Backyard forest garden

[MrAnthonyRizzo]

You have a lovely backyard forest garden. You should be very proud. Thank you for sharing!

[itachifan275]

awesome garden

[Turnitoffandmove]

It's beautiful. Just wondering why you are excited about the aphid colony?

[Tamaragriffiths1]

@Turnitoffandmove

I have a saying "Aphids on your roses means they're not on your brocolli" which isn't strictly true but it demonstrates a way of thinking about pests in permaculture - the problem is the solution. And when it comes to aphids, they are marvellous as they provide the food a hoverfly or ladybird MUST eat to turn into adults!

[Tamaragriffiths1]

@Turnitoffandmove

And - you can see I am excited...

We have aphids on our roses here, and no brocolli planted but to see them on a 'weed' that volounteers its services is a marvellous thing - and it explains why a patch of sow thistle in outback south australia was humming with hoverflies - they weren't eating the pollen from the flowers, they were laying eggs to eat the aphids! To farm hoverflies properly let your parsley and other umbelliferae go to seed so the adults have food too :)

[Helioforge]

Hi, those "assorted weeds" at 1:15 in the video, are lambsquarter, which is very delicious. I didn't know lambsquarter grew in Australia

[Tamaragriffiths1]

@Helioforge

We call it fat hen over here but it is lambsquarters - Chenopodium album

I love it, have experimented with eating the seeds like quinoa, lots of saponins and very grainy so I generally eat the small leaves fresh :)