Another Q&A packed with practical gardening advice, from curl grubs and sick olive trees to thrips, blueberries, wicking beds, Boston Ivy and growing your own passionfruit.

🌿 Plants Mentioned

Vegetables & fruit

Tomato — Solanum lycopersicum
Cauliflower — Brassica oleracea var. botrytis
Blueberry — Vaccinium spp.
Lime — Citrus × aurantiifolia
Lemon — Citrus × limon
Black Passionfruit — Passiflora edulis

Ornamentals & natives

Olive — Olea europaea
Lavender — Lavandula spp.
Rosemary — Salvia rosmarinus
Ornamental Pear — Pyrus calleryana
Snow Maiden Grevillea — Grevillea 'Snow Maiden'
Crepe Myrtle — Lagerstroemia spp.
Banksia — Banksia spp.
Boston Ivy — Parthenocissus tricuspidata
Climbing Fig — Ficus pumila

Plants mentioned as companion/mulch options

Pea Straw — Pisum sativum
Lucerne/Alfalfa — Medicago sativa
Pine — Pinus spp.

🐛 This Episode's Questions

Curl grubs: How to tell beneficial yellow/orange-headed grubs from root-eating black-headed cockchafers.

Olive trees: Supporting mature olive trees showing possible signs of Verticillium wilt, including irrigation, soil health and root support.

Cauliflowers: Identifying whether slugs, snails or earwigs are responsible for damaged leaves.

Rice hull mulch: Why Keith doesn't recommend it as a mulch and alternatives including pea straw and lucerne.

Thrips: Why Success isn't effective against thrips and how Eco-Oil and Eco-Neem can be used.

Blueberries: How often to repot, pruning advice and maintaining acidic soil.

Limes: Why ripe limes can turn yellow — and what happens to their flavour when left on the tree.

Grevilleas & Crepe Myrtle: Can they grow together? Plus designing a garden to provide succession of flowering and attract birds.

Wicking beds: Advice for hot climates, reducing watering requirements and automated irrigation.

Boston Ivy: Why it can take a year to establish and whether it can damage a metal fence.

Passionfruit: Growing black passionfruit from seed, protecting plants from frost and why grafted passionfruit can become invasive.

🧰 Products & Resources Mentioned

Original LOWY No.1 Anvil Pruner – www.backyardbotanist.com.au
Neutrog Populate – https://neutrog.com.au
Neutrog Go-Go Juice – https://neutrog.com.au
Munash Mineral Rock Dust – https://www.munashorganics.com.au
MycoGold – https://www.biostim.com.au
Eco-Oil – https://www.ecoorganicgarden.com.au
Eco-Neem – https://www.ecoorganicgarden.com.au
Clyde Compost – https://clydecompost.com.au
Digger's Club – https://www.diggers.com.au
The Plant Runner – https://theplantrunner.com

🏆 Plant Runner Giveaway: Congratulations to Gerry, this month's winner, for her question about her 18-year-old olive trees.

Happy gardening! 🌱

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