ABC Organic Gardener Magazine Nr. 120

Did you know that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (the Mounties), via their superannuation fund, has an interest in large parcels of farmland and water rights in Australia? I was a bit shocked, but shouldn’t have been – there have been many articles about foreign ownership of our farmlands. The Mounties only got a small mention in a very comprehensive article in AgJournal, Australia’s Agribusiness Magazine (August 2020). It had a detailed article ‘Welcome Stranger’ about foreign ownership of Australian farmland and water, broken down by region, country of ownership, hectares, investment value, and so on. According to the article, in February this year, the pension fund looking after the Mounties, bought Australia’s fourth oldest company Webster Limited, which controls more than 340,000 hectares of land and 153,000 megalitres of water entitlements,…

WEATHER THE FUTURE Sharing stories from communities, frontline disaster crews and experts who are dealing with the effects of our escalating climate emergency, the ABC’s four-part series Big Weather (and how to survive it) seeks to answer questions many of us are asking about our climate: Why are these events becoming less predictable and more intense? And, most importantly, what can we do to adapt, survive and thrive into the future? Big Weather, hosted by Craig Reucassel, will challenge the way we think about the weather, with the goal of keeping Australians safe in an era of increasingly unpredictable extremes. This series, like Fight For Planet A, is a part of the ABC’s Your Planet initiative, which aims to provide information and tools we need to understand the many challenges posed…

Australian homeowners and farmers have been urged to think carefully before poisoning rats and mice. Birdlife Australia is appealing to people to try non-poison control first and only use poison baits when there is a problem, not ‘just in case’. If householders and farmers decide to use poison, then they are also urged to read the ingredients and only use baits that contain first generation anticoagulant rodenticides (FGARs) such as warfarin and coumatetralyl, not the second generation rodenticides known as SGARs, which contain brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum, difethialone or flocoumafen. Rodents that eat any of the SGAR rodenticides don’t die immediately and often wander off and die in the open where birds of prey, carnivorous and scavenging birds eat them. It can take weeks, even years, for the chemicals to break down –…

I am curious about this caterpillar that has eaten my mint plant almost to the death. It is not the only one that I have had in my balcony garden. What should I do with it? Is it a worthwhile insect to offer my herbs to? Am I nurturing a butterfly or should I just cast it aside to save my mint? Laraine Deer, Sydney Hi Laraine, This is probably a green looper Chrysodeixis species. Bit hard to be sure from the picture, but treatment is much the same for other similar caterpillars. Green loopers are also known as vegetable loopers. They are the larvae of a small brown moth. They chew holes in leaves and fruit, and eat edges too. Eggs are small, round and white, they hatch out into the caterpillars…

JUST LIKE THE COVER I thought you would delight in seeing this photo! Our annual gift to my step-father (John) is a subscription to ABC Organic Gardener. John LOVES it... He lives on the beach and has a small (yet very robust and extensive) garden around the side of the house. He absolutely loves receiving and reading the magazine for all its content and variety. It’s one of the best gifts he receives, he says. Anyway, John literally just walked in from the garden today with a handful of tomatoes (see picture above) and on the kitchen bench was the latest edition of OG, just arrived. We all smiled at the similarity of the photos and thought you would like to see one of your readers with their own harvest. Thanks…

Waste no more The Subpod is a simple way to turn food waste into fertiliser for your garden, and so help you grow nutrient-dense foods in your own space. You can either put this multipurpose composter into the ground in a garden bed so worm tea feeds straight into the surrounding soil, or put it into a raised bed and collect the worm tea for other plants. Easy to assemble, all you need to add is worms and bedding such as shredded newspaper or cardboard. Oh, and food waste, of course! Visit subpod.com.au; $279 for a subpod and aerator. Make a date with OG Start planning your 2021 garden with the new ABC Organic Gardener diary and calendar – on sale now! The colourful diary features monthly planting guides, recipes and expert gardening…