The guys who chop down trees will give you free woodchips.

UnSubRocky wrote on Feb 25^th, 2017 at 2:00am:


As a novice and not a male who plans things on paper - you can have a healthy garden and lawn at very little expense. I didn't throw any food scraps, lawn clippings or fallen leaves in the bin. I used to rake them over and into the sand, but I don't have to now. I have bore water which helped years ago, but I don't need it anymore. The lawn and plants can survive for months without being watered.

Maybe you could try keeping your lawn a little longer when you mow. Don't throw the clippings out - rake them back over the sparse spots. Rake some leaves up also - and mix them into the clippings. In twelve months the overflow from your neighbours pool mightn't affect your grass as much if there is something that can absorb it before it gets to the main part of the lawn.

Natural mulch is a poultice for most gardens.

The mulch/humus material might make a big difference.

Good gardeners have told me to add nitrogen under fresh mulch as the decomposing process takes nitrogen away from the soil .

As a kid I used to walk through natural forests, underfoot was soft and spongy. These were beech or other hardwood forests. lovely places.

Under pine trees the soils is hard and dead.
they were like deserts underneath.

Quote:


http://www.northbrisbanetrees.com.au/services/mulch/

AiA wrote on Feb 28^th, 2017 at 12:27am:


I once had a neighbor in Perth who was a farmer. I had never previously seen or met him. I approached him about a noxious tree in his yard that was dropping sticky leaves which clumped together in resinous clumps, stuck to the paving and stuck to dogs and cats.

I knocked on his door and introduced myself and explained the problem, and asked him to cut down his tree. He told me he was from the bush and that they shoot people like me and then drive over them in a ute. What a jolly fine chap. He did however cut down his tree.

Just mentioning that people get really obnoxious when their overhanging trees become a problem

I have given up on the idea of planting fruit trees this year. Once the soil has softened a bit after rain someone will rotary hoe the block and spread gypsum. That will be left over winter to break down the clay. Hopefully the same guy can harrow the soil in spring—I will have quite enough work to do as it is! Cost maybe $200 per pass over the block.

Then I might spread and lightly dig in cow poo and compost, trace elements or rock dust, dolomite and some blood and bone over the back half of the block where the fruit trees will go and mulch the whole lot then leave it like that for summer. Will use FD’s tip re getting tree loppers to dump their woodchips on my block and use that for the mulch. I like the price of free mulch!

I will measure where the holes for the fruit trees will be and dig them out and fill them with the same compost etc mix. Plenty of humus then for the fruit trees.

AiA wrote on Feb 28^th, 2017 at 1:48am:


Any tree parts/fruit that overhangs your property line is yours, you may have if lopped off at the property line. In Au anyway. I believe I've read you own the airspace over your yard in the US and can shoot down drones.

Edit: I just googled and it's pretty grey about drones in the US, people get off for doing it but the FAA says you can't.

Just ordered 8 cider apple trees and four cherry trees. Will order more fruit trees, eating & cooking apples, plums and citrus (can just manage citrus in Tassie.)

Guy who rotary hoed my block and spread claybreaker will get them and put them in pots and look after them until I plant them Aug 2018.

Shitload of work to do first, might even get a soil analysis done. Reckon a few bags of dolomite to sweeten what I think is very acid soil.

The other thing I will do once the soil is under control is plant a hedgerow all around the parts where I will plant my fruit trees. Part windbreak, part barrier part environment for predatory insects and birds to nest and pick of pesky bugs. Chickens to run under the apple trees (cider and eating/cooking) and they will eat any codling moth, kick them out for a couple of months before the apples ripen so the apples fall on clean ground.

Native edible Tassie fruits are listed on this site:
http://www.potn.com.au/edible_plants.html

I will plant bay trees, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, rosemary, sage, oregano etc etc as well in the hedgerow. Stretches of hedgerow mainly natives.

Will plant black hawthorn aka sloes, sloe gin 

No chooks until the cider apple trees are well established. if you lay down chicken wire then chooks can’t scratch.

I have a banana tree and despite the Ice Age hysteria from Sir Booby de Louse it is doing well: no fruit last year but three bells on it this year. I chopped down some suckers getting too close to the verandah early last year.