OK, I inadvertantly hijacked the shower thread with moaning about my poor garden, so I thought I'd start a totally inappropriate thread in a beauty forum!

My garden is stuffed. I thought I'd preparedmy sandy soil well for the drought: I wetta-soiled the entire block, lawn and all - by hand :shocked: - late winter/early spring. I dug copious amount of mulch and poo and compost through the garden beds. I fed (Seasol) and whilst we still could I watered and watered and watered (oh the bill :shakehead: ) but to no avail. My ornamental trees are crook, my flowers and seedlings dead, my poor, poor baby sasanqua camelias only just hanging in there. However, my big gums look good! (er, my trees, not my mouth).:chuckle:

I noticed that any water I now put on is not penetrating anymore. So, advice? Anyone? More wetta soil? More poo? More feed? I've started to dig the soil over with more compost, and I thought I'd go over the block with wetta-soil again.

Guess it's nothing compared to what our country cousins are going through though hey?

You HAVE to go native. This has never really been a country to support European plants & more than ever so now. The climate change is not going to go away, we have to adapt to it.

My garden is 90% native, the other 10% are very hardy plants that like to be ignored (Frangapani, Jacaranda, Crepe Mrytle, Agaves, succulents). We wanted a self sustainable garden that supported the local enviroment & birds. We rarely ever water the garden & usually only the underplanting like Bromiliads, birds nests etc. Sure we have lost a few plants along the way but I believe in survival of the fittest. Many plants have thrived on sparse rainwater.

Mulch mulch mulch. Pile it on thick & regularly to insulate against the heat & lock the water in. Some of my soil has gone a bit waterproof too. I mix in some of my own compost, a wetting agent and stick the nozzle of the hose deep down into the soil, forcing the water to go deep. I can't use manure or blood & bone as I have a dog & he would go crazy. I not a great gardner but I think my success has been in my plant selection.
Good Luck.

hello i cat
I work in the office of a plant nursery, and I have passed on your queries to one of the nursery girls. I am hoping to be able to give you an answer tomorrow - Thursday. :)

I'm with Medusa :clapping: - native is the answer - we replanted our back garden lots of natives last year and hardly watered them even though they were new plants - they have doubled in size on the very little rainwater we've had in SA during the winter - I think in total we've only had the drippers on 6 or 7 times in a year. We did lose a couple but the vast majority have survived!:tree:

Thankyou for the replies. yes, most of my garden is native - huge gums and wattles which suck all the moisture out of the ground. Medusa, I like the sound of what you are doing. However, what concerns me is putting on so much mulch now, when the soil is so dry. Doesn't the mulch then just absorb the water, rather than letting it go down into the soil?

I've already come to terms with more lower growing natives, but I really want to help my two cherry blossoms and my driveway of baby sasanquas.

Can anyone recommend natives to plant in dry shady conditions, such as those under trees?

Alison, I look forward to hearing what you can come up with too.

Thankyou everyone! :worship:

Ok so I just spoke to my brother who is a horticulturist. He said that you need to use a wetting agent. You can get it in both liquid and pellet form. You can use either on your garden but the pellet form is usually used for the garden and the liquid on lawn. He also said that after application you must wash the product into the lawn and garden as if you leave them on the surface they will burn the lawn and kill it and the pellets wont do anything if they are not washed in.

He has also made manual drip feeders for his clients out of old water bottles with the open and close dip lid. You fill them with water and somehow make a stake to tie them to. At night you let the water drip from the bottles (obviously by having the bottles upside down) onto the plants. You just fill the bottles up in the shower or whever you can get relatively clean water.

This seems to be working well for him and his clients although our drought is not nearly as bad as you mainlanders. He said the manual drip feeders are time consuming but they do work. He uses the homebrand water bottles that come in the litre bottles and 600ml bottles.

Hope this helps in some very small way. I don't know the first thing about gardening but my parents and brother are very keen gardeners and they love love love their gardens and I know how much work you all put into them so this drought is devastating!

Hope this helps in some very small way.

pinkcupcake, this helps in a very BIG way - thankyou so much! i'm off to butcher some bottles tonight! brilliant idea! :worship:

hi i cat sorry it has taken so long to get back to you, busy couple of days!

So here is what the nursery girls have told me. They had a lot of questions for me so without knowing your exact location, aspect and other things this is what they say. If you need clarification on any of this or want to go into it further please email us www.conboysnurseries.com.au

Continue to use Seasol at half concentrate every 2-3 weeks on your camellias to stimuate root growth. We are assuming they are in a shaded, well protected area? If they are getting wind blown you can try shade cloth around them. Even the slighest bit of sun and heat at this time of year will turn leaf edges brown. Not sure how old the are eiter.

For the water not penetrating the soil, use Eco Wet and water crystals. Sandy soil is very hard to work with so the more water retention the better.

A light mulch is best at this time of year, particularly for your type of soil. If you are worried about about the ground being too dry, scrape mulch back and give a really deep watering, let it set and then test with an iron rod - if rod comes out with soil on it, its wet enough. Put the rod in about a foot deep. A heavy mulch in October-November is a good idea.

Not sure if you are still watering heavily, but 9 litres/bucket full of water is required every day on your cheery blossoms to keep them going. I know this seems like a lot and a waste, but that is what they need to survive. Nt sure how old they are, if they are under a year old they are not established yet, so they definately need this to prevent you losing them altogether.

Here are some recommendation of natives to plant in dry, shady conditions, like under your gum trees. Leptospermum, grevilleas, bottlebrush (callistemon) westringias, thyrptomene and if it is a really shady area you can try hostas and heucheras, which are not natives.

Even though natives are 'waterwise', EVERY plant needs copious amounts of water when it is first planted, up until they are established which is classed as about a year or so. So perhaps consider this, and put off your planting under your gum trees until Autumn. No doubt once they establish natives are great for our climate. Also the South African natives are well suited to our harsh climate.

At this time of year, and with the extreme lack of rain, there are going to be things that will die. We all have to accept that. So have a look around your garden and perhaps you may have to sactifice a few things to save others. :( Your seedlings and flowers may have to make way for your camellias and ornamentals!

Hope things improve soon, let me know how it all goes!
Alison :)

thankyou so much Alison - very informative and very much wanted! 9l of water on my cherry blossoms will be nothing, and I don't consider it a waste. They are actually 15 years old and the highlight of my front garden. and i will be waiting until autumn before even attempting to introduce anything new to the garden.

thankyou to all for your time and effort - i am very touched! group hug to you all! :hugs:

Still quiet on the forum. All you even numbered houses watering tonight? Got to 41 in Melbourne today, 37 tomorrow, just hoping for some good rain. Things are getting quite desperate and am sure no one will whinge if it would just rain and rain!:fish:

My garden is more twitch than anything, and even after the rain we had, it's still like rock, so I can't weed it :explode:

The lawn is knee high, but the ground is like a quagmire, so it can't be mown :shakehead:

I have a never ending war on the weed, Wandering Dew :flames: I know how to remove it but the problem is that is keeps coming back from my neighbours side, all 3 sides! None of them are gardeners so don't care to remove it. It just driving me completely mental!! :explode: All day again today I have been out in the garden spending a larger percentage of the time removing weeds. Ugh!
Sorry - just had to get that out.

Oh, I understand M! I would love, love, love to get rid of the darn blackberries that get into mine, but unless the start vines are eradicated, they'll keep coming back.

And if ONE MORE person tells me to spray the entire garden with Roundup, I will scream. I know it will kill the twitch, BUT - I have been here nearly 5 years, and am still having things pop up that I didn't know existed. Mainly bulbs, and all pretty. I don't want to spray until I can locate and remove everyhting I want to keep. Until then, I will do an annual battle, and unless you want to help, PIPE DOWN!!

M, I had a similar problem with wandering dew, but only from one " couldn't give a fig " neighbour. Following a conversation over a glass of wine it was decided that I would remove their weeds in return for their son controlling my rubbish/recycling bins for garbage collection. ( We also slip him some gold coins...sssh! )
Problem solved.

Rosie I agree with you, the only way to get rid of blackberries is to remove the master root stock. Poor darling! :hugs:

My brother is a horticultualist. He specialises in Grass and Garden maintenance. He is always diagnosing weeds and getting rid of them for people. I can ask him for advice if anyones interested.

Oh please!! How to get rid of twitch, without spraying and killing everything else would be fab. Blackberries I can deal with, it's not a huge job, just a tad prickly, but twitch :explode:

Oh please!! How to get rid of twitch, without spraying and killing everything else would be fab. Blackberries I can deal with, it's not a huge job, just a tad prickly, but twitch :explode:

Ok consider it done! I will ask him tomorrow!