Mary Gallos

Thanks you guys.
for some additional detail.

My original letter did indeed mention safety - the fence it droops over would be insufficient to prevent it hurting anyone on the adjacent driveway.
I might try the liability route.

OK.  So here's a couple of photos, showing both the crowns (Kentia and the Cabbage Palm) as well as the proximity of the trunks to one another.  
I live in an inner city area of Sydney, where councils default to refusing permission to remove (and in some cases, even prune) trees.

The letter I wrote when I applied mentioned my desire to plant more diverse, local, habitat-friendly species (which I have done) -and to protect the more significant Livingstonia,  but as they send out an arborist to assess.  not an ecologist / landscaper; the only question thy are interested in is whether a given tree "looks healthy" or not.

Trees that appear to have been irretrievably sabotaged might be removed, but you may be required to replace it with an identical one - this happened to my neighbours.
Hence the need for stealth - ideally something that is clear ill-health, but attributable to the close proximity of other planting - like a dwarf gum, tree ferns, and melaleuca. (that I want to retain).

I have a Kentia palm: ugly, misplaced (1m from a majestic Livingstonia, in a narrow garden bed) and unhealthy (crown drop, with all fronds flopped to one side of the tree).

The local council refused its removal (despite my wish to replace it with better-suited flowering, native trees and shrubs to improve biodiversity and visual amenity).

So I need stealth. The most obvious is ringbarking, but it would probably show, if a neighbour complained and anyone inspected it.
What else will work, invisibly?  What is the achilles heel of a Kentia Palm?

There is so much wise counsel here - so only one thing I will add:

The sleeping issue is a Very. Big. Deal. and I would do EVERYthing you can to solve that as a first priority.
Trauma, depression, etc are all literal, physical injuries.  Healing requires adequate sleep - that's when the physical repair occurs.

Sleep separately, for a bit, to see if it helps her.  Dial up the sex "for medicinal reasons" if it helps.  Experiment with whatever you can think of
And insist on all that sleep hygiene stuff - like no screens 2 hours before bedtime etc.

Treat her physical well-being (and yours, of course) as top priority.  I'm not saying "the rest will follow" - but I do think it's a prerequisite for any of the the very good ideas within this thread having a good chance of being effective.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:The model I am working through at this time calls for gathering the grounds and letting the normal fungi grow till they are spent.
From that point the grounds are stirred and dried completely before being incorporated into finished compost which is then used as a soil amendment in soil garden beds.
The subject beds are ground level, raised bed, and hugel mound topping along with a straw bale garden.
Results of this three year study will be posted here when completed.

@Bryant Redhawk, did you end up posting your results somewhere?  I'd love to know what happened...

I'm so glad you asked!
With a 25 sqm garden in built up inner Sydney; My aim is rehabilitation of the garden as a wildlife refuge island, plus container grown things that are small, fast, better fresh and lack all appeal to local inner-city rat populations (salad leaves, snow peas and the like).  

Both are going reasonably well; so this year I wan't to redo the garden layout to maximise the non-vermin fauna it can support (e.g. I don't want those rats back; but I'd love skinks, spiders, and bees to flourish).  

My working theory is that is a function of vegetatation volume and variety, so I spent the last couple of years de-weeding and working on improving the soil - which has gone well, but far too long thinking about how to optimise for plants that were aesthetically acceptable (to my husband, to the neighbours) ecologically positive (in this compromised setting) and sited for best possible solar and shade patterns.

I have many saplings that individually meet this requirement.

I'm thinking this is the year I should just plant them all in, and see what happens rather than procrastin-  optimising. ...?

Too many worms.
I'm in the very, very inner city.  My front "yard" is a strip that's 1m x 3m and anogher that's 4m by 3m.  Both are surrounded by hard pavement, walls.

More than a year ago, I put a (compost) worm farm down on the dirt, with a view to improving it; and I added leaves and lots and lots of part-rotted logs on top.  The worms have...thrived, making their way even into planters I have placed on hard pavers.

I suspect the retarded growth of some of my ornamental transplants is due to their snacking on the softer stuff, in the absence of compost.

Does anyone know how I could catch the compost worms (for release in the back "yard" while leaving the earthworms there?  And should I?

As I write, I was just about to put a WANTED ad on Freecycle, for untreated wood in any state.  I need structure to terrace a sloping (small, urban) yard, and find that branches and old logs work well, as they create a baffle for water and sediment which would otherwise leave the site, and decompose.  It's not hugel exactly, but I've been astonished at how nice and friable the soil is where I have done this previously.  (The soil is pretty sandy here).

Bryant RedHawk wrote:Worms are good at moving to ideal conditions in the "wild". Problems come from our desire for their product causing us to create artificial living quarters and enviroment. With "worm farms" we must monitor moisture level, temperature and food supply. Records are needed to know how you are doing and success over the long term. Castings quality is mostly from a variety of food offerings instead of a limited diet.

Redhawk
(Bacteria are the real gold of the castings)

I'd love to know whether I'm missing something in the following train of thought.

1. it's the rotting food we want contained, not necessarily the worms
2. worm tunnels (where they come to snack, but can come and go freely) work well, as long as there is a large surface area for feeding).
3. dumping a whole finished worm farm tray onto (shaded) ground would see worms burrow away from light, into the soil, leaving a pile of castings that could be (mostly) scooped up
4. providing fresh bedding and tasty worm food in the (otherwise empty) tray, adjacent to this pile, would tempt (most of) them back into the tray when conditions suited them (e.g. sun had set, and ground temperature had cooled).

This seems a low input way to "harvest" castings, break up the soil, and keep it all going.  If it works.  
I'd love thoughts on why it might not work, before I risk my worms.

I have had variable success with worm farms on balconies and other exposed spots.  It depends on whether you can keep them happy in your (micro)climate.
But I recently joined something called "Sharewaste" - matchmaking those with waste with those who can use them (worm or otherwise).  Someone brings me a full bucket each week, and I just add it to my own.  I'd be more than happy to draw off a bag of vermicompost for them to take home and make their tea with.

The first person who started bringing me scraps (walking across town for one banana peel and green teal leaves in a small pastry bag) got chatting to me, and I ended up I helping her make her own vermicompost bin out of upcycled packaging materials instead, and being her "worm phone-a-friend" for a few weeks while she worked it all out.