‘He Could have Died’ – Dangerous Gardening in Australia

Earlier this year, on Australia Day, I wrote about how ‘dangerous,’ life can be in Australia. By employing a little common sense means nothing dreadful will happen, if you do visit our sun-drenched shores. Almost without exception, Australians live our entire lives without contact with a deadly snake, a Funnel-web Spider or a Death Adder.

So it came as a shock to find that …

Pottering in my garden might have inflicted serious injury or death.

[NB. this tale does not involve use of a power hedge trimmer, or chain saw].

Enter Australia’s Stinging Nettle Tree, or Gympie-Gympie.

Called the Gympie-Gympie, by the Gubbi Gubbi First Nation People, it is also known as the Suicide plant. For good reason –

Two species of the Australian Stinging trees– the Gympie-Gympie (Dendrocnide moroides) and the Giant Stinging Tree (Dendrocnide excelsa) are considered the most venomous plants in the world.

Unlike its European or North American Nettle counterparts, the Australian species are ‘particularly notorious for producing an excruciatingly painful sting.’ Covered in fine hairs like hypodermic needles, Dendrocnide species inject their toxins into skin, at the slightest touch or by brushing up against the leaves.

“Severe cases can lead to shock, and even death.

Horses have been known to die within hours of contact with this plant and one man was purported to have shot himself to end the excruciating pain. He’d inadvertently used the Gympie-Gympie leaf as toilet paper when camping in the forest.

Even inhaling the hairs of a dead 100 year old herbarium specimen caused sneezing, rashes, and nosebleeds and pain! This plant really is dangerous!

Entomologist and ecologist Marina Hurley who has been stung herself, likens the Gympie-gympie’s sting to “being burnt with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time.” What’s more, the pain can last TWO YEARS!

And…..

Yesterday I discovered one growing in my Garden!

GASP!

Nature’s instrument of torture popped up along my garden fence, germinating shortly after Christmas, waiting to exact revenge on any life form that brushed passed!

That’s my dog’s furry ear is in the bottom right of the photo. How easy it would be to brush up against it while weeding! Being chemical stable, the toxins contained in the hairs are so minute, extracting them is difficult.

Needless to say, the M.o.t.h gowned and gloved up and disposed of the plant promptly. I am relieved the dreadful thing is bagged and safely disposed of.

Researchers are hoping to put this dangerous plant to beneficial use.

The poison in stinging trees was recently discovered to be a peptide, similar to some venomous spiders and cone snails, which also inflict terrible pain.

The poison works by binding to pain receptors in the nervous system, firing them up into a frenzy of activity. It’s hoped that working out how these proteins work may lead to the creation of new painkillers. [www.theguardian.com/e]

Christmas Gift Alternative – Plantable Christmas Cards

Christmas cards have short lives and are wasteful of resources unless you make them yourself from your craft stash.

I love this idea of plantable Christmas cards: When the card is finished, plant it along with the seeds in the garden soil. The seeds grow, and the paper decomposes.

You can even D.I.Y and make these at home from the craft stash.

Sending Christmas E Cards

E-cards still consume power. Look for ones that will donate to charity with every E-card you send as a way of helping those less fortunate.

Brainy Emotions

Ayurveda lifestyle has known for thousands of years the direct connection between the brain and the body. Emotion has an instant effect on the function of our organs, bodily tissues and just about every process the body performs on a daily basis. Studies have monitored the link between the brain and the effect.

We see an instant contraction and contortion of the liver when exposed to stress. After a long period of time, the body would slowly begin to suffer the consequences of insufficient organ function.

The same happens in the gut. The gut is known as the second brain.

Stress can literally halt gut function and cause issues such as IBS constipation, diarrhoea and can go on to cause cumulative disorders, allergies, skin conditions.

Disease is very much triggered by the brain as a reaction to our emotional experiences. Mental health is a basic foundation for well-being.

Where the thoughts go the body follows.

“We have to harness the power of our thoughts and protect ourselves from forces that can bring us undone and manifest as disease.”

Chasca Summerville

In the Garden Friendly Friday Challenge

The explosive delight of a Spring flower bud opening,

a field of poppies flourishing where once there was death,

the tenacity of a weed, seizing life in a crevice, this is the gift a garden offers.

Gardens are places where life blossoms,

blissfully ignorant of dire world events.

In a chaotic world, we search for serenity, and a Zen garden can, “help erase the stresses of everyday life,” with emptiness and openness amidst a balance of natural and man-made elements.

Zen gardens are meticulously planned and contain special elements that we might include in creating our own garden.

Zen temple Garden, Arashiyama, Japan

Zen Elements and Design in a Garden

Zen Gardens were created around temples to provide a quiet place for monks to contemplate. In a contemporary sense, these gardens can also be incredibly meditative for the people who visit, care and maintain them.

Hakone Ninja Institute, Japan

Composed of natural elements such as stone, plant, wood and sand, a Zen Garden might also contain footbridges, walkways and lanterns that are carefully placed to contrast the balance with nature whilst still inducing a peaceful, meditative atmosphere.

The meaning of each element, and how the elements balance and interact, is very abstract and subjective; the viewer is supposed to discover his own meanings. [Wiki]

Zen Garden Royal Palace, Tokyo

Sand

“The main element in a Zen garden is the raked sand bed. Properly, it should be small stones, or pebbles of granite, in irregular shapes. Round pebbles do not rake into patterns as easily.” [Wiki]

It may look plain, but a well-manicured bed of raked sand stems from the traditional Shinto belief that spirits need a purified space, of white sand, in order to make an area hospitable.

In contemporary Zen gardens, such as seen in Ju Raku En, at the University of Southern Queensland, in Toowoomba, Australia, the sand element might represent water and the raked pattern, waves.

The Japanese Garden in Toowoomba, Australia

Ju Raku En is a presentation of Buddhist paradise with the celestial sea (the lake) lapping the rocky shores of the three islands where the immortals are said to dwell. The material world is the outer edge of the lake and a symbolic journal to paradise may be made by crossing one of the four bridges to the islands.

Stones

One, or more, natural-looking larger stones are often incorporated in the sand beds of a Zen Garden. They are arranged in groups to resemble islands in the sea, (raked sand); mountain tops emerging from the clouds, or sometimes represent animals.

Mt Fuji above the clouds

Stones may also symbolise eternity, fertility and is similar to how people might look for shapes in the clouds.

Historically, the arrangement of large rocks was used as a political message and considered more important than trees.

In the gardens of the Heian period, Sakutei-ki wrote:

Sometimes, when mountains are weak, they are without fail destroyed by water. It is, in other words, as if subjects had attacked their emperor. A mountain is weak if it does not have stones for support. An emperor is weak if he does not have counsellors. That is why it is said that it is because of stones that a mountain is sure, and thanks to his subjects that an emperor is secure. It is for this reason that, when you construct a landscape, you must at all cost place rocks around the mountain. Japanese_dry_garden

Platform

Another important element in a Zen garden is a platform from where a viewer may sit, stand or contemplate the surroundings, searching for meaning.

Wall

The sand beds are typically sectioned off using a low fence or a wall. This signifies and separates the area of calm contemplation from the outside world and all its associated worries of life. Gates made out of wooden fences or cloth are called Torii and also symbolise boundaries.

Plants in the Zen Garden

Evergreen conifer trees are popular choices and provide an elegant contrast along with lichen and moss which is encouraged to grow on the rocks, simulating nature.

Guest Host for the Friendly Friday Challenge In the Garden

Sofia is our very special guest host for the Friendly Friday Challenge. Sofia is renowned for her stunning floral portraits and close-ups. They are a testament to her skills in, and her love of, photography. Originally from Lisbon, Sofia now finds Scotland a place where her garden flourishes, awakening as it is, to Spring’s calling.

Do check out her post here and join in with the challenge: everyone is welcome!

The Friendly Friday challenge runs for two weeks, after which Sarah at Travel with Me will post a new theme for Friendly Friday.

instructions-for-the-friendly-friday-photo-challenge/

The Bees Knees

When Greg North, Liaison officer for the Northside Beekeepers, first became interested in a new hobby, he was surprised to find little information for those new to keeping bees. However, that changed when he found the associations of Beekeepers, a group that’s been supporting apiarists and others interested in the management of European Honey bees and Native Australian (Stingless) bees, for over 40 years.

Why are Bees important?

Bees are the major pollinators of food crops.

“70 % of what we put in your mouth has been pollinated by bees. Mankind could not exist for more than four years without bees.” 

G. North – Beekeeper liaison

Bees love Cosmos flowers

Bee Society

A Honeybee society is highly regulated and democratic.

Not only are bee numbers adjusted according to the varying needs of the hive, but bee swarms also will not move to a new location until all bees are in agreement, communicating with each other through their waggle dance!
A bee democracy!

Every bee has its own role in the colony and works constantly to perform its duty. Although there are some that take it easy. Drones are like the playboys of the bee world, sitting around in the Drone Zone, perhaps reading playboy magazines, waiting for the Queen to fly past. Then it is time for them to do some work.

Bees and Climate Change

Bee societies may be highly regulated but one thing the bees can’t control it seems is the weather and that can dramatically affect food sources and ultimately, their survival.

The presence of flowers doesn’t always mean there’s plenty of food available for bees. A drop in honey yield may correlate with a lower than usual rainfall. In the drought of 2020, the flowers on the Forest Red and Blue Gums, (Eucalyptus tereticornis), were completely bereft of active bees or nectar-feeding birds.

Why?

The extended dry spell meant the trees only produced, ‘dry flowers,’ ones that are devoid of nectar, as an adaptive response to drought. A dry spring might also mean trees suppress flowering altogether. Without nectar, bees are without food just at a time when their hives are looking to swarm and reproduce. And no nectar means no honey.

Greg with a flow and regular hive

Native Australian bees look for all the world like insects and there are thousands of species. Unlike honey bees, they do not swarm and may be solitary.

Native Bees

How We Can Help the Bees

Homeowners can help the bees by incorporating bee-friendly plants in their gardens, particularly ones that flower in the drier months of September- December. Fruit trees, flowering shrubs including Grevillea, Callistemon, (bottlebrush), and herbaceous plants like Rosemary, Sage, Cosmos, and Marigolds are excellent food sources for bees.

European worker Honeybee

Fun Facts about Bees

• Bees swarm in spring with scout bees fly up to 70 sq. km in search of a new location
• Each female worker bee produces 1/8 teaspoon of honey in its life.
• A Queen Bee can lay up to 2,000 in a single day.
• A bee colony will not move until all the bees are happy with the chosen new location.
• Bees will replace an under-performing Queen Bee by swarming around her in a ball, raising her body temperature which kills her.
• Worker bees hatch from fertilized eggs and unfertilized eggs will turn into drones.
• Bees communicate with each other via a “waggle dance.”
• Australian beeswax is highly sought after for its purity and is largely exported for the manufacture of cosmetic products such as moisturizers and lip balms.
• Bees do drink water – they return water to the hive for the others to drink.
• The brood or nursery area of the beehive is kept at 35 – 37 degrees C to keep the bees alive
• Australia has up to 16,000 varieties of Native bees – some are easily mistaken for bugs.
• Native (stingless) bees are more adaptable to drought than European bees but the hives do not reproduce as fast nor do they produce the same quantity of honey.
• Council regulates the keeping of Honeybees on properties but Native bees are unrestricted.

Links

www.northsidebeekeepers.org.au/

instagram.com/northsidebeeks

facebook.com/northsidebeekeepers

Friendly Friday Photo Challenge – Odd Couples

The Friendly Friday Photographic challenge is about community and interacting with other bloggers, sharing everyday photographs of things from our world and is hosted by bloggers Amanda, here at ‘StPA’ (Something to Ponder About) and Sandy at The Sandy Chronicles.

On my afternoon walk today, I spotted two inconguous pieces of nature. Mushroom fungi are opportunists, taking advantage of recent rain, in our region. The fungi have no real place here, or do they?

Nature is usually the master of harmony, but sometimes things are found together that work well, but look decidedly a little odd.

Weekly Prompt

The prompt for this week’s photo challenge is

‘Odd Couples‘

Your odd couple might be two different kind of friends, animals or objects, or a contrast of two incongruous items.

It is an opportunity to showcase contrasting photographs and a fitting title for Valentine’s Day!

When I saw the two houses with vastly different colour schemes, and the two porta loos, or builder’s toilets, sitting side by side, they looked like a bit of an odd couple.

I should tell you that I live on a estate construction site, so it is no surprise that a new estate with multiple houses being built at the same time might have porta loos, side by side!

Here are a few more odd couples to get you thinking about this week’s challenge.

Leave a comment and pingback below tagging your post:

‘Friendly Friday – Odd couples.’

Please note the Friendly Friday Photo Challenges will run for one week, from Friday to the following Thursday, when the new weekly prompt will be released.

As I host the Friendly Friday Photo Challenge with fellow blogger, Sandy, at The Sandy Chronicles , you will find next week’s prompt published there.

Unsure of what Friendly Friday is all about? Find out more.

Something to Ponder About

Friendly Friday Photo Challenge – Raindrops

We have been so very desperate for rain in many parts of Australia, and finally the rains have arrived. They have come late in some areas, have received far too much in other areas, and not quite enough in still other areas. But the raindrops have been falling. Yay!

This is the same flower that has pride of place on my blog’s cover image

Rain is appreciated also by the thirsty plants which respond with a flush of growth and some with flowers.

Raindrops are also a photographer’s delight. After the rain is the best time for photographs.

The photo below is a microcosmic world in itself. The leaf forms are a metaphor for our planet, the raindrop a metaphor for the oceans, the individual drops the rivers and streams running into the oceans, and the minute hairs the people of the world, dependent on the water drop for life.

Some organisms are 90 % water. 60% of an adult human body is comprised of water.

Water is essential resource for life. Raindrops are precious.

Unfortunately, some creatures like the ones below also like the rain.

Mozzies

They are not so welcome.

Create a post sharing your interpretation of this week’s Friendly Friday prompt –

Raindrops

Instructions:

• Write and publish a post, tagging the post ‘Friendly Friday’, and adding a url link back to this Friendly Friday post.
• Include the Friendly Friday logo, found below, if you wish.
• Post a link to your Raindrops post in the comments here, so others can find you.
• Please note there are no deadlines for participating. New prompts each week.
• To see participating bloggers’ version of the weekly prompt, please browse the links in the comments section. It can be quite interesting to see the other interpretations.

Find more Instructions on joining in with Friendly Friday here

Friendly Friday Photography challenge is alternately hosted each Friday by
Something to Ponder About  

and

The Snow Melts Somewhere

Pingbacks – Needing help creating a link back or pingback to your post – click here

Something Fun to Ponder About this Friday!

Planning a Seaside Garden

Update on House Planning:

The builders are asking me to outline just where I would like the garden beds to go on our block. Already? I thought to myself.

Before the house has even started and before the final plans for the house are even drawn, I have to envisage and draw up a garden plan. Not the easiest request to fulfill.

But this is the process of construction that we follow. So I comply. Here is my rough sketch.

My scratching of the garden placement in front yard

We have saline soil, it is also a silty clay, and it is reactive, meaning it is prone to movement – the ‘triple bunger’ of worst soils. Fantastic! Not really.

Even sandy soils would have been easier to deal with, I think. But the soil tests don’t lie.

Salty Silty Clay

Garden Design

What kind of Garden do I want?

• One that is private, but not claustrophobic – some hedging plants
• Plants that require little weeding or maintenance
• Palms in pots?
• A retaining wall or raised garden to improve drainage as the soil will become easily water logged.
• A climbing plant espaliered along the fence?

Choosing Plants for Clay Soils

What plants would like to grow in poorly drained salty clay soil?

Beautiful lavender bushes at Amandine nursery

Lavender bushes will grow by the coast and will also tolerate salty soils, but need good drainage and thus a sandy soil. (which I don’t have). So they would have to grow in pots.

Perhaps I could grow some Bamboo in pots as a screening plant/informal hedge?

Apparently I could grow certain veges –

“..most productive plants require good drainage and soil that’s well cultivated to about 30cm depth for good root growth and development, beans and shallow-rooted vegetables such as loose-leaf lettuce can be grown in clay soil.

And then there is some ornamental species such as Day-lilies and Hydrangeas that like clay.

The BHG website describes Daylillies as Tough-as-nails. “It’s trumpet-shaped blooms each last only a day, but plants can bloom for several weeks because they produce many flower buds. Some varieties bloom several times through the summer.”

Nandinas are also very tolerant of clay soils and there are loads to choose from.

Winner Winner!

I was hoping to grow something easy to maintain – like this Nandina – tolerant of clay soils

As clay soils can tend to water log easily, care should be taken with garden design to allow for good drainage. Few plants are tolerant of water logged soils. If I lay down a good layer of loam on top, some ground covers might thrive as long as their roots do not become water logged. I can also improve the soil with compost and organic matter to aerate the clay, but it still is salty.

There are not that many garden plants that tolerate salty soil in high concentrations.

Here are some:

• Blanket Flower – sounds positively dreary
• Lantana.- No – it is a noxious weed
• Viburnum – maybe
• Yucca – Yuk! Enough said
• Cannas – I have an inexplicable aversion to these plants for some reason
• Prickly Pear Cactus – Seriously? – This is a pest that threatened to overtake farmland in the nineteenth century. Why would anyone want this in their yard? A definite NO.
• Lavender Cotton – previous info seems to exclude this range
• Seaside Goldenrod – another new plant I wasn’t sure about

Flowering native shrubs such as the Bottle-brushes, Melaleucas, might do okay in moderate clay whilst two Banksias: spinulosa and ericifolia are apparently very tolerant of clay. Even a Westringia might cope and they are a coastal plant. Sounding better.

I have successfully grown Banksias before from seed. You have to burn the cones to release the seeds

Lomandras and Dianellas are tolerant of all but the heaviest clay soils. Some sites recommend the ornamental grasses such as Pennisetem, for heavy clay soils, but as I am highly allergic to grass, perhaps I should forget about that species.

I think the iconic Australian native plants prefer free draining soils, and will struggle in clay soils without some soil improvement. Yareena™ Myoporum parvifolium is a native ground cover tolerant of a heavy clay. That might be useful. But sourcing this could be a problem.

The Native hibiscus might survive and Lilly Pillies are reliable for hedges or screens in clay soils.

“Clay soils can be very heavy and hard to dig, with a tendency towards water logging. While heavy clay soils will need significant improvement before most plants will happily grow.. Improved clay soils can hold nutrients well and therefore can be very beneficial to plants which like a lot of water and nutrient, including many large leaved or tropical plants.”

Kate Wall http://www.bestplants.com.au/about-us/a-guide-to-using-the-right-plants/choosing-plants-for-clay-soils

There seems to be hope that there will be plenty of plants that might grow successfully in my salty clay garden. Something I’ll Ponder About.

More things to research. Do you have any suggestions for me?