Last weekend some friends and I attended the Smart Gardening Day in Cleveland put on by the Australian Centre for Lifestyle Horitculture. LTSH (Long Term Suffering Husband) was banned from attending as I had a car-full of people and didn’t have the room to bring anything too much home with us… and we all know LTSH’s ability to score things for free!
Because there was so much to learn and take in on the day, I’m going to break this into a couple of articles.
The day began with a live broadcast of Colin Campbell (Gardening Guru) who is described as the Jamie Durie for over 70′s. During the day Colin talked about creating a sustainable waterwise garden and we were regaled by his use of similes – a couple I enjoyed so much I had to share them:
“as useful as a gauze door on a dunny” and
“as useful as an ashtray on a motor bike”.
It was times like these I was glad I didn’t take LTSH with me. He may have shouted out one of his equally imaginative similes – and no doubt cause a highly undesirable outcome… like us being evicted from the grounds, maybe even the suburb – for the rest of our lives!!!
Colin, our intrepid Gardening Guru, stressed the importance of mulching and recommended at least an inch was necessary to preserve soil moisture. When asked what mulch he recommended, he said he used Sugar Cane Mulch, and added that people should use what works for them because,
“Gardening is an inexact science”
Location, soil quality and environmental factors play such an important role, and each product has its upsides and downsides.
For example, bark is a longer lasting mulch because it doesn’t break down as quickly as Sugar Cane or Lucerne. But on steep slopes, bark is no good because it just washes away; at least Sugar Cane clumps and is more likely to stay put. Bark inhibits weeds because it contains ‘tanin’, whereas Sugar Cane doesn’t. Bark, Sugar Cane and Lucerne all encourage worms which make a good soil better. And he stated that:
“Worms have never made a bad soil into a good soil yet.”
To increase soil quality you need to add organic matter – add organic compost to your soil and cover with organic mulch, and then your worms will come and work miracles.
Colin also talked about the use of pesticides by the average gardener becoming a thing of the past, because the new ‘gardeners’ of the future – the younger generation – are looking for alternatives and the Organic Gardning Groups are growing in numbers and interest.
When talking about compost, Colin said that often the compost bins don’t work as quickly and efficiently as they could because successful composting needs oxygen and height (at least 1 metre). Probably a better alternative to the plastic compost bins is to drive star pickets into the ground and surround with canvas or planks for use as a compost heap.
This would create aerobic work, not anerobic (I’m talking about the compost! Not you as you build the compost heap!). You see anerobic (without oxygen) in composting is just rotting, and aerobic (with oxygen) in composting is ‘true composting’. Colin also added that Comfrey Leaves are the best compost generator ever!
We learned about not only talking to our plants – but listening to them as well… “rustle, rustle, rustle…”
When a leaf or stem turns a different colour to what it’s supposed to – that’s your plant talking to you. When a plant gets spots or droops a little – then it’s trying to communicate something to you. Often it is a deficiency of some sort… (drooping could mean “water me!!!”)
- Bottom leaves turning yellow may mean your plant needs nitrogen.
- New leaves turning white or a pale green could mean iron deficiency.
- Mottley green leaves are often a sign of magnesium deficiency.
So listen to what your plants are telling you and be a good plant owner – give them what they need.
Colin said everyone needs a water tank (don’t we know that here in Australia!) because even if our dams filled to overflowing capacity tomorrow (apart from unbelievable floods) we would still remain on water restrictions. The good thing about having a water tank is that you can use any sort of irrigation system you want when you want.
Now to some waterwise tips around your garden, Colin recommends that you:
- Mow your grass higher, and
- Get plant roots growing deeper by watering deeply once a week and shallowly every second day.
In the next article I’ll tell you what we learned from the next speaker and what he is doing at his sustainable house and garden in Brisbane, Australia.