Gardening Australia episode 27 2020

Gardening Australia episode 27 2020: Costa Georgiadis tours a colourful bromeliad garden, Millie Ross meets some fungi farmers, Tino Carnevale plants a wildlife corridor, and Josh Byrne shows how to make the most of a garden’s vertical space.

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 27 2020

Bromeliad Bounty

Costa meets a mad-keen bromeliad grower who has created a super-colourful garden. Costa visits a gardener who has created a kaleidoscope of dramatic colour in his garden, using a range of interesting bromeliads and succulents.

Large, sloping block with heavy soil. Had been used as cow paddock before Ray and Arlene moved in and it was highly compacted. Ray has built large raised beds, used heaps of compost and mulch, and moves plants that aren’t thriving. Ray loves the shape, colour and form of succulents and bromeliads and in mid winter his garden explodes with drama. He describes it as like a coral reef on land.

The soil can get pretty boggy but he still grows his bromeliads, which are mostly epiphytes and love good drainage, straight in the ground. Only a few fussier ones are in pots.

FAQS – Lavenders | Most popular fruit | Growing cotton

Gardening Australia presenters answer questions about lavender types, popular fruit and growing cotton.

Flat Out Fruits

Josh shows how to make the most of vertical growing space in small gardens. With less room in modern gardens, many gardeners are looking for ways to save space but still grow plants, especially food plants.

One solution Josh uses is to grow fruit trees espaliered against a number of fences at his house. The trees are planted close to the fence and pruned into a two-dimensional ‘flat’ shape along the fenceline, with side branches trained along horizontal supports. He adds a new peach tree to his garden to show how it’s done.

The Magic of Mushrooms

Fungi are popular to grow right now, so Millie meets some mushroom experts to see how it’s done. Millie is mad keen on mushrooms – those incredible fungi that are so critical to our environment and taste great, to. She is in Castlemaine, on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, to visit an enterprising group that has got the community involved in growing a range of mushrooms.

Jakob Schmitt, the manager of Windarring Mushroom Farm, says he loves watching the mushrooms grow. He’s also helping humans grow via the group’s disability support services; five local people with a disability are employed in the mushroom-growing enterprise. Team leader Mandy Fennessy says they usually produce 30-40 bags a week. The mushrooms are grows in bags that are kept in a purpose-built converted shipping container.

Employee Joe Smith says it takes about 7-10 days for the mushrooms to grow from bags of substrate that are already impregnated with spores.

Protecting and Storing Bulbs

Sophie Thomson has a great tip for keeping track of precious bulbs.

Sharing Plants – Gardening Australia episode 27 2020

Jerry has a few simple tricks for sharing plants with friends and neighbours.

Making Microclimates

Guest presenter Hannah Moloney shows how to grow more by creating garden microclimates.

Bye Bye Fruit Fly

Jane is hot on the heels of the dreaded Queensland Fruit Fly, which has migrated down to Victoria.

Flora for Fauna – Gardening Australia episode 27 2020

Tino increases the wildlife habitat on his farm by planting some animal-friendly species.

My Garden Path – Trish Oktober

We meet artist Trish Oktober, whose Blue Mountains garden inspires both her art and many of her children’s books.