At home I have finally decided to bite the bullet and tackle our
crappy bathroom. Here is the progress so far.
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Click
here to view it.
I am proud to announce that I have recently
received a Green Gardeners certification from Melbourne Water and
Sustainable Gardening Australia. It has
re-affirmed many of the ecologically principals that I apply to my
landscaping projects.
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You can purchase a variety of plants directly
from me at my very own online nursery.
It is not quite as sophisticated as Oztion in that payments are not
integrated into the 'shopping cart' and must be made once you
receive an invoice, via email, from me. You can still pay via direct
bank deposits, Paypal
and Paymate but you must do
so from the relevant websites rather than mine.
Whittlesea Disability Services, Mill Park
With this job I am actually working for a colleague.
Although I have created some crazy paving in my own garden using
slabs of basalt with a roughly flat surface, I have to say that I
was rather sceptical about how good broken concrete crazy paving
would look.
But after creating this for colleague as part of a job he is
currently undertaking I am rather impressed with how well it can
turn out if done carefully and methodically. I had to do a fair
amount of shaping of the pieces of concrete to get them to fit
nicely together.
I would be highly inclined to never discard broken up concrete on
any of my future jobs again with a second thought.
Once the sand washes down into the gaps we will grout this with
some reddish tinted lime mortar, which is simply sand and builders
lime, to make sure the smaller pieces of concrete don't move around
and to highlight the paving. From what I have read about it lime
mortar is supposed to be softer and a little more flexible than
regular mortar.
Manorhouse Drive, Epping
The client wanted his nature strip made the same as his front
garden.
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Why limit your native garden to purely ornamental natives?
Here are a few productive native plants that you can include.
These are not indigenous to the Melbourne region but are none the
less useful plants.
Santalum acuminatum
/
Quandong
You may have heard of Quandongs before but few
Australians no what they are. So here is the fruit and the tree that
produces them.
It is a small to medium tree and it is
semi-parasitic. The tree obtains a proportion of its nutrients and
water from a variety of other plant species by tapping into the root
systems. Hence to grow it you need to have one or more 'host' plants
nearby.
In the wild Eucalyptus and Acacia are
common hosts. In plantations Myoporum parvifolium is used as
a host plant. Host plants need to be fast growing and robust in
order to withstand Santulum.
The species normally grows in inland Australia in
quite dry climates and impoverished soils. So in a garden or a
plantation, every year is a good year for Santalum. I can
confirm that they grow quite well around Melbourne but, if you have
heavy clay soil, it would pay to plant them in raised gardens with
good drainage. Mine are yet to fruit but I am confident they will in
a year or two.
Apparently it is a favored food of emus and
Aborigines used to hide in the trees and spear them when they
arrived to partake of the fruit.
The fruit has a slightly salty and sweet taste.
Sometimes they can have a bit of a tang to them, similar to red
wine, depending on how much tannin they contain.
The fruit makes excellent tarts, sauces and
chutneys.
Kunzea pomifera
/
Muntries
This is a tough and dense little sprawling shrub
that also grows in dry areas of southern Australia. It has feathery
white flowers and is a useful ornamental ground cover as well as a
productive plant.
As you can see it produce miniature apple like
berries that taste something like Granny-Smith Apples. They make
great apple pies and can be eaten raw.
Plantation growers of this species train them up
vertical trellis to make harvesting the berries easier.
I can also report that these grow quite well in
Melbourne but again it would be advisable to plant them in raised
gardens that don't become waterlogged for any significant length of
time.
Macadamia integrifolia
/
Australian Macadamia
Source of Australia's famous Macadamia nut.
This is not only an attractive leafy tree, but will provide you
with delicious nuts.
They will grow in southern Australia, but unlikely as large as
they would in their native north eastern Australia.
They are surprisingly drought tolerant once established, but you
may have to give them some TLC while they are doing so.
Hymenosporum flavum
/ Native Frangipani
This another attractive leafy tree from north eastern Australia
that will grow quite happily in southern Australia, though usually
considerably smaller.
The flowers have a strong exotic frangipani like fragrance,
although they are not closely related.
They are quite fast growing.
My indigenous landscapes/local native
landscapes are based on ecological principals and:
- Meet the expectations of gardeners while
harmonizing with the surrounding natural
landscape.
- Provide badly needed habitat for local
wildlife.
- Contain no
environmental or noxious weeds.
- Require little or no watering or
fertilizing once established.
- Naturally suppress weed growth.
Many landscapers only consider what their
landscapes look like upon completion. But coming from a Conservation
& Land Management background I know what they can end up looking
like 12 months later.
Without incorporating effective weed
suppression measures in the design and appropriate regular follow up
your nice new landscape can quickly turn into an unsightly
weedscape.
Bare soils, sparse planting and the use of
regular soil mixes from landscape suppliers can lead to a very
disappointing result.
My landscapes also contain more plants and are
less expensive than traditional landscapes because:
- They don't require sub-surface drainage.
- Cultivation, soil replacement or soil
improvement is unnecessary.
- It is far less labour intensive to plant
the forestry tubes.
- The plants are far less expensive.
What others normally do with
traditional exotic plants I can, in many cases, do with indigenous
plants. All it requires is knowledge of the range of species
available, their growth habits and how to get the best out of them.
Alternatively I can create a
representation of natural indigenous plant communities, such as
grassy woodlands and herb rich woodlands. Why not have a little
piece of the unique Australian bush in your own garden? It can
manicured a little to keep it looking neat but still retain its
natural look
You can contribute to preserving our
unique and endangered Australian flora & fauna. In a largely
cleared & eroded landscape your garden could provide desperately
needed habitat for our fauna and act as an 'ark' for our flora.
With every landscape quote I will
prepare a landscape plan in Microsoft Word format - unfortunately I
have not yet found a landscape design software package that I like
and that contains Australian native plants.
In this document I will insert photos
of your garden over which I superimpose various coloured shapes to
indicate which features and plants go where. For each shape I
indicate the plant species it corresponds to, with a photo and its
likely mature size.
PLEASE NOTE:
- There is only me available to
prepare these plans and if I have a few to do at once then it
may take me a few weeks to prepare yours.
- I tend to work on landscape plans
for an hour or two when I get home.
- I also like to take my time in
preparing them and often try out different layouts etc,
envisaging what they will look like, before selecting what I
believe will be the most appropriate one.
- So please be patient with me.
Why not create a natural looking indigenous
pond that stands apart from all the rest. With such a varied
range if local native water plants and a good range of regional
native fish it can be achieved.
With this pond water trickles out from beneath
the top boulder beside the branch. The small cascade is supported by
a sleeper and the pond pump is in a pit behind it (covered with leaf
litter).
I use a unique double lining system that
creates are far more natural effect. The whole base of the pond is
lined by natural clay or bentonite (refined clay) while only the
inner deep zone is lined by conventional rubberised pond liners.
This system allows the aquatic plants to be
planted in the ground rather than in containers and creates a
wetland around the pond due to slow seepage of water.
The rubber lined inner zone ensures a minimum
water level for any fish and tadpoles as well as preventing
rhizomatous aquatic plants from completely overrunning the pond.
Bentonite is used by the agriculture sector to
seal damns or repair leaks. It is also used in the wine industry as
a fining or clearing agent and will therefore clarify your pond
water.
With careful species selection your pond can
become a self contained wetland ecosystem and largely take care of
itself. Small native fish and fresh water invertebrates will consume
mosquito larvae, native fresh water snails will graze the algae and
water plants will help oxygenate the water and provide shelter.
So called natural ponds, that are fully lined
with rubber or plastic, still end up looking like a glorified
swimming pool with a few plants. And without a muddy bottom and rich
variety of plants they can never develop a complex ecosystem.
Many exotic water plants are also a threat to
the environment if they are released or escape into our water ways
from your pond.
This is a double pond system with water trickling over the pile
of boulders, at the far end, into an upper pond and then trickling
down through a 'stream' into the lower pond.
The area was dead flat so we had to create a downward slope by
piling up some soil at the far end and digging the upper pond in
that.
Any overflow from the pond trickles down a second short 'stream'
into a pit drain off the lower left of this photo.
The pond and surrounding area is yet to be planted by the
children and the coordinating teacher.
My children attend this school and hence much of the work I did
for nothing with quite useful help from the eager children. I also
donated some plants to add to those donated by the Darebin Creek
Management Committee.
One rather pleasing comment from one of the children was "This
frog bog is heaps better than the one at Mernda".
Gold fish are about as unique and interesting
as MUD. They are also a type of Carp and we all know about the
damage that Carp, and other exotic fish, do to our water ways.
Try a few native fish in your pond instead.
They require a little more patience to introduce and establish in
your pond however they are well worth the effort.
Pygmy Perch are supposed to be the most hardy of these.
Here are a few of our native fish
(Permission granted to display
images)
For small ponds - around 15cm in length:
Barred Galaxia
Spotted Galaxia
Flathead Galaxia
Southern Pygmy Perch
Tupong
For large ponds - greater than 20cm in
length:
Australian Bass
Trout Cod
Golden Perch
Spangled or Jewel Perch
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- Lawn mowing
- Pruning
- Weeding
- Mulching
- Watering
- Specialising in maintenance of
indigenous plants and landscapes.
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The integrated management techniques used by a
farmer to control weeds in his pastures or crops is every bit as
relevant to your garden, all be it on a smaller scale.
A professional management plan means the
difference between a garden that is generally over run with weeds
with occasional weed free periods and a garden in which the weeds,
although always present, remain inconspicuous throughout the year.
An integrated management plan must take into
consideration the following:
- The weed seed bank in you garden soil,
providing a continual source of new weeds for decades to come,
and strategies in which to diminish it over time.
- The most optimal times in the year to
eliminate weed seedlings.
- The use of selective herbicides or
application techniques to eliminate the weeds without harming
garden plants.
- Non chemical techniques such as ecological
competition to suppress weed growth.
Click
here
to find out more about weed control in general or
here
to find out about my weed management services.
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- Transform your small rural
property from a bare & wind swept paddock to haven for local
fauna.
- Why tolerate your bare muddy damn
when you could have a thriving billabong or wetland.
- Revegetation plans prepared
including weed control, erosion control and suitable plants.
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The subjects that I feel most passionate about
are:
- How indigenous plants can be used to create
an attractive garden.
- How to maintain indigenous plants in order
to get the best out of them.
- Exotic and alien Australian native plants
and environmental weeds.
- Applying ecological principals to
gardening.
Click
here
to see further details.
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The pages in my online nursery can easily be
adapted to sell any type of item as long as the information on each
of your sale items can be formatted as a series of repeating cells.
The ongoing fees in maintaining your own
selling website, if you use my system, will be as much as your web
hosting service is currently charging you.
If you choose to use one of the official
online shopping cart software systems you will be charged
significant ongoing fees for the use the software, in addition to
the fees charged by your web hosting service. I know because I
looked into this option when I was thinking about setting up my own
online nursery. Not only were the ongoing fees a put off but the
setup and maintenance were complicated, inflexible and frankly not
worth the effort or the cost for such a small enterprise as mine.
I can either build you an entire website,
including selling pages or I can simply setup a series of selling
pages for you to include in your existing website. It will cost you
$50 per web page, so you could have a basic selling website for a
one off cost of a few hundred dollars. Obviously later additions or
modifications to your website will cost you extra.
System Features & Usage
- It is a simple and inexpensive online order
receiving system ideal for small businesses taking their first
step into online selling.
- Upon receiving an order from a client you
then email them invoice for payment. This invoice can be created
with what ever software you prefer to use and saved on your hard
disk where ever you choose to do so.
- There are major security issues with
handling credit card and bank account numbers etc that I was not
prepared to deal in setting up my online nursery. So I left out
the internal payment system along with the complicated and
expensive web security features that are required. Goods
purchased from my website can still easily be paid for online
but my customers do so via the website of their bank, of Paypal
or Paymate rather than via my website. The most common method of
payment for plants ordered from my online nursery is direct bank
deposit.
- There are no tracking or accounting systems
with my system as these sorts of features add to the
complication and expense in setting up and maintaining the
website. All my accounting and order tracking take place
via the business systems I had setup prior to creating my online
nursery.
- It requires that your web hosting service
has Microsoft FrontPage extensions, PHP support and Microsoft
Active Server Pages (ASP) installed.
My website and online nursery consistently
appear on the first page of results in Google for a number of
different search words and phrases. So I can provide you with advice
on how you can achieve similar results in a reasonably short period
of time.
Email
me if you would like to try my system for your online
sales..
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