Boo's attempt

[boo]

You are so right pa_friendly_guy, we are also lucky to have wonderful people volunteering to do the same for us.

[andrew_k]

G'day from Kyneton, Boo

I am truly impressed that you're growing banana and moringa. Really. Having grown up in the very subtropical mountains behind the gold coast, I know all too well how far we are from good banana climate down here in central VIC.

[boo]

G'day Andrew and welcome from Maryborough. I've had a sneak peek at your permie garden - very nice!

Well, the banana (lady finger) saga is a very sad one (I'm lucky it's still alive after frost burning it every year since I've been here) and the moringa's are in the pipeline still (I intend to get a couple when this heat is over and try my luck with them). The heatwave this summer has really knocked my garden about so I'm researching a better way of "evolving" my garden to cope better with the extreme's.......I'm not sure if I should move my plum tree's when they become dormant this year (they dropped all their fruit and they look decidedly unwell). I really need to pack the plants in here because it's less than the normal town block.

I mulched a section of garden with rocks just to keep the dogs off it and that portion is coping OK even in 36-44 degree C heat for weeks on end and no rain for months (hand watering only). The vegetable garden was mulched thickly with sugar cane mulch which did nothing to protect it from the heat and even watering by hand from the rainwater tank most nights couldn't save most of it - even the raspberry plants are looking "crispy" now. My garden is a sad sight but this year is the year that I (hopefully) get it right.

[Lollykoko]

Yes, that beacon of hope says perhaps this year everything will come together and work like it should. Crispy berry canes don't sound too wonderful, but aren't you supposed to cut berries way back after they fruit?

The only berries I have to deal with right now are the wild ones in the woods, but my reading seems to say that berries grow best on new canes and the old ones should all be cut away. I plan to take some heavy duty cutters with me the next time and will cut a couple of patches down near ground level to see how they come back. This is the year when I'd like to plant several berry bushes of different varieties. If I plant some and KNOW what they are, it will make identifying my wild varieties a lot easier, I think.

[pa_friendly_guy]

You are right Lolly, cane fruit will bear fruit one year and that is it. That cane should be removed after fruiting so that the new canes that will fruit next year will have more energy and more space. Some hybrid plants will fruit in the spring and the fall but that cane should be removed after the fall picking. A friend of mine who is really into cane fruit told me to top the cane s after the plants are established. The cane will send out maybe 4 new shoots from the pruned end. This gives you 4 places for the berries to form instead of just one. I have not really tried his method on my black berry patch yet but it makes sense to me. He cuts the canes off about waist high for easy picking.
It sounds like you have had a really hard summer Boo. I have read articles about how hot things were in your part of the world. Unmerciful is the term that comes to mind. I hope your trees survive the intense heat. Do you think that making Hugalbeds would help hold the moisture from the rainy season through the dry season? With the extremes that you have to contend with you need to find a better way to hold the moisture in the ground through the very hot summers. More organic matter will help hold moisture, but with your extremes you may need more than just a layer of mulch on top to shade the ground and help hold moisture. When you look under the layer of mulch is the ground moist under the mulch? If you decide to move the trees and replant them I would consider digging down deep and putting in logs at th bottom of your planting holes. That will encourage the roots to run deep for the moisture and help the tree establish a deeper root system which should help. The sun and heat are baking the soil surface, so the deeper the trees roots the better.

[boo]

Lollykoko you are correct but my berries hadn't finished fruiting when the extreme heat hit - I didn't want to cut them back until much later because I figured that even though the top of the plant was getting crispy, the more ground cover that I maintained the better for the survival of the plant. I lost half of my raspberry plants but the survivors are OK - we've had severe thunderstorms for the past 2 days so my garden has received a good natural soaking

pa_friendly_guy the ground didn't stay damp very long at all. I hand watered late at night to give the plants more time to absorb the water but even that didn't stop the damage being done. During the really hot days we've had here there has been strong northerly winds which were really hot and seemed to strip every ounce of moisture from the garden (even my succulents didn't survive because they were too young/small to withstand the heat). I am thinking seriously about the hugelbeds as a way to ensure that the fruit trees survive......is it possible to make hugelbeds around established fruit trees (without transplanting them) or will I damage them? Even my raised and mulched beds didn't help the vegetable garden because the wind dried out the soil during the day even though I watered most nights by hand and I was giving them a really good soaking.

I left the natural vegetation (weeds) that grew where I hadn't made a garden just to protect the soil, but even the weeds couldn't survive with what we've had here. All of the established native trees/shrubs survived really well as did the huge old oak, it was only the "introduced" species that struggled. My apples, banana and orange trees are doing great - peach, mandarine & plums not so great! Sounds like another "learning experience" doesn't it

[pa_friendly_guy]

I don't think I would try to build up too much soil or hugelbeds on top of the ground around planted trees. I have heard that as little as 4 inches of soil added around an established tree can kill it. It shuts off the oxygen to the roots. You might try going out to the drip line around the trees and digging down there to add the logs. The tree roots should stop about the drip line so you shouldn't disturb too many of the feeder roots. it may take a year of two for the tree roots to reach the moisture in the logs, but once they get there it should help some. I understand your reluctance in trying to dig the trees up and replant them. There is too much chance of damaging the root system that they have already established. Your idea of laying large stones around the trees might help hold the moisture. The rocks will shield the soil from the drying winds as well as the sun. When you pick up a stone you normally find that it is moist under it. George's idea of using split fire wood as mulch around his young trees might work for you as well. same idea as the stones, but the wood will rot and so it might hold more moisture. From what you are saying moisture is the Key. Watering at night was a Great idea I thought. That makes a lot of sense to me. I may not have thought of that but I liked the idea. You have an advantage in watering because your yard is small so you do not have to haul the water very far. That is a big deal from my point of view,
The Indians in the South West USA used to build little clay walls around their garden beds. The clay wall was about 4" high or so and the clay would bake solid like adobe. The idea was that the walls would shelter the young plants as they sprouted from the dry dessert winds and help with evaporation. Once the plant was established and grew above the walls it was strong enough to survive the winds. I do not know if that idea would be helpful in your situation, but it might help some. I am guessing that no one thing will solve all of the problems that you have to deal with. I look at it like a puzzle and each thing that you can do to improve the situation is just another piece to that puzzle. Good Luck

[boo]

[pa_friendly_guy]

Here are some old pictures of the Indians gardening techniques. The squares they made were fairly small, maybe 3 ft X 3 ft. That way they blocked the wind well from any and all directions.


http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0o ... ype_param=

They thought their small squares also helped to conserve water and slow evaporation. The technique was used before we had any real way to irrigate fields here in the US. There are a number of links about the Indians gardening there, but look at the pictures, they show the small squares with the raised walls to protect the plants.

[Lollykoko]

Interesting technique that would be useful in low water situations, Guy. There were lots of good links on that search page!