Gardening Australia episode 17 2021: Jerry Coleby-Williams suggests subtropical plants for winter colour, Costa Georgiadis explores a unique house that is designed to feed it residents, Sophie Thomson gets grafting, and Josh Byrne learns about garden nightlife.
Gardening Australia has always provided practical, trustworthy and credible gardening advice to inspire and entertain. 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 17 2021
Future Food System
Costa visits an experimental ‘Green House’ in Melbourne that has been designed to grow all the food its residents need. Costa is visiting a temporary installation on the banks of the Yarra River, the latest iteration of Joost Bakker’s experimental constructions; “Greenhouse”. While it is perched on the edge of the CBD, it is aimed squarely at homeowners everywhere, “in the future we will all live like this” says Joost.
The 3-storey house is a humble 87m2, about ¼ of the size of an average Aussie dwelling, but it has big ambitions, to demonstrate a productive, sustainable & no-waste future. “Our food system one of the most wasteful, polluting things on the planet – the way we grow our food but also transport and sell it. I wanted to create a house that was shelter for people but could also grow food and create energy – our cities have so much potential”.
Every available space is involved in growing food, and every available nutrient in the house harvested to do it.
FAQs – Toxic plant ID | Winter flowering | Grass under trees
Millie has tips on keeping pets safe from toxic plants, Tino looks at winter flowers and Jane explains how best to grow grass under trees.
Colour Me Cool
Jerry suggests some exciting options for winter colour to brighten up sub-tropical gardens.
We’re at the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens in Brisbane. The winter months are often a neglected time in the garden. As the days shorten and the temperature drops, many gardeners start to abandon their posts for the comforts of a blanket, a heater and a roof to keep the rain out. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Gardens can be easily designed to provide strong seasonal interest right through winter, at a time when it is arguably needed the most.
“With all the botanical riches we have around, it’s just a matter of being organised” says Jerry.
Night Life
Josh meets some of the wildlife that visits our gardens after dark and learns how to control pests without harming these creatures.
Rats and mice – the mere mention of them is enough to send gardeners into a tailspin. These night-time visitors to our gardens can make quick work of coddled crops and frustrate even the most fastidious of gardeners – eating fruit as it ripens, raiding chook runs, nesting in compost heaps and generally making a nuisance of themselves. While our first instinct to deal with these rodents may be to bung out some baits and wait, there are some native nocturnal nice guys that will, if given the chance, can take care of rats and mice for us.
Hidden in the tree hollows and bush remnants around our cities, towns and gardens are a variety of nocturnal birds, and Josh is meeting with some Margaret River residents passionate about protecting these predators from their preferred prey – poisoned mice and rats.
Fruit Splice – Gardening Australia episode 17 2021
Sophie adds extra interest and flavour to an existing fruit tree by grafting on a tasty new variety. Sophie has a problem with one of her plum trees. It’s productive enough, but she just doesn’t like the taste of the fruit. See how an expert performs radical surgery to make a plum produce fruit that’s a pleasure to the palate.
The productivity of Sophie’s young orchard is increasing every year, but when she was harvesting fruit last season, she discovered this plum was producing fruit that wasn’t up to scratch.
Wes Reddens is a friend of Sophie’s and sixth generation orchardist. Sophie’s hoping he can show her a way to fix the taste of my fruit tree that doesn’t involve digging it up and waiting for a new one to grow.
Brilliant Bryophytes
Millie takes a closer look at some of the tiniest plants growing in our gardens – mosses and liverworts.
These plants are the first step in plants emerging out of the primordial soup millions of years ago, from water onto land, and have barely changed since then. They’re the amphibians of vegetation; completely dependent on water to reproduce. They share various features with their green algae ancestors. They don’t have flowers or even seeds, instead reproducing via spores that need water to move and germinate. Australia has over 2000 species of bryophytes that occupy a diverse range of habitats, everything from lush rainforest to dry soil crusts in the desert. They can also be incredibly slow growing and can be hundreds of years old.
Mr Fix It – Make a Planter Box – Gardening Australia episode 17 2021
In his final segment as guest presenter, Luke Mitchell shows how to make a simple planter box for your backyard.
My Garden Path – Rowan Reid
We meet farmer and scientist Rowan Reid who is trying to change the way we think about forests.