Good Organic Gardening Issue #13.2 - 2022

As the passenger on a drive around the north side of Lake Macquarie one Saturday, I was captivated by something I’d never noticed before. I really don’t know how I missed it the other times we’ve driven this road. A corner block opposite the lake was a riot of colour — not from flowers and fruit, though there were plenty of both as it turned out, but from garden gnomes. Dozens and dozens, possibly hundreds, of brightly coloured gnomes. I scared the life out of my partner by calling out, “Stop the car!” Poor Chris thought there must be an animal or small child about to run into our path, so he expertly and safely braked and pulled over, saying, “What is it? What is it?” All I could do was…

PLASTIC POLLUTION NEEDS DRASTIC SOLUTIONS Every part of the planet is polluted with plastics and urgent action is required to stop it. A declaration signed by leading scientists calls on UN member states to negotiate a legally binding global treaty to tackle the crisis. Plastic pollution has severe negative consequences for ecosystem health, biodiversity, human health (including fertility and cancers), climate, sustainable livelihoods and cultural diversity. Research shows the safe operating space for novel chemical pollution on the planet has already been exceeded. Efforts to date to curb plastic pollution have failed spectacularly because it has essentially been treated as a litter issue. The thinking behind this approach is, “If only we put plastic in the right place, it wouldn’t be a problem.” But that isn’t the case and that approach is leading to…

LAVINNOVA ‘THE SNOW PRINCESS’, LAVANDULA PEDUNCULATA HYBRID PBR The plant: With masses of pure-white winged flowers covering the whole plant throughout spring and again in summer, this princess is perfection! It’s neat and compact with grey-green foliage that can be clipped to shape as you’d like. Beautiful in formal gardens, pollinator patches, pots or landscapes. Growing: Plant it in a full-sun spot in well-drained soil and fertilise once or twice a year. Once established, it has low water requirements. Give it a light tip-prune after flowering to encourage a dense, bushy habit. Plant Management Australia, pma.com.au SPROUT SQUAD, A GARDEN & PLANT COACHING GROUP + ACTIVE ONLINE COMMUNITY Need some guidance and advice regularly in your garden? Then Sprout Squad is for you! Imagine having a horticulturist virtually on speed dial and a community of…

Calendula is one of the most overlooked plants in the garden yet one of the most useful. It is traditionally seen as a cheery winter-flowering annual but it grows and flowers throughout the year in many areas. As a bonus, it self-seeds and needs little care or attention. In return for letting it do its own thing, it gives back manyfold. It’s a useful source of winter nectar for bees and other beneficial insects including wasps, ladybirds, flies and many others. Many of these place other insects such as caterpillars in their nesting chambers as food for their young while others feed on insects as well as nectar. Including plants that produce nectar and pollen, such as calendula, is a good way to build up predator numbers in the garden. It’s not uncommon…

Scented plants add an extra dimension to gardens and particularly to winter gardens. In cool to temperate climates, one of the most reliable is osmanthus, an evergreen shrub of the olive family with very fragrant white flowers. The scent is often illusive, wafting through the garden on a cool winter’s day with a scent that reminds me of apricots. The dense growth and small leaves make osmanthus suitable for use as a hedge or screening plant as it can be clipped and shaped. As the flowers are small, tubular and fairly nondescript, the shrub relies on its fragrance to attract pollinators and for garden interest. Its flowers can also be used to make a fragrant tea or a dessert that is both tasty and healthy thanks to its antioxidants. Its medicinal value includes…

The world’s most popular tropical fruit actually doesn’t come from a fruit tree at all. That’s right, bananas don’t grow on trees! The lush, leafy plants that produce bananas are actually perennial herbs. From the crown of a rhizome or corm beneath the ground, layers of leaves emerge, growing in an upright trunk-like form (or pseudostem). As new leaves emerge from the crown, they push up the centre of the existing leaves, adding height to the “tree”. Some scientists believe bananas originated up to 10,000 years ago in the rainforests of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and New Guinea. In 327 BCE, Alexander the Great tasted bananas for the first time when his army invaded India; in just over 500 years after that, bananas had spread to southern China. These wild bananas contained many hard…