The Earth Garden Path - Discussion Forum

RE: Help for obese children [ Kid's Stuff ]

Raffles?

RE: Help for obese children [ Kid's Stuff ]

I find this very interesting considering that, as a teacher and a parent, I am keen to get some money to build a new playground at our school.
We looked into funding schemes yesterday and there are no longer any available to support such a project.:o

RE: Warratah [ Plant advice ]

:)Do you know which cultivar of waratah (Telopea ) it is as they can vary a lot between height and conditions. Morning sunn and afternoon shade sound ideal for most of them. If you prune it after flowering they can be kept smaller and bushier. Just make sure the soil is well drained and don't feed it anything other than a native formula of a slow release fertiliser like Osmocote for Natives. No manure at all, a little compost is ok and mulch with say eucy mulch, leaf litter or straw/hay, just not up to the trunk. Just remember nothing with phosphurus in it, and never give it grey water.

RE: Chopped Lucerne [ Gardening ]

:)You can grow Tagasaste (Tree Lucerne) in the cooler parts and slash it for mulch, just be careful as can be weedy. Also If you can get hold of a shredder, process branches of wattles, broom (NO seeds or flowers) Bracken, even young blackberry stalks (again no flowers or berries), pile up and dry it for a few weeks first.

RE: Chopped Lucerne [ Gardening ]

:D hahahaha thought they were good little gardeners?

RE: Chopped Lucerne [ Gardening ]

My brother's grows lucerne to bale on his property . When we visted him last holidays I told my little girls to pick as much as they could pack it into the car but I think we came home with 2 stalks:o
It's hard to get good help these days!:)

RE: Scones [ Need help with this ]

I make my scones in a food processor. Saves lots of mess and is always a success. You have to make sure you just mix until it is mixed (Does that make sense?):)
My favourite are apple and cinnamon.

RE: Caring for ex-battery hens [ Chooks! ]

Apparently in some battery hen places when they stop laying the conditions are changed and the hens are made to think day is night and night is day. This stresses them out, forcing them to lay for another 7-14 days. During this time they lose a lot of their feathers and at the end, when they have no more eggs to give, they are killed. Even though they are free range, perhaps something like this happened. People are horrible with the things they thing up and do.

RE: Caring for ex-battery hens [ Chooks! ]

When we had chooks and they started to lay eggs with softer shells we always mixed some shell grit (crushed sea shells) into their feed. The eggshell would start to become harder after this.

RE: Warratah [ Plant advice ]

Hmm think they can grow fairly tall...over 10m (if you let them).

Unless you intend to keep it pruned you might be better off moving it further away from the house.

Help for obese children [ Kid's Stuff ]

I see the Rudd government are pretty active in their campaign to reduce chidlhood obesity. This is a pretty good story on the subject with some interesting links.

[url]http://www.ourpatch.com.au/australia/users/pippas83/blogs/567-tackling-childhood-obesity[/url]

RE: Carpet snake? [ Animal and bird spotting ]

Better a red belly black snake than a brown snake! Walk loudly.

Should not have to panic over there being snakes about...just remember that there are and be observant ....carry a long stick so you can poke about the leaf litter etc before sticking your hands in.

RE: Chopped Lucerne [ Gardening ]

Green Harvest and Eden Seeds sell them.

pm me an address and I'll send you some Annette.

RE: Carpet snake? [ Animal and bird spotting ]

We have red bellied blacks around here, but I've only seen them when they cross the road. Apparently, they're quite good to have around because they keep other nasties away, and don't particularly want to have anything to do with humans. Just hope they don't touch the cat and chooks. Think I'll make sure to put shoes on from now on.

RE: Chopped Lucerne [ Gardening ]

Can you tell me where you buy pigeon pea seeds? I keep hearing about it, but have never seen it anywhere.

Warratah [ Plant advice ]

I've planted a warratah (?spelling) which gets morning sun, it is about 6 foot away from a building so is sheilded from the afternoon sun. It has been in the ground for about 3 months, is about 1/2 m tall and is looking fairly healthy atm.
However, I am wondering if this is going to be the right position for it and what future maintenance it will need.

RE: Caring for ex-battery hens [ Chooks! ]

My supposed ex free range ones were in exactly the same condition, so I'd love to know what they do to these birds that brings on this condition. I felt mine were stressed and layed out. one has since turned into compost as I tell the kids, and one took ages to come good. She went through stages of appearing to be constipated. She would sit all ruffled up for a day, then come good, she had a really messy vent. Anyway I thought she would never come back on the lay but she did! Her eggs and huge and are always accompanied by poo and blood, so not real flash. The other one still is laying eggs with soft shells. I wormed mine soon after transport, they are on organic laying mash, I started making a daily feed of mill run & meat meal and mixing it with warm milk. A chook lady in Vic told me nothing puts condition on chooks faster than milk every day. Of course preferably fresh from the goat or cow - which mine wasn't. Also because I felt they were stressed I put some Aust. Bush Flower Emergency essence in the water for a few days, and they really started growing feathers back after that.
It may be a molt not finishing properly but I wasn't convinced because my others were perfectly fat and healthy at the same time.
Good luck! I decided to get some young point of lays is a much better idea for next time!!

RE: Chopped Lucerne [ Gardening ]

Grow your own mulch if you can...pigeon pea is great I reckon...grows fast, breaks down slow.

RE: Hi from Western Australia [ Joining members welcome ]

Welcome Blueskies:D............you'll have a lot in common with most of us here then;)

RE: Carpet snake? [ Animal and bird spotting ]

I saw a huge black headed python a few weeks ago, easily over 2m long....and true to form when I stop the car to say hello it curled up and started hissing at me. Am amazed how black and shiny their heads are. Beautiful creatures.

Wish I had my camera with me :(