Updated

August 20, 2012 13:11:45

Photo:
Low rainfall but abundant plant life

A botanic garden near Port Augusta is proving more than swathes of saltbush can grow in the South Australian outback.

Flourishing botanic gardens are not generally associated with the outback, but the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden is blooming.

With a backdrop of the Flinders Ranges, the garden stretches across the red sand landscape just outside of Port Augusta.

Photo:
Chris Nayda has long been a garden volunteer

Long-time gardens volunteer and tour guide Chris Nayda said the garden, covering about 250 hectares, managed on 100-250ml or less of annual rainfall.

She said there were not only regional plants, but a collection showcasing those from Western Australia, the Northern Territory and parts of New South Wales and Victoria.

“We do a lot of research and travelling to get all our plants,” she said.

The garden was an idea which germinated in 1980 and once an area had been cleared and prepared, planting started in 1996 and government funds were secured for a building on the site.

Chris Nayda said the plant life was abundant.

“People from the eastern states think because we’re an arid lands garden there’s nothing here, it’s just a bit of saltbush and bluebush,” she said.

“It’s certainly not, it’s a lot lot more than that.”

Some of them you can’t even find in the wild now so we need to look after them and propagate them

Photo:
Chris Nayda explains the plants to a visitor

Plants include golden wattle, pigface and book leaf mallee and there are more than 200 species of Eremophilas.

“Eremophila means desert-loving and they’re very good at surviving in the desert,” Ms Nayda said.

“Our Eremophila garden is really quite big and there’s so many colours, they range from ground cover to small bushes to trees.”

The garden attracts animal life including bearded dragons, hopping mice and stumpy-tailed lizards, and the odd unwelcome kangaroo jumps the fence.

Bird life includes honeyeaters, butcher birds and mulga parrots.

Chris Nayda said the garden helped preserve some rare plants.

“Some of them you can’t even find in the wild now so we need to look after them and propagate them and see what they look like for people,” she said.

The garden also aims to educate the public on use of water-efficient irrigation and efficient landscaping techniques for an arid zone.

Volunteers and gardeners spend countless hours tending the plants.

“They have little hairs on them which blow in the wind to keep them cool, or they’ve got wax to keep them covered or thin leaves so they don’t burn,” Chris Nayda explained.

“The way they’ve learnt to survive in the desert and the more you learn about this, the more fascinating it becomes.”

Photo:
Mallee gumnuts on display

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First posted

August 20, 2012 13:04:23

Call me mean-spirited, but there’s often a tiny part of me that’s relieved when I notice large areas of civic landscaping that have turned up their toes.

It’s just so comforting to know that even the hugely experienced and extravagantly budgeted among us make bad decisions, or simply get caught out by a recalcitrant plant that promised the earth, so to speak, but didn’t deliver.

Two big roundabouts on a new piece of highway near here are a case in point. They were originally planted in Carex comans bronze – a good choice, I said derisively to The Partner, because bronze carex already look half-dead so when they finally kick the bucket, the transition won’t be so noticeable.

Unlike the economically challenged among us, the landscape team was able to plant them en masse and I have to admit they looked good at the start. But, true to form, they gradually turned from bronze to blonde to dead and were shortly thereafter replaced with a combination of two of my least favourite ground-cover plants, griselinia and coprosma.

“Those won’t die, more’s the pity,” I said to The Partner, and I have so far been proved right.

But back to grasses. I used to be a big fan years ago in the river stone era but when I realised that my favourite, Carex Frosted Curls, hated living in the Far North, I gave up on them. Fortunately, I trashed the river stones at the same time.

The affair was rekindled when I was introduced to Carex secta, a big grass (a metre by a metre) that promised to stabilise our stream bank, enjoy the damp and survive occasional frosts. This hardy, evergreen native proved ideal for the purpose and survives to this day.

So now I’ve got the hang of grasses. Instead of planting whatever you like, plant whatever likes you and your location. Can’t imagine why I didn’t think of it sooner.

That sorted, I’ve been boning up on designing with grasses.

Yes, you can emulate the civic landscapers and just mass plant a zillion of one kind, or you can figure out how to use three or four different species and to add other plants and hard landscaping elements to get a look that’s somewhere between a natural landscape and an expensive design put together by a talented landscape architect.

The sloping bank beside our driveway was calling out for attention, so The Partner put in some hard landscaping elements (railway sleepers and rocks) and then mixed and matched a variety of grasses. He started with a few leftover Carex comans from a failed garden elsewhere on the property, just because he didn’t want to waste them and, to my surprise, they thrived.

“Gravelly soil, lots of sun, dry as a bone – they think they’re in Central Otago,” he explained. For insurance, he added the Aussie winner, Lomandra Little Pal, whose fine, shiny and very bright green foliage is a good foil, a couple of the larger Lomandra tanika and Poa cita, a sun-loving silver tussock that grows to about 60cm x 60cm and is perfectly happy in average soil so long as it’s not too damp. It makes feathery flower heads in summer.

There are also Dianella hiding in there, happily producing lovely purple berries for a change of texture, and on the other side of the railway sleeper wall the native iris, Libertia ixioides, pokes up its delicate little flowers.

I’m not the only one who is rekindling a flagging relationship with ornamental grasses. They were big at the Melbourne Flower Show earlier this year and the Americans love them, too.

According to the marketing director of a big producer of ornamental grasses in the US, there has been an explosion of demand for them, particularly American natives. It’s part of the trend towards more natural landscape designs and an awareness that plants can be used to solve specific landscape issues and provide great aesthetics at the same time.

So, on the list for our next section of driveway bank, are gossamer grass, toe toe and other wispy, waving things, teamed with more chunky species like kangaroo paw and Crososmia (commonly known as Montbretia and considered very naughty – see below) and possibly some interesting kind of cycad. Just no river stones.

Crocosmia

With their hot, fiery colours, Crocosmia species and cultivars are gorgeous things, but they are often eschewed in New Zealand gardens because of the troublesome Crocosmia crocosmiiflora, commonly known as montbretia.
But not all Crocosmia are like montbretia, so you’ll find some you can plant without guilt.

Crocosmia masoniorum is an attractive species with orange flowers that grows to about 80cm high and a few cultivars have been bred from this.

Crocosmia Lucifer has the trademark flame-coloured flowers and reaches a height of about 120cm. It has long, strap-like foliage like an iris, and the flowers are produced in summer and often flower into autumn.

They like full sun or partial shade and free-draining soil with organic compost added. Deadhead them when flowering is finished to prevent seeding, and leave the foliage to die back or turn yellow before cutting back. Big clumps can be divided in autumn.

Nine West Shore gardens will be featured Sunday on the TRCD Conservation Landscape Tour in Tahoma.

The tour is produced by sustainable landscaping experts with the TRCD and will feature an array of different properties in the Tahoma area, with presentations on integrating erosion control best management practices (BMPs) into fire-safe landscapes, low-water turf options at a lakefront home, gardening techniques and plant selection to attract native wildlife.

Maps can be picked up Aug. 19 between 1 and 3 p.m. at the corner of Wilson and Pine streets in Tahoma. The tour will be held between 1 and 5 p.m. in Tahoma and is free, although donations wlil be accepted and will go toward future events and environmental education programs in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Donations can be made in person or by visiting tahoercd.org.

Currently there are more than 40 similar businesses that have come up in the area, of which more than 60 percent have mushroomed in last two years, to cater to the predicted growth of 40 percent in demand in the area.

THE GARDEN BOOM

The advent of corporates and the opening of housing co-operatives in New Town and the surrounding areas have generated opportunities for the landscaping industry.

“Today there are several companies which have mushroomed in and around the Rajarhat area for the various projects that are coming up in the area,” says Deepak Bhattacharya, a veteran in this field who has been running Garden Decor for over two decades now. His company has been registering a year on year growth of over 15 percent for the last few years.

“Anyone and everyone who has some knowledge about plants are entering this business,” he says.

SOWING THE SEED

This business doesn’t involve a huge sum of investment in the beginning. A landscaping business can be started with an initial sum of Rs 1.5 lakh. The cost increases if one wants to buy land for a nursery. The investment then ranges between Rs 3 lakhs to Rs 1 crore, depending on the cost of the land and the kind of plants to be reared. Industry experts advise that having a nursery of your own at the very beginning is not a wise decision.

The cost of landscaping a garden can vary from Rs 50,000 to even a crore depending on the area and the kind of landscaping required.

Largely there are two kinds of landscape gardening -soft landscape and hard landscape. Soft landscaping is done only with plants, creepers or flowers but hard landscaping involves plants and other elements like wood, stones or fountains. It is a much costlier option.

“Garden landscaping today has become a trend, every office today separates land for such purposes. Housing co-operatives too go for such options, to beautify their surroundings,” says Anindya Chowdhury, owner, Green and Flowers, a garden landscaping firm which began operation in 2009.

REAPING FRUITS

Chowdhury entered this business looking at the galore and variety of projects in the region. The company has worked with various corporate clients like TCS for landscape gardening. Started in 2011, his firm had only five projects, but now he has eight sizeable projects in his kitty. This year he has worked on three projects with one in the pipeline. With six dedicated designers the firm has registered an annual growth of 25 percent.  
Chowdhury also deals in avenue plantation and roof-top gardening. But median landscaping fetches the company something between Rs 75,000 to Rs 4 lakhs depending on the area to be covered. “For avenue or roadside plantation, it can vary from Rs 15 to Rs 50 per sapling inclusive of all charges,” says Chowdhury. He adds that with shooting real estate prices in Salt Lake, people are selling the extra space in front of the bungalow and are going for roof-top gardens.

Chelsea van Rijn from Trevallan Lifestyle Centre talks classic plants.

EVER wondered why certain TV shows aren’t on anymore, yet others are constantly replayed?

Like why Big Brother is about to have its 100th season (or something close to that) but Growing Pains or Knight Rider don’t even warrant a re-run?

I often wonder the same thing with plants.

I wonder why some plants can be released 100 different times just because this newer one has a fat pink stripe and the older one had a thin pink stripe, yet the ‘oldies but goodies’ seem to disappear.

Rondeletia amoena is an oldie but still a classic.

For so long now I’ve felt like I was the only person who had even heard of this plant, but recently it’s making a starring comeback.

And why not?

This plant takes my winter blues away and lets me know spring is almost here.

Whether it be in the garden or a pot, this plant is a must for all gardeners.

So don’t class it as old-fashioned – consider it timeless.

Why do I consider it timeless?

Why should every garden have one?

Could it be the clusters of deep pink buds which will slowly open to salmon-pink flowers?

Or that it flowers in the cold winter through to spring?

Or is it that it is an evergreen small tree, growing to about 3m tall, with dense green foliage making the perfect tree for hedging or as a feature?

Is it the simple fact that it’s on Energex’s highly recommended list for planting under power lines?

Or is it the deliciously scented flowers that do not have an overpowering scent, more a gentle waft past the nose, just enough to let you know something beautiful is blooming?

I could honestly sit all day in the garden and breathe in this divine scent.

It’s all of these things that make this plant a classic and my all-time favourite plant.

When they named this plant they certainly knew what they were doing.

The genus name, Rondeletia, commemorates Guillaume Rondelet, a 16th century French naturalist and the species name, amoena, is from the Latin meaning “lovely” – and lovely it is.

Rondeletia amoenas are very versatile and can be grown in full sun or part shade.

It is a very tough, drought-tolerant plant that would suit any style of garden from tropical to formal.

They can be bothered by heavy frosts so try to protect it if you suffer from Jack Frost.

These plants are hardly bothered by pests or disease and they even attract butterflies.

Whether you have a green thumb or a slightly brown-tinged one, Rondeletia amoena are for you.

A small trim after flowering and fertilise with an organic slow release fertiliser, like Organic Link, every three months, will promote a denser form and more beautiful plant.

This weekend spoil yourself and take a trip back.

Rondeletia amoena are the best and easiest way to give yourself and garden some TLC during these colder months.

 

To read more lifestyle stories

SMART phones, computers and MP3 players have become the tools of our modern lives.

But it wasn’t so long ago that a shovel, a patch of soil and a bag of seeds were the only tools needed to provide sustenance and satisfaction.

Gardening was a part of daily life. Ask any gardener today why they garden and you’ll get a variety of reasons why it’s important to them.

1. Garden for safe, healthy food

Reports of food-borne illnesses and contamination regularly appear in the media.

Growing concerns about pesticides in our food supply have led to an increased interest in organic gardening and availability of organic produce.

Processed foods contain additives and preservatives many consumers want to avoid.

An easy solution is to grow your own vegetables. Start your own garden and know the food you’re eating is fresh and safe with fantastic flavour.

2. Garden for exercise

Tired of the gym routine? Get a good workout without even thinking about it.

Gardening activities provide both cardio and aerobic exercise.

Studies show an hour of moderate gardening can burn up to 300 calories for women, almost 400 calories for men.

For older people, especially women, gardening can help reduce osteoporosis.

Mowing the grass is like taking a vigorous walk, bending and stretching to plant a garden compares to an exercise class, while hauling plants and soil is similar to weightlifting.

Adaptive tools help those whose physical limitations prevent some activities.

3. Garden to add beauty

A house with a nice garden is a pleasure to look at and satisfying to live in.

Your home can be made more inviting simply by adding a container of colourful flowers near the front door.

Herbs in the kitchen add freshness to the room, as well as flavour to daily meals.

Trees and shrubs not only provide colour and shade, but shelter for birds and wildlife.

4. Garden to learn

Gardeners find the more they learn about plants and gardening, the more they want to know.

Problems with insects or spots on leaves provide the opportunity to find out the cause and understand how to keep plants healthy.

There are a variety of ways to increase gardening know-how such as seminars, television programs, internet, formal degree programs at TAFE or uni or talking to the staff at your local garden centre.

5. Garden to make money

For some people gardening is a lifelong hobby.

For others, the love of plants can lead to a rewarding job at a local garden centre or production nursery, or even owning their own business.

A garden can be a source of flowers, vegetables, herbs, and other crops that can be sold at local farmer’s markets and roadside stands.

And whether you live in your dream home or plan on moving soon, gardening adds value to your property.

Real estate agents estimate that attractive landscaping increases a home’s value by as much as 15%.

It also creates interest in the house and can mean the difference between a potential buyer simply driving by or stopping to take a closer look.

6. Garden to meet people

Gardening is a great way to expand your social circle.

Whether it’s with someone who lives down the street or halfway around the world on the Internet, gardeners love to talk about plants.

Surplus tomatoes, a bouquet of flowers, or an extra plant, are gifts to be shared with friends and neighbours.

Meeting other gardeners through garden clubs, plant organisations, and gardening websites is an easy way to share information and get involved.

7. Garden to be creative

Gardening provides an outlet for creative and artistic expression. A garden’s design can reflect a personal sense of style such as a romantic cottage garden or a peaceful Japanese garden, as well as provide a showcase for art and sculpture.

Like to try something new?

With the wide variety of seeds and plants available in garden centres, it’s easy to experiment with new plants or change a garden’s colour scheme every year.

8. Garden to win

For people with a competitive streak, gardening is a friendly way to show off their skills.

Local shows provide an opportunity to show everyone the giant pumpkin, beautiful beans or luscious tomatoes harvested from the garden .

9. Garden for emotional needs and spiritual connections

Gardens play an important part in our well-being.

A garden might serve as a tranquil retreat or private escape from the demands of everyday life.

The beauty of flowers can lift spirits, while pulling weeds can be a great release for stress and excess energy.

A harvest of colourful flowers or tasty vegetables provides a sense of achievement and feelings of success, while neighbours and visitors often express their appreciation of those efforts.

10. Garden for lasting memories

Blocks where once grew gardens have been replaced with pools and driveways.

Today’s kids are missing the joy of cutting a bouquet of flowers for mum or tasting the sweetness of a cherry tomato picked right from the plant.

Gardening is a fun activity that can be shared with children and grandchildren, even if the garden is a single container or small spot in the yard.

Become a gardener, forget that excuse about not having enough time.

Gardening takes less time than that new television show and is much easier than getting a new game to work on your computer.

Gardening is a satisfying activity that provides a lifetime of benefits.

 

To read more lifestyle stories

John Perkins and Cindy Garrow, of Oneida, spent three years transforming their wooded backyard into a garden with a 50-foot koi pond and seven themes — all illuminated at night by 120 landscaping lights.

“This is our paradise,” Garrow said. “It’s so peaceful.”

The garden by the numbers, according to Perkins: 17 yards of red mulch, 20 dump trucks of top soil, 176 feet of border gardens and 70 species of plants, all deer resistant.

Perkins did the bulk of the work himself.

He built a waterfall of stone, which spills into the koi pond. A fountain in the pond lights up at night and changes color.

The garden is divided into theme areas, including Greek ruins and Easter Island. Signs on trees mark an area dedicated to the headless horseman from Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and to the caterpillar garden from “Alice in Wonderland.”

“I kind of pictured it in my mind and created it out of what we had,” Perkins said.

Perkins has trained the 20 koi in the pond to surface when he rings a bell.

Cool Gardens – Keeping the Herons Away
John Perkins’ garden in Oneida is illuminated at night by 120 landscaping lights. He also has tips on keeping herons away from his koi pond. Video by Gloria Wright

Watch video

He’s also figured out how to keep great blue heron from eating the fish. He installed a motion detector that turns on a radio and put an fake alligator that bobs realistically to scare the birds away.

He named the alligator “Lucky, because he’s lucky we didn’t make luggage out of it,” he said.

An electric fence around the pool keep the mink away, he said.

As dusk falls, lights around the garden on Maplewood Avenue come on, spotlighting some elements, such as the Easter Island statues.

“We enjoy this every night,” he said.

The couple welcome visitors to their garden. One wedding and a concert have been held there, and some students from Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School had their junior prom pictures taken there.

“I’ve learned a lot doing this,” Perkins said. “I’m really proud of it.”

The story of Jim Perkins’s garden is part of a series of unique gardens featured this summer in the Home Garden section.

A couple of weeks ago we ordered some new magazine subscriptions and now they are beginning to arrive in the mail. We are very excited about these new additions and hope that you will find them interesting and useful.

For anyone who does any kind of cooking, the magazine Cooks Illustrated should be of extreme interest. This magazine is published by the America’s Test Kitchen group; the same organization that produces the PBS cooking show of the same name (which the library also has) and a weekly radio show/podcast. The recipes included in the magazine are the results of an exhaustive quest to get that recipe perfect and as “fool-proof” as possible. The article will describe the process taken through the attempts of refining the recipe: what works, what doesn’t, and how they arrived at the final product. Each issue also includes taste tests of commonly used ingredients and food products, along with kitchen equipment test results. This magazine contains a wealth of information for any home cook.

Next is Fine Gardening, a magazine is perfect for those who are perfectly content to spend hours outside in the yard and garden. The main focus of the magazine is on landscaping and ornamental plants rather than vegetable and fruit gardens, but it does give some attention to those as well. Most of the articles in Fine Gardening are how-to driven about a specific project or concept, whether that is garden/yard design, gardening techniques, plant selection and care or the garden structure and are written by home gardeners, horticulturists or professional landscapers. There are also generous amounts of illustrations that really help those visual learners among us (like me) grasp the concepts in the articles. Start planning and dreaming about your perfect yard and garden for next year now with this great magazine.

Trying to keep up with all of the latest discoveries and breakthroughs in the wide range of different science fields can be very difficult and overwhelming. Additionally frustrating is when the news of the discoveries is written in a way that you need to be an expert in the field to understand. The magazine Science Illustrated solves those problems. This magazine is filled with the latest science news and discoveries from biology, chemistry, astronomy, technology and more. The articles are written so that you don’t need a Ph.D. to understand and true to the magazines name, it is packed with helpful illustrations that really make difficult concepts much easier to wrap your brain around.

These are just a few of the new magazine titles that we have subscribed to, not to mention the over 70 subscriptions that we already had. We have a magazine for just about any interest you might have. Stop by and check them out.

Chelsea van Rijn from Trevallan Lifestyle Centre talks classic plants.

EVER wondered why certain TV shows aren’t on anymore, yet others are constantly replayed?

Like why Big Brother is about to have its 100th season (or something close to that) but Growing Pains or Knight Rider don’t even warrant a re-run?

I often wonder the same thing with plants.

I wonder why some plants can be released 100 different times just because this newer one has a fat pink stripe and the older one had a thin pink stripe, yet the ‘oldies but goodies’ seem to disappear.

Rondeletia amoena is an oldie but still a classic.

For so long now I’ve felt like I was the only person who had even heard of this plant, but recently it’s making a starring comeback.

And why not?

This plant takes my winter blues away and lets me know spring is almost here.

Whether it be in the garden or a pot, this plant is a must for all gardeners.

So don’t class it as old-fashioned – consider it timeless.

Why do I consider it timeless?

Why should every garden have one?

Could it be the clusters of deep pink buds which will slowly open to salmon-pink flowers?

Or that it flowers in the cold winter through to spring?

Or is it that it is an evergreen small tree, growing to about 3m tall, with dense green foliage making the perfect tree for hedging or as a feature?

Is it the simple fact that it’s on Energex’s highly recommended list for planting under power lines?

Or is it the deliciously scented flowers that do not have an overpowering scent, more a gentle waft past the nose, just enough to let you know something beautiful is blooming?

I could honestly sit all day in the garden and breathe in this divine scent.

It’s all of these things that make this plant a classic and my all-time favourite plant.

When they named this plant they certainly knew what they were doing.

The genus name, Rondeletia, commemorates Guillaume Rondelet, a 16th century French naturalist and the species name, amoena, is from the Latin meaning “lovely” – and lovely it is.

Rondeletia amoenas are very versatile and can be grown in full sun or part shade.

It is a very tough, drought-tolerant plant that would suit any style of garden from tropical to formal.

They can be bothered by heavy frosts so try to protect it if you suffer from Jack Frost.

These plants are hardly bothered by pests or disease and they even attract butterflies.

Whether you have a green thumb or a slightly brown-tinged one, Rondeletia amoena are for you.

A small trim after flowering and fertilise with an organic slow release fertiliser, like Organic Link, every three months, will promote a denser form and more beautiful plant.

This weekend spoil yourself and take a trip back.

Rondeletia amoena are the best and easiest way to give yourself and garden some TLC during these colder months.

 

To read more lifestyle stories

TAHOMA, Calif. — Nine beautiful West Shore gardens and educational talks on conservation landscaping topics highlight the fifth annual Conservation Landscape Tour, one of the signature events produced by the sustainable landscaping experts with the Tahoe Resource Conservation District. Maps for the tour can be picked up on Sunday, Aug. 19, 1-3 p.m. at the corner of Wilson and Pine Streets in Tahoma.

“Last year’s Conservation Landscape Tour attracted more than 150 people, and we look forward to seeing even more locals, second homeowners and visitors at this year’s event,” said Courtney Walker, conservation planner with the Tahoe Resource Conservation District. “We have great presenters and some stunning properties to visit, as well as light refreshments and entertainment to cap off the tour in style.”

This year’s tour features an array of different properties in the Tahoma area, with presentations focusing on a wide variety of important topics for gardeners in the Lake Tahoe Basin. One such talk focuses on integrating erosion control best management practices (BMPs) into fire-safe landscapes, a challenge for many Tahoe homeowners. Other presentations include low-water turf options at a lakefront home, gardening techniques and plant selection to attract native wildlife with master gardener Kathy Maston and Will Richardson of the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science, as well as a native plant talk with Lesley Higgins.

The Conservation Landscape Tour will be held 1-5 p.m. in Tahoma and is free for attendees of all ages, although donations are graciously accepted and will go toward future events and environmental education programs in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Donations can be made in person or by visiting TahoeRCD.org. Please leave pets at home.

About the Tahoe Resource Conservation District

The Tahoe RCD’s mission is to promote the conservation and improvement of the Lake Tahoe Basin’s soil, water, and related natural resources by providing leadership, information, programs, and technical assistance to all land managers, owners, organizations, and residents. The Tahoe RCD is a non-regulatory public agency. Funded primarily through grants and private donations, Tahoe RCD works with a variety of partner agencies to implement programs and outreach, which currently focus on erosion control, runoff infiltration, terrestrial and aquatic invasive species control and prevention, and conservation landscaping.