I had a query recently asking what a white powdery substance was on a grape leaf? They actually said “it looks like powdery mildew, but it’s not on zucchini”! It looked like powdery mildew because it was powdery mildew.

It got me wondering “how many other gardeners consider powdery mildew a disease restricted to plants of the cucurbit family?”

Most gardeners will have struck powdery mildew on their cucurbits (i.e. cucumbers, cantaloupes, pumpkins etc). It shows up as a white or grey powder on the leaves. While it generally doesn’t kill your plant, it can significantly impact your crop as the plant can’t produce lots of fruit while its energy is being drained off and the plant is trying to fight the disease.

Powdery mildew actually affects a wide range of plants, not just zucchini, pumpkins and squash. It can affect both edible and ornamental plants. Edibles that can be affected include carrots, apples, grapes, tomatoes, eggplants, peas and beans and capsicum to name a few. Ornamentals can include chrysanthemums, gerberas, dahlias and roses. In fact it’s probably quicker to write a list of plants that aren’t affected!

So what is powdery mildew? Powdery mildew is a fungal infection. The fungal spores attach to the leaves of the plant where they drive filaments or threads into the leaf structure to draw the nutrients away from the plant. The fungi then develop fruiting spores which can be transmitted by wind or water splashes. The fungus thrives in warm, dry conditions and warm, humid conditions.

Powdery mildew is actually caused by a range of different fungi, some of which are specific to a species of plant while others can affect a whole host of plant species.

Prevention

There are several things the organic gardener can do to prevent powdery mildew in their garden:

• Grow the plants in the conditions they need to thrive. With veggies this means plenty of sunlight. Struggling and weak plants are more susceptible to attack.
• Don’t crowd your plants. Allow plenty of room for air circulation.
• Encourage beneficial insects. The orange/yellow lady beetle actually eats the fungus!
• Good hygiene is essential, as it is with all gardening tasks.
• Clean tools with a weak bleach or hydrogen peroxide solution between tasks,
• Remove infected plant material and put it in the bin.
• Do not compost as the spores will hibernate and can then infect other plants.
• Crop rotation assists by removing susceptible plants from the soil for several seasons.
• Don’t over-fertilise as lush new growth is more susceptible to the fungi
• Morning watering is best. Some say to not wet the leaves, although scientific evidence shows that water can interrupt the sporing cycle.

If you find that you continually battle with powdery mildew then you may need to investigate the range of crops that have been developed to be resistant to the fungus.

Lady beetle feasting on powdery mildew

Treatment

If you find that you have an attack of powdery mildew, there are several organic treatments. These include:

• Spraying with milk. This is the number one organic solution and, surprisingly, it works better than many commercial treatments. The standard spray is 1 part milk full-cream milk to 10 parts water, but I find a 25 percent solution works better. For severe infections you may need a 50 percent solution. Milk can also help to prevent infections if you spray your plants weekly;
• Spray with a sodium or potassium bicarbonate solution. I find you need to add a soap to help the bicarb adhere to the leaves;
• Spray with Neem oil. Again a small amount of soap or white oil will assist it to stick to the leaves;
• Dust with wettable sulphur or spray with lime sulphur;
• Use a commercial biofungicide.

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This week I have been asked if I could talk a bit about composting on my BayFM radio program.

We have mentioned compost a few times. However, it seems its one of those things that people are a bit hesitant about.

I can understand this as it took me a while to really get into composting. Once you get started, and see the benefits, you will wonder why it took you soo long to discover this magic!

Composting in action

Why should I compost?

One of the first questions I get asked is “why should I compost”?

And there are soo many reasons!! Getting free soil. Improving the biology of your soil. Growing fantastic veggies without additional fertiliser! And helping to reduce carbon emissions and lower your impact on the environment.

So let’s look at these in a little more detail.

When you first start gardening, it’s hard to imagine all your garden pruning’s and grass clippings could actually be of benefit to your garden.

They just look like waste right? But put that waste in the right environment and it can quickly change into what gardeners refer to as “black gold”!

That’s because worms and microbes break down this waste material. They return it to the vitamins and minerals that it started out as.

So you get the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium and all those other minerals in a form that can be easily absorbed by your plants!

And this is why you can grow fabulous, healthy veggies using just compost as the fertiliser.

Believe it or not, what you buy as potting mix or compost from your local nursery or big green shed is just fancy (or not so fancy!) compost, with a high price tag!

Reducing carbon emissions

So, how can it reduce your carbon emissions?

By stopping all the green waste and kitchen scraps from going to landfill! This is the most important reason to compost in my opinion!

It’s estimated that between 30-50 percent of the contents of our rubbish bins is organic matter that can be repurposed as compost.

A lot of people don’t realise that when organic matter goes into normal rubbish bins it gets buried along with all the plastics, tissues and other rubbish.

And when it hits landfill it doesn’t have the air and microbes to help it break down naturally.

Instead it breaks down very slowly! And, along the way, it releases methane and other gases associated with climate change.

It has been measured that a normal lettuce when broken down in this manner can take 20 years to decompose.

In a compost bin it takes around 3 months and releases little to no methane gas. This goes for any organic matter.

I think some people get confused about the difference between green waste bins and normal waste bins because they think they all go to the same place i.e. the tip right.

However, when they get to the tip they get treated differently. The contents of the green waste goes off to be composted while the contents of the red bins gets buried.

How do you start composting?

It’s pretty easy, but there are a few simple rules.

Before we start, there are two main types of composting: Hot composting and cold composting.

With hot composting you build a compost heap all at once and leave it to brew. Cold composting you add to the compost heap slowly.

As hot composting takes up quite a lot more space, I am going to focus on cold composting. That’s what most people in the Redlands will be doing.

Composting involves pretty basic chemistry. The kind of stuff you learnt in primary school!

Basically you have some organic material that is rich in carbon, and some that is rich in nitrogen.

Your carbon materials are often called brown material. This includes things like paper, cardboard, branches and twigs, straw and sawdust and dried autumn leaves.

Your nitrogen rich materials (often called green material) are your grass clippings, green leaves and kitchen scraps.

Manures like chook poo and horse poo are also included in the nitrogen pile, even though they are brown in colour, as they are very nutrient dense.

To compost successfully you need a good mix of carbon and nitrogen materials.

You don’t want to aim for a 50:50 mix because the nitrogen materials are a lot more nutrient rich than the carbon materials. A ratio of around 30:70 or 20:80 is a good mix to aim for.

So where are you going to put all this material?

Ideally your compost bin should be located in part shade. You can compost in the sun, but you’ll need to ensure you keep the moisture up to your compost heap.

I recommend you buy or make a compost bin. There are all sorts of commercially available bins including tumbler bins and beehive bins made out of plastic.

Or, even better if you have the space, build compost bays out of recycled timber. You need at least two bays so that one can be brewing while you are building the other compost pile.

You can also create a compost heap using chicken wire or similar to contain the heap.

Of course you could just dig a hole in the ground and bury your waste. However, this can take longer to break down and may attract rodents like rats and mice if you bury food scraps.

I know some people who have a compost bin in each veggie patch. This way they don’t have to move their pruning, or the finished compost far!

What’s the process for composting?

Once you have located your compost bin it really is just a matter of starting to put your kitchen scraps, grass clippings, leaves etc in the bin.

I recommend that you have the bin on the ground. The worms and bacteria from the soil will travel up and start the composting process. It really is that simple.

If you want, you can buy some composting worms. This will help speed up the process.

Every time you add a layer of green material, especially kitchen scraps then you need to cover it with a layer of brown material like cardboard, paper, straw etc. Otherwise it can attract flies and rodents or start to smell.

A good compost heap honestly should not smell. If it smells then something is going wrong.

You need to keep your compost heap moist. You need to give it a sprinkling of water every couple of days.

If your compost gets too dry it will stop working! And the leaves and scraps just won’t break down.

I recommend you get a compost aerator from the big green shed or nursery. This is like a giant corkscrew or bottle opener. It really helps introduce air into your compost heap and speed up the process.

Follow these steps and in about 4 months your compost should be ready to spread on your garden!

This compost will add lots of nutrients to your plants. It will also add all those beneficial microbes into your soil. And the more beneficial bacteria in your soil, the bigger, stronger and healthier your veggies will be.

Is there anything that you can’t add to your compost?

There are a few things you shouldn’t add to your compost heap.

This includes any meat or fish products, dairy or cheese. The average home compost system can’t cope with these products and they will start to smell off!! Also, they can attract vermin like rats and mice or even snakes.

Another thing that you shouldn’t put in your compost heap is any plants or cuttings that are diseased or infested with pests.

This is because an average compost heap doesn’t generate enough heat to kill these diseases. So you will just be spreading them to other, non-diseased areas of your garden.

Also if you have sprayed your grass with weed killers then you can’t add this to your compost heap. The same goes for any pesticides. These don’t break down and will kill all your worms and microbes.

You also can’t compost bio-plastics. Even though a lot of take-away containers, including coffee cups, say they are compostable. Your average home compost heap won’t break them down. They actually need a special system to compost them.

And hopefully it goes without saying but normal plastics, glass and big planks of wood also won’t break down.

Most people wouldn’t normally add these to the compost bin, but I did find a kitchen bowl and a fork in one of my compost bins when I emptied it! Obviously, they had fallen in when I was emptying kitchen scraps and I hadn’t noticed!

Also, you shouldn’t add any dog poo or cat poo! This is because these animals primarily eat a meat diet. So you might be introducing pathogens into your garden.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t compost pet poo! You just need a separate system. I use a worm tube.

This brings me to other ways of dealing with kitchen scraps, if you don’t have enough space to have a compost bin.

What if I don’t have any garden? Can I still compost?

If you don’t have any garden space, because you live in a unit or townhouse, then try a kitchen top composting bin. All you need is a bucket with a lid, food waste and Bokashi composting mix.

You add your scraps to the bin and at the end of each day you cover it with the composting mix. This is rich in all the microorganisms that break down the food waste.

The compost made in these bins is very rich so it can’t be added directly to your potted plants. You will need to find someone who has a garden where the composted material can be buried.

I have a few people who gift me their compost! They don’t have space for it themselves, but have been encouraged to start composting after listening to me!

If you have a little more space, another option is to invest in a worm farm. This is a container system where you use compost worms to break down your food scraps.

They produce a worm tea that you can dilute and use on all your potted plants. Eventually this will also fill up, so you will need to get rid of the compost. However, it will take a fair bit longer than the bokashi bin.

Hopefully this will encourage you to try composting, if you aren’t doing it already.

And a final WHY?

You hear in the news about the need for carbon sequestering to remove carbon from the atmosphere. By composting you are doing your own little bit of carbon sequestering!

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Pests are a natural part of gardening, whether we like it or not! Depending on the season and the weather, your garden can suffer from caterpillars, scale insects, mealy-bug, grasshoppers and a myriad of other insect invasions.

Ants

In my garden I used to have an annual invasion of scale insects. They didn’t limit themselves to any one plant species. It seems that they were happy to attack all manner of plants including gardenias, eggplant, ferns, citrus trees and fig trees. They particularly loved attacking my ferns!

It may have something to do with the fact that I seem to be living atop an ant farm! Ants and scale have a particularly nasty co-dependent relationship.

If left unchecked, a scale infestation can result in the death of your plants from loss of vital nutrients. Also, the black sooty mould, which also accompanies such an invasion, can get in the way of the plant photosynthesising.

So, what can cause a scale invasion?

Scale and others pests mostly attack plants that are under stress or already weakened. I have found that it is beneficial to check that the plant is getting enough nutrients. This isn’t just adding more fertiliser. What you may need to do is check the pH of the soil (What is the importance of Soil pH for plant growth?) If the pH is wrong the plant may not be able to access nutrients. Even if they are present!

I don’t like using pesticides to control scale

I don’t like using pesticides, so each summer I used to go through vast quantities of organic pest oil! Each winter I would spray my citrus plants with lime sulphur to try and kill off the scale as it over-winters. I managed to eliminate scale from my garden, except from my ferns! And you can’t spray ferns with pest oil or Neem as they kill the ferns!

Scale

Also, if you apply pest oil on a hot day you can cause almost as much stress to your plants as the scale is causing!

Until one day! I was soo exasperated by ongoing scale attack on my ferns, that I decided to experiment with a biodynamic pepper! (see Biodynamic Peppers).

The result was almost immediate! By the next morning the scale were still there, but the ferns were looking like they had a new lease on life. And it has continued to work, controlling the scale!

You can also continue to use Neem oil as it seems that the Neem oil penetrates the leaves to poison the scale from within, while at the same time the oil covers the outside of the scale and suffocates it!

If doing this, also add a few drops of whatever vegetable oil you have in the cupboard to the Neem oil to help it settle on the plant and not be washed off immediately.

So, if your garden is suffering from an attack of scale, why not try using a biodynamic pepper as well as spraying with Neem oil. See also beneficial insects Good Bugs in your garden #1

If my experience is anything to go by, your scale problem will be resolved! I will be only using Neem oil from now on for all future infestations. Let me know how you get on by leaving a comment.

Happy gardening 🙂

Rohanne, your Edible Gardening Guru

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Why is Soil pH important for plant growth?

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How to grow Coriander in Brisbane?

Coriander

A friend was complaining to me the other day that she had been unsuccessful growing coriander in Brisbane at the moment. The seedlings either died as soon as they were planted or bolted straight to seed.

I advised her that you can’t grow coriander in Brisbane in summer. She said she had been able to buy the seedlings so had assumed it was okay! Also, all the gardening sites she had looked at said it grew well in the sub-tropics all year round.

This raises a couple of issues. To start with, just because you can buy plants or seedlings or even bulbs in Brisbane, doesn’t mean you can grow that plant here. I have seen peonies for sale up here and they almost need snow just to stay alive!

Many large chain stores have centralised purchasing divisions. These divisions purchase all products centrally in order to gain the maximum savings. They then send the same goods to all their stores across Australia, regardless of whether that product is needed in that region. (You can actually buy snow gear in Cairns!)

I have noticed that a lot of gardening advice on the internet comes from overseas. Even if it is on an Australian website, many people just do a cut and paste without understanding subtle differences in climates, weather patterns, plant availability etc. Sometimes it is really hard to tell that the advice isn’t written for, or even correct for, Australia and for the region you are trying to grow plants in.

How to grow Coriander?

Coriander seeds

Finally, and getting back to growing coriander, it is best to grow coriander from seed.

Plant the seeds where you want it to grow.

I always leave one or two coriander plants to go to seed.

This gives my native bees and other beneficial insects a big feed. As a consequence, I get coriander seeds to use in cooking and some of the coriander will self-seed and find its most desirable spot to grow.

As a result I get a really strong coriander plant next season. Most of my self-seeded plants really like growing in a rocky, sandy path with poor nutrients but reasonable water from the adjacent veggie patch!

In my experience, you can start sowing seeds from around St Patrick’s day. The seeds will germinate when the weather and soil temperatures suit them.

If you use a lot of coriander you might want to sew some more seeds a few weeks later and continue this through to around August. This way you will always have some coriander in the garden during its best growing period.

If I only want a few stalks of coriander, I pick from the centre of the plant. Otherwise, I collect the whole plant, roots and all, to use when I am making a Thai curry. If I don’t want to use the whole plant I find the roots in particular freeze well for later use.

Finally, this post is dedicated to my fabulous sister, Bron who just loves coriander!

Happy gardening 🙂

Rohanne, your Personal Gardening Expert.

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Gardening in a Changing Climate

We have just had the hottest January on record, and the heat looks set to continue. I think all but the hardened sceptics agree that climate change is a reality. And it’s here!

So, is there anything we can do to help moderate the impacts of climate change, both on the planet and on our homes and families? The simple answer is Yes!

Climate change, put simply, is the heating up of the earth because of increased levels of carbon in the atmosphere. This increased carbon is due, in some measure, to the burning of fossil fuels and the cutting down of trees.

So, what we need to do is try and reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. The cheapest and easiest way to remove carbon from the atmosphere is to grow green plants!

Now, I know not everyone has a huge parcel of land in which they can plant a few hundred trees. However, despite what you may have read, trees only remove some of the carbon from the atmosphere. The best way to remove high levels of carbon quickly is to increase the amount of organic matter in your soil, as organic matter is largely made up of carbon.

When you increase the organic matter in your soil you not only remove carbon from the air and into the soil, but you also improve the composition of the soil. This means that plants grow better, the soil stays cooler and retains any water that it receives. And, ultimately, you don’t have to water your garden as frequently.

This won’t just help your garden. It will also help the earth cope better with periods of intense rainfall, which are forecast for many parts of Australia as the climate changes. As long as the soil can absorb the rainfall, and the better it can absorb and keep the water where it’s needed, the less run-off and soil erosion will happen.

So, how do you increase the amount of organic matter in your soil?

The easiest way is to add compost, preferably your own, but any compost will help. Compost is just organic matter such as leaves, grass cuttings, vegetable peelings and such. You can start a compost heap easily without much in the way of materials.

Add organic matter

I think people have come to believe composting is difficult, smelly and attracts rats or mice. However, a good compost heap is easy. It stops organic matter (i.e. carbon) from going to landfill and gives you great organic matter for your garden.

Still worried about the smell and rats? Why not try a compost tube? Not enough space? Why not investigate Bokachi bins or setting up a neighbourhood compost bin? Ask me if you want some tips on this.

The next way to increase the soil’s organic matter is by adding manure. If you were worried about the smell of compost, you will love this tip! Again, manure doesn’t have to smell bad. Just buy the stuff that has already been aged! Even better, cover your manure with sugar cane mulch, pea straw, straw, lucerne or any other mulches. You won’t smell the manure and you will have done your garden and the planet a huge service! In addition to increasing the organic matter in your soil you will have fed the worms and microbes, which help keep your soil healthy!

Using ‘Hard’ Mulches

One thing that a lot of people do to try and reduce the amount of work they have to do in the garden is to put large amounts of crushed stone, pavers, brick, or concrete paths around. Sadly this is promoted a lot by some lifestyle programs. While this initially does reduce the work, there is a lot of work involved with blow-vacs to remove leaves etc to keep it looking nice! And these add more fossil fuels into the atmosphere!

Also, pavers, bricks and concrete absorb a lot of the heat from the sun. Therefore they keep your garden hotter during the day in summer. They also continue to release this heat after the sun sets. This means that you have to spend a lot more money on fans and air-conditioners to cool your place down. You can keep your garden (and therefore your home) a lot cooler by surrounding your garden beds with grass or organic mulch.

Finally, to help plants keep cool as the hot spells increase, look at creating shade and wind protection. Whether this comes from trees and taller plants, or from creating man-made structures is up to you. You can make these protective barriers from simple shade-cloth or you can use them to create works of art that are features in their own right. This way you improve your garden while protecting your plants, fruit and vegetables.

Another trick is to pick any fruit as soon as it ripens. This is so that the fruit doesn’t keep draining water from the plant. Also try planting your fruit and vegetable plants closer together so that create a microclimate and don’t need to be watered so often.

By undertaking any or all of the actions listed above, you can not only reduce your impact on the planet, but you will have gone some way to having a beautiful, productive and useful garden.

Happy gardening 🙂

Rohanne, your Personal Gardening Expert

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ALIASES

I am the young larvae of moths and butterflies and will often be called after my parents, such as the white cabbage butterfly nymph caterpillar.

DESCRIBE YOURSELF

I’m a child star, and appear in a really well known children’s book! It’s true, I am a very hungry caterpillar, and even though I am very young. My enormous appetite is impressive! Coming in many sizes and colours, I am very recognisable.

I’m even known to be striped or spotted. I hatch from an egg and from these humble beginnings I rapidly grow. By the time I’m a teenager I can be from 25mm to 40mm long.

KNOWN ASSOCIATES

Mostly I associate with my siblings, although other moths and butterflies may also have laid their eggs in the same veggie patch.

WHERE DO I HANG OUT

I Love leaves, especially soft, fleshy ones, some fruits and fleshy young flower buds. I’m good at hiding and have some great camouflage techniques!

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU’VE BEEN MUGGED BY CATERPILLARS

Your plants’ leaves are full of holes; there are loads of my dark green or black droppings around, and your fruit and flower buds have big bore holes in them!

MODUS OPERANDI

I love eating and chewing leaves and sometimes boring into fruit. I’ll work late into the night and often chew young plants right off at ground level! When I’m an adult, I fly around laying eggs for the next generation to emerge.

HOW DO YOU MAKE CATERPILLARS FEEL UNWELCOME

Squash me and my mates by hand or pay the neighbourhood kids to do it! It’s icky but effective! Collect me in a bucket and feed me to the chooks! Encourage or release some of my well known enemies like Assassin Bugs, Ladybirds and Lacewings (see also Good Bugs in your garden #1). Release some Bacillius thuringiensis bacteria (sold as Dipel or Vegetable Dust powder) to kill me and all members of my family. (It hurts no one else in the garden!). Put solar butterflies in your garden as I don’t like competition from my own sort and I don’t know the difference between real and fake butterflies. Cover your edible crops with fine mesh or similar. Then my beautiful mum can’t land and lay her eggs.

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I replanted my veggie garden the other day, as I had picked up some great seedlings. Replanting meant stripping out all those plants that were past their prime.

Lebanese eggplant

However, one plant I didn’t pull out was my Lebanese eggplant, although they are in their second year! I have several of these in the garden.

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Why Eat A Rainbow of Healthy Foods?

People are progressively becoming aware of the impact of what they eat on both their short-term and long-term health.

Food is more than something to fill you up, it can actually make you healthy and help fight disease! We have known for centuries that deficiencies in certain vitamins and minerals can lead to serious illnesses such as scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) and rickets (vitamin D deficiency).

However, we are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of many of the micronutrients in foods. Nutrients that we previously thought were not important, other than to provide foods with colour and flavour are turning out to be good for us.

Many of our needs with regard to nutrients come from vegetables, herbs and fruit. These foods also provide us with essential micronutrients. Often these are the components that give fruits and vegetables their colour, such as the bright blue colour of blueberries, which come from molecules called anthocyanidins.

Benefits of micronutrients on human health

Over the last decade or two, scientists have been studying the effects of many of these micronutrients on human health. It appears that many of these micronutrients have anti-oxidant and antimicrobial actions that can actually help reduce both the incidence and severity of human diseases. These diseases include heart disease and various forms of cancer. They can also help slow down the aging process!

It seems that our diet needs to contain a combination of different fruits and vegetables to have maximum impact on our health. It is recommended that you eat a rainbow of foods so that you gain the maximum micronutrients. The body can then use the nutrient to help fight disease, keep you healthy and maximise your wellbeing.

A Rainbow of Foods

This rainbow of foods can include:

• red from capsicums;
• orange from oranges and sweet potato;
• yellow from bananas;
• green from lettuce and spinach;
• blue from blueberries; and
• purple from cabbages and purple cauliflowers.

The trouble is that vegetables and fruit start to deteriorate the moment they are harvested. And, in this global economy, by the time they reach your plate they could have flown half-way round the world or sat in cold storage for weeks. Perhaps both!

This is why more and more people are turning to local markets to buy their fruit and vegetables. If you are lucky then the vegetables will have been grown locally and harvested in the last day or so. Although this is not always guaranteed even with local markets! This means that the amount of deterioration will have been minimised, depending on how you then store your veggies and when you eat them.

However, you can go one better and actually grow your own fruits and veggies: A Rainbow of Foods!

This way you only pick what you need when you need it. And you have total control over any chemicals that are used in growing your veggies. Apart from the benefits to your health, the difference in flavour is massive.

Interested in trying to grow your own veggies and herbs but don’t know where to start?

Contact The Delectable Garden and we will help you set up your vegetable garden so you can grow and harvest your own veggies easily!

Happy gardening 🙂

Rohanne, your Personal Gardening Expert

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I have a real problem in my front garden. Several neighbours have cats that are allowed to roam freely, and they all seem to like using my front garden as their toilet.

Now I don’t wish the cats or my neighbours any harm, but I really don’t like having to clean up the cat poo! I think even cat lovers don’t enjoy the kitty litter job!

Anyway, it turns out that the herb Rue is a natural deterrent to cats. The leaves have a very pungent citrusy type smell, that apparently cats hate. So, on the weekend I purchased Rue plants and transplanted them in the middle of the garden that the cats favour most!

Rue

A bonus is that the Rue plants also deter many insects, including fleas and mosquitoes. It is also a magnet for butterflies! I can’t believe I haven’t had this wonderful herb in my garden before now!

Other herbs with similar repellent properties include lemon thyme and penny royal. So I will be planting these nearby, and hope that the cats find somewhere else to use as their toilet.

If you have a similar problem with cats pooing in your garden, then why not try one of these natural repellents in your garden! They are easy to grow and not overly fussy in their requirements.

A word of caution:

Rue plants, like all herbs contain essential oils. However, some people can be sensitive to the Rue plant. This can result in nasty skin blisters. So always use gloves when handling Rue plants or weeding around Rue plants.

Happy gardening 🙂

Rohanne, your Personal Gardening Expert

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