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People Plants Landscapes
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25.01.2022 Crithmum maritimum is a useful ‘ornamental edible’ native to coastal Europe, often growing on cliffs or other stressful uncompromising sites. Here it’s growing in an unirrigated bed kept dry by root competition from neighbouring trees. I think it tastes good although the Plants for a Future database which I usually agree with gives it a mere 1 out of 5 on edibility and quotes one source as saying it tastes like a mixture of celery and kerosene Harsh!!! Try it for yourself, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Tough and useful landscape plant too #crithmummaritimum #rocksamphire #ornamentaledibles #perennialvegetables #tasteslikecelery #apiaceae #carrotfamily #mediterraneanplants #edgingplants #novelcrops #panc #burnleygardens #highinvitaminc #getitintoya
19.01.2022 Boroondara Cemetery being fascinating and beautiful as usual. I’m ashamed to be a Rose Philistine and normally they make me comatose in minutes but on Saturday the Cemetery’s Roses were stunning. If you’re frustrated that your planned trip to Egypt has been cancelled by the pandemic consider visiting the Egyptian Temple here, tomb for members of the Syme family, built in 1908. Speaking of the Mediterranean, how much does a Roman urn? The answer is ‘quite a lot’ in 19th centur...y garden cemeteries! Draped Roman urns were popular as memorials and at times controversial. They represented ancient pagan cremation rituals (even though close to one hundred per cent of corpses were buried in Victorian times). This reference to Pagans and cremation upset some Christian groups who weren’t very happy with neo-classicism while others (ie strict die-hard Presbyterians) saw it as a chance to make an anti-Papist (Catholic) statement where crosses and angels were popular. The River Red Gums here are magnificent both on site but also in the distance in Victoria Park next door. Meanwhile I found another memorial hand pointing skywards #boroondaracemetery #symememorial #publicart #egyptianrevival #traveltoegypt #funerarysculpture #funerarymonument #cemeteryurn #neoclassicism #roseseverywhere #riverredgum #gardencemetery @ Boroondara General Cemetery See more
17.01.2022 Taste test Centranthus ruber (Red Valerian). Does it taste like Broad Beans? The answer is a firm ‘no’. Here I’m in sharp disagreement with former Burnley student Chris Ainsworth @cainsworth_horticulture . (Remember for all your horticultural needs in the Bowral region, there’s really no other option than Chris Ainsworth.) Putting dubious edibility aside this is an indestructible plant, easy to propagate and maintain and a classic ‘robust’ species as described by the Burnley Plant Guide (see photo after video) #centranthusruber #redvalerian #doesnottastegood #differenceofopinion #perennialvegetables
16.01.2022 Freshly divided and planted Hostas. I’m growing these as a food crop. Hosta shoots in spring are close to equal to Asparagus, just slightly less crunchy, and popular in Japan. By producing a lush canopy they’re less prone to weed invasion than Asparagus. Hostas are also shade tolerant so they’re another great vegetable for food gardens that don’t get full sun. The specimens shown here will almost certainly get scorched in summer although they’ll eventually be protected by the... Abyssinian Bananas behind them. Hostas are nightmarishly attractive to snails and slugs but the Burnley Field Station is a snail free zone for the most part. I first learnt about Hostas as a an ‘ornamental edible’ in Martin Crawford’s book on perennial vegetables but found true inspiration from @wild_food_around_the_world who did several posts on Hostas both in Japan but also in Canada #hostaplantaginea #perennialvegetables #justplanted #shadelovingplants #snailattack #alternativecrops #novelcrops #panc #edibleornamentals #urbanagriculture #citygardening #burnleyfieldstation See more
08.01.2022 What’s wrong with this picture? Well, Chokos don’t normally flower and fruit until around the March autumn equinox (Southern Hemisphere) in higher latitudes or when day length is 12 hours or less. This is because they’re ‘short day plants’ from the tropics that haven’t evolved where evenings are long in summer in higher latitudes. So why has this one jumped the gun? Chokos are perennial plants that die back to a crown in a typical Melbourne winter and begin re-shooting in lat...e August and early September. We didn’t get below zero this winter and this specimen (photo 2) didn’t die back completely. It was already climbing back up the wall vigorously by mid-September when we still have less than 12 hours day length in Melbourne. In short, this plant convinced itself to start flowering!! Eric Toensmeier in Perennial Vegetables describes a technique for tricking Chokos into flowering by blocking light from them to create the same effect! I have no idea whether these baby fruit will continue to develop as Chokos , while tropical, grow at altitude in the Mexican highlands and don’t like extreme heat. (The shoots are delicious so it’s still productive while you wait for the fruit.) Speaking of Mexico see the last photo for a sample of traditional Choko/Chayote diversity in Mexico, domesticated there thousands of years ago #chayote #choko #sechiumedule #babychoko #shortdayplants #daylength #planttricks #novelcrops #panc #agroecology #agrobiodiversidad #agrobiodiversity #plantsofmexico #perennialvegetables #urbanagriculture #backyardveggies See more
06.01.2022 Dug up this Striped Marsh Frog today, missed it by millimetres - very lucky, very relieved #stripedmarshfrog #limnodynastesperonii #australianfrogs #amphibians #urbanwildlife #urbanecology #urbanbiodiversity #luckyescape
05.01.2022 Boroondara Cemetery is a rich cultural landscape. 19th century garden cemeteries were designed to be visited and enjoyed, integral parts of the ‘urban parks movement’ and a direct response to the horrors of crowded graveyards and Resurrectionists (grave robbers stealing bodies for anatomy schools). They were largely ‘secular’ in the sense that all denominations had their section. In the 20th century they were often seen as examples of overblown Victorian sentimentality and a ...‘celebration of death’ that was ridiculously bourgeois, expensive and unrestrained as a result they were semi-abandoned and neglected especially after the Second World War. Sterile modernism replaced the burial culture with monuments with cremation and little plaques in turf. The upshot now is that we have these time capsule sculpture parks, with pockets of indigenous grasses like this Austrostipa scabra in Photo One. The occasional encounter with something properly sublime like this austere and imposing Celtic Cross hidden in the Cypress, lots of angels and a touch of neo-gothic (Cussen memorial); and then the work of putting the garden back into ‘garden cemetery’ , planting into graves with herbaceous species, small shrubs and, I hope, a whole section devoted to indigenous grasses and forbs. The hard work of Helen Page @wowy82 and the Friends has pushed this garden vision along for years and on-site gardeners like Ed Robinson and horticulture students from Melbourne Polytechnic are reviving what was once the whole point of the Cemetery- to be ‘gardened’. Finally, the funerary monuments are a mix of off the shelf and bespoke, the last photo one of the most startling- a hand pointing to heaven! #boroondaracemetery #gardencemetery #funerarymonument #celticcross #victorianangels #neogothic #austrostipascabra #australiangrasses #taphophile #sublime #anthropologyofdeath @ Boroondara General Cemetery See more
