Home wrecker!

I'm not proud of this fact, but I am a serial home wrecker. As far as our resident paper wasps are concerned, I am an Aussie Attila the Hun, wreaking havoc on their village then riding off into the distance.

Yesterday, I accidentally wrecked another wasp home. It's not the first time, either. In the 23 years we've been here in Marrickville, I might have temporarily ruined their lifestyle about half a dozen times. The wasps have built their beautifully constructed homes under the eaves of our pergola area, under our outdoor dining table, in our grevillea, amid the leafy clusters of creeping figs and, as I discovered yesterday, in our over-sized murraya hedge.  

Here's yesterday's wrecked home, pictured some hours after
they abandoned it once my hedge trimmer had done its worst.

The moment my powered hedge trimmer lopped
off a foot or so from the top of the growth, a
frightening cloud of annoyed yellow and black
wasps swarmed up in the air, looking for culprits
to administer a sting to. I scarpered, and after
the hullabaloo died down I snuck back to see
if I could find the nest. Here's the last few occupants
wandering around, looking home-wrecked. Using
my longest rake I moved them well away, and
continued on with the sadly necessary task of
cutting our overgrown hedge down to size.

This is the "Before" shot, of the murraya hedge at least two
feet too high. It was so high it was blocking the low winter
sun reaching our vegie patch, so it had to be trimmed.

And this is the "After" shot. Normally I would feel OK about this
job, but by coincidence I found a photo of how our hedge looked
eight years ago, in 2006, and now I'm dissatisfied. I might have
to trim the hedge a whole lot more (see below)...

This is how the hedge looked back in 2006. Much better!
I couldn't believe how much I had let this hedge grow over the
years, but it happens. Hedges do tend to "creep" up in height
unless you're very careful about your hedge trimming, which
I am not. Pammy's art studio looks so much prettier here.

Finally, while I'm discussing the business of
pruning and trimming murrayas, I also tackled
the overgrown monster murraya which is the
bookend to the eastern side of our covered
pergola outdoor dining area. Though it is under
an olive tree in a fair bit of shade, this thing
just grows and grows. So it was time for not
just a trim, but a full "boy prune".

Have you heard of the expression "boy pruning"? It was one
of the favourites at my old magazine/TV show, 'Burke's Backyard'.
And it was a term equally used by male and female staff.
"Boy pruning" can be done by men or women, but characteristically
it's more likely to be done by a bloke (hence the term). It is simply
very, very, very radical, deep, heavy, shocking, awful pruning.
Pruning that looks like "you've overdone it this time, buster."
This murraya loves it. This is the third time I've done it since we
planted it many years ago. It'll look this awful for at least six
weeks, then a month later it will be a wall of young green leaves.

Finally, though, I am sorry, wasps, that I wrecked your home. I know you'll quickly set up shop somewhere else in the garden, as you always do. 

I have nothing against our wasps, either. They're a welcome presence here. The only time they have ever stung me, and it was just the once, was the day I was pruning back our grevillea without knowing that they had a nest in there. They soon let me know I was getting too close!

Our wasps are Australian native paper wasps, and they are beneficial insects in the garden, catching caterpillars to feed to their larvae. Given the terrible way that I manage to blunder in on them, wrecking their homes every couple of years, they are also remarkably peaceful and tolerant creatures.  

Minty trims

Mint is one of those herbs that's lovely just to be around, rather like basil and rosemary. Brush past any of these three fragrant herbs and their delicious scents fill the air with thoughts of chopping boards, bubbling pots and happy handfuls of flavour. However, mint is a special case – it's a potential garden monster, a takeover merchant to rival the most rampant weeds. And so, like a wild beast, it's kept as a prisoner in a pot to tame its wandering urges and uncivilised bullying. Inevitably, being pot-bound, it becomes unkempt and needs an occasional haircut and a shave, a change of clothes and a scrub down. I do this to my pots of mint about three or four times a year. Here's how the most recent makeover turned out...

Here's the pot this morning, January 16, green and lovely and lush after its recent renovation, which started on December 21. This is common mint, my favourite, although with so many mint flavours to choose from I sometimes think I should try all the others. But those wild and crazy thoughts soon dissipate, and I mostly stick with my mate, the commoner.

Back on the morning on December 21, the pot of common mint was rapidly becoming scrappy. Leaves were tatty, probably munched by a fellow mint-loving creature. Grown in a semi-shaded spot, it always becomes a bit leggy, too. Once it starts to look like this it's all downhill, so instead of letting it get worse, it's haircut time.

I don't bother with delicate niceties such as using secateurs for the basic cutback. Hedge shears do the job swiftly, cutting all the stems back to the pot rim.

After the cutback and a final going over with my secateurs, there's nothing much left. Just a mass of bare stems an inch or so high. At this stage all it needs is a good liquid feed of something with loads of nitrogen in it. I use a popular Aussie product called Nitrosol, which is marketed as 'liquid blood & bone' and it makes anything leafy grow beautifully.

Ten days later – New Year's Day – and the first encouraging signs of new growth appear.

A second liquid feed keeps things bubbling along, too.

One week later, January 8, and we've had a green eruption. Lush growth everywhere. It always happens in a rush like this, and after all these years it's still exciting to see such vigour!

When a plant grows this well, it's easy to appreciate why it needs taming in a pot.

This is the pot this morning, January 16. It won't look like this in a short while, as I plan to harvest some of the mint to make a fresh mint chutney to go with some curries I plan to cook.

This regular cutting of herbs for cooking is one of the best ways to keep plants compact and lush. Sometimes I just cut back my herbs not because I plan to use them that night, but simply to keep them compact and healthy. This 'simulated harvest' is a great tip for herb gardens. Whether you plan to use herbs or not in the kitchen, treat all plants as if you use them constantly and your herb garden will be better for it.

Fresh Mint Chutney (Podina Chatni)

To finish off this posting I might as well include this recipe, which is from the wonderful 'Complete Asian Cookbook' by Charmaine Solomon.

1 cup firmly packed mint leaves

6 spring onions, cut into short lengths

2 fresh green chillies, deseeded and stalks removed

1 clove garlic, roughly chopped (optional)

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon garam masala

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons water

Put everything in an electric blender and blend to a smooth paste.

If you don't have a blender, finely chop the onions, chillies, mint and garlic then pound them together in a mortar and pestle in batches, then combine the pounded ingredients with the salt, sugar, spices, juice and water.

Once made, cover and chill until serving time. Serve as a side dish with curries and rice.

Substitutes: you can substitute fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves for the mint, to make fresh coriander chutney, which is also lovely. For the coriander chutney, Charmaine Solomon suggests adding a teaspoon of chopped fresh ginger as well.