Thursday, April 25, 2024

Author: Michael Casey

Urban forest will play a role in managing the environment (Image: Michael Casey)
Green Infrastucture

The tricky business of planting and managing trees in our built environment

By Michael Casey

Urban greening is becoming an important tool in helping to address climate change by adding greenery into our built environment. The one design inclusion that green infrastructure experts are starting to use more and more is the installation of trees into, and onto, buildings.Continue reading

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A fallen branch wound is only one step in the creation of nesting hollows that may take over one hundred years to form
International Plant Propagation Society

The true value of trees in our landscape

By Dan Austin

There is nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear, than to stand with a view of a landscape with no trees. It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as the Slim Dusty classic “Pub with no beer” but the sentiment is spot on.Continue reading

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PSHB Beetles are less than 2mm in length, about the size of a sesame seed
Botanic Gardens

PSHB – the perfect invader

By Chelsea Payne

Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer (PSHB) has emerged as a significant tree pest in Perth, Western Australia, and presents a threat to Australia’s incredible native flora, and our thriving horticulture and agriculture industries.

Described as the ‘perfect invader,’ the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer beetle Euwallaceae fornicatus tunnels into living host trees and shrubs creating extensive galleries within structural stems.… Continue reading

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Delonix regia - a flowering shade tree for the subtropics. (Image: Patrick Regnault)
Horticulture/Design

Tree choices for a successful design

By Patrick Regnault

Before compiling this article, I asked colleagues in different parts of Australia to provide me with three trees they find perform well; one for shade, one for ornamental purposes and one fruiting, and to give me the reasons for their choices.Continue reading

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Clive Larkman (left) with Lloyd Traven from Peace Tree Farm, Pennsylvania. (Image: Clive Larkman)
Plant Palette

USA Lavender farming

By Clive Larkman

As a plant for ornamental and medicinal use, lavender has a history as long as European settlement. Even with this history, there has been very little research and understanding of how to farm this tough little plant. There are numerous thoughts that the plant needs neither food nor water making it an interesting plant for the lazy farmer or those in poor countries with little rainfall.… Continue reading

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Barry Naylor (Left), GIA Extension Officer – QLD & Northern NSW, helping explain best management practice techniques to production nursery staff. The GIA Extension Officer Network is a levy-funded activity.
Nursery Papers

Nursery Papers – How The Nursery Levy Supports Your Business

Background: Australia’s nursery industry is one of the most efficient, sustainable, and innovative agricultural sectors in Australia and in the world.

Alongside your own innovation, the levy system continues to invest in consistent and sustained research via the to ensure continued improvement as an industry.… Continue reading

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Gumtree scale ladybird feeding on scale (Supplied by Denis Crawford of Graphic Science)
Pest and Diseases

Ants abound, but is that bad?

By Denis Crawford

Many ants are beneficial, but some ant species can be pests in some situations. When is that?

This Pest Files is inspired by some recent encounters I had with ants. In late January 2023 I noticed several species of ants climbing the trunk of a young roadside gumtree (Eucalyptus obliqua).… Continue reading

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Biofilta food cubes at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (Image: TSLC)
Landscape Design

Workplace urban farms, more than a food source

By Georgia Warren

Workplace farms add environmental and social amenity to office spaces, as well as  economic value. Green spaces woven into and around the built form provide a sense of human scale and relationship to the broader urban form.  

By growing food, workplace farms provide a range of benefits for workplaces, including improved food security and nutrition, reduced food bills, increased social connection, and opportunities for exercise and team building.… Continue reading

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Scorched leaves are a symptom of Xylella infection. (Image: Rebecca A Mellanson BugwoodOrg)
Newsbuds

Xylella biosecurity alert

Greenlife Australia has issued a Biosecurity Alert for the bacterial disease pest Xylella spp. following the release by The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry of a draft pest risk analysis report for pathogens in the genus. Xylella fastidiosa is the highest ranked pest threat to Australian horticultural and plant-based industries, and the environment.Continue reading

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Caladenia leucochila (Image: KPBG)
Media Release

Rare plants stolen from Kings Park

Conservation efforts of WA’s rare orchids have been impacted by theft

  • Up to 900 of WA’s rarest orchids have been stolen from the Conservation Garden in Kings Park
  • The Conservation Garden provides an opportunity for the public to engage with rare plants
  • Illegal poaching also impacting natural populations across the State and around the world

Display plantings of threatened orchids have been targeted by thieves in Kings Park and Botanic Garden (KPBG).… Continue reading

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Therapeutic horticulture workshop – creating terrariums (Image: Roman Klesper, Pixabay)
Horticultural Therapy

New markets open up through horticultural therapy services

By Leigh McGaghey

Green puns abound when talking about the growth and spread of therapeutic horticulture in Australia. But growing it is, with people from the allied health and community services world branching into horticulture, gaining horticultural qualifications and spreading the benefits of nurturing plants to their clients.Continue reading

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Attention-grabbing new Fuchsia ‘Electric Lights’ (Image: John Fitzsimmons)
Grower Trials

Colour and wow in 2023

By John Fitzsimmons

Trade visitors to Ball Australia’s 2022 Grower Trials were surely engaged and inspired by the dozens of new lines added to the company’s already hundreds-strong catalogue for 2023 and beyond. Colour and form were keynotes plus some new categories.Continue reading

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Green wall constructed by Evergreen Infrastructure (Image: Michael Casey)
Green Infrastucture

Greening cities gets a boost with a new Green Infrastructure industry body

By Michael Casey

With more than 70% of the global population projected to be living in cities by 2050, coupled with the need to meet sustainability targets in 2030 and 2050, government and city planners will have to rethink how the future of cities will need to look and work.Continue reading

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Stepping stone crossing points incorporating seating and educative areas (Image: REALMstudios)
Landscape

How a once Blind Creek can now see daylight

By Gabrielle Stannus

Have you ever thought that your local creek was a little down at heel and that much more could be done to make it a community asset? I spoke with Gail Hall, Melbourne Water’s Healthy Waterways Strategy Co-delivery Coordinator to find out how creeks are being reimagined across that city, and how horticultural and landscape professionals can be part of that transformation.Continue reading

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