Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: Which Hardenbergia is that ? 2Feb 26, 2010 10:23 pm Fu might know.....I certainly don't. What I do know is that H. Violacea was a bloody nightmare in my front garden. It went mental and was very hard to control. No idea how they perform in WA.... Re: Which Hardenbergia is that ? 3Feb 27, 2010 12:03 am There are two types of Hardenbergia. violaceae and comptoniana. violaceae is the east coast version and the one heavily cultivated into fancy breeds. Ours is far stronger Both bloody cool plants and excellent ground covers and climbers. Cover a verge with one of these Now our comptoniana has what they call trifolate leaves. So the leaves appear on the stem in a cluster of three. They come from the main stem on one bit and that one bit has three leaves that come off it. Flora base shows it well http://florabase.calm.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/3961 This mob also show some ok info for them. (I have posted them because they are an amazing source of native WA plants that are grown in a community based nursery) http://geographelandcarenursery.mysouth ... omptoniana Also comptoniana has flowers of purple and blue. Violaceae has flowers of pinks and whites Re: Which Hardenbergia is that ? 4Feb 27, 2010 1:27 am I have been using several to jam nitrogen deep into the ground. I cut them back to stumps every 2 years. Eventually I will grub them leaving the roots only but its working well. The Gum tree responded instantly (in tree beard years) to the presence of one and with the roots sharing the same zone its no coincidence. The tree has bounced back, leaf miners almost all gone and its flush with constant vigorous growth you would expect from a young gum. When I cut them back I slash with a sharp chefs knife, razor steel 10 inches long. Once shredded it makes great nitrogen rich compost or ground mulch. I don't have a water tank here (yet) so the garden has to fend for itself. I use the plants to make their own mulch slashing back purple splash in spring and these. I then dig it through and cover again. I am not spending money on mulch yet.. Both grasses and the Hardenbergia blanket the ground with shade and keep weeds in check. Re: Which Hardenbergia is that ? 6Mar 01, 2010 9:11 am Righto, so the one I have does not have tri-folate leaves, so is violaceae I assume. Fu, is it worth having a go with this one in our front garden bays (Geraldton, full sun, coastal) or would it be a waste of time and go and get the comptoniana ? cheers BTW - Redman, I dont understand your post, does cutting back the creeper push nitrogen out through the roots which the tree takes up ? Re: Which Hardenbergia is that ? 7Mar 01, 2010 11:12 pm It has roots like Pea, acacia, hemp etc that fix nitrogen into the ground. With these though their roots go quite deep so the gums or other trees can get at soluble nitrogen that other plants can't. Cutting it back does not destroy the bacteria colonies that the roots support, its these colonies that fix the nitrogen, the roots play a symbiotic part in that process. Wiki is on the ball http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legume Once the plant is removed (killed off) the roots continue to fix nitrogen for up to 12 months. This is one of my main arguments to legalising of hemp (not the funny toxic kind) so farmers can harvest protein from the seeds (soy only has 70% as much and half the omega 3) cellulose for paper products (a crop 100 miles long and 300 meters wide would oversupply the wood chip industry with pulp) and the roots replace almost all need to use chemical (and salt) based fertilizers that cost upwards or more than $90 per hectare per application. Basically its money in the bank uses 10% of the water soy does and grows in any climate. Most people don't agree but you really need to see the science before making the safe moral argument. Besides, I would rather Kimberly Clark source pulp (Toilet paper) from an Australian farmer rather than hacking their way through ancient arboreal forests in Canada. I hope you can see what that implies.. I have 4 Hardenbergia growing, 2 pea climbers (running postman) and several West Aus pea flowers. All of these are pumping loads of nitrogen into the soils. The yard is tiny, but I can't exactly toss loads of money at it until I have a reliable water storage system. Since the yard is small its going underground so no need to go crazy just yet. I am simply growing the canopy.. It started slow but once the legumes and nitrogen fixing plants took off, so did the rest. Its been quite interesting to observe the difference. I also applied Potassium sulphate - potash with which herbs (the edible kind) and natives alike have really enjoyed. Not bad from a depleted hard clay cow paddock in the north of Melbourne. Re: Which Hardenbergia is that ? 8Mar 01, 2010 11:54 pm Are you sure the herbs really enjoyed it or did you really enjoy it when you saw a stunning difference in growth? That change can be very far from healthy. Like a beer gut, wow look how big it is! Not healthy though Nutrients like that do tremendous damge to the vitality and health of a soil. Nutrients in the form of synthetic fertilisers are not what make healthy plants. They destroy the actual fellas doing the good work for you. The microbes One handfull of soil can contain as much a 5 billion microbes. I was talking with a bloke today who mentioned a fingernail with healthy soil can contain 1 billion microbes. Add synthetic fertilisers and smash that to nearly nothing. Your plants and garden will become like a drug addict. They will need synthetic fertilisers for survival. That is not a sustainable situation! Creating soil is even more important than creating nutrients. Create your own soils and the nutrients appear for you We as humans are absolutely, unequivocally fixated with nutrients and fertilisers as being what is required for a perception of healthy results when it comes to any garden or landscape. How wrong we are! Plants just don't work like that. We do. Re: Which Hardenbergia is that ? 10Mar 02, 2010 7:57 pm Have a go with the WA version (H. comp.) Your circumstances are pretty extreme, go with the best Black on light wood does look good. Not sure if it will be as long lasting as a steel finish? 6 6347 brokers will also be in a position to get you a better rate than the advertised rate most times. 6 7560 Thank you. Do I use timber floorboards for stairs or do people use timber treads? Or is both the same? 6 7256 |