DFB's Greenthumb Project

[Citroënbender]

Thank you!

It didn’t somehow “feel” like a Magnolia but I was otherwise clueless. I’d thought Viburnum spp had smaller leaves. Looks like its only been hacked a couple of times, not really attended to. Unless you tell me it’s at risk of putting up water shoots I’ll probably prune it hard soon.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

Thank you!

It didn’t somehow “feel” like a Magnolia but I was otherwise clueless. I’d thought Viburnum spp had smaller leaves. Looks like its only been hacked a couple of times, not really attended to. Unless you tell me it’s at risk of putting up water shoots I’ll probably prune it hard soon.

I have pruned back a couple of these very hard before and they have come back very nicely.

The most common small leaf Viburnum would V.Tinus. A plant known for it's hardiness, making them suitable for areas of high pollution and traffic, think school yards and carparks. Viburnum Tinus is a very slow grower though.

[DFB FGXR6]

Jack of all trades, master of one? Maybe, but I'm happy enough pretending to be a real man making new plant surrounds/supports for the nursery.

Last week, all the timber was cut to length and pre-painted...............



Today, I assembled the legs/uprights, then secured the diagonals at 45-degree angles, followed by attaching joist hangers which will help join the two uprights together.



More to come................

Side note, I nearly became a cabinet maker before following horticulture.

[DFB FGXR6]

Dressing some re-used timber to join onto the angled sections of the new plant stands. These are off the ones we are replacing, so have been sitting in the nursery for 12+ years..........and all the moisture that brings. I will run a sander over these and allow them to dry out for a week before painting them in a fresh coat of blue.



Ideally, I would have preferred to use fresh timber to save time/labour getting these prepped for use, but it's taken me 5 years to finally be able to replace these plant stands, I pick my battles.

[roKWiz]

Geeze, I wonder why they are being painted dark blue.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Geeze, I wonder why they are being painted dark blue.

Most of the buildings are in dark blue and red, so blue continues the theme. I wanted to just stain them to mix in with infostructure in the display gardens, but again, pick your battles.

[DFB FGXR6]

This project is taking longer than I would have liked after several distractions: customers, stock receivals, staff shortages and setbacks with the prep work all taking priority.

Instead of simply dressing and painting new timber, the two pieces that join the angled sections together have been reused. These required re-dressing and beveling of the edges, sanding, filling and painting before I could start assembling.

Today, I finally started to assemble!







Because a couple of timbers couldn't be saved, I have two more to finish off with new timber. I then need to do a second, final coat of paint and they will be ready for use. (You will see two different shades of blue, the lighter version was the remainder of an older tin of paint and used as the base coat.)

In case you hadn't guessed, these contraptions help keep taller plants upright on windy days.

[Citroënbender]

A “real world” question for you.

Are frangipani particularly sensitive to glyphosate? As in, if you splash or mist the lower bark with a normal dilution, does it hurt them?

It’s not a loaded question, just that I’m planning to use some fairly near a few of these trees and don’t want it to bite me on the backside several weeks later.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

A “real world” question for you.

Are frangipani particularly sensitive to glyphosate? As in, if you splash or mist the lower bark with a normal dilution, does it hurt them?

It’s not a loaded question, just that I’m planning to use some fairly near a few of these trees and don’t want it to bite me on the backside several weeks later.

I don't think they are any more sensitive than other plants.

Just keep your spray pattern on the heavier side to avoid drift from a finer mist, and even consider using a piece of cardboard to shield the plant as you are spraying.

[Citroënbender]

Thanks, it sounds like common sense will keep me on the right side of things. After your comments about rose bushes and glyphosate I’ve been extra cautious.

[DFB FGXR6]

Spent most of today applying the second coat of paint to the new plant surrounds.

However, the triumphant part was the two I painted last Saturday made their way into the nursery today.

As you can see, we got our money's worth out of the old ones! These had been patched back together numerous times over the last decade, some got a new timber here or there, some were held together with metal straps and several tec screws to get them through. Even though these are made of treated pine, keep in mind we basically make it rain every night with the irrigation system, so they are always wet.

This particular one took little to no persuasion to dismantle!





New ones put in place and ready for plants, in this case Camellia's.





Very satisfying to see this project come to together from start to finish. Even a customer remarked how good they look. Sadly, I wish everyone shared that sentiment, some people just can't be pleased.

[DFB FGXR6]

The last of the newly constructed plant stands went into use on Friday, a very satisfying moment.

Attention now is on saving as many of the old versions as I can, which at this stage will be four, perhaps five if I can find space for it in the nursery.

Last Friday, I removed as much rotten timber as needed and started pressure washing each savable timber to strip away old paint, moss and dirt accumulated over many years.

On Saturday, I started reassembling with what I had on hand, filling and sanding where required. That continued today, replacing sections with new timber as required. I also gave the re-used steel legs with black rust killer.







These stands are constructed differently to the new ones, but the concept is the same. These ones will be used to hold up taller native trees, refreshing a part of the nursery that has been annoying me for a while.

You may remember me being a bit critical of re-using some of the old timber on the new stands. Well, adding new timber to the old stands seems very counter intuitive, but the boss pays my wage and I follow the lead. In fairness, repairing these old versions was not originally on the cards, so having an additional 4 to 5 stands with minimal outlay at this stage is a bonus.

I just have to install the steel legs and re-paint them and they will be ready for the complete overhaul of this area of the nursery.

[DFB FGXR6]

JOB DONE!

After getting a chance to attach the iron angle legs this morning, I went to work stripping out the area where these stands will call home.

Of course, I was so intent on getting this started that I forgot to take a photo of the area before all the plants were removed. The pics make the area look smaller than it actually is.



Gravel raked and leveled, pre-emergent herbicide applied to limit weed growth for the next month or two.





After a lunch break, spent on the phone arguing with a useless online pet chemist supplier, it was time to bring these stands into the nursery. With every staff member, including me, having back issues at the moment, this posed a bit of a problem. In the end, it was decided to strap, raise and cart them in on the forklift to make things a bit easier on the wounded workers.



Now it's time to redisplay all the plants that call this area home. This is the plant/nursery equivalent of car detailing for me, where I tinker and tinker until I like what I see. This is the best bit about projects like this; when the ideas in your head come to life and the reason why you have worked so hard up to this point.

It's all a balance at this point. Maintaining easy access for staff and customers around each display, grouping plants together for ease of shopping, grading plants in height so that they look pleasing to the eye, positioning taller plants where they can be tied or supported on windy days, fitting everything into the space allocated. If it doesn't look right or fit, you do it again until it does.







As you can see, the sun had begun to fall by this stage of the day, giving you an idea of how long this sort of thing takes. And I still have some tweaking to do before I can be 100% happy.

Of course, it never stays looking like that for long; sales, a windy day, incoming stock ect are all variables that mean things can change on a daily basis.

Now, I just need to have my back crunched back into shape and it's onto the next project........................it never ends!

[DFB FGXR6]

Today was unusually quiet customer wise, so I had plenty of time to finish off tweaking and redisplaying the native area.







Over the last couple of days, this area has become much easier to sell and shop from, which is ultimately the whole point of what I do.

[Citroënbender]

You need a welder there, and a supply of CorTen steel. Nobody will notice that the artistic welded plant stands are actually car ramps stood on end.

[Rallye Sport]

Nice work there DFB
Noticing a few WA natives in that lot, Agonis, Oleria, Adenanthos and Thryptomene. We're lucky to have so much biodiversity over here and theres no shortage of local plants for all situations.
The annual plant sale at Kings Park botanical gardens is a ripper for hard to get gems. You need to get there early everything goes in a flash.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by Rallye Sport

Nice work there DFB
Noticing a few WA natives in that lot, Agonis, Oleria, Adenanthos and Thryptomene. We're lucky to have so much biodiversity over here and theres no shortage of local plants for all situations.
The annual plant sale at Kings Park botanical gardens is a ripper for hard to get gems. You need to get there early everything goes in a flash.

I would say natives are not my usual preference, the ones I do like are typically softer, less "native" looking.

Correa, Thryptomene, Agonis, Scaevola, Grevillea Mt. Tamboritha and Lady O, Tristaniopsis luscious and Philotheca are plants that can be blended into either native and non-native gardens.

The Adenanthos is an interesting one. Typically, they require very well drained soil and resent wet feet, to the point where we need to be mindful of how much water they receive via hand or automated watering. The southern and surrounding areas of my town have thick, sticky clay soils, not ideal for Adenanthos, meaning some will struggle to grown them.

[Rallye Sport]

I think plants from the Darling Scarp region would best suit you're area, heavy clays and granite with more rainfall than the sandy, coastal plain of Perth.

My interest in natives was forced to start with, managing 75ha of parkland I was constantly faced with ever decreasing water budgets. The call was made to go zero water in the carparks and most of passive areas, which meant a crash course in local natives.

Then I moved to the golf courses where I was first tasked with a revegetation project. I'd always studied part time so enrolled in Land Management.
It was about this time I heard an inspirational talk by a golf course architect. It was all about 'sense of place' and working with the natural surrounds to make the course speak of the local area. Quite the opposite of the normal course design principals of taming the environment for the sake of the game.

So thats how I became a born again native lover, spreading the gospel any chance I get

[DFB FGXR6]

I have had a busy week refreshing several display areas.

When I started here 20 years ago, a lot of stock was displayed on the ground in boring straight lines. I hate having stock on the ground, the pots gets dirtier, are more prone to weed growth and in some cases, the roots can grow through the bottom of the pot and into the gravel underneath. These are all maintenance issues and take up valuable staff time to address.

As you have probably seen, a lot of the off-ground display is on drums made out of rolled Colorbond. The rest are on tables that are a mixture of long galvanized steel benches or square painted timber benches, both of which would be approaching 30 to 40 years old.

Everything else has been displayed on the ground or on makeshift tables made out of whatever was on hand at the time. In an effort to make a cleaner, less cluttered look, this week I went about refreshing and redisplaying these areas in particular.

Now, this won't win awards for carpentry precision, but compared to the hodge podge of what was there before, I am most pleased with the results.

In this case, I have used old pallets with reused timber legs attached at varying heights to create some interest. I also love how this is all modular, allowing for easy display or layout refreshes as needed.













These pallets are not treated pine, so their life within the wet environment of the nursery will be limited to 12 - 18 months. The legs are treated pine, so when the pallet has deteriorated, I can simply remove the legs and attach them to another pallet. The key thing here is cost................as in free! The boss is happy because it meant not having to spend any money other than for my labor and a handful of screws, and I'm happy because I get added tables to better display plants.

I still have a couple of areas to continue with next week, but overall, I'm happy with how this has made the place less cluttered and more cohesive looking.

[stock1991]

Looks great, what about the species? Do you push the locally indigenous, i am not an expert but looks like a few natives there.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by stock1991

Looks great, what about the species? Do you push the locally indigenous, i am not an expert but looks like a few natives there.

All plants shown in my previous post (#769) are non-native shrubs (Lavander, Hebe, Philadelphus, Berberis, Choisya, Metrosideros, Hellebore, Stachys, Scabiosa and Ceratostigma).

We don't necessarily stock species unique to our area, but we do stock plants that are mostly suitable for our growing conditions, down to -4 in winter and up to 45 in summer.

There are exceptions, but the sale of those is clearly explained to the customer and ultimately, it's up to them to provide suitable placement of a frost tender plant or one that needs shade in the summer.

For example, Bougainvillea and Passion Fruit love our summer heat, but strongly resent frost. On the flipside, Hydrangea deal with the cold and enjoy morning sunshine, but they hate sunny hot afternoons, especially so if also windy.

[stock1991]

Locally indigenous , ala natives make gardening simple but I know lavender thrives too

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by stock1991;6808964[B

]Locally indigenous , ala natives make gardening simple[/B] but I know lavender thrives too

Correct, you end up not having to deal with soil, water and climatic compatibility.

[GasoLane]

Knowing that you're something of a Victa fan have you got one of these? I couldn't even guess as to it's age. Found on one of our BSS sites

https://www.facebook.com/commerce/li...are_attachment

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Knowing that you're something of a Victa fan have you got one of these? I couldn't even guess as to it's age. Found on one of our BSS sites

https://www.facebook.com/commerce/li...are_attachment


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OMG, I'm foaming at the mouth from the sight of that!

Those slasher mowers were made up until recent years, but were discontinued around the time the two-stroke was canned. Not enough money in it for greedy Briggs and Stratton then.

These were mostly powered by the two-stroke engine for the added grunt cutting through rough, tall grass, but B&S and Honda's were used as well. They were not big sellers, I haven't even seen one in person. The basic machine carried on for decades and was named differently, I think the last of them were called MasterCut 600..................







The old alloy based Victa's (Mustang, MasterCut, Mulchmaster 550 and so on) were proper Aussie-made quality. It's a shame a greedy American company took them over and economized the hell out of the company. Don't get me wrong, the current Victa's are the best mowers on the market, I just wish they were still in Australian hands.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

OMG, I'm foaming at the mouth from the sight of that!

Those slasher mowers were made up until recent years, but were discontinued around the time the two-stroke was canned. Not enough money in it for greedy Briggs and Stratton then.

These were mostly powered by the two-stroke engine for the added grunt cutting through rough, tall grass, but B&S and Honda's were used as well. They were not big sellers, I haven't even seen one in person. The basic machine carried on for decades and was named differently, I think the last of them were called MasterCut 600..................

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The old alloy based Victa's (Mustang, MasterCut, Mulchmaster 550 and so on) were proper Aussie-made quality. It's a shame a greedy American company took them over and economized the hell out of the company. Don't get me wrong, the current Victa's are the best mowers on the market, I just wish they were still in Australian hands.

Speaking of greedy I thought that asking $280 was a bit much.


When would you like me to pick it up for you?

[Citroënbender]

I’d love it otherwise.

But realistically, weeks off heading to the Riverina.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Speaking of greedy I thought that asking $280 was a bit much.


When would you like me to pick it up for you?

Tomorrow, if you can.

I'll give your car a detail in exchange for delivery.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

Tomorrow, if you can.

I'll give your car a detail in exchange for delivery.

If you buy it I'll deliver it free.......I'm getting withdrawal symptoms from not driving

[DFB FGXR6]

Kept myself busy over the last couple of days by continuing the build of new display tables.









Having finished off the non-native shrub areas, I moved attention to this area in the natives that has been bugging me for a while. It's sort of a dead spot that hasn't displayed very well for a while now. This is also one of the more visible areas of the nursery, so a facelift was well overdue. Today's effort is my favorite so far, turning out way better than what I had in my head.





The legs might look like new timber, but they have been taken from the old timber pile out back. I have been checking and removing any nails before resurfacing by running the planner over them. My MSA 140 chainsaw has also been called into action cutting pallets to size.

This is all self-motivated work by the way, and it's been great looking forward to something at work.