"terryc" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:54:03 +0000, Jonno wrote:


This part would worry me though if you built a garden bed under or near
it
The plants are strongly suspected of having allelopathic properties,
as evidenced by the near absence of understory once a mat of litter
develops around the plants.

Naah, no probs, the chief gardnere produced a crop of spuds under ours
this year. The major problem is you are watering the tree as well as the
garden.

Wouldn't you be doing that if you watered the garden and the roots are
located under the garden?

On Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:26:50 +0000, Jonno wrote:


Wouldn't you be doing that if you watered the garden and the roots are
located under the garden?

I said before, if you dump soil above casuarina roots, then they grow up
into it much more voraciously than gum trees do. Makes a bit of a mockery
of no-dig gardens as you have to dig a patch to give seedlings a starting
edge.

If the roots stayed below, then they would be just picking up the excess,
which is no problem.

The other problem is that the tree leaves a rain (less) shadow.

"Trish Brown" wrote in message
...

Why not gamble and find out.
My gut feling is that it wouldn't hurt them one little bit, as the roots
would compensate by growing into the garden beds.
Despite what is said, plants aren't suicidal, and can adept.

Thanks for the intelligent discussion! I'm going to take the gamble and
see what happens. I only wanted to grow a few annuals in the beds, just
for flowers indoors. Oh, and some dear old geraniums against the ugly
fence.

Kylie, I hear what you say about not liking casuarinas, but I do!

of course you do! i like them in their place, i should say. well, i don't
LIKE them (visually), but they belong there! i was just being an opinionated
cow :-)

The
sound the wind makes as it blows through their needles is so relaxing. The
sound made by cockies as they gobble up the nuts isn't quite so relaxing,
but I like it anyway. And if they drop their needles, oh well. Thing is,
my husband (*not* a gardener) fell in love with these trees and bought the
three on special. They're 'his' contribution to the garden, so - y'know -
I hope they survive. I'll let you know whichever way. All in the course of
furthering the collective knowledge, eh? ;-D

in light of everyone (at your house)'s strong preference for the casuarinas
over whatever might end up in the beds, you might as well go for it! i'm
pretty sure that the casuarinas won't suffer, so if you're not attached to
whatever you want to put in the beds, do it & see how it goes.

if you wanted veg or something in the beds, where they need care & it's an
emotional & water/nutritional investment, that would be different (&
probably not recommended).

mind you, if you follow our advice here & it all goes bung, you don't get to
whinge later, orright? g
kylie

"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote in message
. au...
"0tterbot" wrote in message

having said all that, i read recently (and i can't remember where!) that
longstem planting is surprisingly effective for more trees than you would
think,

It was certainly featured on one of the Gardening Australia programs.
amazing really as it goes against the grain after all those years of being
told to plant at the level the plant was in the pot.

yes, that's it. it was in a copy of g.a. magazine (which i don't buy, but my
mum sends me her used ones). i found it right after i posted (isn't that
always the way).

for the information of anyone else, someone called bill hicks was
experimenting with longstem planting of aust. natives, to repair & prevent
erosion (i.e. if the trees are deep, and making adventitious roots from the
buried part, they tend to grow well without any extra water or care, and
much less likely to be washed away by flooding, etc).

he found not all species will live like this, but many of them do. and also,
those which thrive on teh technique get really big, really fast, which is
what you want to repair erosion.
kylie

0tterbot wrote:

snip

mind you, if you follow our advice here & it all goes bung, you don't get to
whinge later, orright? g
kylie


ROTFLMAO!!! I reserve the right to my whinge anyway. A body always feels
better after a bijou whingette!

Just an update on me embryonic garden:

I've discovered ebay! Did you know you can buy seeds and cuttings and
even plants on ebay? I've got an entire collection of violets (I do love
violets!) from there at an average cost of about five dollars each. It
always works out cheaper if you buy multiple items from one seller, as
combining postage is well worth it. Probably the most unusual thing I've
bought is a perfectly gorgeous purple-leaved hoya, about 60cm tall and
packed ingeniously in cardboard and bubble-wrap.

The violets came variously in polystyrene cups and gladwrap over wet
paper towel, but all are thriving and just today I was able to divide
some of them for the first time. I have nine varieties now!

Orchids also lend themselves to ebay shopping, since they only need some
damp medium to kick on for a few days. Most sellers post on Mondays to
enable the quickest possible delivery and prevent things having to
weekend in a stuffy post office. All in all, my experiences have been
great so far.

Of the funny items I've seen for sale in the gardening section, the best
has been the plethora of mature Cocos and Alexandra palms for sale. The
vast majority of these have been from private sellers who were silly
enough to plant their indoor palm outdoors and then got a surprise when
it grew up. LOL!

Prices vary from 'Free to anyone who will come and remove' to
(Hnyahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Pardon my guffaw!) $1,000 starting bid
for a ten-year-old specimen. IMHO, you would need to pay the buyer to
remove the blessed things, rather than try to fob one off on some poor
unsuspecting bloke for money.

Anyway, if you haven't checked out ebay for plants, do! It's fun just
browsing what's available, even if you don't want to buy.

--
Trish Brown {|:-}

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Tomatoes grow better if you do the same thing.
Plant them deep.....


"0tterbot" wrote in message
...
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote in message
. au...
"0tterbot" wrote in message

having said all that, i read recently (and i can't remember where!) that
longstem planting is surprisingly effective for more trees than you
would think,

It was certainly featured on one of the Gardening Australia programs.
amazing really as it goes against the grain after all those years of
being told to plant at the level the plant was in the pot.

yes, that's it. it was in a copy of g.a. magazine (which i don't buy, but
my mum sends me her used ones). i found it right after i posted (isn't
that always the way).

for the information of anyone else, someone called bill hicks was
experimenting with longstem planting of aust. natives, to repair & prevent
erosion (i.e. if the trees are deep, and making adventitious roots from
the buried part, they tend to grow well without any extra water or care,
and much less likely to be washed away by flooding, etc).

he found not all species will live like this, but many of them do. and
also, those which thrive on teh technique get really big, really fast,
which is what you want to repair erosion.
kylie

Sorry guys but this thread keeps going. I have tried to resist but???? When
I first saw this I said to SWMBO about a sweet young girl we knew out west,
I bet her father hopes she doesn't. The reply I got was "she most certainly
does" Once again sorry guys & gals.

"SG1" wrote in message
...
Sorry guys but this thread keeps going. I have tried to resist but????
When I first saw this I said to SWMBO about a sweet young girl we knew out
west, I bet her father hopes she doesn't. The reply I got was "she most
certainly does" Once again sorry guys & gals.

And why not. Everyone else knows in the end.