Making Mulch out of Mess

Regular and intensive pruning is a feature of our gardens here at The Drip anbd this means we produce a lot of  clippings.

Clive managed to repair our shredder today and it is worth its weight in gold turning all this stuff, even quite thick branches, into mulch.  It is very satisfying knowing that everything we take out of the gardens is being returned to the soil, adding life and vitality to an ever-improving ecosystem.

We compost all the shredded material before using it in the gardens, adding other materials, including blood and bone, locally produced garden lime and manure from the chooks, the sheep and Ricky the alpaca to make a wonderful rich compost.

What's Blooming this Week?

Nasturtiums are a classic old-time Cottage Garden favourite.  But less well known is the fact that they are not only edible but potentially very health-giving. They may even contain anti-cancer compounds.

Nasturtium contain compounds known as Glucosinolates. Certain of these compounds have been shown in credible scientific tests to inhibit or prevent the development of certain cancers including multiple myeloma, prostrate cancer and colon cancer.

Try tossing a few shredded leaves through your next salad. They, like Watercress to which they are related and which also contain Glucosinolates, will add a pungent tang to the salad mix.

Notes from the Library #34

We are always on the look out for new gardening books to add to our library here at The Drip.  Online searching is an effective  way to find  new  titles to add to our wish-list.

This week I discovered a publishing house that is definitely worth keeping an eye on.  Timber Press is the publisher of the inspiring Jake Hobson titles  "Niwaki" and "The Art of Creative Pruning" and an international publisher of books about gardening, ornamental and edible plants, garden design, sustainability, and natural history.  

A new title which has caught my eye on their website and which will be added to the library as soon as it becomes available is "Free Range Chicken Gardens.  How to Create a Beautiful Chicken Friendly Yard".  It seems that our chooks will be getting an upgrade in their garden area soon.   For more from Timber Press click here

Rocks, Moss and Lichens in the Gardens

With lots of rain having fallen and more still to come, the mosses and lichens are looking great.

The sandstone here combined with clean, fresh air allows a rich collection of these to grow here.

We are so lucky to have these natural assets in our gardens.  Similar bush stone is sold in garden shops for considerable sums of money.

Westringea is "Aussie Box". Really?

 

We have an irritating and rather pathetic habit in this country of naming Australian plants after well-known European plants. When the English first arrived in Australia 224 years ago they inevitably tried to reassure themselves by calling Australian plants after familiar plants from back home.  It seems we still feel the need to do this.   A recent example of this ongoing cultural cringe is the decision by Ozbreed to market Westringea fruticosa as "Aussie Box". 

In the past it has been called "Native Rosemary".  But now it seems that since Australians have taken such a liking to Box hedging, the marketing people at Ozbreed have decided to capitalize on this.  It is true that Westringea does make a great clipped hedge, though whether it will prove as long-lived as Box remains to be seen. The photo shows a young Westringea planted in The Hill Garden near a clipped Bursaria, another Australian plant which was also called Australian Native Box at some stage.  It all gets a bit silly really.

Why not just give these plants original  Australian names instead of attempting to ape overseas garden traditions yet again?  We would never refer to Uluru as Ayer's Rock anymore so perhaps it is time to give local names to local plants.  In the meantime I will stick with Latin.  To see more on The Hill Garden click here

Variegated Buxus for Topiary

I am not usually fond of variegated foliage, finding it somewhat sickly looking.  But this variegated Buxus sempervirens has caught my attention.

In Jake Hobson's book  "The Art of Creative Pruning" he shows how it has been used by the French landscape designer Yves Gosse de Gorre in the "Chambre Jaune" at his wonderful private garden, Sericourt, north of Paris

This has got me thinking.  The unusual combination of the clipped golden foliage set against white crushed limestone is fresh and delightful. Our local Mt Buckaroo quarry produces excellent limestone. So I sense a new  project coming on.

What's Blooming This Week?

Known as the Native Cranberry, Astroloma humifusum,  is a  prostrate, mat-forming heath with attractive flowers from December to July.  The flowers, which are often hidden by the foliage,  are followed by small, edible very sweet fruit.  They prove you don't have to bold to be beautiful.  It is also known as the Cranberry Heath.  Though our continuing reliance on these Old World names for Australian plants is a bit irritating, I suppose they are easier to remember than Latin.

This discrete charmer often grows in association with our local Eucalyptus sideroxylon, the Mugga Ironbark, and is found in south eastern Australia from Newcastle through to South Australia.  We are therefore located at the northern and western extremities of its range.

Natural regeneration is resulting in increasing numbers of this plant on the rocky  slopes here at The Drip.  It would be a great addition to The Hill Garden, in the zone which features plants endemic to the Munghorn Gap.  An area of this windy hillside could be developed as a "Munghorn Heathland Garden", featuring the various local "Heaths", such as Epacris longiflora sometimes rather strangely called Native Fuchsia, Melichrys urceolatus - the "Urn Heath", Styphelia tubiflora -"Five Corners" and of course Astroloma.  No doubt there are other local "Heaths" as well.  But wouldn't it be so much better to use the original Australian Aboriginal names for plants such as these?  To see more about The Hill Garden click here