Summer Squash and Mouthewatering Blueberries

PLANT DOCTOR

War on Weeds part 1. 

Physical and Cultural weeding practises.
Why is it that if you have strappy leaved plants in your garden, then grassy weeds colonise that plant just so you don’t notice them?
It’s not until those weeds start showing their seed heads that you realise that there’s a weed growing amongst that clump of daylilies or agapanthus.

Weeds sprouting in your vegetable garden include clover, petty spurge and panic veldt.

Then sometimes you just have to get down to ground level to see how many weeds have infiltrated that garden bed that you thought was thick with plants.
What can we do about them.
Let’s find out I'm talking with Steve Falcioni, general Manager of www.ecoorganicgarden.com.au


Not only do they look unsightly put the weeds are stealing sunlight, water and nutrients from your precious plants, plus they're harbouring pests.

Often pests overwinter on your weeds ready to jump onto your plants when Spring arrives.

Hand weeds of course is great for small areas but for larger areas, perhaps hoeing or solarisation using black plastic is beneficial.

That old saying of 1 years seed gives 7 years weed holds true.

If you’ve just put away all your garden tools and cleaned up and then notice that clump of onion weed that’s in flower, the best thing to do if you haven’t got time or are just too tired is snap off those flowers.
Stopping the seeds from forming is a good start and the weed will still be there when you next get out into the garden.
If you have any questions pruning saws or have some information to share, drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.

VEGETABLE HEROES

Summer Squash-Cucurbita pepo
Summer Button Squash is the yellow or green saucer shaped members of the Cucurbit family that includes pumpkins, melons and zucchinis. Cucurbita pepo.

If you don’t like the taste and texture of Button Squash, some even call patty pan squash, maybe you need to buy a different variety to zhuszh up your taste buds.
Did you know that squash comes from a native American word which means eaten raw or uncooked?
No surprises that archaeologists have traced squash origins to Mexico, dating back from 7,000 to 5,500 BC.

In terms of nutrients, button squash give bananas a run for their money.

Button squash are small veggies that look a bit like space ships with scalloped edges.
It’s a twining vine with large, broad, spiny, lobed leaves and an angled, prickly green stem.
Its yellow flowers are either male or female and the female flowers, after fertilisation, grow those little buttons.
They grow to between 3 and 5cm in diameter and although come in other colours, the most common are the pale green and the bright yellow ones.

The inside of the squash is pale white and the whole squash is eaten cooked, including the skin and seeds.

Button summer squash, particularly the yellow button squash, is a warm weather squash preferring temperate climates with a well drained soil.

When to grow squash.
Squash can be grown all year round in hot, subtropical climates, from spring onwards in temperate zones and only in early summer in cool temperate regions.
As for arid zones, from Spring until early Autumn.
For tropical areas, summer squash is a bit of a misnomer because for you, growing squash is only during the dry season.
So squash can be grown somewhere in all parts of Australia right now.
In fact, did you know that Squash is grown in all horticultural production
areas including Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia,
Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania?
Squash like to spread out, but will follow a trellis if the vines are tied to one.
Seeds can be planted individually into small holes or planted on small mounds, three to five to a mound.
This can take up a lot of space, but one squash plant can produce a lot of squash. Unless you’re feeding an army only plant one or two mounds of squash then.

Flowers on Squash, where are they?
Squash have male and female flowers that bees, flies, wasp or other creatures must pollinate it.
Do you only have male or just female flowers on your cucurbits?

Or did they fall down on the job for you last year?
If you got male and female flowers but not too many squash, plant plenty of flowers alongside your squash otherwise you’ll end up having to hand pollinate using an artist’s paintbrush.
Mostly gardeners start to worry when they see only male flower.
It is perfectly normal for the males to arrive first, and, they do so in big numbers.
A week or so goes by without any ladies appearing, and you are beginning to think there's a problem.
The female flowers usually arrive 10-14 days after you spot the first male. (Sometimes it takes a little longer than this).
Once the ladies appear, there’ll only be a few at a time.
The male flowers greatly out-number the female flowers.
It’s fairly uncommon for females flowers to arrive first but does occasionally happen.
Patience is all that's required.

Fertilising your squash
Squash are, like most vegetables, heavy feeders and need lots of fertilizer and water.
Don’t over fertilize with chook poo pellets or you’ll have big plants and no squash.
Water requirements are high and you really need to be on top of keeping up the watering for your button squash during hot weather and when fruit is filling out.
If you don’t you’re very likely get shedding of flowers and partly formed fruit.
Button squash grows very quickly and will start producing us in about 8 weeks.
Pick your button squash carefully by cutting them from the vine through their stem.
Fact File

Did you know that button squash need to be harvested often even commercially because of their very soft skin and so they’re very labour intensive to grow?
Picking should be done regularly, at least every day as the fruit develops. When the squash start appearing more and more, you’ll have to go out more often to the veggie patch to pick them.
If you leave your squash on the plants too long they’ll stop growing new ones altogether.
Picking your Summer squash at about 2 ½- 3 cms in size is when they’re at their most tasty.
If you plant an open pollinated type, (doesn’t have hybrid in its name) you can let one or two squash grow out until they are completely ripe and save the seeds from them at the end of the season.
Some varieties from various online seed suppliers.
There’s a French heirloom variety Squash Jaune Et Verte especially for those of you who are not convinced about the merits of growing squash. Picked young, the flesh is sweet and buttery and the skin cooks to lime green. Compact variety producing scallop shaped fruit over a long period. Takes 7 weeks from seed to harvest.
New Gippsland Seeds-Golden Ruffles Hybrid is a Yellow Button Squash- High quality button squash capable of tremendous yields. Fruit gold, often with a green end spot. Tasty and popular.
Eden seeds_EARLY WHITE BUSH SCALLOPED Known pre 1722
Greenish-white skin, with lots of round flat fruit on a bushy plant. Best when picked young. 46-60 days.
GREEN TINT
Scalloped patty pan squash, pale green, harvest 7.5cm—10cm, fine texture, medium sized bush, very productive over a long period, popular traditional variety for home gardens. 47-56 days.
Why are they good for you?
Summer squash is very low in calories and high in fibre.
Button squash is rich in beta-carotene an excellent source of vitamin C, folic acid and calcium.
One cup of summer squash has nearly as much potassium as a banana!
They also contain the valuable mineral nutrient phosphorus.
Button squash are vitamin C
The darker skinned squash supply some beta carotene.

DESIGN ELEMENTS

Style of veggie patches

If you do want to have a dedicated area in the garden for growing your fruit and veg you need to think about actual layout for the planting areas

What are the options? 

Lyn Wood Vegetable Garden Ulverston Tasmania

You can have an in bed system where it is really just grown as you would any garden area or you can do raised beds either by building them up with materials such as timber sleepers or just by mounding the soil up …almost like a burrow and furrow style.
Have we convinced you yet to start a vegetable garden if you haven’t got one?
It might seem like a lot of hard work, but you don’t have to build it yourself.
There’s plenty of pre-packaged vegie beds read for you to install.
But in case you do want to build one, this segment has some tips.
Let’s find out…I'm talking withGlenice Buck, landscape designer and consulting arborist.

Those treated pinelogs that don’t have arsenic are called ACQ.(alkaline, copper quaternary.)

Vegie Pod

There’s also “ecowood,” that uses a different treatment method from ACQ and will last the distance too. If you do have CCA treated pine and are worried about the arsenic in the pine, the CSIRO recommends painting the logs both inside and out or line the bed with builders plastic.

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Blueberry "Vitality." Vaccinium corymbosum Vitality (high bush variety)Are you looking for something to boost your vitamin C without eating all that Broccoli? 

I know some Broccoli haters that would love this next fruit.
There’s a place in every garden or outdoor space for this evergreen plant that makes a great pot specimen or a low hedge that will end up being full of fruit.
Let’s find out..more.

I'm talking with the plant panel Karen Smith, editor of Hort Journal www.hortjournal.com.au and Jeremy Critchley, The Green Gallery wholesale nursery owner. www.thegreengallery.com.au

Blueberry vitality grows to 1m x 1m making a perfect low hedge and a great productive pot plant.
Light pink flowers appear during winter followed by fruit from late spring through to summer.

Blueberries have three common varieties: lowbush, highbush and rabbiteye.

Lowbush blueberries – This variety, which produces a big harvest of intensely flavoured blueberries, is not grown in Australia’s milder climate. It thrives in colder climates in the northern hemisphere.

Highbush blueberries – This is the most common variety in Australia, with many cultivars suited to the Australian climate. The two most popular cultivars grown here are the Northern Highbush and the Southern Highbush. Just to confuse things, the Northern Highbush is grown in Victoria, Tasmania and Southern NSW; while the Southern Highbush is grown in milder regions like Northern NSW and Southern Queensland.

Rabbiteye blueberries – This is another late season variety, which can cope with warm and humid summers and tolerate dry conditions like no other, making it right at home in Northern NSW and Queensland. Its name comes from the calyx, which when ripening looks just like little rabbit eyes looking back at you.

Grey green elliptic -ovate leaves (5 cm) growing 1m x 1 m.

Going Native in the Garden

REAL WORLD GARDENER Wed. 5pm 2RRR 88.5fm Sydney, streaming live at www.2rrr.org.au and Across Australia on the Community Radio Network. www.realworldgardener.com
Real World Gardener is funded by the Community Broadcasting Foundation
REALWORLD GARDENER NOW ON FACEBOOK
The complete CRN edition of RWG is available on http://www.cpod.org.au/ , just click on 2RRR to find this week’s edition. The new theme is sung by Harry Hughes from his album Songs of the Garden. You can hear samples of the album from the website www.songsofthegarden.com

 

Living Planet

Are there any bees sleeping in your garden? These guys are sleeping n Glycine flowers.

According to Dr Tanya Latty - ARC Postdoctoral Fellow, Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Lab, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney,  native bees are often found sleeping on spent flowers, mainly native flowers of spiky plants such as the spiky Epacris puchella.
If it’s not warm enough, these small bee won’t get out of bed until much later - if at all. They often pick flowers where the colour of the bee blends really well with, and it’s often the case that native bees are found sleeping on spent or dying flowers.
Dr Latty is involved with the Urban Bee Monitoring project which will address the knowledge gap of bee conservation by urban gardeners.
Listen now.
The project hopes to answer 4 crucial conservation questions:
1) Which Australian native bees are present in community gardens?
2) Which garden characteristics influence native bee abundance and diversity?
3) Which plant species are most attractive to bees?
The project will generate recommendations that can be used to design bee-friendly green spaces and also form the backbone of an ongoing bee monitoring and conservation initiative."
If you see native bees in your garden we would like to hear from you.
TIP: You can help native bees by bundling together 15 - 20 cm lengths of sticks with hollow stems such as Hydrangea stems. Tie them together and hang under trees.

To help you identify native bees check out www.aussiebee.com.au
These cute little creatures are a wonderful reason to have some spiky habitat plants in your garden.
So in the cool of the morning or close to sunset wander around and look to see what is sleeping in your garden.

If you have any questions about native bees or building bee nest boxes, why not drop us a line. Or send in a photo to realworldgardener@gmail.com or by post to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675

Vegetable Heroes:

Well it’s FANTASTIC FRUIT TIME.
YES, those fruit that are at the some ranking as vegetable heroes,.
Would you have thought that the second most popular berry after Strawberries are Blueberries?
Blueberries are the fruit of a shrub that belongs to the heath family includes cranberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
Did you know that Blueberries are one of the only natural foods that are truly blue in colour?
They’re sort of a bluey purple colour and have a waxy ‘bloom’ that protects the surface of the blueberry.
Blueberries grow in clusters and come in sizes from a pea to a small marble.
Blueberries are one of the only fruits native to North America, but it wasn’t until the early 1950’ that blueberries were first brought to Australia.
A couple of guys- Messrs Karel Kroon and Ralph Proctor from the Victorian Department of Agriculture tried to grow them but, Australia was out of luck there because these guys couldn’t get past the disease problems.
Twenty years later, the Victorian Department of Agriculture tried again. This time, a chap called David Jones carefully planted and tended to his blueberry seeds and eventually successfully grew several blueberry plants.
But, it wasn’t until the 1980’s that Blueberries were commercially available.
 
Where to Grow?
Blueberries like a sunny position but will also get by in some shade (but not too much, otherwise flowering might be effected.
The best time for planting bare rooted plants is between late autumn and spring. Bare rooted plants are less likely to suffer from transplant shock and generally take off better.
But you can't always be that organised and you can buy containerised blueberry plants all year-round.
What do they need?
Blueberries need moist soil, good drainage and lots of organic material.
Blueberries are acid loving plants that do best in soils with a pH between 4.5 to 5.5
If you can grow Camellias and Azaleas, you can grow Blueberries.

If you don’t have that pH you will have to add either elemental sulphur (where the pH is too alkaline) or lime / dolomite (where the pH is too acid). If the soil pH is higher the plants may show signs of iron deficiency.
 If that sounds too hard, grow you blueberry plant in a pot.

Tip:Very important when growing blueberries. they have a very fine fibrousy root system, just like Azaleas, and this root system needs a porous medium in which to grow, a bit like coarse sand from where they came from.
If you have poor drainage, then grow them in a raised bed or at the very least, on a mound of soil and use lots of mulch.
Use a mulch like pine bark mulch to prevent compaction of the soils underneath for the growth and establishment of a healthy root system.
Or again, like me, grow them in a pot, but grow a couple to increase pollination.

Which Type to Grow for My Region
All blueberries, like peaches, apricots, apples need a certain amount of chilling for fruit set. Gardeners in the know about chill factor will now know, that means a certain amount of hours below 7⁰C.
For temperate areas which don’t get too cold in winter, we need to grow a variety which is low chill.
Cool Temperate Districts:
Gardeners in cool temperate areas can grow the low bush variety
Low bush variety-is a dwarf shrub that only grows to around 30-60 cm. The lowbush produces lots of small and flavoursome berries.
They love colder climates and need very low temperatures for the fertilised flowers to “set” and form berries.
They’re not are not grown in commercial quantities here.
The highbush variety, grows to 1.5–3 metres, has many different cultivars that are well suited to the Australian climate.
 In Victoria, Tasmania and Southern New South Wales, you are more likely to find the Northern Highbush, high chill variety for sale in your nursery.
Winter chilling  is quite high -(over 1000 hours below 2°C) but they can still able tolerate high summer temperatures.
The fruit of the Northern Highbush is harvested later in the season, from December to April

Temperate and Sub-Tropical districts.
For Northern NSW and Queensland, you need to grow a variety called Rabbiteye
The Rabbiteye is a low chill, late season variety that’s best at coping with warm and humid summers
Rabbiteyes can also cope with  dry conditions, making it right at home in Arid climates too.

And where does the name come from?
Supposedly during the ripening stage when the blueberry is pink, if you look closely you will notice the calyx appears to be little rabbit eyes looking right back at you.
IMPORTANT TIP: Blueberries fruit on the tips of the previous season’s growth.
 Some say let the shrub establish first.
That means, you must pluck off the flowers in spring so it doesn't set fruit, but the 3rd year you can let it flower.
If you let them establish for the first two years apparently the plants will last a lifetime!
But me, I ate them off the bush the first year, and ten years later the bush is still fruiting!

Pruning Specifics for the Really Keen! 
Once your Blueberry shrub is established new stems will come up and fruit for up to four years initially from the tip to down the whole branch.
From the third winter onwards, cut back old, dry stems every winter.
Cut them back either down to ground level or to a vigorous new shoot near the ground.
They first produce sideshoots from the base of the plant soon after flowering in spring. Then in early to midsummer, vigorous growths push up from the base of the bush.
Hard pruning in winter will encourage this renewed growth and result in larger, earlier fruit.
SHARPEBLUE
Generally a tough bush that needs constant picking of the ripe fruit or they’ll get too soft.
MISTY another tough evergreen variety.. It is an early fruiting variety, with light blue, medium to large fruit of excellent flavour.
GULF COAST: The bush is vigorous and upright, with moderate toughness. The fruit is medium to large blue with a medium colour. The fruit has a problem in that it holds the stems on many of the berries at harvest. The flavour of the fruit is medium.
There are others, and it’s likely you’ll have to get them mail order.
Try www.daleysfruit.com.au
Blueberries are pest free apart from caterpillars and birds, and if you prune the shrub so its open in the middle it reduces fungal disease.
Selecting and Storing Blueberries –
Pick or buy blueberries that are firm and have an even colour with a whitish bloom. Blueberries are another fruit that don’t ripen off the bush.
Blueberries should be eaten within a few days of picking or buying.
I tend to eat mine straight of the bush.
Ripe berries should be stored in a covered container in the fridge where they will keep for about 1 week.
Don't wash blueberries until right before eating as you will remove the bloom that protects the berries' skin from going bad.
If kept a room temperature for more than an hour, the berries will start to spoil.
Blueberries can be frozen.
Why are they good for you?
Blueberries have large amounts of anthocyanins,- antioxidant compounds that give blue, purple and red colour to fruit and vegetables.
Not sure what all the fuss is about? Antioxidants are very well known for their health benefits, especially their ability to reduce damage to our cells and Blueberries contain more antioxidants than most other fruits or vegetables
Blueberries are also a good source of Vitamin C, Vitamin E, manganese and both soluble and insoluble fibre like pectin.
A cup of blueberries will give you 30% of your RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of Vitamin C.
Plus they’re low in calories.
If you think they’re too fussy to grow,  for the same price as a cup of coffee, treat yourself to a punnet of Blueberries, eat them straight out of the punnet (wash them of course) and enjoy the health benefits. Otherwise,

Happy BLUEBERRY growing everyone!

Design Elements

Maintaining Your Potted Garden with Louise McDaid Landscape Designer

How many pot plants have you got in your garden, patio or balcony?
Plants in pots are great when you don’t have the right conditions to grow plants that you really like or hanker after.
Sometimes you don’t have enough sun or shade in the garden, so they can be moved depending on the time of year.
Sometimes, we love our plants too much, and have just run out of room.
When’s the best time to repot them? What if they’re too heavy to life for re-potting, what do you do then?
Let’s find out….


Whether it’s cold and wet outside, blowing a gale or just too hot, a few beautiful plants and plant pots will mean it’s always summer, somewhere in your home.
Plants can create a feeling of peace, and caring for them helps us slow down and appreciatee the here and now.
If you have any questions about this week’s Design Elements, send it our email address, or just post it
.

Plant of the Week

Would you like a very showy climber, hanging vine or ground cover with masses of coral pink, orange to deep red flowers that start in Spring?
The flowers are spectacular because they fan out in a dense cluster against thick soft green foliage. Sound nice?
Kennedia coccinea or Coral Creeper

Kennedia... After John Kennedy, an English nurseryman

A very showy climber, hanging vine or ground cover with masses of coral pink, orange to deep red flowers in Spring on erect stems from which they fan out in a dense cluster against thick soft green foliage.
Coral Creeper is a vigorous, attractive and useful plant in a garden, courtyard or patio

Endemic to Western Australia this twining plant may be prostrate or can climb to over 3 m.

Flowers mainly in spring with clusters for up to 20 flowers in dense compact heads being yellow centred coral red with magenta edging on the lower petals. Flowering occurs in spring.

The flowers are of typical "pea" shape consisting of 4 petals; the "standard", the "keel" and two "wings".

The flowers are followed by flat seed pods 50 mm long.

Prefers a light to medium soil in an open shaded position, drought and frost resistant.
Drought tolerant but remember this isn't a cactus like plant, so on extended hot days don't forget to water it.
Having killed one or two young plants I'm pleased to report that what looked like a dead vine in a pot, after soaking, a couple of green shoots sprouted from dried lifeless twigs.

As Sabina says ( co-presenter for this segment) a bit of a Lazarus plant.
 

When established and in the right conditions Kennedia will grow vigorously in your garden

courtyard or patio.

If supported, it can climb to 2m on a slender, twining, rust-coloured stems and branches.
Also useful as a dense ground cover.

Fabulous in large, deep hanging baskets or elevated pots or tubs.

An excellent low-water-use ground-cover or container feature, the Coral Creeper produces bright pink pea-like flowers on horizontal stems.

 

Easy to grow and trouble-free, they are well-suited to planting in front of taller growing feature plants such as Kangaroo Paws.

Summary:

 When to plant: All year round except in hottest or coldest weather.

How to grow: In warm areas at any time. In frost prone areas when danger of frost is over.

Flowering: Flowers from Spring to early Summer.

Soak in just boiled water overnight allowing water to cool.

For those wanting to grow Kennedia from seeds, they need to be pre-treated.

I recommend the use of Wildflower Seed Starter Granules for improved germination rates and speed. These granules provide chemicals normally found in bushfire smoke that stimulate native seed germination.

Leave overnight then drain and sow. Fill small pots with moist sandy soil and compress. Sow 2-3 seeds 6mm (¼in) deep into each pot. Keep moist. Cover with clear polythene – remove as soon as seeds start to germinate. Place in a warm shady position to germinate.

If no seed starter granules are available you can put seeds in a cup of hot water. and leave until cooled. 
Otherwise plants can be propagated by scarified seed or cuttings of semi-mature growth.

NOTE: This isn’t the weed called Coral Creeper in Qld which is Barleria repens (Coral Creeper) The weed species has shiny, dark green leaves, showy tubular pink-purple flowers that have five spreading lobes that mostly appear in late summer and autumn, and has sprawly growth habit. Very different.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geraniums or is it Pelargoniums?

Sydney Garden Talk 12noon-1pm Saturdays on 2RRR 88.5 FM

Feature interview was Gary Dale, Geranium breeder from Geranium cottage. Geraniums originate from dry regions of South Africa, so don't kill with overwatering. Regular tip rpuning helps flowering. Cut them back by half every year.

Plant giveaway: Ivy Geranium "Tom Girl."won by Susan from Newtown.

NEW: Design Elements with Lesley Simpson, garden designer.
Plant suggestions for north facing balconies.
 

Fantastic fruit: Blueberries.Selecting and Storing Blueberries – Pick or buy blueberries that are firm and have an even colour with a whitish bloom. Ripe berries should be stored in a covered container in the fridge where they will keep for about 1 week. Realistically blueberries should be eaten within a few days of picking or buying. I tend to eat mine straight of the bush..

Don't wash blueberries until right before eating as you will remove the bloom that protects the berries' skin from going bad.. If kept a room temperature for more than an hour, the berries will start to spoil.
Blueberry Nutrition - Blueberries are also a good source of Vitamin C, Vitamin E, manganese and both soluble and insoluble fibre like pectin. A cup of blueberries will give you 30% of your RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of Vitamin C.
If you think they’re too fussy to grow, . for the same price as a cup of coffee, treat yourself to a punnet of Blueberries, eat them straight out of the punnet (wash them of course) and enjoy the health benefits.
Mail Order: http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/
Choose Rabbit Eye and other chilling varieties like Sharp Blue and Misty for Sydney districts near Ryde and Hunters Hill.

Plant of the week: Star Jasmine. Botanical name:Trachelospermum jasminoides.

Family: Apocynaceae

Common name: climbing star-jasmine

Originates in woodlands of Japan and India.

Twining semiwoody vine to several meters long. Leaves opposite, deciduous, 2.5-7.5 cm (1-3 in) long and 1.3-5 cm (0.5-2 in) wide, lanceolate to broadly elliptic or oval, apex usually acuminate, base cuneate to rounded, margin entire, dark green and glabrous above, paler and pubescent below, petioles 3-8 mm (0.1-0.3 in) long. Flowers in cymes clustered in leaf axils, peduncles 1.3-2 cm (0.5-0.75 in) long, corolla 5-lobed, funnelform, greenish-yellow, striped with orange inside. Fruits paired follicles 12-22 cm (5-7 in) long and about 4 mm (1/6 in) in diameter.

For climbing on tall walls, Star Jasmine needs tying and training. With age, the vines do become thicker, and so the structure on which it is trained, ought to be able to take some weight. On short walls though, it does not require support, as it cascades over the top of the wall. It is also used sometimes as a medium scale ground cover. Left to its own devises, it tends to mound somewhat, and in time can become bare and bald, other than at the growing tips. It is therefore worth pruning and clipping on a regular basis in order to induce lateral growth and ultimately, a denser, more compact appearance.

QnA from Granny Smith festival was about Catnip.

Picture is my cat Mozart eating some Cantnip leaves growing in the garden steps.

Nepata cataria pictured in garden.. Grows to about 50cm x 50cm

Catnip or Nepeta cataria, can be grown from seed or you can buy it from the herb section of good nurseries. They are tough plants, coping with sun or semi-shade. Just give them a good clip to keep them tidy every so often. They really don’t need much fertiliser, if any and only an occasional sprinkle of water. Give you feline friends a bit of treat. A lot of cats like to lie on the bush or even eat a few leaves. Eating the leaves makes them bit drowsy, but for some cats you wouldn’t notice the difference. Catmint doesn’t have as many oils in the leaves, but makes a

nice low growing mound underneath plants like roses. There’s also Cat Thyme or Teucrium marum, harder to get, but much more potent. I used to have a cat that loved nipping this plant.

What's On:
Sunday 29 November. There’s a new community garden starting up in Lane Cove. It’s behind Chatswood South Uniting Church, cnr of Mowbray Road and the Pacific Highway. They hold open days for interested people on the last Sunday of every month between 2 and 5 pm. If you live near this area and are interested in being part of a community garden, visit www.permapatch.org.au or ring Jono on 0401 890256 or Mandy on 9436 2891. They are actively looking for new members to get involved.

Saturday 5 December, 9am – noon. Seed Collection Field Trip From delicate grass seeds to hard woody fruits, our local native plants form and hold seeds in a range of fascinating ways. Come and learn the fine art of collecting seed and practice your skills on a local bushwalk. Wear study shoes, bring a hat and water. Spaces limited.  Location: Lane Cove Council. Contact: Michelle Greenfield PHONE: 9911 3579

Sunday 6 December. Brush Farm House Open day. Tours at 11am and 1.30pm. Cost: Free. Bookings essential. Phone 9952 8222

Sunday 6 December. Macquarie Community Garden. Gardeners meet at 4pm on the first Sunday of every month at corner of Talavera and Culloden Roads in North Ryde, adjacent to the University sports fields. If you’re interested in getting involved, come along and talk to the other gardeners. You don’t have to be a student at the Uni to be part of the community gardening club.