Gardening Australia episode 6 2020: Sophie Thomson meets a productive gardener on Kangaroo Island, Tino Carnevale visits the home garden of a botanists, Josh Byrne demystifies greywater and we meet Claire Hooper, a comedian with a horticultural background.
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 6 2020
Island Eden
Sophie treks across Kangaroo Island to find one man’s Garden of Eden, a small productive farm on the edge of a national park.
FAQs – Ladybeetles | Standards | Feeding perennial borders
Gardening Australia presenters answer commonly asked gardening questions.
Guide to Greywater
With many Australians feeling the effects of low rainfall, Josh explains how to best utilise grey water in the garden.
A few years ago, during a time of significant water restrictions Australia-wide, gardeners started discovering greywater as a fantastic resource for watering their garden. With many Australians again suffering the effects of low rainfall, it’s time for Josh to answer the big questions – what IS greywater, how can we use it, is it safe for my garden and is it actually grey?
Plant Profile: Swamp Sunflower
We profile Helianthus angustifolius the swamp sunflower – a long-lived perennial that will brighten any garden!
Taste of the Torres Strait – Salt and Pepper Crocodile Recipe
Costa visits an Indigenous chef at her café in Melbourne to find out about the plants, flavours and cultural heritage of her cooking. Costa visits an innovative new eatery in Melbourne’s inner west, to meet an amazing young chef celebrating native ingredients, for a true taste of the Torres Strait.
Mabu Mabu is an indigenous owned and operated café, with chef Nornie Bero at the helm. Celebrating a huge diversity of Australian native plants and ingredients, the dishes here are a modern interpretation of the food Nornie grew up with on Murray Island in the Torres Strait. “Food culture for us is really cool” says Nornie. “Because we are hunter gatherers, and so far from mainland Australia, we grow and catch everything that we want to eat, from the ocean and the land”.
Simple Solutions
Millie shares a simple solution for controlling caterpillars on brassicas and suggests an easy way to get a thriving and diverse lettuce patch.
Early autumn is the ideal time to plant brassicas. They’ll establish well before the cooler winter weather kicks in, meaning your harvest happens at the right time. Unfortunately, the milder autumn weather is also the perfect predating time for the Cabbage White Butterfly, the nemesis of brassicas everywhere!
So, what’s a simple solution to curb these caterpillars? Check the underside of the foliage for eggs at the time of planting – gently rubbing leaves to squash the eggs – especially leaves showing signs of damage. Give them a good feed with some pelletised chook manure at the time of planting and cover with mulch, and they’ll be off and running!
My Garden Path – Claire Hooper
We meet comedian Claire Hooper at her parent’s plant nursery in Perth and see how a childhood surrounded by horticulture influenced her choices in life.
Comedian Claire Hooper grew up free-ranging and then working in her family’s plant nursery in Perth, destined to take over the reins one day, but her creativity and fearlessness led her on a different, very funny, path.
Wandering through the established gardens surrounding Zanthorrea Nursery in the Perth hills, Claire remarks that this is probably her “favourite place on earth”. “I have always had the same home and it’s always been on this block of land at Zanthorrea”. Zanthorrea Nursery is a family business established by Claire’s gran, the late Jean Hooper, and opened for business in 1975. The nursery has remained in the family and true to its original ethos of promoting native plants with a focus on sustainability. WA plants are, not surprisingly, a speciality.
Tomato ‘Indigo Rose’
Tino explains why you should give the ‘Indigo Rose’ tomato a go in your vegie patch.
Pansies
Jane shows a simple tip to keep your pansies in full flower for longer.
I Yam What I Yam
Jerry takes us on a whirlwind tour of some of the most unusual plants in his collection, all members of the genus Amorphophallus.
Garden Gnomes
Clarence explains the history of the iconic garden gnome.
Backyard Botanist
Tino visits a botanist to explore her home garden full of nostalgia, food and science.