"len gardener" wrote in message
...
g'day pete,

yeh we still here, just about to give up on the alt.pc news group it
looked almost dead of late, not like those good ole days a few years
back.

the willy is a great bug eater, legend is that he is supposed to be
bad luck in your garden, ah but who cares them and their close cousins
the fly catcher (we have), and babbler, yellow rumped thornbills,
piplets etc.,. etc.,. the bugs have a hard time.

we have that snail the little cigar shaped one gets to around oh i
dunno 1/2" peky little ting if we don't keep on top of them they even
eat the yellow part of the skin on the lemonade fruit. no never been
in a butterfly house but i can well imagine what you mean, we're even
encouraging the owls to come back seems if a care to look outside
after dark there is usualy one flying around or sitting on one of our
poles, so things are looking realy rosy.

we've planted a lot of trees over the last 12 months 300+ so this
place should look a treat in a couple of years when they all reach a
visible height, we have managed to control the blady grass and now
ahve vwery little of it, a wide variety of pasture grasses exotics and
natives ranging from calf height to head height some almost to 2
meters. be good to win lotto ad get some calves on here for fattening
they would love it.

as me signature line says hey pete? "you gotta do what you gotta do"
hey, if you need to use a quick fix then that's it just that it is
done with all eyes open. our food orchids are doing well heaps of
manda's and lemonade fruits this year, the top tropical orchard has
lots of holes to fill losses due to the place being so dry and we
being too impatient. but the trees that are up there are having a
minimising efect on the frosts and we can actualy sit under the shade
of a young tree that we planted something that wasn't there before.

currently we are gathering different varieties of bunching and those
type onions and leeks so we can keep ourselves supplied in some sort
for the table at all times. i'm also cheif garlic grower for ted and
us.

ted's doing well he is starting to see some fruits for his efforts
vege garden wise this is the common scenerio when we take on degraded
land hey.

anyhow you take care i'm ready for a chat anytime all the time.

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the
environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/

Hiya Len
Don't give up on the old NG .... we'll stir some of them lurkers outa their
holes
Looks like you've been real busy with the tree planting .. I looked at the
list on your site. that's impressive mate ... did ya have to keep wiping the
sweat from Bev's brow while she planted em ? ... the things we do for them
wimmin eh? ... they just don't know how lucky they are, I even pass
Maureen's welding rods for her sometimes .... wears me out I tell ya.

I've been trying to get old Fergie ready for turning the soil a little, last
year we had a good combination of natural growth and a little barley we
threw around that we are eager to try to see if we can improve on the ground
cover and we are planting some old man salt bush around some low lying,
salty areas to try to lower the water table around those problem areas.

Fergie has had a total strip down, derust and paint job ...which started off
as a water pump replacement... which led to replacing some oil seals and
which in turn led to lots of parts being replaced cos I snapped and bent
things as I removed em because they were sooo rusty ... but she fired up on
the 3rd turn after being sat for 3 months in bits ..not bad for a 51 year
old ex boat tractor.. still some wiring and a bit more painting to do then
she'll be too sexy for her own good.

I remember Mollison saying that if you can turn the top few centimetres and
improve that then go a little deeper each year you can achieve a good deep
structure which will not only allow moisture in but retain it longer, the
area I am working has been fairly well sealed by previous rains to a point
where before last year it wouldn't allow any moisture in and after lightly
turning the top and throwing a bit of seed around we were amazed at the
amount of natural seed that must have been lying dormant waiting for a more
suitable structure and some rain of course.

We had a good storm the other night and got 40 points (10 mm) out of it...
don't larf that's a torrent for us ... so you can see we need to catch and
try to hold all the rain we get... cos we don't get that much.

I hand dug a biggish pond and thought I'd have a few yabbies ... the
Cormorants had other ideas .... I tried fish ... they liked them even more
......... so I have this big hole in the ground ... got any ideas ? (apart
from burying Cormorants.. I thought of that one) I also have a big mound of
earth at the side of the big hole ... looks like it would just fit in there
nicely.

Good to hear Ted is getting his place together as well .... He's on a good
wicket getting you to grow his garlic for him .... What is it about Onions
and garlic ? I love growing them ... Onions take a season and a half out of
the garden patch but I reckon the garden isn't complete without rows of
onions in it .... I just wish Onions liked me as much as I like them
:-(

take care mate

Pete