ABC Organic Gardener Magazine July - August 2018

Karen Sutherland Karen was born in country Victoria to a family of farmers and gardeners. She started growing her own food from a young age, and now has decades of experience in horticulture, with the last 10 years focusing on designing gardens filled with edible and useful plants, including bush foods. Trained at Melbourne Zoological Gardens and Burnley Horticultural College, Karen also completed a Permaculture Design Course with the late Bill Mollison. She continues to learn from her ‘garden laboratory’ in inner Melbourne, with more than 200 edible and useful plants. Read about her year-round fruit plan and how to set up a home orchard on page 28. Simone Watts Chef and passionate environmentalist Simone Watts began her cooking career more than a decade ago alongside some of Melbourne’s top chefs such as Greg…

You may not have expected roses on the cover, but we couldn’t miss the opportunity to show off the beautiful bloom of the Lady Woodward rose – named after the grandmother of our horticultural editor Penny Woodward. Unbeknownst to me until Penny piped up about it, her grandfather Sir Eric Woodward was the Governor of NSW from 1957–1965. This meant he automatically became the patron of the NSW Rose Society and this led to the naming of a rose after his wife Amy Woodward. It took a bit of digging by Penny’s daughter Ellen to track down living specimens of the rose, which you can read about on page 41. It’s just one part of Penny’s extravaganza on roses of yesteryear, which includes practical advice on how to grow them organically, and…

LUCERNE IS THE BEST I cannot agree enough with Penny Woodward’s comments regarding lucerne as a mulch (OG Nov/Dec 2017, page 77, ‘Much ado about mulches’) where she says it “provides the perfect nutritional balance for plants and soil microbiota”. I have been using it for at least 20 years in my patch in Orbost. It brings in no weeds and my soil improves with each addition. I am currently mixing lucerne with mushroom compost with amazing results for brassicas, beetroot and spinach in particular. Rob Melville, Orbost (Vic) YAY TO COMMUNITY GARDENS I loved your article on Perth City Farm, which has inspired me to write in. It has been 7 years since I joined the Cairns Marlin Coast Neighbourhood Centre Community Garden. Initially I joined the group because I missed having my…

BEETLE CAUSES BEEHIVE HAVOC Beekeepers in New South Wales and Queensland have been warned to look out for a major pest on the humid east coast, the small hive beetle, which flourished during hot, wet conditions this year. The beetle, originally from southern Africa, was first detected in Australia in 2002. It feeds on bee larvae and carries a yeast that turns honey into fermented slime, causing the colony to die or flee the hive. The beetle causes millions of dollars worth of damage to east coast apiaries each year. A dry spring and a hot wet summer in 2017–18 led to a large increase in numbers, according to a Queensland-based research team. “ Seasonal data… suggests an increase in population numbers is primarily influenced by warm temperatures during rainfall,” says project leader,…

TREE-MENDOUS DAY Join the country’s biggest community tree-planting event and pop a native tree in the ground on National Tree Day, Sunday, July 29. Seeded in 1996, National Tree Day has branched out to include more than 3.8 million people who have planted 24 million trees across Australia. School children throughout the country are also encouraged to get their hands dirty on Schools Tree Day Friday, 27 July. Tree Day is an initiative of Planet Ark whose aim is to engage the community in “hands-on, fun, positive environmental action, in places where they live, work and play”. You can join a local site held in your community or even register to plant one (or more) in your backyard, courtyard or balcony garden. To register a site or be a coordinator, contact 1300 885…

An apple a day Nothing beats a juicy apple picked straight from the tree and now is the time to get planting. Heritage Fruit Trees stocks many apple and other fruit trees, berries and vines, including this highly prized ‘Snow Apple’ with its snow-white flesh. This heirloom variety makes a great lunchbox apple for kids and a hardy addition to home orchards. Bare-rooted ‘Snow Apple’ trees are available for $29.50 each from heritagefruittrees.com.au; 0413 878 969. Earthy planters Turn your home or office into a green sanctuary with some well-placed indoor plants. The Urban Garden Collection is the latest addition to the range of Serax planter boxes. Inspired by vintage architecture and the earth, they feature monochrome mosaic pots, three-legged plant stands and racks – ideal for bringing the outside in. The stylish…