Farm1 wrote:
"ant" wrote in message

Yep! Exactly. I'm looking for some pines now, actually, just to beef
up the windbreak (Lleylandii Cypress) a bit. They actually grow here.

Pines and gums grown together right form the start can do very well as
wind breaks. They sem to grow at about the same pace if started
together.

I suspect the pines act as "nursery" trees for the gums. Pines are rather
hard to find right now, maybe the tree police have dictated that we can't
grow them. I have a large number of Stone Pines doing rather well, they have
taken a long time to grow, and are still small, but they look awesome, and
one day I'll have Pine Nuts!


I've tried
some allegedly indigenous gums, they grow on alpine mountain tops
apparently, and are endangered (euc. Baeuerlenii). Well I know why
they're endangered, they're hopeless.

:-)) Yup! I prefer the permaculture approach to the purist
approach - whatever works in hard and hungry conditons.

Exactly. If they grow, they're in. If they don't, they can rack off! The
oaks do well here, ditto the Chinese Elms, so they're in. Maples, plane
trees, even silver birches, they've had their chance and they are not
pulling their weight.


A few are struggling on, meanwhile some argyle
apples (my least-favourite gum) are shooting up. And the mannifera
are OK too.

Have you tried E. viminalis (spelling???) and E. McArthuri (or should
that be Macarthuri)? Both of those SHOULD do well. Don't bother with
E. Nicholi (spell?) though.

I remember seeing that Viminalis was named as a local useful gum.
MacArthurii I germinatd a bunch of at the same time as the Mannifera, but
I'm seeing more of the Mannifera around the place, not so many MacArthurii.
They grow here, I guess, but don't love it.
I think I might have tried some Nicholii but haven't noticed them a few
years on, so I guess they quietly carked it too.
I really hate Argyle Apples, but these things are shooting up like you
wouldn't believe. The Canberra government nursery has a really sensible
range of trees and always have some cheapies down the back, and since trying
to grow trees here, I've got respect for whoever chooses their varieties and
categorises them (for position and conditions).

No radiatas though.

--
ant