Gardening Australia episode 32 2022: Costa meets up with Thanh Truong, the Fruit Nerd, to explore the bounty of backyard fruit trees and learn the best techniques to harvest citrus. Millie tours the colourful and flower-filled garden of a designer who has created stunning spaces for her favourite combinations of plants to run wild. Jane creates potted arrangements of native plants perfect for encouraging wildlife into gardens of any size. 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.
Sophie meets a couple with a beautiful Mediterranean-style garden that maximises cooling properties while minimising water use. Clarence visits an inspiring reserve where revegetation and weed management has been honed down to an artform, literally! Tammy demystifies hydroponics by showing a few ways to set up simple systems for growing houseplants.
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 32 2022
A-Peeling Fruit
Costa is visiting the Melbourne suburb of Northcote, to explore the laneways and backyards where trees are brimming with a favourite group of fruit to grow, citrus! He meets up with fruit expert or ‘fruiterer’, Thanh Truong, who has become a social media star through his informative videos and education under his moniker, ‘The Fruit Nerd’.
Thanh is here to share some of his tips for picking the perfect citrus fruit with Costa. ‘Timing is important with all fruits, and especially with citrus because although when you harvest a citrus it might colour up, it doesn’t mature or ripen after you harvest it.’
Picking it at the right time is going to give you the best eating experience. Each variety of citrus has a few different rules, depending on whether you are eating the fruit or skin, and the level of sweetness you are after.
Perennial Paradise – Gardening Australia episode 32 2022
Millie visits author, horticulturist, and self-confessed plant-lover Jac Semmler, in her spectacular home garden in the bayside suburb of Frankston. While Jac has been gardening for decades, this is the first house and garden she has owned, purchasing the property around 2 years ago. “I’d been renting forever and just dragging the garden around with us. We jumped into planting as soon as we moved in – we were propagating madly during settlement and then just got it all in the ground without a lot of planning. This is our fourth spring and we’ve had to make a few changes.”
“There are different pockets in garden: perennials at front and edibles and other borders at back, where I have space to try different ideas. Experimenting with plants is what Jac really enjoys. “I do spend a lot of time in the garden, but I don’t necessarily need to – it’s fun! I’m always pulling a few things out and poking it a bit.”
The front was just a big lawn and minimal planting. Now there’s no lawn left at all, which the dog isn’t happy about, but I am!” Even the front verge is planted with a mixture of indigenous flowering species, the true definition of a nature strip!
Pots for Wildlife
Gardeners are always keen to provide for native wildlife. But if you haven’t got an in-ground garden, Jane’s going to show you how to attract and provide for wildlife in a pot. Choose a pot that’s big enough to fit 3-5 different plants for a good range. Jane’s using native plants so fills with a native potting mix. Some of the plants Jane can choose from include lomandras, paper daisies, conostylis, chrysocephalum, correa and a banksia as a centrepiece. The banksia is a prostrate form, so will stay small in a pot. Jane’s selection will suit a full-sun aspect.
Greater diversity of plant species and sizes will provide more habitat and encourage more visitors. Using rocks as mulch and some bark boost the habitat further, providing for visiting reptiles.
Mediterranean Mindset – Gardening Australia episode 32 2022
Passionate gardeners, Chris and John, care about working with the environment, not against it. They both love the Mediterranean climate of Adelaide and don’t own an air conditioner because they use plants wisely to cool their home and garden.
As well as various trees that allow cool areas on a hot summer’s day, they also maintain a vegetable patch. Chris says, “we try to combine it with flowers, so it’s not just vegetables. It’s got beauty and attracts the bees.”
So how did a couple originally from North America and the high country of New Zealand end up creating a Mediterranean garden in the burbs of Adelaide? Chris says, after many visits to Greece they learned to not only lay on the beach but also growing techniques from the hinterland. “Lots of the restaurants on the coast were supplied by the farmers up in the hills, and eventually we were invited to have a look at their farms and see what they were doing.”
Techniques that they have brought back with them include watering systems for successfully growing Mediterranean plants and using plants as an intense summer cooling system around their house. Learning from Greece was about understanding that their climate was very similar to Adelaide. “We can adapt what works there and what works here. If you look at the climate of Crete, it’s got cool wet winters and hot dry summers – that seems a bit familiar,” says John. Chris adds, “so we thought, climate-wise, why don’t we plant more or less a Mediterranean garden.”
