ABC Organic Gardener Magazine Issue 133 - Early Winter 2022

Last issue I wrote about being in the epicentre of the worst ever floods in the Northern Rivers of NSW. I mentioned that the crisis may have spread and deepened by the time the issue came out. It has certainly turned out to be the case, with floods returning to our region just a month later, with the intense weather system travelling down the coast of NSW and severely impacting Sydney and surrounds. Rains and flooding have even made it to regions of Victoria. So many people are shell-shocked from the natural disasters and are finding it hard to know where to start on recovery, or even if they can start again. In this issue, we have included a story by Kate Wall who has been through the trauma of flood…

SLIPPING AWAY FROM ME Like many other parts of Australia, we have had a lot of rain this year on the NSW Central Coast. The upside is that the garden is thriving and new plants we put in recently have taken root and quickly doubled in size. An unexpected visitor took us by surprise one rainy morning. It bypassed the herbs on our upstairs verandah and headed off to the garden. I hope we did the right thing by letting it go? Jo Medlin, Central Coast (NSW) Dear Jo, Australia has 60 or so introduced snails and slugs, some of which do terrible damage to gardens and crops. Your very large specimen is an introduced leopard slug (Limax maximus), which luckily doesn’t do much damage – so you were fine to let it move…

TREES BEAT URBAN HEAT It would seem a no-brainer that planners and councils would be mandating tree planting as part of residential developments, but our suburbs are in fact losing, not gaining trees, leading to hotter neighbourhoods and increased energy costs. According to a new report Energy & Buildings by University of South Australia (UniSA) researchers, a combination of new housing subdivisions, smaller yards and a dependence on air conditioning have led to a 30 per cent decline in Australian residential trees in the past decade. The researchers are calling for urgent new national planning policies to mandate the inclusion of trees in any development or housing design. Architect and UniSA PhD candidate Mina Rouhollahi says a recent study of 90 Australian residential suburbs shows tree-inclusive gardens and yards provide up to a 30-metre…

Hemp pet shampoo Hemp Collective’s Natural Pet Shampoo Bar will help get your dog smelling and looking like the delightful puppy they were before that walk in the mud. Made with hemp seed oil, the shampoo moisturises and cleans, giving a natural shine to your pet’s coat and skin. The bars come in plastic-free packaging, lasting up to three times longer than liquid options. They are free from sulfates, paraben and palm oils. Visit: hemp collective.com.au/product/natural-pet-shampoo-bar; $15.95. Native citrus gem Citrus Men have a wide selection of citrus trees but if you want to try something new, their native finger limes are a great choice. Take the ‘D’merald’ with its long, slender finger limes bursting with tangy, emerald-green citrus pearls. They crop predominately in the autumn but will continue to fruit through the…

APRICOT ‘TREVATT’ PRUNUS ARMENIACA ‘TREVATT’ ‘Trevatt’ is an Australian heritage cultivar from 1900 with versatile fruits that can be eaten fresh, stewed, bottled, dehydrated, or made into jam. The fruits are fairly firm so keep their shape when cooked. They can be picked before they are fully ripe and ripened indoors on flat trays (to avoid touching and possible rot). However, fruits left on the tree and protected from wildlife until fully ripe – slightly blushed with red – are far more flavoursome. This cultivar is a prolific bearer, so be ready for sharing and preserving. Thinning fruit to reduce harvests will help trees bear well each year, rather than tending to be biennial. Like all apricots, ‘Trevatt’ is self-fertile. It is also available as a dwarf tree, which is a better…

Rich avocadoes, juicy mangoes, crunchy apples, sweet peaches… with so many productive trees for home gardeners, it’s often hard to choose! But for me, the group that I love more than any other, is citrus. Unlike deciduous trees that are bare in winter, citrus have evergreen foliage that’s lush year-round and which makes a great screen. They’re also stunning feature trees, thrive in containers, and can be pruned into espaliers and hedges. Not only that, but their wonderfully scented flowers perfume the whole yard! And then, of course, there’s the fruit itself: delicious and beautiful, it happily hangs on the tree for months, rather than spoiling quickly like stone fruit. It’s like having your own greengrocer in your backyard: you can pop out to pick them as you need, rather than having…