This supplement is additional information to the following article as seen in Issue Eight:

Gardening on Acreage (pp. 24-29)
...for extra topics covering weeds, propagation on the cheap and wildlife.
by Arno King FAIH Landscape Architect – Brisbane

Weeds
Weeds can be bad, but especially bad on acreage properties where they can quickly get out of hand. Interestingly many acreage properties are surprisingly weed-free when compared to suburban or city gardens.

Make sure you don’t introduce weedy plants or seed. They can be introduced with plants, machinery, mulch and soil. Keep an eye on unwanted introductions particularly when large scale garden work is occurring. Remove and destroy any suspect plants before they can grow or reseed themselves.

Many of my friends have a quarantine site on their acreage garden. Newly introduced plants spend some time in this area and are examined for unwanted passengers. In particular, look out for nutgrass, wild onion and oxalis. You don’t want any of these plants in your garden.

Propagation
Many popular plants are easy to propagate particularly some of the tried and true faithfuls. You can go out to a garden centre and buy your plants but given the volume that may be needed, this can be costly. Often it is preferable to get some stock plants and propagate from them yourself.

This is fun, satisfying and very economical. A shadehouse or sheltered area with ready water can be helpful to shelter the young plants. There are many courses available on propagation, as well as books, DVDs and gardening programmes which focus on this subject.

Wildlife
Local wildlife can often be a feature of larger properties, particularly if you have some larger trees, dense areas of vegetation and bushland nearby. Find out about local animal species in your areas. You may be able to attract some of them to your garden by planting specific plants.

In my area there is a concerted effort to plant Pararistolochia vines to attract the Richmond birdwing butterfly.

Remember many native animals prefer people food and the vege garden and fruit trees can be a prime source of food. You may need to share.

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