Growing Gardens

with Julia Hancock

Weave a web

By now the message to mulch has been spread far and wide, but for gardeners who are not fond of seeing cane tops, pine bark or leaf litter strewing their garden beds, the alternative may be to grow a living mulch.

Low-growing plants succeed very well in suppressing weeds, preventing erosion and locking in moisture, but as in all things horticultural it's a matter of putting the right plant in the right place.

Repeat planting is always a good idea because it links separate areas of the garden into a cohesive whole. This is easy to do in perennial borders where the soft foliage of one plant usually flops into its neighbour, creating a pleasant tapestry of colours and shapes. Plants to use for weaving include Michaelmas daisies, gaura, verbena, penstemons, catmint and dwarf shasta daisies.

In a shrub border weaving plants are more difficult to come by, but I suggest you look no further than the dwarf gardenia (G. radicans), which always looks fresh and green. The variegated version has the same scented white flowers and can be used to good effect in dark, shady corners.

Creating an interlocking fabric of native plants is slightly trickier because few of them like to be overshadowed by their neighbours. Try Grevillea poorinda - 'Royal Mantle' - or G. biternata, both of which can tolerate shade.

Perhaps the easiest plants to weave together are succulents, which quietly multiply without any human intervention, and form their own mats over time. The trick with these is to select plants with similar proportions, but with contrasting foliage textures and colours. A succulent can be as smooth as a baby's bottom, or fiendishly prickly, silvery white or blackish purple, soft and billowing or rigid and upright. Although initially expensive to buy, they are easy to propagate and soon pay for themselves.

Lismore Garden Club News

Thirteen club members enjoyed a sumptuous afternoon tea and garden walk in the magnificent four-acre garden of Dot and Charlie Cox at Boorie Creek last Friday afternoon.

They enjoyed fine weather, Dot's yummy homemade cakes and the dazzling display of hundreds of day lilies in flower.

Club members are advised that there will be a Christmas breakfast at the home of Ron and Nita Burns at 8am next Wednesday, December 1. All members are welcome. Phone 6624 7422 for details.

Hasn't the rain been marvellous! Good rain precipitates all kinds of activity in nature when it falls in spring and early summer. The air, soil and water temperatures are elevated and the final trigger for nature to burst into a frenzy of activity is good soaking rain. Birds that have already reared one lot of young in early spring will often start on a second clutch. Our formerly brown lawns and half dead gardens burst into living green and you will notice your languishing cucurbit vines and even the old choko vine burst into life and set fruit in almost no time. The rain is the signal for native amphibians to spawn – it's wonderful to hear the frogs croaking in the downpipe, calling for a mate. Everything is alive and well in the garden.

Happy gardening
Ron Burns