for close-ups of insects.

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Hereā€™s the other photos of my garden. A photo essay. The first is the small front rockery. Some of the pot plants on the verandah. Then the rose beds at side of the house. They could use a bit more sun. Then the herb garden & the pumpkin vine. It was a volunteer.

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It might be cooling off and the first chill of winter is with us, almost.
Itā€™s worth keeping an eye out for the pets seeking the early morning rays of sunshine.

Fortunately, as is obvious there is no need to weed in the immediate area.
Only a finger thick body and around 30-40cm long. The bitey end still rates a 3 out of 3 stars despite being a young one. While perfect snake ID relies on a close personal inspection, this one is most likely a Red belly black snake if you are curious. Iā€™m happy to not bother counting ventral scales. Also likely not to hang around too long once the Gardner (aka Bush turkey) turns up to check out his nearby mound.

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A post was split to a new topic: My Vegetable Patch

An out of left field entry.

The last picture appears to be fully WH&S compliant.

image

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With numerous acres to weed, we tend to create convenient little piles as we go. It avoids burning, or dumping, or dragging tonnes of waste through the property to the compost.

The piles self compost as there is a mixture of green and brown available. Notably lantana branches which help to create layers. Any seeds that survive are all concentrated in the one place, rather than scattered around. Selectively I try to bag the cobblers pegs heads and aggressive vines such as Blue Morning glory, Paddyā€™s lucern.

Mr Black, Mr Brown, Monty Python and the toad eating Keelback etc often enjoy the comfort, hence moving established piles is not advised. Left alone the residents take care of other needs.

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To get crop of pumpkins, we are supposed to cut off the tip of each vine after they reach the length of the 3-4 flowers. Otherwise they will grow and grow and grow in length. At least, it is we do in our garden, after one unproductive trial year.

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Yes Iā€™ve cut back the pumpkin vine in places but it has more pumpkins than we can eat already. We give them away. People are always leaving with bags of chokoes or a pumpkin.

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Some impressive gardens on display here!

I bet you were glad it was a red belly @mark_m, although Iā€™d still be taking care with where I put my hands :snake:

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Mr Black is generally very shy despite being highly toxic, so happy itā€™s not an Eastern Brown or Tiger.

Thereā€™s up to 31 different species of snakes known in our area. 24 are venomous. Of these 8 are seriously dangerous. IE 3 out of 3 stars for venom. Iā€™ve personally only encountered around 4 of the 8 recently.

Itā€™s what happens when the gardening encourages habitat that favours one of their favourite snacks - frogs and small birds. The small native and other furry creatures also move in.

My hot tip for those interested is to not plant anything up against or close to the house. A 10-20m buffer of lawn all around is the on trend look.

Notes:
Iā€™d not recommend a yard cat as they do more damage to the lizards and bird life than keeping the snakes away.

Some dogs cope better with snakes than others, although when cornered all snakes will strike out. Dogs have a habit of trying to round things up, or challenge. The local vet has regular warnings about how often dogs suspected of being bitten come in for a final journey.

There are too many wives tales about how to keep snakes away. Open ground, short grass, and a healthy population of magpies, and or butcher birds ensures any stray snake is aggressively bombed if out and about.

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We have lots of snakes around our garden. Mr Z killed the first red bellied black after the Dau-in-law saw it and demanded it be despatched. I donā€™t like doing that. He despatched another one then one of his old farming mates told him if he had red bellied blacks he would not have venomous brown snakes. So they are left alone now.

There is a massive carpet snake in the roof which cleaned up the possums, two huge ones in the Packing Shed - they move on when we start setting up, so no extras in the veg folks! There are green tree snakes in trees (of course), juveniles of various stripes in the veg garden, paddocks, in the dam etc. and the occasional stray in the house. We donā€™t have dogs or cats and keep a lovely frog friendly place to provide them with plenty of food. They donā€™t have it all their own way as I have lots of Butcher birds and Magpies, Kookaburras and larger birds of prey.

The goannas have their own fanfare when the birds go ballistic as they move around our place. 'Cos they climb trees and eat eggs. I had two goannas killing a mid-sized carpet snake that had got caught in a gap (had a big feed that was now a bulge that wouldnā€™t go through the hole) and they were into it. Killed it and tucked in. The cycle of life!

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I had an organic growers group come to my place to look at the garden and socialise a few years ago. One of the very keen members who had been studying permaculture suggested that I might build rock piles and similar structures in and near my gardens so give lizards and frogs a refuge. His idea was an extension of the permaculture maxim ā€œYou donā€™t have an excess of snails you have a deficiency of ducksā€, the point being you can reduce or eliminate toxic methods of pest control if you enlist the aid of the pestsā€™ predators.

I said it was a nice idea but I didnā€™t think a snake hotel would work and while we try to leave the snakes to do their thing on the property sharing the garden was not acceptable as accidents could happen.

I hate to kill them too but there are times when the risk is too great and harmless remedies like hosing to drive them away do not work. I too have been told the old bushmansā€™ story about RBBS keeping away eastern browns. I can certify that it isnā€™t true. For those who donā€™t know them well the RBBS is a potential killer (if you donā€™t get the antivenin in time) but are likely to flee if you meet. The EB is bigger, has more toxic venom and is very bad tempered. They expect you to flee and if you donā€™t you are in trouble because they will attack.

I am not trying to start a scare campaign about snakes in Oz, the fact is there are very few fatalities due to snack bite. This is because of the availability of antivenin and that people who live with them learn to take precautions. You wear boots outside. If moving rubbish or other refuge material you wear long pants and gloves too. Animals and children donā€™t know how to avoid such risks.

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Love all the information here. And I am so glad I do not have to contend with dangerous snakes but just normal drought and surfeits of rain. Middle France has some similarities after all.

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A post was split to a new topic: Lawns - are they good around the home and alternatives

An article regarding tips for less mobile persons.

How to create a thriving edible garden.

The article is rather mixed. Some points are very good, such as grow what you like and will eat, have regard to seasons and pay attention to your garden as it isnā€™t fire and forget.

Some is confused or over-generalised. Under ā€œForgetting about UVā€ we have conflicting advice that your plants need 6 hours a day of sun but then we are told that many leafy vegetables donā€™t. For a start the heading is just wrong, plants will do fine without any UV at all. The light that is required is in the red and blue parts of the spectrum not the UV.


A better way to express it is that the light requirements depend on the plant. The rule is the more biomass you want to grow in the season and the more fruit you want to harvest the more sun you need. So fruit trees, cucurbits, solanums, beans etc where you eat the fruit need full or nearly full sun. Whereas lettuce and other fast growing leafy greens need much less sun and may do better in only part sun or just strong light. Keep in mind a baking hot, windy balcony surrounded by concrete will stress almost anything and combined with small pots that dry out very quickly you may be building a death trap in the sun.

The point about some plants do not transplant well is good information. Nurserys sell punnets with all kinds of plants that would actually do better if planted direct. They also sell seedlings out of season, there is no point in planting eggplant in May if you live in a temperate area.

You can get around the problem of transplant shock in some cases however. Say you want to grow melons and you want to maximise the growing season and get them in early but your ground it too cold. An obvious way around is to start the seeds in a little greenhouse or cold frame but how to transplant them when the weather warms up? Donā€™t plant in trays but in tubes - preferably the square sort, one seed each.


At transplant time the whole root system comes out in a plug, if you plant it carefully there will be no loss of vigour and you are several weeks in front.

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