May 2005 . . .
Intro
New Books
May in the Garden
How to Grow tree Dahlias
Lighting Your Garden
I've just come in from listening to the lyrebirds down the orchard- which sounds all sweet and romantic till you realise it was actually a lyrebird battle, the two of them yelling at each other and leaping claws out, which can be fearsome as lyrebird claws are BIG. And every time they leap they leave a long white dropping on the ground.
The two of them are arguing about who owns the giant pittosporum tree. It's growing on a bank and a lyrebird can climb up branch by branch- lyrebirds don't like flying, much- then glide down to the creek for a drink, then wander back up the bank scratching for interesting grubs are they go. It's a big tree, so I don't see why they can't share it, but lyrebirds don't work that way. Either do we, I suppose.
It's been a lazy sort of morning, partly because it's full rich autumn, red and yellow leaves on the trees and on the ground, a forest of tree dahlias almost the same blue as the sky, but shaggier, avocadoes ripe and limes and chokos, the sort of time when you just want to sit back and take it all in. But it's also been a lazy type morning as I've had a heart attack.
There, I've said it. Not an easy thing to write, as I wasn't expecting it, not at my age with every other sign from blood pressure to cholesterol saying I was healthy. But there is a family history of heart problems, and though Dad says that some family traditions don't have to be followed I did keep to tradition with this one.
And am now at home, recovering. But it does mean that till I have recovered I won't be going anywhere muchŠwhich also means that the 'schedule for this year' now reads 'watch lyrebirds, trip over wombat, write a bit, have a walk and write a bit more' instead of all the functions I had agreed to go to this year. Hopefully I WILL be able to get to some of them later, but it just depends how things go.
But if I have to be sick it's a glorious season to just sit and watch the world go by, or munch by, in the case of the wombats. And everyone has been wonderful- this is the perfect community to be sick in- we have enough soup in the fridge delivered by kind friends to feed any horde that cares to drop in for the next six weeks, not to mention Peg's turkey rolls and Helen's fish casserole and ... well, enough of the fridge contents.
Anyway, many many apologies for all the events I've had to cancel ... and many many thanks to everyone for their kind wishes. It's when you're sick that you realise that humans ARE nicer than wombats. (I came home from hospital to a wombat battle just under my bed- Mothball wombat bashing up Big Paws. Big paws finally ran whimpering down the orchard but Mothball stayed snarling by her hole for the next two hours, just in case he dared return.)
Latest books
They Came in Viking Ships has been getting lovely reviews, and has been picked up wonderfully overseas as well. My Uncle Wal the Werewolf, one of the wacky families illustrated by Stephen Michael King, will be out in a month or two, followed by The Secret World of Wombats, about, well, yes, of course, wombats ... stories of living with wombats for the last thirty years, Bad Bart the Biter and Moriarty, plus all the dirt on wombats - how they communicate with their droppings, why they bite each other's bums, how you can get close to wombats by singing to them (I'm serious - it works) and how wombats can count to six, or maybe more, and how to bring up an orphan wombat.
Bruce Whatley has illustrated it, and they are totally stunning, just like Diary of a Wombat but even more, plus a few totally wicked ones at the end which I'm not even going to try to describe. But wonderfully, brilliantly wombat with just a bit more.
And after that there's 'Grim Crims and Convicts' - the first of the Dinkum Histories, an eight volume history of Australia. Well, actually Grim Crims is volume 2- volume one will be out next January. It's about pre 1788 and Scholastic the publishers thought that convicts would have more appeal than pre history - especially as I gather they plan to have floggings at the launch in September!
May in the Garden
I love May. Summer's heat has vanished and winter still hasn't got its teeth in. This is the month to really get stuck into the garden, partly because it's a great time to be outdoors, but also to make sure you have a bright and blooming garden to cheer you up through winter.
: Free fertiliser- Rake up the leaves (or run the mower over them so they get caught up in the catcher – much easier) then use them as mulch around trees or gardens - you improve the soil, feed the plants and definitely attract snails so put down snail bait traps too!
. Plant citrus, passionfruit, conifers and native shrubs in frost free areas (in very cold spots wait till spring).
. Plant almost ready to flower pansies, primulas, polyanthus, poppies, and water and feed well
. Feed everything that's going to flower soon or is flowering - pansies, camellias, daphne etc
. Stake chrysanthemums - the heavy flowers can weigh down the stems so they straggle along the ground. Pick flowers OFTEN so new ones form lower down the stems.
.mow your lawn. Even if it hasn't grown much, a mow now will cut the tops off the weeds and keep your lawn neater through winter.
. Cut dead flowers off hydrangeas, roses, oleander, plumbago and tibouchina - in fact ANY dead flower should always be zapped off fast (unless you're waiting for rose hips or seeds afterwards). Pruning off deadheads encourages new blooms, but it's also depressing to have dead flowers hanging about and their sweetness can breed moulds and attract sap sucking pests.
. Pick pumpkins when the stems wither; keep them in a sunny spot (either shed roof or patio) for a few days to harden up, then store on their sides so that moisture doesn't collect in the top or bottom 'dimple'.
. Divide kangaroo paws, agapanthus, red hot pokers, asters, iris clumps, watsonias and strawberry runners. Take hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants like hydrangeas - snap off pieces 15 -30 cms long, dip in hormone powder (from the garden centre), insert deeply in potting mix and keep moist (I keep a plastic bag over mine held in place with a rubber band over the pot). Plant out those that develop roots next autumn/winter.
. Spray frost sensitive plants with Stress Guard.
. WATER - plants dry out even in cool weather!
What to plant
Frost-free areas: peanuts, potatoes, garlic, beans, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, leek, lettuce, melons, pumpkins, radish, silver beet, spinach, tomato, zucchini, sweet corn.
Flowers: ageratum, alyssum, cornflower, dianthus, lunaria, Livingstone daisy, lupin, nasturtium, salvias, sunflowers.
Temperate areas: garlic, broad beans, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage, Chinese cabbage and bok choy and other Asian veg seedlings, onions, peas, spinach seedlings, silver beet seedlings, artichoke suckers
Cold areas: broad beans, onions, spinach seedlings, shallots, artichoke suckers.
Flowers for temperate and cold areas (seedlings, not seeds - seeds can rot in the cold): alyssum, amaranthus, forget-me-not (as long as they won't become a weed), Shirley poppy, Virginian stock, lupin, pansies, polyanthus, viola, anemone and ranunculus bulbs, salvias, viola, wallflowers.
Three questions
Question: My maidenhair fern just turned up its toes and died! It's grown in that spot for years without problems and I water it every two days and fertilised it only last month. Any ideas as to the likely cause?
Answer: Aha, you have killed the poor thing with kindness. Ferns don't need much tucker - they grow naturally with just a bit of food from decomposing leaves. The best way to feed ferns is to give them a top dressing of leaf mould or compost in spring. Alternatively, dilute plant food to a third of the recommended strength i.e. a LOT more water. Feed ONLY while new growth is appearing (seaweed or fish based fertilisers are good) and before you feed soak the pot for twenty minutes in a bucket of water to remove any left-over plant food. Let it drain then pour on fresh water till it seeps through at the base. Never use dry plant foods - they burn the baby fronds just below soil level; the plant looks okay for a month or three, then the plant appears to suddenly die because there are no new fronds to replace the old ones.
Moveable Fruit
We're only renting. What fruit can I grow in pots to take with me when we move?
Answer: Grapes, kiwi fruit and passionfruit in a tub with a stake and wheel on top for them to trail over (cut them back before you move so they don't snap - they'll shoot again even if it's in summer). Dwarf apples, peaches, pomegranates, nectarines, mulberries or naturally small neat trees like strawberry tree, Meyer lemons, kumquats, calamondins or figs, Tahitian or Kaffir limes or blood oranges that can be kept small and neat with frequent pruning. You might also try a coffee bush or three!
PS Use big pots, frequent feeding (or slow release fertiliser) and pruning, keep moist and use moisture retaining crystals.
Tatty Houseplant
Question: Something is eating the leaves of our pilea! Every morning they look tattier and tattier - but I can't see any pests!
Answer: It's probably the small brown vegetable or elephant weevil. They live in the soil and emerge at night to munch leaves and shoots. Spray a pyrethrum based spray at night under and over the leaves once a week for six weeks. If the pot isn't too big you could try soaking the pots in a bucket of water for an hour too.
How to Grow Tree dahlias
These are the most stunning plant in our garden - every autumn visitors go 'Ahhh!' (well, actually none have ever said 'aaah', it's more likely 'what the #!!**!' but you know what I mean.) They are just glorious at this time of the year- great jungle like clumps.
Tree dahlia flowers are great big shaggy darlings, with either lilac or white flowers like fairy's skirts, born about 2-3 metres up on the stems, but the stems are narrow so they don't take up much room and while they only flower once a year that show is so startling they are definitely worth while.
How to grow: Plant a stem cutting of two or more segments, planted horizontally about ten cms deep in winter. Cut back to ground level or half way down after flowering or when cut by frost. (This gives lots of cuttings too.) I trim mine back in early summer too, when I remember and get around to it, to encourage them to bush out. If you have them growing you end up with asses of stems to give away in winterŠI'd offer to give some of ours away but the last time I did that I got inundated (and I'm still getting requests from offers I made six years ago!) and am not sure I'm up to it now.
Where to grow: Temperate areas, as they are cut by early frost, but they'll survive with well-drained soil and very green fingers even in the subtropics. Choose a sunny spot sheltered from strong winds - they are top heavy in flower and can blow over.
Lighting up Your Garden
A few decades ago lighting up your garden meant installing overhead spotlights that made anyone standing underneath look like a corpse on its way to a zombie reunion. They also attracted every moth in the vicinity. They were great for secret police-type family interrogations ('Have you done your homework? Have you?') but as for evoking a mood of gentle evening romance - forget it.
If you haven't had a good look at any of the modern outdoor lighting systems, they're worth a gander. Most of us are familiar with the tiny lights woven through street trees to show their lovely skeletal beauty (they look pretty good in home gardens too) but there are now a host of possibilities to light up your garden.
To light or not to light?
Okay, the first question to ask yourself is: When am I mostly home with time to enjoy the garden?
If - like most of us - your days are so frantic you can hardly schedule in time to blink, much less gaze at the garden, then the answer is going to be 'at night time' . And to enjoy the garden at night, you need a garden lighting system.
Night is the best time to look at a garden anyway. Gardens are restful at night. The neighbours will object if you try to mow the lawn and the weeds are mostly invisible so you won't be tempted to do any weeding. You just sit back and enjoy it.
Gardens smell best at night too - in fact many flowers like night-scented tobacco and stocks only release their fragrance at night, and many others like port wine magnolias, jessamine, gardenias, jasmines and mandevillias all smell much more intense at night. In fact, most scents seem to lose half their savour in the harsh light of day - but very few of us (unless we have vampire genes) are prepared to sit outdoors and enjoy the scents in total darkness.
There is another enormous advantage to enjoying your garden at night. A good lighting system - i.e. one that gives you enough light to enjoy the garden but doesn't look like it's left over from a Gestapo interrogation chamber - will give you a soft, indirect light that makes anyone's face look like Julia Roberts' (or at least one of Julia's close cousins) - perfect skin, all the wrinkles, pimples, sags or knobbly nose bits gently masked in the shadows.
Forget about facials and moisturisers - just make sure your beloved only sees you at night in the garden. (Alright, I admit that this may not be practical unless you fall for Count Dracula - but a bit of good lighting is still a great aid to romance.)
How to light up your garden
Step 1.
Work out what areas NEED lighting.
These will include any paths that are regularly used at night i.e. between house and garage, or any that your guests may use i.e. down to the front gate where they parked their car.
Steps need extra care with lighting - you need to be able to see where they are and exactly where to put your feet.
Generally lots of small low hooded lights are best to light paths and steps. Overhead lights tend to light up your feet, not the path, and your body may cast a great gloomy black shadow just where you want to step. Lots of small low lights are best for stairs too. Steps are difficult to light well outdoors- you really need to light each one individually, or it can be difficult to work out which is step and which is shadow.
Step 2
Work out areas that you'd use more if they were lit.
Barbecues and eating areas are the obvious places, but particularly in very hot climates, night is the best time to use swings, swimming pools and other fun and relaxation areas.
Each area will need its own form of lighting - and that form of lighting almost certainly won't be one great floodlight overhead.
Lighting up an outdoor table, for example, is quite different from lighting a table indoors. Overhead lights outdoors tend to cast horrible black shadows. Candles are romantic because they shine a soft glow up onto your face... and that is the level at which you need a table light.
Swimming pools look best surrounded by many small lights, rather than one great floodlight that will create spooky shadows in the corners.
Step 3
Plan a 'night time room'.
'Night time rooms' are ones that only really appear when you turn the lights on - an area of your garden set aside for outdoor entertaining. Indoor rooms are marked out by walls or furniture; the walls of night time rooms are made of the darkness around your lighted area.
courtyards make wonderful 'night time rooms', but really any garden can have one, with lights, garden furniture, and a few shrubs or large pots to decorate the edges.
Step 4
Work out what features in your garden would look stunning all lit up.
First of all though - where are you going to look at them from?
Do you want to gaze out your living room window at your stunning garden? Then only light up features you can see from that window.
Do you want to show off your garden to passers by? Then look at your garden from the street to work out what to features to illuminate.
Do you want to sit outside and gaze around? Then sit THERE before you start to plan.
Think mix and match: you need different forms of light to show up different aspects of your garden - low level spotlights, medium level lights to catch flowers and foliage. The more different types of lights you have, the more complex and fascinating your garden will appear.
Step 5
Once you have worked out WHAT bits you want lit, and WHY they need to be lit i.e. for entertaining, to make paths etc safer, or just to make your garden look great at night time, look up 'Lighting' and 'Garden Nurseries' the yellow pages of the phone book and find a place that specialises in garden lighting systems.
Then go hunting. Remember you don't have to do it all at once- if you can't afford the whole caboodle work out a plan to do it step by step.
Some systems need to be installed by an electrician who's had experience with outdoor lighting. Other lights can be put in by the home handyperson- or even a not so handy person who's prepared to smile sweetly at the salesperson and say 'I didn't QUITE follow that. Would you mind going through it all again, and is there an installation video I could watch?
Tip: this technique works a treat. I've learnt how to put down parquet (the staff gave me cups of coffee too once they realised I was a slow learner who needed stimulants); render walls, stain bookcases, lay paving and use a ram gun to attach wood to concrete walls (among other skills) just by searching for the most experienced looking sales man (they were all male) and just showing enthusiasm and gratitude for their help.
Gorgeous Bits to Light
Trees
You mostly look at leaves and flowers in daylight. At night the beauty of the tree's trunk and shape comes into its own. Choose between ground level floodlights that shine up into the foliage - great for trees with attractive leaves or big white flowers like magnolia grandiflora- or thread strings of tiny lights along the branches and trunk for those with interesting shapes.
Lily ponds
Usually low, soft lighting is best for these, but work out exactly what bits you want to feature. The lilies floating on the pond? The papyrus with a hint of water beyond? The fall of water from the fountain?
Walls
Courtyard walls can look great softly lit from below; so do stone walls, weathered wooden walls. Light coloured walls will also reflect light back into the garden - this reflected light can look much more effective than shining the light straight into the garden.
Decorative bits
Garden sculpture, mosaics, archways, big wooden lintels over doorways - remember that shapes and textures can look even more striking at night, when they are framed by darkness or side lit to accentuate texture and throw interesting shadows.
Disappearing Colours
Night isn't the best time to enjoy beds of brightly coloured flowers. Most flowers look best against a green leafy background, not black shadows. Reds especially almost disappear in low lighting, so even Bonfire salvia that looks startling in daylight becomes rather ho-hum at night.
Generally great shapes - like papyrus, or the neat shapes or topiary trees - look better lit up than beds of flowers. An exception though are masses of white flowers- white glows even richer with good lighting - waterlilies, or great banks of one simple colour, like clumps of blue agapanthus or camellias against a wall.
Ps Light doesn't use masses of power, like heaters or electric blankets, so you don't need to feel guilty about global warming. Just iron a couple less shirts a week to compensate, and turn them off when you go to bed.