Thread: Peach drooling
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Old 05-02-2008, 05:08 AM posted to aus.gardens
Trish Brown Trish Brown is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Nov 2007
Posts: 167
Default Peach drooling

0tterbot wrote:

snip

i also have a tree (not a fruit tree) that some ninny planted into a car
tyre. now the tyre won't come off & can't be cut either (steel belt).
sigh!!! the trunk is as big as the hole in the tyre. we are flummoxed!


Ergh!!! Hacksaw?

I *so* love your idea with the willows and that was my first thought.
However, fancy putting willows cheek-by-jowl with town water and sewage!
Brrrrrrr!!! Doesn't bear thinking about! I figured casuarinas would be the
nearest native alternative and I do love them too.


hm, are willows a problem in that context though? i thought they only give
people the shits if they're near a watercourse & bits can break off & go
downstream & root everywhere.(?) having said that, i personally think feral
willow is 4 million times better than nude eroded banks anyway!

but of course, the "native alternative" is going to sit better with
everyone.


As I understand it, willow roots will wrap round your pipes and squeeze
them. Or, they'll infiltrate them and clog them up. Dunno if that's an
old wives' tale, but the local people are very anti-willow! I know
you're not allowed to plant one in our council district.

I love willow too, but I think it deters other native flora and
absolutely takes over riverbanks to the extent that nothing else will
grow there. If willow out-competes your normal flora, then it's stuffing
up an awful lot of habitat for fauna as well.

I've been told the reason for a lot of the parrots we're seeing in towns
lately is the lack of native tucker (including casuarinas) to eat
farther inland. While it's awful in terms of The Drought, I can't say I
mind having the parrots to gawp at! In my childhood, you threw a party
if you saw a galah on its own. Now, we have flocks of galahs and SC
cockies and corellas, oh and even lorikeets of several varieties. AND,
I, myself, personally have seen a flock of Yellow-tailed Black cockies
flying over my very house!!! Never in a million years would I have
thought I'd see that!

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Trish {|:-} Newcastle, NSW, Australia