Good Organic Gardening Issue #10.2 - 2019

Last issue we featured frogs in our Garden Life series. This issue it’s the cutest of the cute, possibly our most adorable native animals: gliders. Steve McGrane profiles the most common species and the accompanying images will have you wanting some in your life. These tiny creatures certainly are lovely to have in your part of Earth. Any part of Earth! Unfortunately, you’ll rarely get the chance to see them as they’re nocturnal, but you may be able to find evidence of their presence — especially if you encourage them to move in by providing nesting boxes, which are essential to their survival. We had some fun making nests from bits of a hollow dead tree and whatever we had in the shed to make roofs and floors. Of course, we made…

Common name: Eastern water dragon Scientific name: Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii If you’ve ever seen an eastern water dragon you can count yourself lucky. Greyish-brown with black bands along its length and a spiky spinal crest from head to tail, this large semi-aquatic lizard is normally quite shy, though it will adapt to the presence of humans in a suburban or parkland setting, such as several of Brisbane’s urban parks. Males are very territorial and will not tolerate the presence of another mature male. They can grow up to a metre in length, tail included, with females about two-thirds that size. The eastern water dragon’s powerful limbs make it an excellent climber and pretty fast on the ground, standing up and running on its hind legs. Its flat tail, longer than its body, is…

CHANGING CLIMATE AND HEATWAVES We used to talk as if we had time to stop climate change but the reality is we are already living with a rapidly changing climate. Temperatures have risen, the ice is melting and things are going to get a lot worse unless we act decisively to stop them. The Bureau of Meteorology confirmed December 2018 was the hottest month since records began in 1910 in Australia — only to be topped by January 2019. Scientists are reporting extreme weather events such as heatwaves are causing untold damage to native animals and plants in Australia, much of it going unnoticed until things literally start dropping out of trees. During the January heatwave, 4000 already-threatened spectacled fruit bats died in northern Queensland. Wildlife ecologists were stunned because this species doesn’t usually…

BENEFICIAL INSECT COLLECTION The plants: Sow this seed collection to provide the best year-round accommodation for one of our garden’s most valued guests: the beneficial insects. Each packet includes Queen Anne’s lace and alyssum for winter and spring flowers, dill, borage and Cottage Salvia for summer and Cosmos ‘White’ for flowers well into autumn. Growing: Sow the seeds direct in a spot with full sun at the correct depth and spacing according to each packet’s instructions. Remember to keep your beneficial bugs happy by not using toxic pesticides and insecticides — let the beneficial insects take care of the pests! Design: It’s a good idea to plant these in clusters near your edible plants including vegetables and fruit trees. If you don’t have space in garden beds, they will be just as happy…

Nobody admires the blue berries of Dianella more than the satin bowerbird. Before blue milk bottle tops and plastic pegs became common in the environment, the satin bowerbird used the berries to decorate his bower and attract females. A large bird with satin-like, blue-black feathers and blue eyes, the satin bowerbird is native to the east coast of Australia and occasionally builds bowers in gardens. The bower isn’t a nest but the male’s display area where he collects and displays blue objects and also performs an energetic dance routine to impress the ladies. THESE NATIVE LILIES ARE IDEAL AS A LOW INFORMAL BORDER, A TALL GROUNDCOVER OR AN UNDERSTOREY BENEATH TREES SUCH AS GUMS. Dianella berries follow stems of blue flowers that arise from clumps of tough, narrow, strappy leaves. The tough leaves…

A range of leafy vegetable crops in the garden means there’s always something tasty, fresh and packed with nourishment to harvest and add to a meal. Spinach and silver beet are good crops for leafy harvest but there are many others to add interest and colour to the garden and the plate. One of these is a relative of spinach known as red orach and, though it may seem unfamiliar, it’s a leafy plant you may want to grow — particularly through winter as it is not damaged by frost or cold. LOOKING GOOD Red orach is very handsome and fast growing. A relative of Australian native saltbush, it has vibrant ruby leaves and grows into a tall shrub up to 1.8m high and wide — smaller if regularly harvested. Both the leaves and young…