Hydrangeas & uranium

The hydrangeas are just about finished – they were beautiful this year and kept flowering for months.

I've been looking into creating a Second World War era "Victory Garden" for Floriade this Sept/Oct - in the course of my work yesterday I came across an interesting gardening tip that I read in the Australian Women's Weekly 1943 - to bring back colour to your washed out hydrangeas "if you can get hold of it" use uranium – it "works wonders". Chemicals were a whole new wonder back then and if people could get hold of them over those war years they would use them - luckily for that generation (and the next) such things were in short supply.

Everything looks a bit hot and bothered at present in my garden – it’s a full sun garden and could do with a bit more shade. On the fruit front one of my black grape vines is ripening and my pears won’t be too much longer.

I don't know how I managed to do it but I’ve used more than 10,000 litres of water on the garden in the last month - I emptied my tank which was completely full twice - that doesn't include all the emptying that I did when we had all that rain. I'm using town water now and am much more conservative.

Landscaping the driveway

When the driveway was completed the little brick wall looked out of place. It was taken down and the whole space area under the citrus trees were mulched with lucern.

The area around the urn was extended with thyme plants. Mostly purchased at the local farmers markets and a school fete.

The neightbour's side of the driveway near the road was badly churned. This area was on the neighbour's land and to repair it I layered the area with topsoil and sowed some grass seed.

The left hand side of the driveway was topsoiled and sewed with grass.

more driveway - paving and materials

We chose a herringbone pattern to lay the pavers. It is a large expanse of area and while we didn't want an overpowering pattern we did want something other than a monotonous line of pavers.

I assumed that the pavers would be laid on a cement foundation so did not even check that this would be the case. It wasn't until the men started laying the tiles that I realised they were being placed on a flat bulldozed surface with some gravel laid on top and flattened.

Disturbed by this turn of events and realising it was too late anyway, I began my research. Google told me that Kev's methods were an acceptable practice. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods of laying pavers.

The advantage of the permeable paving is that it absorbs rain and moisture instead of having it run off onto the road. It is also less expensive.

Concrete is enduring although it does crack and get water pooling above and below it if laid incorrectly. The surface is smoother, flatter and more solid.

Ants are perhaps the real problem with the softer foundations of our new driveway paving. They started building nests about two days after the driveway was completed. According to Kev the only solution to ants is to kill them. This is not going to happen - so I have an unresolved situation with the long term preservation of the driveway.

The driveway was finished six months ago and the ants have settled down to be less of a problem. Perhaps the only issue that I have now is that the tiles are also spreading over time with the weight of the cars. This may also settle down hopefully. Either that or we will have to drive up the driveway in different spots!

Driveways

The front of the house needed a lift and the old uneven cement driveway was a trip hazard - so last winter we decided to install a new driveway. At the local garden centre we picked up the fridge magnet of Kev the paver. Kev gave us a quote and showed us an impressive album containing pictures of his work and with very little other market research we engaged his services.

We chose baked clay pavers called 'peppercorn' which are a cement colour but with a subtle green tinge and brown highlights. These matched the tones of the house, blended in with the garden and are not glaringly bright in the sunlight. Our first choice was burnt red, the same colour that we had chosen for the vegetable garden path. Kev saved us from an overpowering red superhighway by advising against it. There is no doubt about it - I'm thankful for the more muted tones of the peppercorn tiles.

Walnut - Wilson's wonder

All the excess rain over the last few months killed my ‘Wilson’s Wonder’ walnut. I’m still grieving. But I know why – it was how I heaped up the mulch. It led to too much water banking up around the roots. Apparently - according to Google - walnuts hate this. In a drought situation such as we have been having over the last 10 years this way of mulching is fine however, not with the levels of water this year.

The tree was planted in June 2009. It was purchased grown from a seedling. The disadvantage of seeding walnuts are that they are variable - some produce very good nuts, some produce rather poor nuts. This tree produced several nuts in its first season. However, the Cockies ate all of them.

The advantage of growing seedling stock over graft stock is that often the root stock used for grafting is black walnut. The roots of black walnuts have consequences for plants grown in its vicinity.

The Black Walnut produces Juglone in its leaves and roots. Many plants are susceptible to Juglone, for example: rhubarb, tomatoes, blueberries and azaleas. Other trees closely related to black walnut also produce juglone, including butternut, English walnut, pecan, shagbark hickory, and bitternut hickory. However, all produce such limited quantities compared to the black walnut that toxicity to other plants is rarely observed.

Leaves that fall from walnut trees, as well as the husks, can also toxic to other plants, so it is recommended not to include them in general composting. The English walnut in this garden was planted near camellias and a large established pin oak. I could find no reference, however, to camellias being sensitive to juglone nor pin oak. You can remedy some of the build up of toxins by improving the soil around the tree. I have added top soil around the tree for this purpose and planted bulbs under the tree to create a mirco environment. Bulbs are not susceptible to walnut toxins.

Walnuts are suited to deep fertile soil and need a minimum of five metre of distance from other plants and houses. Our walnut tree was initially planted too close to the house, only about two meters from the edge. I dug it up one month later and transplanted it closer to the road about five meters away from the house.

Walnut trees are late to leaf in spring and among the first deciduous trees to lose their foliage in the autumn. The nuts ripen in late autumn and drop from the trees around the time of the first frost.

I didn’t know any of these companion planting issues before I purchased the walnut and on doing the research became attached to it. I won’t purchase a replacement though – they are just too big for a suburban block - particularly when I am reliant on full sun for all my other plants. Walnuts do not respond well for pruning!

High summer

Monique rose, home produce and long lazy afternoons....the plums are from the neighbours - they hang over the fence. I decided to harvest them before the cockatoos got all of them.

Summer berries - harvest

It's hard to keep on top of the harvesting!

Some things haven't ripened at all yet - my tomatoes are still all green and the zucchini is only starting to flower. However, I have more garlic, onions, cucumber, beans and lettuce than I can poke a stick at. I harvested the first of my Dutch cream potatoes this week. I just reached down around the roots of the plant and pulled these out - that was a pretty nice feeling.