This was another on the weekend Waikanae Lions Garden Trail. Described as ‘compact’, it nevertheless is a good example of what can be done with limited space.

This is in the mountainous South Tirol part of Italy in the north bordering Austria. In fact it used to be part of Austria until 1919 but as Italy was on the side of the victors in WW1, it was given this region as a reward. However, despite many Italians being sent there in the 1920s, it is still predominately German speaking. Hitler didn’t try to take it back as Mussolini was an ally in the 1930s.

by Wally Richards

PROBLEM SOLVING

Yesterday I was watering the house plants that live in our home using a plastic watering can that has the rose head removed so it just pours the water out.

We have a problem with mealy bugs which I think arrived originally on a hanging plant that was a chain cacti. Cacti and succulent plants appear to be favorites of mealy bugs which live in the root zone sucking out goodness from the plant’s roots. The adults come up stairs onto the stems and leaves of the plants and are white like little blobs of cotton wool.

The adults are easy enough to keep under control with Wally Super pyrethrum.

Using a one-litre trigger sprayer, place half a ml of Wallys Super Pyrethrum into the one litre of water (it is a very concentrated product) and the bottle comes with a pipet that allows you to measure half a ml. a quarter, three quarters and a whole ml.

It’s so little used yet a deadly spray to hit insect pests with. The action of the spray affects the insects’ nervous system and kills them.

Pyrethrum has a very short affective life when exposed to light and in particular sun light so when you have any spray left over in the trigger sprayer, you need to put it into a dark cupboard to use again at a future time.

The adult mealy bugs can be sprayed directly when on the foliage to kill them.

The problem is with the young in the root zone and how to eradicate them.

Outdoors, I would say just sprinkle some Wallys Neem Tree Powder onto the growing medium where the container is watered and that will do the trick.

Indoors you may not like the smell of the Neem Powder as it breaks down indoors and it is more prone to molds which are aiding the breakdown.

So I have been placing Wallys Super Neem Oil into the watering can at around 5 ml per litre of water and watering that into the potting mix when watering the plants that have root mealy bugs.

The Neem oil and water mix gets onto and is taken up by the plants’ roots and thus when the bugs in the soil feed on the roots they get a dose of Neem and starve to death.

If you have the mealy bug problem with container plants you need to apply both treatments — spray and water — until no longer a problem.

Now, while filling my watering can at the kitchen bench where alongside was a bottle of dishwashing liquid, the penny dropped!

Why not put a nice squirt of dishwashing liquid into the water and Neem mix?

The reason is that in summer and dry times the growing medium of potting mixes dry out and do not accept water. Thus the water mostly goes to the sides of the container and out the drainage holes to fill the saucer below with water.

The plant gets maybe a little drink but is soon dry, wanting more water.

The water in the saucer may help or will, as it evaporates, increase the humidity of the air around the plant’s foliage.

By adding the dishwashing liquid to the water (I use warm water) it breaks the surface tension and allows the growing medium to accept water and be moist.

A nice trick to do three jobs at once: Neem Oil to kill any mealy bugs or other soil pests, liquid soap to make the water wetter and penetrate the medium, and the plant gets a much needed drink at same time.

At this time of the year indoor plants will need watering once or even twice a week to keep them happy.

Look for stressed signs of the plants; drooping leaves, darker than normal leaves.

One of my favorite tests to see if a potted plant needs a drink or not is to lift the container and if it is surprisingly light, then it is dry.

If it’s quite heavy then it does not need watering unless there are other indications such as drooping foliage.

Bear in mind a plant that has been over-watered can display symptoms of under-watering as the roots are rotting and the foliage is drooping.

So, for all you folks with collections of indoor plants. use the Neem Oil and dish washing liquid into the watering can you use; to water your plants.

Indoors the super pyrethrum can be used to spray flies and applied to places where they hang out or onto ceilings. If out of direct sunlight it can be effective in areas for several weeks. Use on carpets for fleas and moths, behind fridges and stoves for cockroaches.

Used against incoming ants, mix at commercial strength which is 2.5 ml per litre of water, remove foodstuffs from pantries and cupboards and spray shelving.

Spray where pipes are coming in under sink bench. Outdoors spray under the house in areas where ants are known to be and under eaves of the house for spiders (if you dont like spiders there, otherwise leave them alone they do a good job catching pest bugs).

This time of the year with soil in gardens and in particular lawns with dry conditions; a problem arises called dry spot.

In a lawn this is where a patch of grass goes brown and the grass around the area is lovely and green. Some mistakenly think it is grassgrubs that have eaten the roots of the grass causing the grass leaves to brown and die.

More often or not it is dry spot and even with irrigation system still the brown patch persists.

Put warm water into the watering can and a good big squirt of dishwashing liquid, lather it up a bit with your hand and water that over the dry patch.

It breaks surface tension and allows the water to penetrate. Then the brown grasses will come back to green again.

During dry times when it looks like it is going to rain it is a good idea to get the hose out and water your gardens. This helps moisten the soil so when it rains later on, the rain will penetrate into the garden and not run off taking top soil with it.

When buying seedlings this time of the year of vegetable plants you need to be aware that if they have been stressed at any time they will go to seed shortly after you plant them in your garden .

Look for the very small seedlings as less likely they have been stressed even if you need to grow them on a bit at home.

Now here is an exciting bit, I am trialing a product that helps keep bigger birds off buildings. I came across this imported product recently and have been placing the gel onto branches of my fruit trees near where there is fruit that currently are beginning to ripen.

So far it appears to be working on a nashi pear tree which the birds previously have been previously pecking at the ripening fruit. Since application there’s been no further damage, but early days yet. I will write more about this soon and if effective it will be a great easy way to keep some ripe for our use rather than feeding the birds.

Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at  www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

posted by Kaitlin Groom on New Zealand is awesome

Two once in a lifetime events here in Kapiti came together to make a crazy few nights! We couldn’t believe what we were seeing as the night got darker and the sea got brighter! Being able to capture the bioluminescence alongside comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) was an experience we’ll never forget!

Reinette Senum just published an article Burning Batteries: The Toxic Truth Behind Our Green Energy Illusion, so I thought I should add to it by posting this piece I have been working on that reveals another evil side of the scheme that nobody knows about. Shit is about to hit the fan; the clock is ticking.

While all of the mainstream auto makers are heavily pushing their EV line, people who recently purchased them are fed up with frequent trips to the dealership mechanic due to recalls, the electric function malfunctioning, motors and batteries burning out in the first year of use, not being able use the EV function in cold weather, in the case of the Ford Lightning, having to stop and charge twice (45 minutes per charge) to drive 280 miles only to discover the few charging stations there are not working, and other assorted issues.

While all of the mainstream auto makers are heavily pushing their EV line, people who recently purchased them are fed up with frequent trips to the dealership mechanic due to recalls, the electric function malfunctioning, motors and batteries burning out in the first year of use, not being able use the EV function in cold weather, in the case of the Ford Lightning, having to stop and charge twice (45 minutes per charge) to drive 280 miles only to discover the few charging stations there are not working, and other assorted issues.

Meanwhile, the US government is continuing to incentivize the purchase of these vehicles via a tax credit up to $7,500. Yes, the government is incentivizing people to purchase known faulty vehicles.

I thought getting tricked into buying a frustrating, time consuming vehicle that only works as promised sometimes (if ever) was the worst of the problems for the EV owners but boy, was I wrong. A manager at a Ford dealership gave me some shocking intel that I have never seen shared anywhere, so let me share it with you because sh*t is starting to hit the fan.

Read the rest

The more splits that happen between NATO member countries the sooner NATO is likely to collapse, which is what the world needs to happen. Trump has already told them they must increase their contributions to the military bloc to 5 percent of GDP, which is more than double what they currently do. Although most NATO countries are currently ruled by Globalist Leftist regimes intent on plundering the 2nd and 3rd worlds, with the exceptions of Starmer and Macron, it’s likely they will baulk at that.

The Danish PM told Trump to Stuff off.

Denmark is reportedly in ‘crisis mode’ after a ‘horrendous’ phone call from Trump to the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen who reportedly told Donald Trump that despite his ‘big interest’, Greenland was not for sale. He spoke to the Danish premier for 45 minutes last week and made clear he wanted to place Greenland under American control.

You have to wonder why Denmark wants to keep it. Its population is only 57,000 which is only slightly more than that of the Kapiti Coast. But it is a big chunk of territory — 2,166,086 km² even if most of that is covered in a permanent ice sheet — and attending to its needs must cost Denmark quite a lot.

Greenland is now autonomous in most things and Greenlandic is now the only official language although Danish and English are spoken by most of the inhabitants and the Danish krone is still the currency.

The US occupied Greenland (as well as Iceland) during WW2 after the Nazis conquered Denmark and there have been military bases there. Currently under NATO there is a US Space Force base there. According to Wikipedia, “In January 1968 a B-52 with four nuclear bombs aboard as part of Operation Chrome Dome, crashed on the ice of the North Star Bay while attempting an emergency landing at Thule Air Base.^[155] The resulting fire caused extensive radioactive contamination.^[156] One of the H-bombs remains lost.”

What about mineral resources? According to Wikipedia: “Greenland is abundant in minerals.^[163] Mining of ruby deposits began in 2007. Other mineral prospects are improving as prices are increasing. These include iron, uranium, aluminium, nickel, platinum, tungsten, titanium, and copper. The state company Nunamineral has been launched on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange to raise more capital to increase the production of gold, started in 2007. Another state company, Nunaoil, was created to help develop the hydrocarbon industry in Greenland. However, in July 2021, Greenland banned all new oil and gas exploration in its territory, with government officials stating that the environmental “price of oil extraction is too high”

Yes, Taylor Swift is a billionaire. She made that by singing songs about choosing the wrong person, and true to form last year she chose Kamala.

She had a good start in life, however: her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, was a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch, and her mother, Andrea Gardner Swift (née Finlay), worked as a mutual fund marketing executive.

A couple of pics taken yesterday at 283 Ngarara Road which is on this weekend’s Waikanae Lions Garden Trail.