Super Ferns and Super Fruit

THE GOOD EARTH

Preserving Summer Fruits
Do you have fruit trees in your garden?


Preserved oranges. Photo: Margaret Mossakowska

Citrus are fruits so you probably answered yes to that.
So what do you do when the fruits all come ripe at once?
Jams and preserves and possibly pickles are the first things that come to mind for most people, but there are a lot more methods of preserving fruit to use later on in the year. Let’s find out about this preserving business.
I'm talking with Permaculture North President, Margaret Mossakowska.


I hope that’s inspired you to try several different methods of preserving your fruit.

Electric dryers are a very efficient way of drying fruit because they're quite enclosed and don't use nearly as much gas or electricity as your conventional oven.

You can dry anything, any produce literally, even carrots.

Drying as a good alternative to other methods of preserving except of course if you have a root cellar or under-house garage where the temperature is constant and cool.
In here you can store your veggies in sand.
We didn’t even cover making pasta sauce with all those tomatoes that you’re growing right now.


If you have any questions about preserving summer produce or have some information you’d like to share, why not email realworldgardener@gmail.com
 or write in to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.

 VEGETABLE HEROES

This weeks Vegetable Hero is ZUCCHINI or Cucurbita pepo.

Summer squashes, and winter squashes, are native to the Americas and belong to the family of curcurbita. 

Did you know that Archaeologists have traced their origins to Mexico, dating back from 7,000 to 5,500 BCE, when they were an important part of the diet which was mainly made up of maize, beans, and squashes. 

Ever wondered what a Courgette is?While Zucchini is the more common name in Australia, Italy,North America, and Germany, courgette is the name mostly used in the United Kingdom, Greece, New Zealand, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and South Africa.

So What Do They Look Like?

 Zucchini have a similar shape to cucumbers and can be dark or light green.

You can also get golden zucchinis that are a deep yellow or orange colour

 

The best times to sow Zucchinis for those who haven’t this season are;
In temperate areas, from September through to January, in Cool temperate areas, you have been October and January, in arid areas, yes that’s you in Alice Springs and Broken Hill, you have a bigger window, September through to March, sub-tropical zones, August to February, but for tropical areas, now’s too hot.
Your Zucchini planting time is April to August.
Very different from the rest of Australia!
Having said all that Zucchinis are great for the beginner gardener because they are quick and easy to grow.

Prepare your soil with the usual digging in some compost or cow manure.
Zucchinis are light feeders so won’t need much more than an occasional feed with some liquid fish fertiliser.
Sow your zucchini seed where you want them to grow.
TIP: Planting your seeds deeply will make your plant more drought tolerant.
Just like cucumbers, zucchinis take up a lot of space so maybe try growing them vertically.t
that way there’s also improved air circulation so the fungal problems are a lot less.
If you have heavy soil or only have a balcony garden, you could grow them in pot which would need to be about 30cm diameter.
TIP:The important tip with growing them vertically is have lots of soft ties, like old panty hose cut into strips, so you can tie up the stems as they grow.
That way they won’t flop all over the place and probably break their stems.
If you don't get many bees or pollinating insects around your way you might need to pollinate the zucchini flowers yourself

ZUCCHINI LEAVES
Fully grown zucchini leaves tend to look a motley silvery grey colour which looks like the fungal problem powdery mildew.
Unless you’re watering the leaves this shouldn’t happen.
Powdery mildew grows on wet zucchini leaves or on any veggie leaves that are wet.
By watering where it’s needed most, the roots, not the leaves you shouldn’t get this problem.
In summer you'll need to keep your zucchini's water levels high, because they dehydrate very quickly on hot days so mulch them heavily (but remember to keep the mulch away from the main stem).
Zucchini problems
There are two main problems that gardeners have when growing zucchinis.
when the fruits are 5cm long, they rot and drop off. This is a pollination problem.
You might have to pollinate them yourself.
Next year grow a whole lot of flowers nearby like Borage, nasturtiums or marigolds.
The second problem sounds like blossom end rot where fruit almost ready to harvest starts rotting from the top.
If this happens you need to add lime to the soil at the time of planting.

Too late this season. Otherwise it can be caused by irregular watering, that means, too much drying out in between waterings.
If your plants have many days of no water and then a glut of it, blossom end rot can develop, ruining the fruit.
By picking your Zucchinis regularly, usually when they’re about 20cm long; this helps the plant keep on cropping. If you let Zucchinis grow too big-like a metre long, they’re not much good as a vegetable to eat because they become too tough and contain mostly seeds.
The flowers are also edible - they can be used in salads, as garnish, and even fried.
Why is it good for us?

Zucchini and other Squashes

The zucchini vegetable is low in calories, about 15 calories per 100 g fresh zucchini.
1/2 cup of zucchini also contains 19% of the recommended daily amount of Manganese
As well as Zucchini containing large amounts of folate and potassium, the rind contains the nutrient beta-carotene, so to get the most out of your zucchini, you should also eat the rind.
If you want some unusual varieties, go online to buy the seeds of Goldfinger Hybrid, or Costata Romanesco-speckled with light coloured ribbing.
Storing Zucchini-Store zucchini fresh and unwashed in a cold dry place, like the fridge, for about 3-5 days.
After that they start to get soft and wrinkly, and nobody wants that. Makes you wonder about the zucchinis that you buy in supermarkets. How has their shelf life been increased? Better to grow you own.
AND THAT WAS YOUR VEGETABLE HERO FOR TODAY

DESIGN ELEMENTS

Green as the Main Colour Scheme

Foliage colour leads this garden design.

Would you believe that not everyone likes flowers in the garden.
But colour just doesn’t colour from flowers, it also can come from, foliage, bark, pottery, furniture, fences and even artwork, but in the end it is all about colour.
So what kind of a garden is it with no flowers?
Let’s find out; I'm talking with English Garden Designer Lesley Simpson.


The easiest colour scheme to use is the one that uses only one colour and green as the main colour is very calming and refreshing.
Green doesn't need the addition of anything else to make it work and of course we're really talking about using different types of foliage colour in the garden scheme.
There's a huge range of foliage colour to choose from; the blue-greys of Eucalypts, silver foliage of Mediterranean plants to lime greens and variegated foliage.
When you get down to it, our gardens are really about colour and are meant to enhance our lives.
Perhaps also to make our homes look better from the street.

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Staghorn Fern Platycerium superbum

Staghorn Fern

They make a nice plant for your balcony, verandah or just somewhere perhaps on a tree in the garden and are very easy to care for.
They can be grown year-round outdoors in areas protected from frost and freezing. In their natural habitat they can be seen growing high up in the crowns of trees.
Let’s find out some more by listening to the podcast.

Staghorn ferns are native to tropical central Africa including Madagascar, southeast Asia, the Pacific islands and Australia.
One species is native to the Andes mountains of Peru.
Platycerium superbum has greyish green fronds that lay flat over the root system which is attached to a support.
This fern has two distinct leaf forms.
Flattened sterile shield fronds protect the anchoring root structure and take up water and nutrients. This ‘nest’ frond is designed to collect falling leaves and insects and funnels it to the feeding roots.
This is the place gardeners usually throw in banana peels for the same reason.

Platycerium superbum

These give the fern a valuable source of potassium and calcium, nutrients required for the production of their large fronds.
It's from this frond that the fern attaches itself to the host tree.

All Things Green and Beautiful

The Good Earth

Growing produce in shady gardens.
Are you finding that as your trees and shrubs have matured, the garden has become more shady?
There’s a few things that you can do, one is to renovate your garden, either by calling in professionals to remove or judiciously prune some branches to let in more light, and the other to grow shade tolerant plants underneath.
But what about veggies? Don’t they need full sun? Let’s find out about growing produce in shady gardens.


You don’t have to convert to permaculture to grow vegetables in the shade.
Anyone can do that. It’s just knowing what can tolerate shade and what doesn’t.
Borrowing a few principles from permaculture makes for a good gardener because you’re embracing new ways to do things.
If you're interested in permaculture workshops to find out more visit www.permaculturenorth.org.au
If you have any questions or tips about what grows in shady produce gardens drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com or by post to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675

Vegetable Heroes

  ZUCCHINI or Cucurbita pepo.
Summer squashes, and winter squashes, are native to the Americas and belong to the cucurbitaceae family of melons and squashes.
In the culinary world, squash, including zucchini, are used as vegetables but did you know that botanically speaking, zucchini is the immature fruit, or swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower.
Archaeologists have traced their origins to Mexico, dating back from 7,000 to 5,500BCE, when they were included in most meals along with maize, beans, and squashes.
Zucchini is the more common name in Italy and probably where the name came from.
Zucca means squash in Italian and Zucchini, is little squash.

We call this veggie Zucchini as they do in North America, and Germany, while courgette is the name you’ll hear in the United Kingdom, Greece, New Zealand, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and South Africa.
Zucchinis are sort of a shrub that is a bushy, non-vining plants with large, dark green, mature leaves that have silver-gray splotches and streaks.
The plants are monoecious, meaning they grow male and female flowers on the same plant. Zucchini grows outwards and spreads but doesn’t send out long runners like pumpkins.
Zucchini fruits can be dark or light green, grey green and a related hybrid, the golden zucchini is a deep yellow or orange colour. They are usually long, sort of cigar like and you eat the whole thing, skin and all.
When to Grow
 In temperate areas, plant out zucchinis from September through to January.
Cool temperate areas, you have been October and January
Arid areas, yes that’s you in Alice Springs and Broken Hill, you have a bigger window, September through to March'
Sub-tropical, August to February, but for tropical areas, now’s too hot. Your Zucchini planting time is April to August. Very different from the rest of Australia!

.Having said all that Zucchinis are great for the beginner gardener because they are quick and easy to grow.

Come to think of it, the last few vegetable heroes are perfect for beginner gardeners-beans, sunflowers and Yacon.

How to Grow

To grow your Zucchinis, prepare your soil with the usual digging in some compost or cow manure. Zucchinis are light feeders so won’t need much more than an occasional feed with some liquid fish fertiliser.
Sow your zucchini seed where you want them to grow.
Mound up the soil and then make a indent up to your first knuckle, or even 7 cm deep, and drop in 3 seeds.
When they shoot up pick the strongest one and discard the others. It will get too crowed otherwise.
TIP: Planting your seeds deeply will make your plant more drought tolerant.
Zucchinis can take up a lot of space so maybe try growing them vertically. That way there’s also improved air circulation so the fungal problems are a lot less.
You could grow them in pot that way. The pot would have to be about 30cm diameter.
The important thing with growing them vertically is have lots of soft ties, like old panty hose cut into strips, so you can tie up the stems as they grow. That way they won’t flop all over the place and probably break their stems.
How to Pollinate Zucchini Flowers.
If you don't get many bees or pollinating insects around your way you might need to pollinate the zucchini flowers yourself.
Get a cotton wool bud and take some pollen from the male flower. Male flowers tend to be on the end of a long narrow stalk.
Female flowers are a lot closer to the main stem and have a swelling behind the petals. Just like female flowers on pumpkins.
Look inside the female flower. There should be a golden formation. Dab the male pollen all over this female part. Hopefully in a few weeks that swelling behind the female flower will grow into a zucchini.
Fully grown zucchini leaves tend to look a motley silvery grey colour which looks like the fungal problem powdery mildew.
Don’t worry, this is the normal Zucchini leaf and unless you’re watering the leaves this shouldn’t happen.
Powdery mildew looks quite different and usually covers the whole leaf. This mildew grows on wet zucchini leaves or on any veggie leaves that are wet.
TIP:WATER THE ROOTS NOT THE LEAVES.
In summer you'll need to keep your zucchini's water levels high. They dehydrate very quickly on hot days so mulch them heavily (but remember to keep the mulch away from the main stem).
There are two main problems that gardeners have when growing zucchinis.
When the fruits are 5cm long, they rot and drop off. This is a pollination problem. You might have to pollinate them yourself. Next year grow a whole lot of flowers nearby like Borage, nasturtiums or marigolds.
The second problem sounds like blossom end rot where fruit almost ready to harvest starts rotting from the top.
If this happens you need to add lime to the soil at the time of planting.
Too late this season. Otherwise it can be caused by irregular watering, that means, too much drying out in between waterings.
If your plants have many days of no water and then a glut of it, blossom end rot can develop, ruining the fruit.
Zucchinis need to be regularly harvested, usually when they’re about 20cm long.
Picking them help the plant to keep on cropping. If you let Zucchinis grow too big-like a metre long, they’re not much good as a vegetable to eat because they become too tough and contain mostly seeds.
The flowers are also edible - they can be used in salads, as garnish, and even fried.
Why is it good  for you?
The zucchini vegetable is low in calories, about 15 calories per 100 g fresh zucchini.
1/2 cup of zucchini also contains 19% of the recommended daily amount of Manganese
As well as Zucchini containing large amounts of folate and potassium, the rind contains the nutrient beta-carotene, so to get the most out of your zucchini, you should also eat the rind.\
If you want some unusual varieties, go online to buy the seeds on Goldfinger Hybrid, (16cm) Costata Romanesco-speckled with light coloured ribbing.
www.newgipps.com.au-
Ring for the website or if you don’t have a computer or like shopping on line there’s also a free call number. 1800 887 732 Both of these I’ll put it on my WEBSITE
Storing Zucchini-Store zucchini fresh and unwashed in a cold dry place, like the fridge, for about 3-5 days.
After that they start to get soft and wrinkly, and nobody wants that. Makes you wonder about the zucchinis that you buy in supermarkets. How has their shelf life been increased? Better to grow you own.

Design Elements

with landscape designer Christopher Owen
Today a new four part series starts on garden design using Ornamental grasses. The first segment is an introduction to the topic and the difference between strappy leaved plants and ornamental grasses is explained. Following on from that will be how to start a garden design with ornamental grasses, then different styles of gardens that ornamental grasses can act as a complement, and lastly, a look at some famous designers and their designs, that use these type of grasses.

Believe me, there’s a lot in them thar grasses.
Let’s start….
PLAY: Grasses Pt 1 _11^th December 2013
Christopher Owen is very passionate about using grasses in his designs because it’s not just the appearance that affects the overall design of a garden, but the texture and sounds that you can also create.
Something to think about.

 

 

Plant of the Week

For millions of years these types of Magnolias grew in gorges and valleys, outlasting many ice ages and the extinction of families of plants and animals.
The tree has evolved with what is now one of the most magnificent flowers you’ll ever see and a scent that is delicate yet powerful. So what is this plant”  , let’s find out…

The fragrance of the flowers outlast the cut flowers and can fill a room with delicious lemony scent.
Interestingly the flowers of the Magnolia have no nectar but only pollen. Bees aren’t the primary pollinators but they certainly go there for a feast of pollen as well as the major pollinators-all kinds of beetles..

Evergreen Magnolias
Magnolia Grandiflora is the 'Evergreen Magnolia'
There are many forms of this Magnolia now and they vary in size from large specimen trees such as Bull Bay Magnolia, Magnolia Exmouth,  to types suited to screening such as the smaller growing Magnolia Teddy Bear.
Magnolia Grandiflora will grow up to 20m or more, an absolutely fantastic specimen tree in park or a very large garden.

 We need to point out that the Michelia group of evergreens, like Michelia figo, the port wine magnolia and Michelia champaca , Himalayan cedar, in 2006 because of a cladistic analysis of the genus Michelia, they were moved to the genus Magnolia, with the name now being Magnolia figo and Magnolia champaca.

 

There’s too much to say about this group so we’re sticking to the large leaved original Magnolias and leave the others for another segment.

Magnolia grandiflora is native to southern USA where it grows is on edges of swamps and lakes on fairly rich soil.
No surprise that this magnolia's common name is Southern Magnolia or Bull Bay Magnolia.

The leaves are mainly oval shaped around,  and quite large, stiff and leathery to about 12–20 cm long and 6–12 cm wide, with smooth margins.

The underneath of the leaves is brown and felty, sometimes described as scurfy with yellow-brown pubescence.

The dinner plate sized, lemon-scented flowers are white, up to 30 cm across and, with 6–12 tepals with a waxy texture, growing from the tips of twigs on mature trees in December to January.

 Flowering is followed by the red seeds

 New cultivars including Magnolia Kay Parris and Magnolia Teddy Bear are now on the market and these have slightly different foliage and flower forms.

Magnolia 'Little gem' was the first of the so called 'dwarf' magnolias, however it will still grow to 10m.

Magnolia 'Little Gem' can be pruned back to a certain extent but sometimes the pruned branch dies back or only one shoot will result.

Some say that this makes it suited for maintaining as a tall hedge, but I disagree.

I think the large leaves on Magnolia Little Gem, make it look ungainly, untidy, and  awkward looking as a hedge.

But it might make a great as feature tree instead.

The cultivar 'Kay Parris' Magnolia has a very long flowering season, tolerates cold a little more than most magnolias.

The leaves are a nice green, extremely glossy, and a deep orange on the underside.

Marginally smaller growing than 'Little Gem' perhaps to only 6-9m, again it makes a nice specimen tree as it has good structure and holds its shape well,

Again, I don’t like big leaved plants as a hedge, but some say that 'Kay Parris' Magnolia could also be a screening plant and it's faster growing tree than 'Little Gem'

 Magnolia 'Teddy Bear' is smaller growing than even 'Kay Paris'.

Teddy Bear Magnolia is different to others in that the dark green leaves are rounded and cup shaped and quite densely held.
Will still grow to 6m, however like both 'Little Gem' and 'Kay Paris' if pruned in winter it can easily be kept more compact.
Large white flowers to almost 20cm.
Evergreen Magnolias are fairly versatile, in general,  evergreen magnolias prefer full sun to part shade.

Humus rich soil. and protect from hot drying winds

In pots in temperate and humid climates, the leaves can develop cotton cushiony scale.

Tropical Gardening Starts Here!

REAL WORLD GARDENER Wed. 5pm 2RRR 88.5fm Sydney and Across Australia on the Community Radio Network. www.realworldgardener.com
The complete CRN edition of RWG is available on http://www.cpod.org.au/ , just click on 2RRR to find this week’s edition.
STREAMING LIVE ON 2rrr at http://www.2rrr.org.au Wed 5pm

Design Elements

with Louise McDaid, landscape designer.
What do you think of when the word Tropical garden is said? Saying palms, coloured cocktail drinks with umbrellas in them, lying in a hammock swaying gently in the breeze. Dipping you toes into a pool.
Perhaps you did all these things on your last holiday to a tropical isle, but wait, you can have it at home as well. Maybe not all of it, but at least some of the features.
Over the next five weeks, Design Elements will be talking about Tropical Gardens to suit any climate in Australia. Today, you’re going tropical around the pool.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

The whole garden doesn’t have to be tropical. If you live in a cooler  or arid area, you might have a tropical theme within your garden style. Somewhere there is a microclimate that suits those plants that were mentioned. You get the idea.

Vegetable Heroes:

• ZUCCHINI or Cucurbita pepo.
• Zucchini can be dark or light green, and generally have a similar shape to a ridged cucumber. A related hybrid, the golden zucchini is a deep yellow or orange colour. They are usually long, sort of cigar like, dark green, grey-green and even yellow.
• Where to start. In temperate areas, plant out zucchinis from Septemebr through to January, in Cool temperate areas, you have been October and January, in arid areas, yes that’s you in Alice Springs and Broken Hill, you have a bigger winder, September through to March, sub-tropical, August to February, but for tropical areas, now’s too hot. Your Zucchini planting time is April to August. Very different from the rest of Australia!
• .Having said all that Zucchinis are great for the beginner gardener because they are quick and easy to grow.
• Prepare your soil with the usual digging in some compost or cow manure. Zucchinis are light feeders so won’t need much more than an occasional feed with some liquid fish fertiliser.
• Sow your zucchini seed where you want them to grow. Mound up the soil  about 30cm long by about  and then make a indent up to your first knuckle, or even 7 cm deep, and drop in 3 seeds. When they shoot up pick the strongest one and discard the others. It will get too crowed otherwise.
• TIP:Planting your seeds deeply will make your plant more drought tolerant.
• Now they take up a lot of space so maybe try growing them vertically. That way there’s also improved air circulation so the fungal problems are a lot less.
• You could grow them in pot that way. The pot would have to be about 30cm diameter.
• The important thing with growing them vertically is to have lots of soft ties, like old panty hose or old T shirt cut into strips, so you can tie up the stems as they grow.
• That way they won’t flop all over the place and probably break their stems.
• If you don't get many bees or pollinating insects around your way you might need to pollinate the zucchini flowers yourself.
• Get a cotton wool bud and take some pollen from the male flower.
• Male flowers tend to be on the end of a long narrow stalk.
• Female flowers are a lot closer to the main stem and have a swelling behind the petals. Just like female flowers on pumpkins. Look inside the female flower. There should be a golden formation. Dab the male pollen all over this female part. Hopefully in a few weeks that swelling behind the female flower will grow into a zucchini.
• Fully grown zucchini leaves tend to look a motley silvery grey colour which looks like the fungal problem powdery mildew. Unless you’re watering the leaves this shouldn’t happen.
• Powdery mildew grows on wet zucchini leaves or on any veggie leaves that are wet.
• Remember to water where it’s needed most, the roots, not the leaves. In summer you'll need to keep your zucchini's water levels high.
• They dehydrate very quickly on hot days so mulch them heavily (but remember to keep the mulch away from the main stem).
• There are two main problems that gardeners have when growing zucchinis.
• When the fruits are 5cm long, they rot and drop off. This is a pollination problem. You might have to pollinate them yourself. Next year grow a whole lot of flowers nearby like Borage, nasturtiums or marigolds.
• The second problem sounds like blossom end rot where fruit almost ready to harvest starts rotting from the top.
• If this happens you need to add lime to the soil at the time of planting. Too late this season. Otherwise it can be caused by irregular watering, that means, too much drying out in between waterings.
• If your plants have many days of no water and then a glut of it, blossom end rot can develop, ruining the fruit.
• Ian asks, why does my pumpkin vine have only male flowers?
• Almost all pumpkins and squashes have all male flowers flowering first, followed by females, but only once the plant is large enough to sustain a fruit.
• It's perfectly normal for the males to arrive first in big numbers. A week or so goes by without any female flowers showing up, and you’re 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 female flowers appear, there will only be a few at a time.
• Male flowers greatly out-number the female flowers.
• That means Ian, you might get female flowers in a week or two.
• Zucchinis need to be regularly harvested, usually when they’re about 20cm long. Picking them help the plant to keep on cropping. If you let Zucchinis grow too big-like a metre long, they’re not much good as a vegetable to eat because they become too tough and contain mostly seeds.
• The flowers are also edible - they can be used in salads, as garnish, and even fried.
• If you want some unusual varieties, go online to buy the seeds on Goldfinger Hybrid, (16cm) Costata Romanesco-speckled with light coloured ribbing.
  -            www.newgipps.com.au-

Plant of the Week


Photo supplied by Mansfields Propagation Nusery http://www.mansfields.net.au

with Sabina Fielding-Smith
Some of us forget about perennial plants for our garden, but they’re the ones the make up the backbone of the garden to which we can add bulbs or even short fleeting flowering annuals.
How about a mounding drought tolerant perennial plant with heaps of white flowers to set off you garden”
What is Iberis? Many listeners mightn’t know this plant so we had better describe what it is and where it fits into the garden.Perhaps cottage gardeners would know the name evergreen or perennial Candytuft,?
Iberis is so named because many members of the genus come from the Iberian Peninsula. 'sempervirens' means "always green", referring to the evergreen foliage. Iberian Peninsula is the peninsula in southwestern Europe, occupied by Spain and Portugal. Its name derives from its ancient inhabitants whom the Greeks called Iberians.
Iberis is in the Brassicaceae family-you would now Broccoli, Cabbage Cauliflowers.
You could also buy the seeds from Yates at one point. Unfortunately they’ve discontinued that line.
Evergreen Candytuft is a spring  white flowering favourite in Europe at least.
Where it gets used in gardens  cascading over rocks and walls, or used as a groundcover.
The glossy, deep green narrow leaves make a sort of  billowing mound, with loads of good-sized white flowers for several weeks.  Usually flowering from spring to early summer.
Growth is small to 25cm high and 90 cm wide.
This variety of Iberis you prune lightly right after flowering, but otherwise leave plants alone in autumn and early spring.
Iberis sempervirens grows in full sun or part shade.
It takes sandy, loam or clay soils. Prefers a well-drained site, so avoid heavy clay soils that stay wet in winter. Drought tolerant, once established. Not easily divided.
This variety is great for rockeries, borders, containers, edging,  ground covers.
We should mention the other parent cross, Iberis gibraltarica (Gibraltar candytuft) is a flowering plant of the genus Iberis and the family Brassicaceae.
Iberis is a funny name to try and remember, but I’m sure you’re going to remember Turbo, so ask for it by name at your garden centre.
 

Powerful Owl Project

RWG spoke with ecologist Dr David Bain regarding the Powerful Owl  Project.
Birdlife Australia is running the project and want to locate all the breeding pairs of Powerful Owls in the greater Sydney region, from Newcastle in the north to Kiama in the south and west to the Blue Mountains.
Birdlife Australia will be identifying where their nest locations are and recording the outcome of each nesting attempt at the end of the breeding season. 
However theyare keen for ALL sightings of Powerful Owls throughout their distribution - so in Queensland and Victoria as well.

You can help us learn more about the Powerful Owls by:

Letting Birdlife Australia know if you see or hear  a Powerful Owl in your area.

Please fill in a survey here  www.birdsinbackyards.net/surveys/Powerful-Owl-Project

 or email David Bain and Rod Kavanagh at powerfulowl@birdlife.org.au   report your sighting; you can send in photos or recordings of their calls if you are unsure.

Tell Birdlife Australia where (address or GPS location) and when you saw or heard the bird and anything interesting you noticed about where it was or what it was doing.

2. If you are in Sydney – volunteer to be an Owl Observer. Birdlife Australia will be looking for volunteers in 2012, 2013, who are willing to keep an eye on a breeding pair near them and submit a simple weekly report to us to let us know what is happening at their nest site.

You do not need to monitor at night (although some dusk visits may be required) and teams of Owl Observers will be set up for each nest to share the work.

All Owl Observers will attend a short training workshop before monitoring their birds. If you would like to register as an Owl Observer please email David at powerfulowl@birdlife.org.au

 

 

RYDE HUNTER’S HILL FLORA AND FAUNA PRESERVATION SOCIETY

NEXT EVENT AT THE FIELD OF MARS RESERVE AND WILDLIFE REFUGE:Saturday 2.30pm, 17 November 2012

OWLING IN THE SYDNEY BASIN-what’s in the nest?

BirdLife Australia and Birds in Backyards have now completed their

2012 Powerful Owl survey project survey in the broader Sydney area. The project aimed to look at the distribution of Powerful Owls,their breeding success, site fidelity and ability to cope with

disturbance of the urban based population of the species. This information will ultimately inform conservation measures for this threatened species.

David Bain, the BirdLife Australia Project Officer has kindly offered to present some of the results of this project and provide an update on what has been learnt about the behavior and threats to Powerful

Owls in the broader Sydney area.

 For further information and registration please contact Cathy on

9817 4935 or email the Society on  rhhffps@gmail.com 

www.birdsinbackyards.net