Useful And Fantastic: The Experimental Garden
"You too may help to save the world with an experimental garden!'' writes Val Yule.
I run a lot of little experiments in my garden, such as -
* Discovering which plants thrive on the ashes from my Chinese garden stove.
* What scares possums and rats from eating my green tomatoes. (Not too much success with this. The possums and rats launch successful counter experiments).
* Finding ways to re-use things rather than throw them away - things such as large paint cans and margarine tubs.
* Hiw to cook garden plants in new recipes, plants which grow easily such as silver beet, herbs and rhubarb.
* Composting orange and lemon peel to find out if it makes good fertiliser for my lemon and mandarin trees.
* Seeing how much water can be saved.
* Discovering which exotic drought-proof plants attract Australian birds and non-pest butterflies.
* Protecting the tomatoes with plastic bags which rustle at a touch. Exploring the possibility of having solar-powered sensors which will light up at night when creatures start to prowl. The sensors might possibly growl Scat, but not loud enough to wake the neighbours.
