Gardening Australia episode 23 2021

Gardening Australia episode 23 2021

Gardening Australia episode 23 2021: Costa Georgiadis visits a tranquil family retreat, Josh Byrne meets a community of verge gardeners, Jerry Coleby-Williams tours Toowoomba’s famous rose garden and Jane Edmanson discovers stunning cool climate classics.


 

 



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 23 2021

 

Nurture in Nature

Costa meets a young landscape designer who transformed a basic backyard into a healing sanctuary for his parents.

Originally a “quintessential Aussie yard with lawn and timber paling fences” in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Daniel Mitchell saw potential to transform it into something much more full of life. He started rebuilding the garden 3 years ago for his stepdad Jamie (now passed) who’s health deteriorated due to MSA (Multiple System Atrophy). Daniel says, “The illness left him unable to venture far, so I wanted to create a paradise for someone who couldn’t leave home.” This coincided with Daniel starting out as a landscape designer (after working for years as a landscape gardener) and it was the perfect opportunity to experiment with something of his own.

Daniel’s vision had a “big emphasis on natives… and tried to use natural materials and not too much hardscaping to make the plants the star. Daniel’s design was also influenced by mum Hilary, as his first client. “I’ve been really lucky – mum owns the property and as the project progressed, she gave me more creative licence. The garden is her sanctuary as well.”

FAQs – Smelly compost | Nematodes | Indoor plant fertiliser

Gardening Australia presenters answer commonly asked gardening questions.

Pruning Cherry Trees

Tino shows how to prune a cherry tree. Tino says it’s important to tell the difference between a leaf bud and a fruiting bud when pruning your cherry tree. So how do you tell the difference? Leaf buds are borne singly, staggered along stems. Fruit buds are borne in clusters. Long whippy growth can be removed, even if it holds fruiting buds, as the fruit will be inferior.

Remember to leave short growth with fruiting buds, as these produce fruit.

Cool Climate Classics – Gardening Australia episode 23 2021

Jane visits a native botanic garden growing classic cool-climate plants in the Dandenong Ranges. Karwarra is a much-loved gem of a garden, created 55 years ago by the Dandenong Horticultural Society to introduce visitors to Australian plants and show them their garden potential. Shelley Graham is the head gardener and is showing Jane around.

The garden sits on 2 hectares of fertile mountain soil, a red-brown loam that is rich in nutrients, plus the rainfall is quite high and reliable; prime growing conditions that suit a lot of plants. “We’re on an old volcano and the soil is deep and slightly acidic,” Shelley says. These are perfect conditions for cool-climate classics such as mint bushes, and many of these line the ‘smelly alley’ – a 100m path with scented plants along it. Many scented plants are members of the Rutaceae family – related to citrus. At Karwarra this includes boronias, correa, crowea, leionema, phebalium, philotheca and zierias. Some smell nice, and others not so nice!

Growing Bulbs

Sophie shares tips for growing bulbs. Sophie says bulbs are very adaptable to soil, as long as it’s well drained. If your soil isn’t well drained, grow your bulbs in a pot where you can control the drainage. Manage weeds prior to planting and during the growing season. Bulbs don’t like competition and their growth will smother flowering. Don’t be tempted to remove daggy foliage as the bulbs die down. Let the leaves die back naturally so the nutrients can return to the bulb to use for next year.

Maccas Mission – Gardening Australia episode 23 2021

Clarence attempts to rescue a macadamia tree on a block of land destined for development. Like most gardeners, Clarence can’t let a good plant go to waste, particularly if it is one of THE most beautiful and delicious Australian plants around. The macadamia is arguably our most famous native food. While macadamias aren’t indigenous to the Illawarra, they grow extremely well here. Clarence has found an old tree that’s been hit by lightning.

Cooked to the ground, the plant’s response was to sucker, producing multiple stems from the roots. These have been sitting in the middle of a paddock. Recently, it has been sold for development, so Clarence thought it was high time he save the tree! Clarence has a long friendship with the couple that tend the block, so he had a chat and grabbed his shovel. He carefully dug some suckers up and potted them up.

As a reasonably sized rainforest tree, the macadamia will need a big pot, so Clarence will be planting the suckers in a half wine barrel.

Tags: , , , , ,
Scroll to Top