Pete's Plant Pages

For anyone in the area I'll be giving a talk on Productive Gardening in Small Spaces at Tea Tree Gully Library on 27/4/23, please follow the link,

Productive gardening in small spaces Learn how to maximise your garden space in this gardening workshop.

For anyone interested please check out the WEA website, both classes are next month.

WEA South Australia - Adult Education for Lifelong Learning WEA South Australia - Adult Education for Lifelong Learning

I had a very enjoyable session today at Unley Community Centre on the topic of Pruning, a popular subject and well attended. Pruning is so popular that my next 2 sessions for WEA are General Pruning and How to Grow and Maintain an Espalier.

We had another very satisfying session yesterday, Growing and Maintaining an Espalier which was well attended. To those people who would like a copy of the student-friendly version of my notes I am currently reworking them in light of your feedback and will send them out as soon as I can.
Thanks to all who came.
Happy gardening.

We had a good session yesterday at WEA. The General Pruning class was full and I believe the Espalier class next week is too. This is good news but I'm sorry to hear some people missed out due to restricted class sizes. These sessions are usually held at least once a year so they should come round again. Alternatively I can do one on one or small group sessions at your place. Drop me a line if this interests you but I'm only able to do them in the local Adelaide area due to travel restrictions.
This is my espaliered nectarine in its third year and just prior to its first prune of the summer.

Gardens still grow regardless of covid. My next sessions are for WEA in Adelaide. General Pruning 17/10/20 and Growing and Maintaining Espaliers 24/10/20. For more information please go to

WEA South Australia - Adult Education for Lifelong Learning WEA South Australia - Adult Education for Lifelong Learning

This is our back yard now and when we moved in in 2013. Then we had only the bird equivalent of weeds, starlings, ring-necked doves and blackbirds, now we have natives; crested pigeons, New Holland honey-eaters, mynahs, Murray magpies, w***y wagtails, wattle birds and even some galahs occasionally. unfortunately we don't see any lizards as our neighbours have cats. Cat owners who let their cats out to roam are responsible for the death of billions of native animals every year.

For anyone looking for horticultural help I have made student-friendly copies of many of my teaching topics in powerpoint form which I can email or post to you. I'm also thinking of doing one on vegetable growing as this might be quite relevant. Gardening is very therapeutic but I feel I may be preaching to converted on that score. here's a list of topics;
Attracting Wildlife to Your Garden
Birdscape Your Garden
Espalier
Fairy gardens (children)
Gardening in Changing Climate
Gardening in Small Spaces
Gardening Without Soil
General Pruning
Growing Citrus, Berries and Vines
Growing Deciduous Fruit Trees
Indoor Plants & Clean Air
Plants for Pizzas (children)
Veges & Herbs
Natural Pest Control
Ornamental pruning
Productive Gardening in Small spaces
Propagation
Pruning Deciduous Fruit
Recycled Garden
Rose Growing
Rose Pruning
Succulents
Terrariums
Compost and Worm Farms
Xmas/Easter Wreaths
Tree Week Talk

If you are interested drop me a line at [email protected] I charge a mere $10 for each topic. Stay safe and happy gardening.
Cheers, Pete

Secateurs Sale
Bought for customers who changed their minds and now available at low cost. All are brand new, still in their packs and never been used. Felco are commonly recognised to be the best brand and usually expensive. Spare parts are available for all these secateurs so they should last a lifetime.

From the left:

Felco 17 (1 only)
Left-handed, small hands, rotating handle, easy to use, many find the rotating handle reduces hand stress.
RRP $130
Sale price $99

Felco 31 (1 only)
A robust pair of anvil cutters, many professional pruners prefer this type. This blade is easier to sharpen than the curved one.
RRP $93
Sale price $70

Felco 13 (1 only)
For two-handed use, these are great if you have weak hands or wrists, especially arthritis sufferers.
RRP $130
Sale price $99

Felco 904 (3 only)
These great little sharpeners make sharpening easy, just run the sharpener firmly along the cutting surface of the blade several times. Sharpen without stripping the secateurs, light and fits in your pocket. It even gets deep into the throat where the pruning cuts are mainly done.
RRP $62
Sale price $40

For those of you interested in less toxic weed-killers I have been trying this product. I used it on soursob, middle photo is after 2 weeks and one application, third photo is after 3 applications and 4 weeks after initial spray. Results appear to be promising but it remains to be seen if all the bulbs, bulblets and tubers are dead. The active ingredients are salt and acetic acid.

It was a big week for me with sessions at Blackwood Library, WEA and Marion Library, thanks to all those who attended. Welcome to any newcomers to the site. My next sessions will both be Gardening in a Changing Climate at Hindmarsh Library 4/9/19 6:30 till 8:30 and at Unley Library 5/9/19 from 7 till 8:30. This is proving a popular topic and looks at how we can still have rewarding gardens in the dryer weather predicted for the coming years.