SUMMERIAUTUMN 2005 ISSUE 48 ISSN. 1038 7897 Dear Members, Welcome to 2005 and another issue of towards creative approaches particularly for low Wildlife & Native Plants. May you find much water use or low maintenance gardening in our pleasure in our native flora and fauna, and in the land of extremes. We should make an effort to establishment and management of your garden as work with our climate and our existing natural it undergoes the changes of the seasons. wealth- to be on friendly terms with some of the inhabitants of the bush, or to sit quietly and Thankyou to those that sent me Christmas and enjoy watching the birds' delightful antics and New Year greetings. No doubt you managed to songs. We must appreciate what we have in the spend some time in the garden appreciating the Australian landscape, to re-create areas for fruits of labour, or in relaxing and planning for nature in our very own backyards. the future. Some of you may have undertaken bush walks to appreciate the values of our unique 'Dream the new dreams of creating gardens that Australian flora and fauna. For those, who did make the most of the flowers of autumn, winter manage to get away on holiday, hopehlly the and spring; dream of a summer Tent relaxed weather was kind to you wherever you went, and and cool in a subtle garden of deep shade made that none were caught up in the terrible Tsunami, cool with varied greenery and enlivened with the or bushfires and floods that occumed just before gentle drip and splash of water. Dream of being and after Christmas. More importantly, I hope at one with the place where you live, of working that the time spent with family and friends was with the climate and developirig a sense of an enjoyable one of relaxation and appreciation. place. '(Notde,T. (1996) Gordenr ofthe SF^ pp. 9) So much seems to happen at Christmas Mew Year that we all need a break of a few days to get In this edition we have a personal story of over it all. recreating a garden, and other bits and pieces which I'm sure most of you will enjoy. So, Each year the time seems to go faster, and the Happy reading and happy Gardening to all days and months just slip away. I'm told this is members! old age and it's just catching up with us! However, understanding the need for change and Cheers Chris stepping out of the conventional square, may bring forth new ideas in gardening and may bring great pleasure. Today more than ever, planning, landscaping and designing gardens seems to be the way to go rather than haphazard random plantings. Perhaps it's more a question of Alphabet Soup by Leigh Mutray breaking fiee of gardening traditions and letting Understanding the Value of Fungi go of all the cultural baggage that we carry about from Malleefowl Matter Iss 35 with us, such as what gardens should look like, Help Our Wildlife what they should contain, and what they stand The Sting on the Nettles by Phil Watson for in our place and lifestyle. Do we accept the Media articles and. ..much more 'problems' as challenges and opportunities Alphabet Soup by Leigh Murray Branch stacking Last year I began planting multiple plants in the This is a soup of alphabetical snippets. We have one hole, say a ground cover, a shrub and a a few acres at Queanbeyan, where I'm tree; or two complementary eucalypts, or two revamping the garden after 15 years of neglect, plants of the same species, to give a bushier and a six-year-old holiday place at Tuross Head. effect or a better chance of a surviving plant. So The main aims are to attract wildlife, screen far this scheme is working well and it's a great fencelines and cope with drought. effort-saver (one hole, one guard). Acacias Cockatoos Acacia rubida is the dominant acacia on our To attract cockatoos we've planted Hakea rocky Queanbeyan ridge; we love to see Yellow- eriantha, H. sericea, casuarinas, Banksia tailed Black-Cockatoos drop in to dine on the integrifotia and B. spinulosa. We also have many borers in the older ones. A. implexa, another (indigenous) Acacia rubida and Eucalyptus local, tolerates not only dry and frosty conditions goniocalyx at Queanbeyan. There we've in Queanbeyan but also slightly salty, gale-force watched Sulphur-crested Cockatoos feast on A. winds at Tuross Head. It's one of our most nrbida seeds, Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos reliable trees, ideal for a t~ghtspace (and it can gather e~ghtto a tree to extract the seeds from be pruned to suit); our biggest trees are 6 the fruit of Hakea eriantha (ignoring other metres tall and a couple of metres wide. Also hakeas) or Banksia spinulosa, and Gang-gang good for a narrow area is A. boormanii, used as Cockatoos eating the fruits of Eucalyptus a light screen along fencelines. It looks stunning goniocalyx. At Tumss, the Blacks favour in flower - masses of golden balls - and its casuarinas and Banksia integrifolia on the golf seeds are said to be fancied by Common course, so I planted some at our place too. Bronzewing pigeons. (For ages one spring we were puzzled by what sounded like a Cram planting monotonous mechanical 'oom', finally tracked Planting to a very high density is excellent for down to a male Bronzewing calling.) wildlife, especially if the layers overlap. We think it's the 'cram planting' - once it'd reached critical Amble mass - that attracted a whipbird to the densest The most enlightening thing I've done in years part of our garden a: Tuross. An echidna also was to take the dog for a mid-winter early- pottered through (eating, helpfully, , an entire morning amble around our land at Queanbeyan batch of biting ants). while the temperature was still at the minus 5 level. What an eye opener that was - there was Downpours frost on the ground where I didn't expect it and At Tuross Head, much of the rain falls in 100mm none where I thought there'd be a heavy layer. I dumps separated by long, dry periods. We've promptly revised the planned locations for all had sudden deaths soon after downpours: two new plantings. Similar ambles at Tuross just Acacia pycnanths, Philotheca rnyoporoides, after downpours were also most instructive. 4m Kennedia retrorsa, Grevillea 'Austraflora Copper Crest', Eucalyptus albida and E. dielsii. In case a Banksias soil fungus caused these losses, I've replanted Many banks~asare excellent wildlife attractors with species listed in the "Encyclopaedia of but we used to have great trouble raising them, Australian Plants" as tolerant of Phytophthora possibly because they can be slowish to cinnamomi, such as Banksia integrif~lia, establish. Recently I've begun to grow them Melaleuca nesophila. Eucalyptus leucoxylon, more successfully by better soil preparation Grevillea arenaria and Epacns longiflora. (bigger holes, some organic matter), more effective watering (deeper), and guards (made Eucalypts of gutter guard) to protect them from munching We have many iidigenous eu&lypts at wallabies and rabbits. I've concentrated on the Queanbeyan (mainly goniocalyx and top performers: Banksia en'cifoiia, 8. integrifolia, Eucalyptus E. polyanthemos), b~tnot one on our land at 8. maqinata and 5. spinulosa. Tuross Head. I've squeezed in as many small, nectar-rich ones there as I can, concentrating on Books long flowering (eg E. leucoxylon and E. caesia Two books I rely an for design ideas and plant which flower throughout winter) and year-round selection are "Birdseaping Your Garden" by flowers (eg E. incrassata for autumn flowers, E. George Adams and "Creating a Native Garden torquafa for summer and E. nutans all year). for Birdsnbv Frances Hutchison - Frogmouths Lizards I've seen an animated Tawny Frogmouth in Plants we grow because they're listed as daytime! A pair returns for short sojourns on a attractive to Blue-tongue Lizards include berry branch near one of our ponds at Queanbeyan. plants (eg, Enchylaena tomentosa, Solanum Once I forgot they were back and directed a linearifolium, Austromyrtus dulcis and Dianella hose onto nearby foliage. Apparently spray revoluta) and, for their tasty flowers, Eremophila drifted onto one frogmouth because soon maculata and Brachyscome multifida. (I keep a afterwards it began preening vigorously (the beady eye out for berry plants showing weed other frogmouth didn't, as usual, so much as potential.) We also provide logs and rocks for twitch). shelter and sunbathing, and (most importantly) fresh drinking water. We have a resident Blue- Grevilleas tongue at Tuross and itinerant ones at A few long flowering, nectar-rich grevilleas have Queanbeyan, and many smaller skinks. proved outstanding at attracting birds. Grevillea 'Coastal Glow', G. 'Honey Gem' and G. 'Superb' Mixed Mob are mainstays at Tuross (where they flower Outside the breeding season, a large group of virtually all year round), and G. 'Coastal Glow' is small birds (the 'mixed mob') gets around en looking promising at Queanbeyan although the masse in the upper canopy of our Queanbeyan plants have been slow to establish during the eucalypts. The group varies in its make-up but drought. Amongst our top attractors are G. thornbills always form the basis. Extras include arenaria, G. 'Forest Rambler', the many forms of pardalotes, fantails, spinebills, fairy-wrens, G. juniperina and G. victoriae, and the ground scrubwrens and occasionally finches. covers G. 'Poorinda Royal Mantle' and G. Sometimes when I'm hosing plants they'll pop 'Bronze Rambler'; all are very hardy.