By John Arnott
At time of writing, I am a few weeks off ‘hanging up the boots’ at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, entering a ‘retirement phase’ of a gardening career that has straddled five decades of public gardens horticulture. Over this period, I have witnessed numerous trends come and go, and thought it would be fun to quickly reflect on a few of these in this article.… Continue reading
Read MoreCompiled by Karen Smith
Among the global targets set at the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference, COP 15, in Montreal was an agreement to cut global food waste in half, and significantly reduce over-consumption and waste generation, and reduce by half, both excess nutrients and the overall risk posed by pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Denis Crawford
Gardening for wildlife has been in vogue for some time, but gardening for insects seems to be gaining in popularity. How do you create an insect garden without increasing pest numbers?
This Pest Files was inspired by an article I read on BBC online titled ‘Why you should let insects eat your plants’.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Denis Crawford
Several invasive insects currently of concern to the horticultural industry have something in common – the ability to travel long distances in horticultural material.
If reading a newspaper recently might make you think that we are under threat from invasive insects from all points of the compass, you would be right.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Denis Crawford
Conventional wisdom tells us that the bush will recover after fire, and that the wildlife will return. It’s not that simple.
I’m not likely to forget February 13th 2024. It was the day a bushfire descended on my local town of Pomonal, destroyed 45 homes, many sheds and other structures, kilometres of fencing, and over 2700 hectares of bushland and private land.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Patrick Regnault
When selecting plants for our landscape projects we look for well-formed, healthy, and disease-free plants with a well-developed root system. Nurseries spend time and effort finding a mix that is right for the stock they produce, and their geographical location dictates the type of media to which they have access.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Denis Crawford
Insects that spread plant diseases are known as vectors of that disease. It’s important to know that some insects are more efficient vectors than other others.
Insects which transmit plant diseases are mostly sap-sucking insects of the insect order Hemiptera.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Denis Crawford
Butterflies are desirable in gardens because they are indicators of a healthy environment. Unfortunately, they are under threat from climate change.
People enjoy seeing butterflies fluttering around their gardens and in bushland. Butterflies are considered to be harmless, perhaps with the exception of the cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae), and they are often quite large, colourful, and aesthetically pleasing.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Denis Crawford
We all know about the natural enemies of pest insects, but did you know that beneficial insects also have their enemies?
I have often said “for every insect out there, there is probably another insect that wants to feed on it or breed in it”.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Clive Larkman
Biosecurity refers to all levels of plant and animal imports. There is a federal department within the Department of Agriculture called Biosecurity Australia and they set the rules for all imports. This includes surprising issues like the importation of cars from countries where they are often parked on grassed areas before shipping.… Continue reading
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