Gardenworld

Possible cancer cure found in blushwood shrub | The Courier-Mail

CANCER patients are offering themselves as human guinea pigs as researchers investigate a possible cure for cancer found in north Queensland rainforests. Scientists have identified a compound in the fruit of the native blushwood shrub that appears to "liquefy and destroy cancer with no side-effects", according to latest research.Found deep in the remnants of a 130 million-year-old rainforest, the fruit extract may yet hold the secret antidote to Australia's No.1 killer disease.Victoria Gordon, of EcoBiotics, an Atherton Tableland-based company, said they hoped to go to human clinical trials later this year.Dr Gordon said a single dose injection of the extract, known as EBC-46, had been effective in 50 critically ill dogs and about a dozen cats and horses.

February 2010 gardenworld happenings.

 Growing your own fresh produce is a trend that has grown immensely and is sure to be even bigger in 2010. Whether it is just a few herbs around the back door or a full blown vegie patch or orchard, there is nothing sweeter than picking your own food and using it to its maximum potential. There are many seasonal cookery books coming out that show you how to better use your harvest and minimise wastage.  A lot of schools are now educating our younger members of the community on food gardens and hence it is often families who are coming into the nursery together to learn about what crops they could grow and use. And of course there are many nationalities that we can learn from who have been food garden experts since they migrated here to Australia, whether it be Italians growing tomatoes or Vietnamese growing lemon grass, everyone can delight in their flavours with a little bit of knowledge.

Some trees are less dangerous in bushfire zones.

It seems this Poplar 'Veronese' tree from Flemings is better suited to planting in bushfire proned areas than eucalypts. This is probably not a surprise to many, as eucalypts contain a 4% of oil in their leaves. According to an article in todays Age by Jeremy Francis who owns Cloudehill Nursery and Gardens a row of poplar trees can act as a shield and prevent radiant heat, as well as the leaves soaking up and extinguishing flying embers.

Conifers were also cited as dangerous as they contain 2% resinous oil and have lots of dead or dry branches that act as great kindling type fuel, while wattles were considered relatively safe.

This article has certainly created some debate judging by the comments people have made on it, and I think it is great people are looking beyond the square. Councils too often are taking the indigenous views and making them law when in these densely populated regional areas, that could be contributing to a higher fire risk for those citizens.

And as for protecting from erosion, which will happen if we strip the earth of foliage, this Poplar is stated on Flemings website as being shown to have good potential for erosion control by the New Zealand Forest Research Institute (NZFRI).

I love my natives, but if we get more 45 degree days in Melbourne this summer then you would have to suppose the world is warming and therefore bushfires will be more dangerous and that we must consider that our actions may need to change in order to better protect ourselves from avoiding further tragedy.

This inciteful article I am referring to is on The Age website HERE.

Lawn builder project from plant cells.

by James Wall

Ok,

so some workers had ruined my nature strip at one end and replaced it with low grade dirt and thrown a bit of grass seed on the top. This was great news for the gang of pidgeons that live on the next door neighbours eaves and they spent the next 3 days frantically stuffing every single seed they could find into their gullets.

Well I could have just left this bare patch, but I thought I'd have a go at patching it up. Firstly I dug out about the equivalent of 2 potting mix bags of the low grade dirt and put that in another garden bed. Then I emptied out two 30 litre bags of Attunga Topsoil that comes with a wetting agent. This was then smoothed evenly, except where I had found the concrete cover to a Telstra pit - no wonder nothing had ever grown near that little bit !

Hortivations at Ball Australia

by James Wall

 

Hortivations is an industry only event for businesses involved with and related to horticulture. It has been going for a few years now and is one of the premier events in the Australian horticultural calender. The thing people seem to like about it is that it is a fun event and a great place to catch up with whats going on. There is everything from new plants to new potting machines, but more than anything, it is a place of new ideas. Its a bit of fun, and we need that.

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation

By Sarah Naumoff 

I first heard about the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, when I attended the Australian Landscape Conference in September 2009. Stephanie Alexander was one of the many wonderful experts who spoke at the conference. 

Jane Edmanson releases new book.

As reported by James Wall.

Last night was one of Melbourne's night of nights. Horticulture's media elite were gathered for the release of Jane Edmanson's new book FromThe Ground Up. Fittingly it was held at Flemington Racecourse where the rose gardens are sacred.

This book was originally instigated by Neutrog, a South Australian company famous for their quality fertilisers, including Sudden Impact For Roses, as used by head gardener Terry Freeman at Flemington.

Japanese Maple finds a new home.

 A couple of weekends ago Judy from Mordialloc (one of our regular customers) came in and bought a 4 ft standard japanese maple which another staff member and I had to duly stuff into the front passenger seat of her car. The next week she came in and bought another. These things are quite brittle, and it was equally challenging to also get this one in the car. The next week Judy decided to buy the biggest one we had, and there was no way this was getting into her car. We struggled to get it in the truck. We also agreed to plant this one and so its epic journey to its final resting place began.

An October Garden In Melbourne.

 

What a great month to get into the vegie patch or potted vegie garden. It is usually warm enough now to plant chillies, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplants and basil, (although so far this month its been freezing). It’s the only time of year you can grow these varieties, so give them priority over the year round stuff, and don’t even consider cauliflower or cabbage, leaving them for the cooler months.

Today's keenest customer.

Today's customer of the day was Greg from Caulfield. Greg got a park right out the front of the nursery because of course he was on his motorbike. He then proceeded to do to 2 shops of plants, stuffing as many of them in his courier box as possible, reminding me of my travels to Asia. Greg also mentioned that no-one in his street had any decent gardens and so it was his role to make sure the street was well represented on his behalf. Well done to our shopper of the day on his chopper of the day !