Ethno Garden 2.0

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Edited April 6, 2010 by lsdreamz

[Inyan]

Minimum and maximum temperatures would be nice to post as well as how long to expect those temperatures as not all of us are going to research these things to help you out. Based on your Brugmansia growing there though and the particular type of Brugmansia you have going. I would need to know what your desires are. For me, I would plant one or two more Brugmansia in that spot. Sure, you could plant many more, but what I would be going for with that would be a screen to protect your cacti that you also seem ready to plant in this area. You don't want too large of a screen though as you want to create even more shade for your cacti seedling bed... again, something I'm assuming, as well as for your cacti that might like to be out of the direct sun in midday temperatures. The one or two Brugmansia I would pick would be ideally extremely fragrant and or in color... preferably something to contrast the colors of the flowers you already have. A nice pink suaveolens x aurea or a pure or almost pure pink aurea would be my next hybrids to choose from in that area. That or a nice dark rich double orange candida. Candida are typically not as fragrant as the former though. I would also till up or hoe up that small patch of dirt first. Dig out the soil completely down to a depth of twelve plus inches. Refill the bottom 6 inches with composted manure where you are going to plant your Brugmansia while utilizing your own soil to mix into this soil for a good 50/50 mix. This will still leave you 6 inches to top dress around your Brugmansia to be. You want to be careful not to create pockets of standing water as your cacti will need to be allowed to dry out between waterings. With this in mind, you could dig deeper just in the one or two spots in a 12 inch circle right around your Brugmansia to ensure any water that may collect underground flows towards your Brugmansia as they can withstand a heck of a lot of water as well as fertilizer run off. The top dressing immediately surrounding your Brugmansia should be relatively light and airy for optimal growth, but need not extend outward too much. The most important will be the top two-four inches of soil mixture as many Brugmansia rely on this 2-4 inches of soil for optimum growth when they are not pot grown. A pot grown Brugmansia has different needs and adaptations that suit it of course if you want optimum flowers and growing in pots directly in the soil allows you to uproot and move your Brugmansia to a different location much easier if that is your desire. I prefer to grow my Brugmansia in ground when at all possible though. You could of course run a PVC pipe with many holes drilled into it and put these around your Brugmansia as well. These PVC pipes, if your careful to keep them above ground and allow them to sink to the bottom before putting your soil into the ground will allow you to water your Brugmansia directly from these pipes and to control exactly where the water is going and to what depth or depths the water is released at. Placing funnels or bottles above these pipes will allow you to collect more water faster as well as rain water contributions. The bottom line, you will have to water less frequently and get better growth. Some people use 2 liter coke bottles inserted into the soil in much the same way for the same effect, its up the the individual gardener as to how much or little to put into projects like this. Other than Brugmansia which I have raved on about for long enough... Psychotria would also grow well in these spots and would be one of my choices for a nice bush directly underneath my Brugmansia or several feet away on their own. A Banisteriopsis cappi vine to grow along the fence on the opposite side or you can also allow one to grow up your Brugmansia if you don't expect your vine to get too big. Lastly, my suggestion would be a nice Tabernanthe iboga for edible fruit production. Perhaps you could be so lucky as to acquire different varieties and start your own seed production. As a general rule of thumb, I like to have two, at a minimum, of everything I am currently growing and preferably those two will genetically unique from each other as you never know which plants are not self fertile and which ones while self fertile could throw out some nice hybrid seed for you if left alone or otherwise painted with your own hands. Genetic diversity is a must in a small garden area like this for me. I wish you luck with your endeavors. I like the idea of a seedling area as well though and never forget that you may may decide to keep those seedlings in the ground or simply keep that area weed free so you can plant your seed trays in the ground themselves as this makes for easy removal of all of your seeds once they get a bit bigger. Simply lift the seed tray out of the dirt when it comes time to transplant.

[Torsten]

you can't grow anything on the dark side of the moon, except for maybe mushrooms. if however you are in sydney, you could be in one of 2.5 climate zones - all of which would dictate a different set of plants.

if you can't be bothered providing climate information in your profile then I can't be bothered suggesting plants. And as some people still think the climate field is a joke rather than a courtesy to OTHER members [so that other members can learn from your plant posts] I will do the same disfavour.

Don't bother fixing it cos I don't see any point in people only updating their climate field when it is for their own advantage rather than everyone else's.

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Edited April 6, 2010 by lsdreamz

[Garbage]

Perhaps some of the more extreme Passiflora species would thrive,some fabulous flowering ones exist and may even attract butterflies and moths.

Your brick wall isn't doing much horticulturally at present.

Another thing that springs to mind would be a raised platform running the length of the wall at about 8 ft,made of decking with a handrail and wide enough to accomodate various troughs and planters whilst also allowing a walkway and trellis.

Passing into the realms of the fantastic yet further you could have a circular raised platform at one end accesible via a trapdoor perhaps,lounging on your deck in summer you can look down on a sea of folliage.

Further still and a large dome of trellis sits over the circular deck and with various vines provides an outside room.

[Inyan]

Cappi love water and respond well to heavy watering when planted in the ground. I'm not sure about your hook set up, but if it is done right it could work. Cappi can grow out a few feet and then wrap itself around small twine, wire, etc. that is kept taught enough... even a chain link fence would work for that purpose, but remember it is going to be hard to unwrap from that kind of set up the older and thicker the vine gets. Your Black Datura is most likely a Datura metel and as such will grow better in full sun and is less forgiving of over watering and colder temperatures than some other Datura. Spider mites are a problem with Datura as well as Brugmansia. With that said, you have to bite the bullet and use a systemic on them if you want perfect growth and little maintenance. Again, this is going to affect what you want to plant next to them as its okay to plant seedlings and such that aren't going to be eaten any time soon if your using systemic insecticides and if your not, your going to want to be weary of planting any cacti too close to them. You have to choose these things wisely. If your big on organic solutions or more natural solutions to mites, etc. then your going to have to know that more time is going to have to be invested in fighting these things off of your Brugmansia. I love Brugmansia, but I'd hate to see a cacti collection devastated by mites as well. You can of course opt to use systemic insecticide solutions that you wipe onto the leaves... wearing protective gloves, so as to ensure that your other plants are not affected. Many systemic insecticides only last about 6 weeks with Brugmansia so if this is the case you can always switch to a non-systemic insecticide for a few weeks as well. I treat my Brugmansia collection with pepper spray and plenty of water when I go to a non-systemic program and I start this program 2 weeks before the systemic is supposed to start depleting itself from the plant. Just be careful you know what you are doing. Its nice to have a bed just for cultivating and looking at, but its also nice to have another bed that is for other purposes like growing those vegetables, etc. in. If you rotate plans as some do, make sure you keep them marked so you know how long it was since they were exposed. If you don't have a clue as to how long a particular systemic stays in a plant... use your brain.... research. Sorry, I know I'm giving more potentially useless and unwanted information, but I do tend to ramble.

[Torsten]

awwwright then, I am in a forgiving mood .....

SW sydney gets pretty cold. There are pockets where the absolute minimum can go -4 or below. In these areas viridis willl probably not survive outside. Caapi is actually quite hardy once established, so if you have a mild winter and a couple of good growing seasons then that might be enough to protect it. Also, being on a brick wall will be a huge help.

Trichocereus are mostly cold hardy down to -4.

Plant your pachanoi and lageniformis cacti close to open shrubs - the cacti will thrive in the semi shade, will look quite stunning when they poke through the foliage, and it will save a lot of space.

Brugmansias will die back to the root at about -1, but will survive as long as the ground doesn't freeze too deep - ie fine in your area.

Catha - the red one will die back in frost, but like brugs will bounce back in spring. The narrow leaf strains appears to be much hardier as I have seen it grow in gardens that get severe frosts.

I'd definitely make use of that huge wall. It is a solar heat sink so you can get away with planting tropical vines there. Most vines like to grow higher up so you can have one lead wire to take the plant to 2m and then fan it out over the whole wall. Caapi would do well. Woodrose probably not too great and also looks ugly for 6 months. Rivea looks good, but will probably not produce seed down there. Caapi is the cold hardiest of these vines.

A border of Acorus gramineus will keep the mulch off your path.

Sceletium could be a good ground cover under plants that don't produce too much shade. Ditto for Mammillarias - they form nice mounds that can cover large areas.

Jaborosa would add some highly ornamental flower bulbs and grows better down there than withania [same actives].

You could even put a small mate tree into the corner.

[Chiral]

Failing all that you can borrow the local alley boys from round my way..they are getting quite good at spray painting all kinds of stuff now..I bet if you offer them a durrie they could paint any tree, vine or sexy mutherfucking ethno cactus on that big ol'e wall for ya. Save ya heaps on plant costs and ya get dizzy looking at it spiral up the wall.

SW sydney gets pretty cold. There are pockets where the absolute minimum can go -4 or below. In these areas viridis willl probably not survive outside...PPPPFFFTTTTT...oh great...ah well who cares..gotta be the most uninteresting plant I've ever grown...although the way it forms those new shoots is pretty cool..how they double up and kinda stick together before opening....whats that called when they do that...?

But yeah boring as batshit to me Viridis...Caapi is cool like the twists and turns and curls..least it does something.

PM me when you want those alley boys and their spray paints..there isn't much room left on my back door and garage door for anymore work and I'd hate to see them run out of space to spray their tags and warez.

H.

Edited January 2, 2009 by Hunab Ku

[Torsten]

PPPPFFFTTTTT...oh great...ah well who cares..gotta be the most uninteresting plant I've ever grown..

It's quite pretty when it is covered in red berries and white flowers contrasted against the dark and light green leaves ....

only in the tropics though.

[Garbage]

Hunab ku is just pissed because the city ordnances prohibit the horticultural use of nightsoil.

Growing up i would often look out of my window to the hills in the background and then the block of garages in the foreground,at some stage someone had sprayed or painted 'Bidet' in white capital letters.

Fastforward some thirty years from when i first noticed it and some sod has repainted 'Bidet'in red and then repainted'Bidet'again in white.

My Brother assumed 'Bidet' must be a person wheras i assume it must be a bathroom accessory.

Why bother?

[Inyan]

Sceletium and Mammillaria, now that is a nice idea for a ground cover. As for viridis, it does tend to grow slow so if you get freezes its a good idea to let it grow in a pot and sink that into the ground. You can pull it up later when the temps start to drop. You can protect your Brugmansia from minor freezes of short duration by placing a cover over them. I've used everything from blankets to shade trees to produce a cover that protects them from slight dips down to 0 degrees. Still, if it gets much colder than that or stays at that temp for more than a few hours you might also want to consider bringing your Brugmansia in for the winter... i.e. keep it in its pot and sink the pot in the ground. You can make your Brugmansia go dormant simply by placing it in your basement with the lights turned off or keep it growing slowly if you place it by a window. Be sure not to water too much though or your Brugmansia will rot when it goes dormant.

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Edited April 6, 2010 by lsdreamz