Re: The 'Down Under' Gardening Thread
 

Thanks for the links, will check them out, but like Ozzie says I'd like to see a 'Gardening' thread on here if possible .... :)

Re: The 'Down Under' Gardening Thread
 

Yehp shared experiences etc etc.

I'm going to try and kick start my tardy bamboo.... It's doing ok, but I was led to believe it would be a lot faster.

Hence I'm going to let it really dry out before watering it next time around and hopefully that will give it a boost, like a desert explosion after a drought..... I've been told to keep it moist, so going against advice with this idea. I know it's a tough plant, so should be able to cope. I think this stuff that was raised in Queensland needs a kick up the rear to bring it into line with Victorian conditions.

.

Re: The 'Down Under' Gardening Thread
 

Now this isn't the first time I'd heard this about 1.5m minimum, and always had me worried it 'might' be causing them to stunt.

Sooooo at midday in 38C heat yesterday, I decided it would be a good time :blink: to pull one out, move it a metre to the right, and it turn leave 2m between the next (then was gonna pull every other to leave 4 canes with 2m apart all of them)

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps4aeb851b.jpg

Then! ... I had a brainwave :blink: about checking next door's to see the distance apart as I've never noted.

Popped next door and this is theirs...

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...psba8fcfd5.jpg

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps46d3b6e7.jpg

That's my Cactus on the right of 2nd pic ... :)

And then the distance apart...

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...psdb5dd3fd.jpg

Some have as little as 7-800mm apart!!! ... :eek::eek:

Sooooo, have decided that distance apart CAN'T be that important as these have blossomed well and look lovely IMHO. They planted at 4' and fed furtiliser from the off regularly. Once they took off (3 yrs later I now know) they left alone and haven't touched for years!

Sooooo, am now back to this...

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...ps950b3174.jpg

I threw that lil fella in as I now had a spare hole and might as well fill it!

I dossed them up with fertilizer last night and soaked all of them for prob an hour in total.

See how we go!

Re: The 'Down Under' Gardening Thread
 

From the photo's you posted, it looks as if the time of day was about midday and your neighbours plants were in full sun while yours seemed to be in full shade. Also the neighbours property seems to be a couple of foot higher than yours, so a couple of questions spring to mind.....

Are your plants getting enough sun and are they are getting too much water/ fertiliser caused by the run-off from the neighbours garden ?

With so little sun and so much water, you might be killing them with kindness.

Re: The 'Down Under' Gardening Thread
 

Can't you just swap yours for the neighbours ?:sneaky: (not during daylight hours of course :lol:)

Re: The 'Down Under' Gardening Thread
 

The neighbour also suffers from the nationwide Aussie fetish of trying to torture his grass to death by cutting it too short.

You could be onto something their re the sun.... although I reckon it's either 10.30am or 1.30 pm as there is a little bit of shadow fromt he roof rather than directly overhead. Still should be more sun on the palms than that.

I had hell with my canary island date palms... viscious things they are with their murderous spikes. So I'll never own another palm.

Be interesting to see how formal hedging would go up in Queensland.... would it be too fast and a labour of love.

Re: The 'Down Under' Gardening Thread
 

I wholeheartedly agree with this and just to add also, how long did it take for the neighbours palms to reach this height? I'm not saying the OP's palms won't grow at all being so close together, but given room to grow and mature will speed up the process!

Re: The 'Down Under' Gardening Thread
 

Ok mine are not just over the fence, but on the other side, so both are on the left as you walk away from house and face mostly East. Our garden faces North with a hint of North East.

The canes will get the same sunlight as the neighbours, and I reckon with them losing it around 2pm at the earliest (will check for sure tomorrow if home early) and getting it at 5am or, that's 9 or possibly 10 hrs if they still have sunlight at 3pm. We get sun in the garden till 6pm ATM, but only on the other side of the garden after say 5pm.

Oh and I've only watered a fair bit over last fey days as I've moved that one about, plus I've added some fertiliser which said to soak through after application. Normally if they've not seen any rain for a week, I'll give each tree a min or so of water in the evening.

I 'think' the neighbours have had theirs in for 7 or 8 years, but will ask them next time I see em. The max they could have been in is about 10 years as my house was built in 2001 and there's a year or so later. Was a case of first and almost last in the street, which only has about 25 houses in it. She def said tho that not a lot happened in the first 3 years, but once the main stems started rising, they was off! They reckon theirs haven't grown for a year or so now too.

Oh and we're actually a foot or so higher than this neighbour, a foot or so lower than the other side which is where my canes are.

And lastly, neighbours pics were taken at 10.30am this morning (Sunday), and I took my pics Friday evening between 4 - 6pm. I did start early, but have a sun canopy that covers this area anyway, and put it down once the sun had popped behind the fence.

Re: The 'Down Under' Gardening Thread
 

Here's the current state of our golden canes. They are fairly close together (the shed is 6m wide) and they have neither been watered nor fed after planting. (Our garden has to self-supporting). The shed faces east so these don't get sun for most of the afternoon. Palms naturally seed very close to each other and grow like that. We've found that stuff we plant is slow to get going until it establishes its own patch of microclimate with other plants, then they all take off.

The only thing not mentioned so far is mulch. All our stuff gets mulched, then we don't water it. We get the free mulch from the green waste, and we get trailers and trailers full of it. Mulch and kill weeds.

We have planted 1000s of trees and shrubs since we moved here 6 years ago, but cleared millions of weeds. Some things can be short-lived naturally (eg some grevilleas, acacias, wax-flowers etc) but palms are quite difficult to deter.

Re: The 'Down Under' Gardening Thread
 

I am not much of a gardening expert - has been just over a year since I discovered this passion :)

Am growing a fair bit of herbs, veggies & fruits growing in our gaden (citrus, fiejoa, peaches, egg plant, baby potatoes, ginger, garlic etc)

I'll try to keep up with this thread - am just very busy for the next 1 month and hopefully will be a more active participant after that.

Meanwhile this is a link to photos of my garden :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7017220...7631233024842/