Permaculture Gardening in Fremantle and Perth.

Please help our endangered black cockatoos.

2012-01-30T07:37:00.002+08:00

Our black cockatoos are at high risk of extinction in the next few years if we don't protect theri feeding grounds. please check out some of these links and donate if you can or just sign the petition. Thanks.

These amazing people do great work to try and protect our last remaining good forests. Please help them out if you can.

http://www.facebook.com/SaveWarrup

Letter to councils/shires regarding need for policy to protect black cockatoo's.

2012-01-24T17:59:00.001+08:00

Dear Mayor/councillor,

As a West Australian and educated environmentalist I am horrified by the lack of concern by the public and government about the likelihood of extinction of the Western Australian species of black cockatoos within the next 30 to 50 years.

The three species (Calyptorhynchus banksii naso, C. baudinii and C. latirostris) should be revered as symbols of the uniqueness of our local fauna, yet they are seemingly reviled and ignored while being gradually starved out of existence as they lose habitat and breeding grounds. Many of the birds we see now are already almost past breeding age and they breed only once every two years and only if they can find a suitable site.

Removal of banksia woodland that these birds rely on when in urban areas, native forest logging and the accidental burning off and removal of habitat trees in the south-west forests and wheat-belt further threatens their numbers; it takes 80 to 100 years for suitable nesting hollows to form in a tree. Ongoing removal of large urban Eucalypts also adds to their stress and risk of starvation.

In order to counteract the loss of habitat in the suburbs, where roosting and feeding areas are still being lost to development a policy for parks and open spaces needs to be introduced into every council. The policy would ensure that black cockatoo feeding and roosting tree and shrub species be planted as primary plantings rather than unsuitable, exotic species. Endemic Australian flora is the most sensible water wise choice in a drying climate, it will help to reclaim our suburbs for the beautiful and magnificent black cockatoos and provide a sense of place.

The Department of Environment and Conservation has made a comprehensive list of Australian and exotic species that can be planted to provide food for these birds.

http://www.dec.wa.gov.au/apps/plantsforcarnabys/index.html

Among the most ideal species would be the tuart (Eucalyptus gomphocephala); these endemic large trees should be a priority species for planting in parkland areas where there is space for them. These local trees are important for fostering local species and maintaining ecosystem services, including oxygen, wind reduction and shade. Banksia woodland needs to be replaced through encouragement of planting endemic species such as Banksia, Hakea, and other shrubs with edible seeds in home gardens. Action needs to be carried out urgently to provide food quickly to replace recently lost habitat as any planting will take 3 years or more before any food is available to the birds.

I am calling on this council to introduce such a policy and make a commitment to stop endangering the black cockatoos by planting suitable species and by disallowing the removal of any further native vegetation in your council’s area.

Public edible fruit trees.. there should be more.

2012-01-18T13:26:00.002+08:00

Browsing the Suburbs

How often have you needed a squeeze of lemon to finish off a tasty dinner creation to find that you’ve run out? There’s a lemon tree down the road, but it’s just out of reach from the pavement, and as the suns gone down it’s just as likely the tenants will set their dogs on you as answer the door so you can ask if you can pick a couple of their spare fruit.
We’ve all seen trees over laden with fruit that the trees owner isn’t eating. Generally the tree is in somebody’s garden where it can’t be reached from the street, and in these days of lost community and increasing crime it’s kind of hard to randomly approach people for fruits.
There must be a way that more community food can be grown. There are many families where the kids don’t get enough nutrition, especially in the form of fruit, where dinner is straight from the freezer into the microwave. Yuck!
I know of two parks where fruit is grown for the public to eat. One is Gourley Park in East Freo, the other is King William Park in South Freo. There must be scope for more.
I know some people are concerned about fruit fly (and others who unfortunately aren’t concerned enough), but not all fruit attracts those rotten pests. It’s already common to see tasty loquats ignored in gardens , so we don’t need to add to the burden of fruit fly.
There’s plenty of other varieties to choose from and if it was well known that the fruit was available and folk were educated about when to pick it there wouldn’t be lots of rotten fruit around to attract nasties.
I’ve met people who know where neglected grape vines are and in summer they’ll often bring some when they visit. Near my house by a busy road there’s an apple tree with tasty tart apples that I made pies from. Sure, there may be pollutants, but apples and other pectin rich foods help take heavy metals out of the body, and chances are there’s less chemicals in them than conventional produce anyway.
Like I say free fruit could be the only fruit so what can be grown that wouldn’t cause problems?
Some nuts would be a good start. Almonds are good and grow well around here. Macadamias do well in some areas around Perth. They'll also feed black cockatoos.
Bunya pine nuts are pretty good, but need cordoning off in autumn (as they do in Hyde Park, Perth) because people have been killed when the huge cones of seeds drop on their head! Not a tree to sit under at the best of times with their wickedly spiny leaves, but much more useful that its oft’ planted relative the Norfolk Island pine!!
Many kinds of citrus would be suitable with the right care. I remember having a great afternoon with some friends once pigging out on mandarines from a tree that we were sure was only there for ornamental purposes.
There’s a fantastic tree called Ziziphus jujuba, commonly called Chinese date, which grows numerous little apple like fruit about the size of olives. They are a tough species which provide a common meeting place in some desert countries, providing shade and food that can be eaten fresh or preserved for later use.
Olives are good public trees with very useful fruit (though obviously not good for hand to mouth browsing)
There are a few bush tucker foods that could be grown too, such as muntries/muntari (Kunzea pomifera), a creeping member of the Myrtaceae family, which has pretty white flowers followed by tasty little apple like berries. It grows on the east coast and is often sold in Perth.
Quandongs are a native species which has deep red skins on pretty nuts.
Some bush foods require some retraining of the taste buds, but they are generally pest and disease free, and don’t need help once established.
Obviously somebody would need to be looking after these things, but if parks had more community input and a little council money to feed the trees a few times a year and have them drip irrigated they could become important meeting and snacking places.
Parks could even be designed to be useful on purpose!!
Or is it just a permaculturist’s dream?

If you grow it, they will come.

2011-11-15T11:57:00.002+08:00

...well, some of them will. I need a much larger garden to attract other critters but I was extremely pleased this morning to discover a new predatory bug in the garden that I'd never seen before. It was patrolling around on the tomatoes and looking for tiny caterpillars, aphids and other insect eggs. The longer it has been since any chemicals were used in the garden (we never used any to start with), the more varieties of good guys have turned up. It means there must be others around or perhaps the egg or larvae have come from a plant I bought into the garden. Either way, I am hoping there are at least two and that they breed and protect our garden from various annoying small pests.

Some critters don't like mulch.

2011-10-25T06:53:00.003+08:00

Native burrowing bee hole.

In many places and for many plants mulch can make a big difference to maintaining moisture in the soil by reducing evaporation. However there are some insects and birds that don't appreciate mulch everywhere because they are burrowing animals that prefer bare sand to dig through. Mulch adds another degree of difficulty to their task of tunneling. The bee hole above is in our back garden. I know it has tunneled a fair way down as the yellow sand it has deposited on the surface is a few centimetres below the slightly improved top soil.
Rainbow bee-eaters (Merops ornatus) are a migratory bird that burrows nests into the side of sloped areas. It eats bees, wasps and dragonflies, caught in flight. It needs a deep soft bank to tunnel into and will sometimes use old mines.

Talking plainly about plane trees

2011-10-24T08:47:00.002+08:00

Outside where I work there are two large plane trees. They are only 15 years old but they are already huge. They are also one of the very few things that give me allergic reactions. In fact they are one of the most highly allergenic trees you could choose to grow. There are certain times of year that I can't go into Fremantle anymore because I can't breath from the seed fluff and fungal dust that the trees produce.

In suburban areas there are good reasons for and against growing large deciduous trees. They will provide shade in summer and lots of great leaves for mulch. However they can also block neighbours sun, fill up drains, causing flooding in winter, and quite a few European trees are really bad for causing allergies.

Gardening Australia article about plane tree allergy.

Burke's Backyard page about low allergy gardens.

Inspiration comes in many ways.

2011-10-19T11:40:00.003+08:00

Those who know me know that I love learning new things about horticulture and how to make our lives more sustainable by living more simply. Uni has been a big part of my life for the last few years and getting my head down and studying has been easy enough to fit in with my simple life. This semester has been very different. The semester started with my partner and I being quite skint and then a few weeks in I got sick and was feeling properly depresed for a few weeks. So I ditched all but one of my units to concentrate on looking after my tender brain and taking it a bit easier on my self for a while. Duering that time I have been completely lacking any inspiration to study, preferring instead to spend lots of time in the garden, enjoying the spring, taking photos of interesting bugs and wasps n things.

Also, in this time my contact with some of the local (Perth metro) keen permaculture and food growing folk through facebook has been very encouraging and inspiring. In a time when I have felt often quite dismal and sad it has been fantastic to read about other people's gardens and see their produce. So though I have felt bad, I have felt good when I know that there are other like minded folk working literally at grass roots, turning their lawns into food. Thanks, permaculture peeps.

Spring (and pollen) is in the air.

2011-10-05T13:59:00.005+08:00

Long time no type. Things were difficult for a while there, I was depressed and sick for a while and have had no inspiration to do anything, really, at all. Luckily have been able to chill out and recover a bit. It has been strange having absolutely no interest in my study. I've managed to keep up with one unit and have spent time trying to be extra good to myself, spending time in the garden and trying not to stress about all the terrible things that humans do to the planet and each other; yes, sorry I did put the planet before the people.

Strawberry flowers.

The garden is starting to need watering again after a decent winter of rain. We collected water from the roof that has stopped us having to use tap water to put on the garden.

The garden has produced lots of lovely greens for us over winter, lettuce, spinach and stacks of parsely. The strawberries are "going off", now that we have rid them of slugs and snails - last years obsession of dropping any mollusc into soapy water seems to have worked.

Baby doves with silly big beaks.

The garden has also made some baby birds. Singing honey eaters have produced one youngster in the back garden and out the front a dove has two little funny looking babies- their beaks are much too big for the heads. The babies are quite relaxed and lurk about in a couple of favoured spots.

Some inspiration (though not for studying) has been coming from interacting with some of the Perth permaculture peeps from PermacultureWest on a little facebook group we have. It is good to know that there are people who are keen to get out there and share knowledge about how to grow food and live a more sustainable, simpler life.

It's gotta be edible or useful.

2011-06-22T07:47:00.003+08:00

I work at a garden centre. It is easy work for me, too easy, I find it boring, but it is permanent part-time, which is handy while I am at uni.

However, I'm less and less interested in selling people anything that isn't edible or native. Why plant an Azalea in that acid soil when you could grow delicious healthful blueberries? Plenty of native plants can grow in semi-shade areas (after all, there was an overstorey of tall Eucalypts or Banksia in most areas to give shade and protection to the plants below. In fact it works both ways, the little plants act as mulch and provide a sanctuary for soil microbes for the larger species to develop).

Flowers do have a place in a garden of course, but it's best if they are insect attracting ones, to encourage pollinators into your garden to help with fruit fertilisation. Beneficial insects rely on pollen to give them the energy to come and lay their eggs in your garden so their young can destroy the bad guys who damage leaves, buds and flowers.

There are plenty of ornamental looking edible species that can be integrated into gardens, so at least there is some edible yield coming out of it. Rainbow chard, lettuces of all kinds and colours, parsley and all the herbs are pretty. Peas can be grown in spots where deciduous vines are bare over winter.

Many fruit trees are also quite handsome too. Many dwarf varieties are available these days so even small gardens can have an orchard of sorts, even in tubs. Citrus are excellent for very sunny spots. Stonefruit love the climate here in Perth. There are effective controls for Mediterranean fruit fly and citrus leaf miner which are both prevalent; regular and dedicated resetting of traps and sprays are necessary for organic control.

Everybody needs to learn how to grow food so get out there and grow something to eat.

Blood oranges are delicious...

2011-05-31T16:06:00.003+08:00

About a month ago.

Our little blood orange in a pot has been good to us, in return for us spoiling it rotten all summer, and now has 10 ripe fruit (nine, we just ate one).

Mmm, tasty.

Water-repellency in Perth sands.

2011-05-15T11:24:00.002+08:00

Here we are still hanging out for rain in Perth. It's on a promise .. "chance of a cloud" all week they reckon at the Bureau of Meteorology.
Even when it does rain, because surely it has to eventually, it will take some time before there is enough to soak into the ground and if we are really lucky some might even make its way to the dams or aquifers that are all parched too.

When the rain does come it also needs to be able to soak into the ground through our water resistant sands. I suspect there will be more problems with water-repellency this winter than previously. More soil has been allowed to dry out and have no vegetation on the surface so the organic bacterial and fungal compounds that are suspected of causing the problem have taken a stronger hold. Add to this the number of ants that are drying people's gardens out this desert year... we really need the rain!

Want an easy garden? Plant a tree.

2011-04-17T10:39:00.004+08:00

If you want a garden that is easy to look after, just plant one carefully chosen tree. You could let the leaves fall and rot into the ground - no sweeping or feeding necessary.
It would provide shade and cooling effects - with sunshine from the north in winter if you plant a deciduous tree.

Macadamia nuts (Aus Mac site).

Citrus trees are good, not really prone to fruit-fly, too much. Or a nut tree - macadamia or almond - so you can accidentally feed some black cockatoo in a few years time.

There are a number of small Eucalypts and Hakeas that can fit in well in a garden. A few grasses and small shrubs can make a good little garden to provide habitat for local small birds.
Eucalyptus caesia is not a big tree, Euc forrestiana is another good one. Hakea bucculenta and Hakea laurina are also beautiful small flowering trees. Australian flowering trees are an important part of birds needs so a garden gets lots of visitors when they are flowering. The birds also provide pest control for any fruit and veg that are growing nearby.

Passionfruit's new home and lemon grass garden edge.

2011-04-10T11:09:00.002+08:00

Our passionfruit is looking marvellous at the moment, one of the happiest things in the garden (we do spoilt it a bit). The other night my feller went across the road and reclaimed an old metal ladder from a skip bin. It is now holding up our lovely passionfruit vine, which we now notice has quite a few fruit forming. Tidying and rearranging that is also making way for a large pot of lemongrass to become an extension of the row of lemongrass in the ground, that will make a new layer of garden in front of the biochar garden patch. Slowly the edible garden extends north.

After one bit of rain the other day and temperatures finally falling below 30 C (just under halfway through autumn) Perth gardeners are starting to think it's okay to plant food plants again. Poor old Perthites, we miss the rain. It can be such a long time between visits.

But where's the habitat values?

2011-02-25T06:50:00.002+08:00

I decree Cordylines boring and useless for habitat. Trendy gardens that are 'easy' to look after can surely have some life in them instead of rows of Cordylines and frangipanis, neither of which seem to support much life, let alone local birds and insects.
Cordylines don't cope with our WA sun either. Luckily they seem to be falling out of favour as they are being burnt in this ridiculous heatwave. Lots of plants are getting burnt by the constant high temperatures. Watering things extra is not necessarily the way to help them either as then crown rot can happen.

I reckon people should adopt a street tree and help it through this hot season by giving is some wetting agent if it needs it and giving it at least one big long soak to get it through to the end of summer. There are many stressed trees about on verges. Please help them pull through. Surely, this heat will have to finish soon. Please.. make it finish soon. Perth.. the city of hot cranky people.

Back to school.

2011-02-22T09:28:00.003+08:00

Uni semester started last week. Neither of my two units had lectopia work successfully, so two lectures out of five didn't get recorded. Of course, they were the lectures I couldn't get to.

Both units are looking to be very interesting, both subjects I'm keen on, so that should help. Straight into assignment panic mode though, with outlines due for both in the next week or so. One is on biochar, doing a 15 minute talk. I could probably already do that without extra research, but I suspect I need some references to back me up. The other, a group project, will be on Environmental Estrogens, with the subject chosen by me and agreed to by the other two in our little group. Group work is not my favourite way to do things, but we shall see how we go.

Chance of a cloud with possible cyclone. Or not.

2011-01-31T18:29:00.002+08:00

Summer in Perth. Hot this year. Sticky. Fremantle Doctor (the afternoon sea-breeze) has been slack and the easterly has been firm.
Trees and shrubs maintain what green there is in the garden and the vegetable garden is slow and lazy, hardly growing in the heat.
For a day or two we expected a cyclone, we all dreamt of heavy rain.. but nothing happened. Drizzle.. a light wind. Avoided catastrophe yet again. Phew.

The floods in Queensland and Victoria will make the price of fruit and vegetables rise, so it is a good time to get into growing your own.

Encouraging customers.

2010-11-27T19:58:00.001+08:00

Today, there were a few people who already knew about minerals for the garden and one even had charcoal in his garden already!
Make soil happy, get happy plants!
Brilliant!!!

What am I doing with my life? or It's my blog and I'll whinge if I want to...

2010-11-24T08:40:00.002+08:00

I'm nearly 40, I have a part-time job that I'm quite bored with and I study part-time. I'm pretty much fed up with all of it right now.
Having finished my last exam for semester (the second time I'd done stats, and still not sure if I passed), I finally have time to stop and feel. My dad died earlier this year but I studied heaps, had no time to mourn. Now I do and I feel like the hard time he would give me I am now giving myself. I'm fed up with pretty much everything that I do with my life. I want to have a positive influence on people, educate them about the environment, but I just never seem to be able to drag myself out of my rut and be brave enough to get out there and change anything for myself.
The between semester break is 3 months long, and there's no extra shifts at work to be had, and I realise I have very few friends that are visitable during day-time hours (because unlike me they are living the general life of working, like most 40 year olds do).

I think I'm like this every year. Christmas has no joy for me. I just feel like a freakin' housewife, tidying up all the time, picking up stuff that gets left around the house. Or doing the dishes..again. So over it.

Urban agriculture.

2010-11-08T12:19:00.003+08:00

Really, everyone should be planting useful and edible plants in their gardens. There are so many beautiful fruit trees and decorative but delicious vegetables to choose from. Theres nothing wrong with a few exotics for show or to attract beneficials and, of course, there needs to be (preferably local) native plants too to support local biodiversity of insects, birds and small reptiles.

Fruit trees have pretty blossoms and if more folk were growing fruit tress and caring for the ones in their garden organically then I suspect that less fruit fly problems would exist, because correct hygiene for fruit fly is quite simple but needs to be done regularly.

With less chemicals for gardens available now and more food gardeners aware of the health benefits of organics there are increasing populations of predatory insects. This year there was a huge aphid population followed within weeks by hundreds of ladybirds and tiny parasitoid wasps. Frogs and small lizards play their part in pest control too, consuming slaters and other bugs.

Some gardeners are getting better ideas.

2010-10-25T21:48:00.002+08:00

Ladybird larvae. They eat aphids and other tiny insect pests.
Working in a garden centre, I hear all sorts of funny ideas about gardening but sometimes I do actually encounter folks that have the right attitude toward organic growing. Sometimes this is someone who is aware of using minerals or knows about beneficial insects.
These days we sell minerals and soil bacteria to increase soil health. It's getting easier to advise people to use least-toxic methods rather than head straight for the poisons. I show them ladybird babies and parasitised 'aphid mummies' on the roses. Once the balance of predator insects is in line with the pests there will be less reason to use any chemicals on our food plants.

Water Corp sprinkler restrictions.

2010-10-20T17:30:00.003+08:00

Water restrictions for Perth.
In this dry city it is still easy to find people that love to waste water. On the spot fines are being issued for people who use sprinklers outside of their allocated time.
Today it actually rained a bit, but not enough to fix our dry winter.

RIP my old dad

2010-09-16T22:50:00.002+08:00

He died last week after a long time of diabetes, kidney and heart problems. We weren't close but I will miss him. I am studying like mad to keep from thinking about it; not sure if that's the best thing to do but it would be stupid to not keep up with my studies. I'm gonna have to make sure I can support myself in the future if I need to. Scary.

Get ready for fruit fly..organically.

2010-08-18T17:54:00.003+08:00

Spring has seemingly come early and plants are being bothered by aphids, caterpillars and I suspect once flowering starts there will be many fruit flies about.
There are various methods of controlling them.I would be most tempted to use fruit fly exclusion bags, as sold at green harvest. Here is the link to some great organic pest and disease control, including the Mediterranean fruit fly.

Green Harvest Organic Pest Control advice.

Sunny winter's Sunday.

2010-08-08T16:52:00.002+08:00

We have been having a dry winter this year in Perth, and today it continued to be pleasant and warm and sunny. The pleasant conditions had us out there repotting citrus and a dwarf fruit tree.
I did a species list and found that we have around 200 species all up including weeds, seedlings and sick plants. That's pretty excellent I reckon for a small suburban block. Plant horder, me! Out of 200 odd species about 33% are useful or edible and 24% are Australian (probably more than half those are fairly local species).
The birds certainly love it and we have no problems with pest species at all. Gotta love biodiversity and the balance that creates.

Positive people.

2010-07-31T18:11:00.002+08:00

Most weeks when I work I encounter a customer who makes me feel positive and hopeful. Sure, they are all (generally) gardeners so that in itself is a positive activity but one person each weekend is a standout for having a positive story or otherwise encouraging outlook to gardening.
Some people have spoken to me of success in encouraging beneficial insects, or medical survival stories.
I feel hope for the future and an appreciation of how lucky I am to live when and where I do.