Australian Bush Life

We have 2 ways of getting seed to grow and produce a beautiful vegetable with fruits you can eat.

1. Add the seed directly to the ground in our vegie patch.
2. Grow seeds in pots or trays and nurture before planting out seedlings into our vegie patch.

Seedling with protector from slugs, snails and slaters.

Using either technique we always have the issue with slugs, snails or slaters eating our young seedlings. Even a tiny nibble by one of these invertebrates can be fatal as they love to take a nip out of the stem completely cutting a seedling in half.

We have been really working hard trying to improve our rate of raising seedlings from seed with minimal effort and tackling slugs, snails or slaters particularly using natural (non-chemical) techniques has been a challenge.

For small seeds such as carrot, radish, parsnip, coriander, dill etc we tend to go with the tactic of just planting out heaps directly into the vegie patch. Using lots of seed with the hope that invertebrate pests won’t be able to eat every germinant or seedling. We have found that to do this in an efficient and cheap matter it is really worthwhile to harvest our own seed so that we have plenty to play with and can afford to loose some this way.

For larger seeds that we plant directly into the vegie patch such as peas, snowpeas, beans, beetroot we plant the seeds inside a seedling protector so that they get the chance to grow with reduced predation by slugs, snails or slaters. We also use a seedling protector if we plant out seedlings that we have grown and nutured in pots or trays before transplanting such as curcubits (pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchinis, squash), tomatoes, chillis, capsicums, eggplants, corn etc.

Seedling protectors on hand in the vegie patch.

We have made all our own seedling protectors using recycled materials. We started with good quality plastic yoghurt tubs but in the end found that PVC plumbers piping was probably best in terms of durability and lasting potential when out in the weather. We don’t buy the piping but have found it all through local hard waste collections. 90mm  diameter piping is the best but smaller and larger diameters can work too. We simply cut lengths about 150mm long.

The best tips we have found for making the seedling protectors most user friendly have been:

• Have plenty readily on hand so that you can grab one or many easily when and where you need them (we have about 50 scattered around our vegie patch).
• Ensure that the opening is wide so that the seedlings inside are easy to water, a small opening makes it difficult.
• Use the protectors to create micro-climates to nuture your seedlings, protect from sun etc
• Don’t put mulch up too close to the protector while the seedling is small as this provides hiding spots for slugs, snails or slaters. The protectors only reduce the chance of the seedling being found.
• Make sure that no slugs, snails or slaters are trapped inside the protector this will be fatal for the seedling.
• Use other manual techniques to reduce the overall number particuarly of slugs and snails.

The small amount of extra effort in using the protectors greatly improves our seedling success rate. We tend to only keep the protectors on until the seedlings have begun growing their secondary or adult leaves and look big and strong enough to tackle the invertebrate pests. Usually this is about 3 – 5 adult leaves present, not including the original 1-2 leaves that are produced immediately after germination. Keep the mulch away from the seedling stem a little longer also helps.

Common Heath - Epacris impressa. Dark pink flowers.

The Common Heath – Epacris impressa is the state floral emblem of Victoria. This beautiful wildflower has flowers that span over months during spring and range in color from white, light pink through to dark pink.

The Common Heath returned in abundance on our bush block after the bushfire. The first spring after the bushfire these indigenous plants were too small to flower, but this spring, 18 months after the bushfire the flowers have come out in abundance. Although the plants are still small and do not have as many flowers per plant. When fully mature each some plants have between 50 – 100 flowers each.

It’s shrubby form generally does not grow larger than a metre and is commonly seen throughout many bushland habitats. It is also really clearly seen along roadsides especially when flowering it is hard to miss the beautiful display of colors.

Common Heath is a great wildlife food particularly when in flower. It attracts a great range of nectar eating insects and birds. Watching Eastern Spinebills hang off these delicate stems and feed on the flowers is a magic experience.

Common Heath - Epacris impressa. Light pink flowers.

A plant that can generally also be bought in nurseries for planting, we have also had success in transplanting it. After the bushfire we had some coming up on our paths and driveways so decided to move them to bushland and garden areas. Transplanting is best done when young, but generally is successful in the cooler months if you can really take a bit of soil out with the roots.

It is great to substitute to for Spanish Heath, this plant is a weed locally which we see regularly growing in gardens and bushland in our area. Why grow a weed when our locally indigenous Common Heath is so beautiful!

Vietnamese Mint - Persicaria odorata. In flower - autumn.

Vietnamese Mint – Persicaria odorata (syn. Polygonum odoratum) is a fantastic herb to be included in any herb garden. We were able to take a piece, including a root section from a friends garden which we potted and looked after with lots of water until it appeared healthy and vigorous. Then after a couple of months we planted in our herb garden.

It was important to think about where to plant this herb as with all mints it is extremely vigorous and can take over your whole garden if given the chance. We actually planted it in a pot with a cut out base which we partially buried so that the pot edge could help us to keep it in check and stop it wandering as it has weedy potential. We also needed to consider which other herbs to plant it next to as it likes quite a bit of water (currently next to Oregano, Garlic Chives and Parsley). We actually use the Vietnamese Mint as a guide to water our herb garden if it is dry and starts wilting water the garden!

Vietnamese Mint is a perennial which you can actually harvest most of the year. It has the freshest, greenest and nicest leaves for eating from spring to autumn. This herb is a must if you like asian food. Add freshly picked leaves to any salad for an asian flavour it doesn’t need cooking. You can also use in one of our favorites “Vietnamese Rolls” or add to cooked meals like Laksa/soups or asian stirfrys, but we would add at the end (sprinkle on top) to avoid overcooking.

Strawberry plants don’t live that long and after about 1.5 years really start to die off, their leaves brown and shrivel and they produce less fruit. It is always good to keep the plants young to get the best fruit (mostly fruits in autumn and spring). You don’t need to keep buying new plants from shops or markets as strawberry plants love regenerating themselves.

Strawberry plant direct runners in pots.

Plant up the runners of strawberry plants into pots then after a month or so when the runners have grown good root systems you can cut them free of the parent plant and use them to replace old plants that are looking shabby. We do this by placing pots around our main plants, and burying the runner underneath the soil in the pot (close to the leafy part of the runner) and water regularly.

This is also a great way to avoid buying excess pots from markets and nurseries as you can just re-use your own, it saves on transport costs and fuel too and also saves your own money.

Most of our strawberry plants re-grew within a few months after the bushfire as their root system survived underneath the soil layer.

Leek seed head sprouting baby leeks ready for planting.

We let one of our Leeks go to seed which we have never done before. The leek has been in for many months and with a flower head for at least 2 months and we have been waiting to see when the seeds are starting to drop on their own thinking that this will be when we can collect the seeds. To our surprise when we looked recently (early Feb) the seed head had a whole lot of little baby leeks growing out of it.

We decided to experiment and carefully pulled the seed head apart and planted all 30 or so of the tiny leeks into a seed tray. 2 weeks later the baby leeks are now thriving and will be ready to plant into our vegie patch my mid March or so. They are far more advanced than if we had tried to grow them from seed and such a great success rate. We also put a few of the baby leeks dipped into a cup of water and they shot roots straight away. Within 3 days we planted these in the seed tray with the others.

Can’t wait for all the soups this winter! More tips on growing food…….

We are doing quite a bit of ground works at the moment, particularly fixing our retaining walls after the bushfire. As we are trying to have the least impact on biodiversity in our area we have found it has been really succesful transplanting indigenous plants from the site we are working on to the new areas we have finished. As an approximate over 90% of the plants we have moved survive and this has been during peak summer weather with minimal hand watering, although we have had some reasonable and regular rainfall this summer too.

It is a great way to save on purchasing plants, ensures we are keeping the plants locally indigenous and also keeps bare areas to a minimum as the indigenous plants take really well when moved from one place to another immediately. Within a week or two the area just looks like indigneous bush. Species transplant information:

• Indigenous grasses; Kangaroo – Themeda triandra, Wallaby – Austrodanthonia pilosa & Joycea pallida, Spear – Austrostipa rudis, Plume – Dichelachne crinita and D. rara & Weeping Grass – Microlaena stipoides all transplant extremely well.
• Common ground covers such as Kidney-weed – Dichondra repens, Ivy-leaf Violet – Viola hederacea, Cudweeds - Euchiton involucratus & E. sphaericus & Toad Rush -  Juncus bufonis all transplant really well.
• Eucalypts and Wattles transplant well if you move them while they are really young so you can get all the root system, this also ensures a nice strong & stable plant when they grow up.
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  Transplanted indigenous plants on new retaining wall.

  Mat-rushes – Lomandra filiformis and L. longifolia and Flax-lilies – Dianella Tasmanica, D. longifolia & D. revoluta are more difficult to transplant as they have quite a deep root system that you need to get a lot of in your dig out to ensure their survival, but it can be done. They also need more watering in to settle.

This retaining walls we have made out of the supporting beams from the shed that was burnt at this site during the bushfire. Many people had items like this removed by contractors and taken straight to the tip (or recycle centre). We

were happy to do this job on our own knowing that it is free to dispose of metal if we had decided not to re-use it anywhere.

It amazes us to see some of our neighbours busily buying hundreds of new plants in pots to re-plant their gardens after the bushfire. We haven’t spent a cent on plants and have more than enough to overfill our own and some willing neighbours gardens & bush blocks with free plants. We even noticed one neighbour buying a local indigenous plant Purple Coral-pea – Hardenbergia violacea in pots to re-plant on fences – if they only looked at their ground after the fire they would have had heaps of this local indigenous plant species sprouting up. Better still using your own local indigenous plant species avoids problems associated with the potential for nursery plants (same species) interbreeding and mixing genetic material with the local indigenous plants that have evolved to the local conditions.

Here are some tips to regenerating your bush and native garden for free:

• Pot up indigenous and native garden plants that have regenerated on paths and areas where they are not wanted for re-planting later when you are ready. You can even source all the pots for free from curb side hard waste.
• Make you own soil to be more sustainable – take some old dry soil from pre-disturbed garden areas (not the bush) and mix it with a bit of compost to revitalise it.
• If you know what the seedlings are you can move some directly into garden beds where you want some new plants. This worked particularly well for me with correas, daisies, violets, hardenbergias, dianellas, goodenias, prostantheras and idigoferas.
• Pot up all the excess eucalypts, there is probably no way that you can take them all on your own block, but we are giving them away to neighbours who will take them. We figure that so many were lost in the fire and then by the subsequent tree clearing that many people undertook we endeavour to get as many back in the ground as we can.