Bush Tucker, Billabongs and Billy Tea Tour Links

Brachychiton rupestris, the Australian bottle tree -source of water for hunters. 

I'd like to thank everybody who showed up for the Bush Tucker, Billabongs and Billy Tea tour. We had two great tour groups and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for everybody, myself included.

Here are some links to sights that can help you start building your own bush tucker garden:

Plum pine page on Daley's Fruit site (a nursery devoted to bushtucker fruits) Plum Pine or Brown Pine - Podocarpus elatus,

Also an intro to Australian bush foods from that same nursery: Bush Foods Australia

Burdekin Plum (a bush tucker fruit that grows well here in Southern California) SGAP(Qld) - Bush Tucker - Burdekin Plum

A guide to Australian bushtucker - Telegraph

Aboriginal bush foods - Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust - Sydney, Australia

Video of 80's Australian TV series 'Bush Tucker Man', the inspiration for 'Survivorman'; explores bush tucker both plant and animal: Bushtucker man

In our library we have:

• The Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants Suitable for Cultivation
• Australian Plants

Australian grass tree. 

Bush Tucker, Billabongs and Billy Tea

Bush Tucker, Billabongs and Billy Tea

Bush Tucker, Billabongs and Billy Tea

Low Water Gardening Links

On Thursday March 20th I'm giving a talk about low water use gardening. Here are some links for the topics I'm going to cover:

Native American Foods:

A Fall Field Guide: Foraging for Nuts - Nature and Community - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Acorn Eating: A Santa Barbara Tradition | Fall 2012

How to Collect, Process and Store Acorns and Acorn Flour | Hunter Angler Gardener Cook

doczine.com/bigdata/1/1365559287_0b6a10bf03/acorns_and_eatem.pdf

Acorn Breakfast Recipe

Reflective Mulches:

Reflective Red Mulch Film - Tomato Plant Gardening Supplies at Burpee.com

Viagrow 25 ft. Mylar 2 mil Reflective Film-VMY130 at The Home Depot

Hydroponic Systems and Self-Watering (wick) Pots:

Viagrow Hydroponic Black Bucket Deep Water System (4-Pack)-V4DWC at The Home Depot

Eco Growing Systems 746125 6-Pack Growing System

Autopot 4 Pot System | eBay

Build Your Own EarthBox-Like Self-Watering Planters

Flora-Flow All-in-One Mat RED : Home Gardens

Opuntia

Recipe for Grilled Nopales

Bombs Away? Nooooooo!

Q. My Fucraea plant has dropped hundreds of little bombs during the last rains –what can I do with them? It seems a shame to waste them

The bombs you mention are the way the Fucraea reproduces –in time each of them can form a mature Fucreae –let’s look at the possibilities and which one is most compatible with the environment:

1.     Plant them around your property

a.         Only works if you have room for the 40+ foot plant –of course since the Fucraea that is producing the plantlets is going to die sometime in the near future you have at least one place to plant one of them.

b.         You’ll be looking at the same problem 40-60 years from now.

2.     Pot them and…

a.           Sell them as house plants

                                                    i.     Fucraea are full sun plants and only those in sunny windows will survive

a.     They get quite large and may quickly outgrow the spots they are placed in

b.     They require much better air circulation than most indoor areas provide

b.           Sell them as outdoor landscape plants

                                                    i.     Better option than 2a but you would require a retail nursery license in order to do so.

3.     Plant them surreptitiously on public and private land

a.           Most Fucraea do not scale well to what is considered ‘classic’ guerilla gardening

b.           Trespassing is illegal

4.     Compost them and:

a.           Mulch them around your replacement Fucraea

                                                    i.     Returns Fucraea specific nutrients to the soil

                                                   ii.     Creates a look that is similar to what surrounds Fucreae in the wild.  

b.           Mulch other plants with them

                                                    i.     Fucreae seedlings are quite fibrous, and their persistence may look ‘trashy’

                                                   ii.     There is a small chance that they might exhibit a degree of ‘alellopathy’, a property whereby the decaying foliage of some plants and trees is toxic to plants and germinating seeds.

5.     Toss them in the trash

a.           Noooooooo...

Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer Links

PSHB Online Resources

UCR PSHB Page

CISR: Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer

University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources PSHB Page

Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer - Pest and Disease Threats to Southern California Oaks

Don't Move Firewood Page on PSHB -Contains Native and Non-native Host List

Polyphagous shot hole borer | Don't Move Firewood

California Avocado Page on PSHB

Identifying the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer Beetle | California Avocado Commission

Article on Initial Public Conference on PSHB Held at UCR in August of 2012

Have you seen a Polyphagous shot hole borer lately? - Green Blog - ANR Blogs

UCR Power Point Presentation on Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer

caforestpestcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/Polyphagous-Shot-Hole-Borer-update.pdf

UCR Today (UCR's online magazine) Article on PSHB -Includes Host List

UCR Today: New Invasive Beetle-fungus Complex Found in Riverside and San Diego Counties

UCR Page about Redbay Ambrosia Beetle

CISR: Redbay Ambrosia Beetle and Laurel Wilt

Study Group for Fungal-beetle Symbiosis

Ambrosia Symbiosis

Article on Native Bark and Ambrosia Beetles

essig.berkeley.edu/documents/cis/cis16.pdf

Infrared Imaging Trade Group Page's Article on Thermal Detection of Insects

IR Thermography for the Pest Management Professional