Muddy Boots
Muddy Boots
Question Time 49!
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Hello, I'm Elizabeth, an obsessive backyard gardener, who might be able to offer you a couple of tips.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Keith, a landscape consultant, and I'm also passionate about gardening.
SPEAKER_01The one thing we both have in common is muddy boots. Thanks to Lowy and the Backyard Botanist, we have not one but two fabulous Lowy pruners to give away this month to two lovely female gardeners. These particular pruners have been designed with inswung handles, making it easier for smaller hands to fit comfortably around the fully open tool. Combined with the efficient anvil cutting system, the Lowy pruners are great for all pruning jobs and are particularly effective for rose and fruit tree pruning. To enter our giveaway, go to and follow the Backyard Botanist's Instagram page, Backyard Botanist underscore AU. Find their post on the new Lowy 5.107 Pruners and then tag Muddy Boots Podcast and a friend on that post. We will then announce the two winners during our June QA podcast. Yes, that's right. Don't forget that this giveaway is for the girls, but the boys haven't been forgotten. We have a giveaway coming up for them very soon. In the meantime, visit backyardbotanist.com.au for all your gardening needs. Muddy Boots QA is here again. As the garden shifts into the cooler months, it's the perfect time to pause, plan, and problem solve, and that's exactly what today's podcast is all about. Keith, let's start at question number one, and this one is from Sandy. Sandy says, I removed a number of athel trees some time ago, but I'm still having trouble growing anything within 10 to 20 metre radius. I know the soil is contaminated, but how can I fix it? I've scraped the topsoil and leaves away with our tractor and have poisoned all the roots. I've also built up the garden bed, but everything keeps on dying. I'll keep trying, but so far have lost three-year-old trees nearby as well. Please tell me what I can do to fix the soil.
SPEAKER_00Right, so I think I would just like to firstly explain that when you said apple trees or athletes. It's an athlet, yeah. A A T H A E L E L I think is A T H A. Athyl Trees, which in actual fact is is a is a tree that is known as Tamarix aphila. Um and they are classified as obnoxious weed, and the reason they're classified that way is because they are detrimental to soil and soil health. They might grow fabulously, and they were something that you could go out there and stick in the ground, and you know they would grow beautifully, but they destroy what they are sitting in. And this is um more than obvious for the the trouble that Sandy's having here. So your soil needs to have lots and lots of organic um material added to it, and you might have to do this over a small period of time. One of the great things you could you could actually do in actual fact f fact is to put down um a root crop of some sort, you know, whether it be sow a whole heap of of um beans or peas or something else like that to pull a bit of nitrogen down and fix it into the soil, you could do that and then before they flower, turn them into the soil. So don't don't don't allow them to get the stage of flowering or fruiting, turn them into the soil. And that's gonna add uh add that that organic matter that because you're talking about a rather large area, that's something you need to need to really consider. And once you've done that, then I would suggest that you have a look at um a neutral product product called populate. That's gonna contain good beneficial back uh uh bacteria and microbes and these sorts of things that are gonna ward off some of the nassis in the soil. So you you really have to start behind the eight ball and build up your build up your soil. You know, so this is one of the best things that can you can be actually doing. What will happen is is that the the plants that you put in there will now have something that they can live on while they grow. Um it's just it's just a case of adding as much organic matter back into that soil and then populating it with lots and lots of microbes. When the time comes for you to start planting, I would also suggest that you use BioSTEMs Myco Gold, put that into into every single hole at the bottom before you put the plant in, give it a water, and then fill the whole lot back with a good compost. That's gonna set set that um that that plant up for uh a bit of um good activity, I think.
SPEAKER_01Hopefully.
SPEAKER_00Hopefully.
SPEAKER_01Okay, our next question is from John. We are sitting here with a few friends and having a discussion. Can you tell us if you should rest the soil after a crop has finished and after adding compost and sheep poo, etc.? My friends don't bother to do this as they've heard that there is no need to rest the soil. They say the microbes and fungi die because there is no food. Is this true?
SPEAKER_00Um the microbes and the fungi can die if there's no food. But another thing too is that if if if you uh if you were tilling that soil, then you're killing those microbes and fungi anyway, because you bring them to the surface. Now, so this is quite a good discussion that you're having there, John. Um I always rest my soil after after removing the old crop, um, and and I add lots of new compost. I use lignite humate in there and I use rock dust, which feeds the microbes that are in the soil still there at the moment. And that just brings them on in a greater abundance by doing all that. I also add some neutral go-go juice to add more beneficial microbes to the amendments, and I and and I give it about a two-week rest. The only thing that I don't do that for is where I've pulled out out tomatoes and I'm going to put carrots in. I don't worry about it because there's no goodness left in that soil anyway, but that's the perfect growing conditions for those those particular carrots. Um you need to need to also have a little look in your soil for m for for worm activity. If you can't find any worms in that in that soil, whether it's compost or just whatever soil it is, um then no worm life means no soil life. So you need to really be thinking about you know what you're adding there. So, yes, you can just add material and plant straight into it, but its results will not be anywhere near as great as if that plant of that soil has had a good chance to sort of sit there and rest.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00So there's no right or wrong answer.
SPEAKER_01But the best one, so let it rest. Yep. Question number three is from Liz. I recently purchased a crepe myrtle Natchez to plant over the Easter weekend. I've now noticed that the main trunk has been cut off. I'm wondering how this affects the natural form of the tree that I was wanting. Will it have been cut to promote a more formal standard growth form?
SPEAKER_00I would say that's that's how that they've they've looked at it. But um you you you what you what you're after is is a single trunk plant. So you can still achieve that by allowing um or or just isolating one of those particular parts that have been cut back and removing the others so that you you're you're continuing that that form going all the way up and then pruning it up, pruning it over a period of time. But I'm I'm not I wouldn't be concerned with it at all. I I would simply think about it in winter time, cutting that, cutting it back by a third and just letting it grow. And and let it grow to the height and size you want it to. Easy.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Jenny has the next question. I'm having trouble finding the organic liquid fertilizer Keith refers to. I think it's called EEC. I can't seem to find any reference to it on the internet or in any garden centres. I live in Melbourne and I'm a great fan of the podcast. Thank you very much, Jenny.
SPEAKER_00Thanks, Jenny. Um Jenny, I sent I sent your your uh your uh email request off to the source of uh this wonderful product, and he'll contact you directly. And if he doesn't, you come back to me and I'll follow it up, but I'm sure you will. So this this this product is is a liquid fish food. Well, not like fish food, but liquid fertilizer made from fish. The beauty about this particular product is is that the fish that he is using to create this fertilizer comes from the deep sea. So it's coming from out in Bath Strait and beyond, where the fish that are being harvested don't have access to the heavy minerals and metals and crap that's the bottom feeding fish do in the rivers. So there's no heavy metals and crap that's coming into your food chain. It's a great product. So if you if you just Google E E C S E A, so E E C and have a look at his website, it'll come up and you can order off that or find out where the nearest um people that that's are are stockists. He's mainly based on the on the Mornington Peninsula, but there's an opportunity to grow. So if you keep hammering him with, hey, can I get an order of a litre? Because it is it is really, really uh great concentrate. Um it and it's a it I've had fabulous success with this particular product. It'd been absolutely brilliant.
SPEAKER_01That is good. Now we have a question from Helen. She says, I am such a I am in such a quandary as I can't bear to take out a big tree that may still be viable. I have a 30-year-old lemon tree that was attacked badly by a citrus gore wasp around five years ago. My husband then attacked it with his chainsaw and cut it to within an inch of its life. Ever since it has grown back vigorously with branches, foliage and thorns, but very few lemons. Would you advise me to get rid of it and put another in its place as continually I'm continually having to cut out the vertical suckers which are ripping me apart on a monthly basis?
SPEAKER_00Um I I I got we Helen sent a photo of of this particular citrus tree. Um and and what what's what's happened here is her husband has literally cut it to with an inch of its life. So her husband has cut it below the graft. So what she's got is rootstock. So the rootstock will either be um rough lemon or uh um or a rootstock called trifoliata. They have thorns and they are incredibly vigorous. So this this this tree, this tree's a 30-year-old lemon tree that should have been replaced twenty years ago. Anyway. Because yeah, because you you really only get ten years of of good growth out of a out of a a lemon tree that on on any stock, whether it's a trifle. Yeah, that's it. Ten years. Ten years is is is is you need to think about replacing it. So what she's got there is this incredibly vigorous, thorny, horrible stuff. So I I said to her, look, get rid of it, and she came back to me and she said, Oh, I feel so much happier now. Which is lovely. So there you go, Helen. Well done.
SPEAKER_01Pamela's question is next. Some photos were attached to her question for Keith's reference as well. I have a persimmon tree that is about seven years old. Last year I picked at least 50 fruit, and the birds enjoyed the rest. Last winter, when it was deciduous, I trimmed it back to a more manageable size, and although it's grown new leaves, I've had no fruit this year. Oh, another one. It also seems to be troubled by some pest. At the base of the tree, I grow oregano, so I'm not sure if this is a problem.
SPEAKER_00Um, what you've done is you've cut off all the fruiting parts of that particular tree. So you've you've you've gone too hard in order to shape it up. So the opportunity you have now is to allow that new growth to come back onto it and then just do a light prune um after after you've harvested the fruit and let the new the new growth come in from that. Okay. So it it's just you've you've just gone a little bit too hard. I I've done the same thing on a couple of my fruit trees, knowing that that you know I've I've overdone it and I don't expect fruit next year. But the year after, no problems at all. So um when you're when you're doing this particular pruning, what what you what you'll get in in a good season can be up to three stages of growth. And what you need to do is have a look at your branches and have a look where the chart where the where the colour changes. So you might have um a stem that's got a a reddy tinge to it, and then all of a sudden that stops, and then there's a there's a new piece of growth that comes off after that, which has got a green growth, green green growth to it. That's the part you cut off, and then you get that regrowth happening again during the summer, and that's where next year's flowers and fruits are going to be coming from.
SPEAKER_01So make sure you've got a bit of green still left. You leave a little bit of green on the bottom, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um the other reasons that um you know you're gonna have this problem is insects and infestations.
SPEAKER_01That's right. Well, didn't she mention something about there was a there's tr it seems to be trouble by some pest.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So so I I would uh as I said, I I I would be looking for an infestation of spider mites or two spotted mites. Uh some aphids would be another another reason for this time of the year. And then have a look at um nutrient deficiencies or poison drifts. See see if that's been you know something.
SPEAKER_01That's the last thing you said poison drift.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, poison drift. You know, so if someone's been spraying, oh that's that can also be but check for the in insect infestation first. Um but you know, this might most likely they may have moved on already from this particular stage.
SPEAKER_01And spray with something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. What um once again, this time you could do eco-nemeco oil.
SPEAKER_01Okay, that's good. Okay, we have two questions from Jan now. Question number one. After listening to your seed saving episode, I'm wondering if I buy a nice organic pumpkin, would those seeds be okay to save? When I say nice, I meant the nice sweet one which is really hard to cut, maybe the Kent variety.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay, so you can save the seeds of the pump pumpkin is um as long as it's in an organic variety and it is an open pollinated form. So it's got to be open pollinated.
SPEAKER_01It's not gonna know.
SPEAKER_00So, yeah, then that's where the problem comes. The best and the nicest and the sweetest pumpkin that I've ever tasted is an airloom, it's a French heirloom known as potty marin, which has a beautiful rich chestnut flavour. It's absolutely superb. It produces one to two kilos um size fruit, so you're not getting a whole great big pumpkin, cutting half of it, putting the other half in the fridge and then chucking the other half out when it's rotten. So the the size of the fruit is absolutely fantastic. And this rated the top of the taste test at the diggers club. It's got a smooth, dense flesh, and the beauty about the potty marin is is it is a great climbing variety. So if you've got a trellis or uh you know a an arch that you you you want to grow something up over it, the potty marin is a ripper to grow over it. And then you can save the seeds of those without a worry at all. The the the thing about the Kent variety that she's just mentioned there is that it is uh a cultivar of an unknown um origin, possibly from a Japanese squash.
SPEAKER_01Oh.
SPEAKER_00So there you go.
SPEAKER_01Okay. All right. Question number two from Jan. What is a variety of year-round lettuce you chat about, please, Keith?
SPEAKER_00Um you want to you want to mention what this one is? What's the best lettuce that I love the most?
SPEAKER_01Never remind me.
SPEAKER_00It's the Australian yellow leaf.
SPEAKER_01Yellow leaf.
SPEAKER_00Lettuce.
SPEAKER_01There you go.
SPEAKER_00Um it is without a doubt the the best lettuce that I've ever grown and ever tasted. I've always got them growing in my garden, even through winter. Um, they're just absolutely superb. The colour of them is just absolutely amazing. They're this gorgeous chartreuse colour. Um, and the beauty about it is that you don't go out there with a with a knife and a and a bucket and cut the thing off at the ground. You go out there and you harvest the outside leaves, as many as you're going to eat for that night, and let it let it go, because it's it is an upright-growing form of lettuce, just the best and the most stunning lettuce you'll come across. Australian yellow leaf lettuce, um, available from all the great little seed companies, the seed seed savers, seed collection, all these I've got these beautiful Australian yellow leaf lettuce, and it is an Australian variety. It's it's it's known as Australian varieties. It's fabulous.
SPEAKER_01Is that rare or something the way you said that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well it is, because most of the other uh other lettuces you get uh have come from other parts of the world. You know, this this is an Australian-owned.
SPEAKER_01Oh, we want we want that. Okay. All right, so Penny's question is next. She has also provided some photos. We live on a property between Lake Cargeligo, I hope I've said that property properly, and Griffith in the Western Riverina. And we are currently in the middle of a drought. I have a large Mediterranean-style garden and have been having a problem with what looks like sap-sucking insects attacking and killing all of my Echiums. Can you please advise the best way to deal with these? I lost seven in spring, and now the replacements are being attacked as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um the the best things you can be using to control whatever you whatever pest it is is is using econeme. So you need to apply 12 mils of econemeem in five litres of of water and give it a good shake, and then go out and spray it on a regular basis. You can't just go out there and spray it once. You need to keep on spraying it on a weekly basis so that it becomes somewhat systemic. By the look of the leaves, and and because the the photos that she sent through showed that that she's got getting holes in the centre of the leaves, that indicates to me that it could be earwigs. And the fact that she's got a lot of mulch underneath the underneath the the the echiums, that's where they're living, and they come out at night, climb up the up there, and they they work on one part and they'll just chew a little hole inside the leaves and burrow back down into the ground. Um the other the other thing you you may have to look for is um small green or black aphids, so the neem oil is going to work both on on those. And I'd suggest that because you're in a drought um area or and your your garden style is Mediterranean, then I would be suggesting you use Myco Gold. So once again, get out with that FD Ryan prepping fork, go around the outside, and then pour in pour in the uh the Mycogold in the in the watering cab.
SPEAKER_01Teaspoon in ten litres.
SPEAKER_00Yep, that's it. Um Google Myco Gold. Um, and if you like and you like what you see, you can order some from info at biostim.com.au. I have a client in Hopefield who has just purchased two drums for her soon-to-be-planted tree, shrubs, and perennials. So it's a great product.
SPEAKER_01Going for a while. Uh last question for this month's QA episode is from Simon. Photos again have been provided. I've recently dug up my raised veggie garden, which contains a mixture of veggie, mixed soil, Clyde Compost, and Manache rock dust. I pulled all the veggies out and turned over the soil. While doing this, I noticed a heap of these little white grubs shown in the photo. Can you tell me what they are and if they're good for the soil or a pest? If a pest, what is the best way to get rid of them?
SPEAKER_00Okay, so we s the photograph he sent in showed this white curl grub that down by the the abdomen near its bum is a bit of grey. But the most important thing about that grub was the colour of his head. And his the head on that was a yellowy orange. So that is a curl grub or cockchafer. And I have seen posts on Instagram where this this has been this this cockchafer has been shown on a post, and people say you've got to get rid of this, and that is absolutely incorrect. The the the one that is detrimental to plants and and to golf courses and all this sort of thing is the black-headed cockchafer. So if it's got a blackhead, you've got problems because the black-headed cockchafer will eat live roots that are under that are in the ground, so it'll just kill all the live roots off, and then the then the grass dies or the plant dies on the top. But the the orange and yellow-headed cockchafer feeds on dead organic matter. So it's not going to have a harmful effect on on the on the uh the plant whatsoever. So you've got nothing to worry about with that particular that particular fella whatsoever.
SPEAKER_01So happy ending to that.
SPEAKER_00Happy ending for that little fella. Just keep on going, doing what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you again to everyone for sending in your questions. That's a wrap for another QA episode. But before we go, let's find out who this episode's lucky winner is of the fabulous prize from The Plant Runner. This month the prize goes to Penny, who is battling to save her Echiums from sap-sucking insects. Congratulations, Penny, we'll be in touch with you shortly. Go to theplantrunner.com for all your organic indoor plant care needs. Thank you for listening to Muddy Boots. For more information on today's podcast, please go to muddyboots.net.au and happy gardening.