Gardening Australia episode 33 2020: Josh Byrne gets tips from a thriving family garden, Jane Edmanson discovers stunning rhododendrons, and Costa Georgiadis visits a community garden using permaculture principles.
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 33 2020
A Mountain of Colour – Rhododendrons
Jane takes a look at a stunning collection of cool-climate flowering favourites – azaleas and rhododendrons.Jane visits the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Gardens in Victoria, a fantastic example of a cool climate garden that looks stunning in every season.
Established in the 1960s as the National Rhododendron Garden, the 40-hectare garden is home to a collection of over 250,000 rhododendrons and azaleas, and spring is the peak time to see them in action!
Parks Victoria Ranger, Terence ‘Tex’ Moon garden says that whilst people love the showy, colourful flowers, their diversity is also appealing – “it’s a large, complex and rich genus of plants with trees that can be up to 30m tall right down to the smallest alpine shrub.” There are even epiphytic varieties!
Australian breeders have created some amazing hybrids that grow well in our conditions, flowering earlier than other varieties to avoid the heat of summer. These include the Rhododendron ‘Snow White’ a small, compact shrub with white flowers, the Rhododendron ‘Waghorn’s Wonder’ with large trusses of light pink flowers, and Rhododendron ‘Freckle Pink’ with dark pink spots on the petals.
FAQs – Avocado | Established Plants | Composting Tea Bags
Gardening Australia presenters answer commonly asked gardening questions.
Tomatoes in Paper Pots
Millie shows how to get tomatoes started in paper pots.
Livin’ on the Edge – Garden Bed Edges
Tino will have gardeners on the edge of their seats with cheap and cheerful ways to create garden bed edges. Landscape edging is a great way to accentuate garden sections and create rooms, islands, and voids. It can tie different spaces together and make them look neater. There are lots of options available too, such as wood, steel, stone, brick, and prefabricated options like recycled plastic.
The Good Life in Gardening Australia episode 33 2020
Josh visits a family living ‘the good life’ with 10 acres of productive gardens and orchards, picking up tips on growing avocados and berries.
Plant Profile – Sacred Lotus
We profile the beautiful Sacred Lotus – Nelumbo nucifera ‘Carolina Queen’.
Kumbartcho Dry Rainforest
Jerry visits a nursery that grows unique native plants from the dry rainforests of south-east Queensland. Dry rainforests have similarities to tropical ones, in that you’ll still find vines, epiphytes, orchids and ferns, but the tree canopy is less dense. This means the forest floor gets a lot more sunlight which dries it out. The plants that thrive here are ideal for the challenges faced in home gardens and public spaces and can handle the climate becoming warmer and drier.
The Kumbartcho Sanctuary & Nursery propagates over 250 species found in the surrounding rainforest and beyond. The plants sold are used for revegetation projects and home gardens and include species you wouldn’t find in an average garden centre. Nursery Manager Irene Wood is leading the push to get these plants out into the community and gathers anything new she can find to add to the collection.
These plants are not often used in cultivation and can be hard to find, so propagating them is essential. The Kumbartcho team have experimented to find the best techniques for propagating each species, including the Native Bluetongue and Little Kurrajong, and have them identified and verified by the herbarium to ensure they are growing and selling the authentic, indigenous varieties.
Oh My Gourd-ness – The Pumpkin Patch
Sophie shares her tips for creating and harvesting from the perfect pumpkin patch.
New Digs – Millen Farm – Gardening Australia episode 33 2020
Costa visits a thriving market garden and community enterprise run on permaculture principles. Six years ago, the 5000 square metre site was taken over by Millen Farm after being used for cattle research by the CSIRO.
Urban Farmer Arran Heideman says “this is a perfect example of how a community organisation can instigate change, not only on a local level, but on a state and a federal level.” With $4.5 million invested into creating a community hub and replacing or removing the old infrastructure, there’s lots more exciting things to come for this productive garden.
The garden is run by Arran and a team of volunteers using permaculture principles, with worm farming and composting integral to soil nutrition. Swales have been built into the land to trap, slow and guide water into the right place and to keep nutrients where they are most needed.
There are 65 rows of crops, rotated regularly, and they have left plenty of space in between for ease of access and to make use of the grass strips that attract lots of beneficial bugs.
Controlling Stink Bugs in Gardening Australia episode 33 2020
Clarence shares a practical and easy method for controlling stink bugs.
