Gardening Australia episode 12 2022

Gardening Australia episode 12 2022

Gardening Australia episode 12 2022: Costa Georgiadis and Millie Ross team up to build a chook run, Jerry Coleby-Williams celebrates the colourful world of bougainvilleas, Josh Byrne explores a lush fern garden in Perth’s dry suburbs, and we meet a vegan chef.


 

 



Inspiring, entertaining and full of practical advice, join Costa Georgiadis and the team as they unearth gardening ideas, meet avid gardeners and look at some of the most inspiring gardens from across the country.

 

Gardening Australia episode 12 2022

 

Mates Rates – 2 in 1 Chicken Run

Costa helps Millie Ross with a new project – building a chicken run while also providing a new seat! It’s been years since Costa has visited Millie’s little garden in Central Victoria. On his first visit, he helped pave and plant a small entrance garden, on the second they built an ingenious temporary shed.

This time, they are putting a multi-use extension to the chicken run Millie shares with the neighbours. A curved steel mesh tunnel will also act as an extension to the chicken run and be topped with a timber bench seat. It will also contain the most abundant planting in the small back yard, lush, abundant, ebullient, and layered. Well, that’s the plan!

Beautiful Bougs

Jerry celebrates big, bright and beautiful bougainvilleas, and finds some exquisite types suited to smaller gardens. Is there a plant more synonymous with the subtropics than the bougainvillea? South American in origin, they’ve found their way into gardens around the world and although they will grow in cooler climes, they’re at their absolute lurid best under a Queensland sun.

Jerry says “Flowering bougainvillea have etched themselves into my memories: of sunny holidays (and getting away from gloomy London), and of faraway places. Their brilliant colours now remind me of home – they’re at their brightest against the clear blue skies of the cool seasons in subtropical Brisbane.”

And perhaps nowhere will you find a better display of these subtropical show-offs than the specially designed architectural arbour in Brisbane’s southbank parklands, constructed in the year 2000. Who better to show Jerry around than Paul Hoffman, the operation and horticulture manager responsible for overseeing the upkeep of this revered inner-city landmark.

Top Tip: Propagating Succulents – Gardening Australia episode 12 2022

Sophie shows three easy ways to propagate succulents. Extremely low maintenance and versatile, they’re suited to all types of spaces and gardeners. Even if you don’t have a garden, you can still grow them. They’re suitable for all sorts of containers: clay pots, recycle ceramic cups, tea pots and anything else you can think of. Just make sure you add holes in the bottom for drainage.

Compared to other plants succulents need less water and more air in their potting mix. In a dry summer climate, you can use a regular mix but in a more humid environment it can be useful to add some sand or gravel to your potting mix to make sure it doesn’t become saturated with water. Sophie provides three main ways for propagating these interesting plants, turning one into many.

West Coast Cooler

Josh discovers a secret oasis of lush ferns, bonsai and bromeliads shared by three keen gardeners. John, Ted and Peter each has their own separate plant interests and collections. John loves ferns and these are in a number of shade houses (all built by Peter, often from scraps). There is an elkhorn tunnel of more than 140 ferns (some 30 years old) and a wall of lithophytic elkhorns (that grow on rocks) from Qld that need less water and more light.

“I’m really into tassel ferns and maybe I’m the only person growing them in WA,” John says. These are ancient plants that can propagate without a pollinator. “Some are quite rare and unusual, so I try to ensure they don’t disappear.”

Microbial Magic – Gardening Australia episode 12 2022`

Tino digs deep into the hidden world of soil microbes and learns the fascinating role they play in helping our gardens grow. Many plants have formed complex relationships with microorganisms in order to get more nutrients from the air and soil. Tino heads to the University of Tasmania to find more about how this works when it comes to some of our favourite plants in the veggie patch.

Associate Professor and Lecturer at the university, Dr Eloise Foo, specialises in plant hormones and plant-microbe interactions. She says, “In the soil there’s so many different types of microbes. There’s fungi, there’s bacteria, some good, some bad, some indifferent. It’s a bit like the human gut microbiome.” Her team are researching how plants team up with beneficial microbes to help each other thrive, by working through a process of elimination to identify which genes are responsible for encouraging good relationships.

Legumes form a special relationship with a Rhizobium bacteria that grows in the soil, to draw nitrogen out of the atmosphere and into a form the plant can use. “When it finds its special partner plant, they talk to each other through the soil and make sure that they’ve got the right partner. The plant has a way to take that bacteria up inside its roots and eventually build it a special house (nodules) which is like a powerhouse for nitrogen fixation, but in exchange the plant is feeding that bacteria sugars that its fixing in its leaves, so it’s a mutually beneficial relationship.”

Edging Plants

Jane explores a range of plants for edging pathways. She is visiting the University of Melbourne’s beautiful Burnley campus, established as experimental gardens in 1863. The once-rural garden now forms a valuable green space in the heart of inner-city Richmond, and there are some great gardening lessons to be learnt here.

Jane is looking at some great options for planting along pathways. The style depends on your taste: something that will tumble softly over the edges or something that can be trimmed back more formally. Scented herbs or plants such as pelargoniums are good options and smell delicious as you brush past. Roses add colour to any garden, but as an edging plant, they’re not perfect, because of the sharp thorns.

In a shady spot is the delightful bush lily (Tripladenia cunninghamii), which is native to northern NSW and southern Queensland but is thriving here in Melbourne too. It flowers in early summer and has neat green foliage for the rest of the year. Some climbers are worth trying as groundcover edging plants, such as this neat Hibbertia scandens, trimmed into a neat, low bush.

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