Gardening Australia episode 9 2022: Costa Georgiadis meets a young gardener who finds inspiration online, Jerry Coleby-Williams discovers a plant treasure trove, Sophie Thomson visits cooking legend Maggie Beer and Jane Edmanson enjoys some autumn colour.
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 9 2022
#GardeningGoals
Costa meets a young gardener who finds inspiration, guidance and a supportive plant community online. Costa visits a young gardener who has built up both her knowledge and a great network of gardening friends through social media. Danyen has taken over her family’s front garden, planting out seasonal veggies and lots of flowers, both tuberous dahlias and seeds of annuals.
In the back, her parents have a huge shade area where they grow orchids. Apart from growing lots of great food for her family, Danyen feels it’s really benefitted her mental health. She’s learnt a lot along the way, including the benefits of dead heading. She grows both perennial edibles such as raspberries and combinations like the Three Sisters, combining corn, legumes and gourds. Danyen is a graphic artist and presses flowers that she later uses in art works.
FAQS – Adding clay to sandy soils | Citrus peel in compost | Weekend jobs
Josh explains the benefits of adding clay to sandy soil, Millie answers a citrus peel question and Tino suggests some seasonal jobs around fruit trees.
Platform Perfection
Jerry Coleby-Williams travels to Kuranda Railway Station in Far North Queensland to meet the team behind one of Australia’s most photographed train platforms! He takes a ride on the 130-year-old Kuranda scenic railway, winding his way through Far North Queensland’s world heritage listed rainforest. This area is in the wet tropics, and it’s the world’s oldest rainforest-home to over 1200 species of flowering plants.
Jerry’s here to see the celebrated tropical gardens at Kuranda railway station, renowned for their eclectic collection of jungle jewels. Station master Glen Currie first worked at Kuranda 30 years ago. He loves working at the greenest station in Australia and say it’s great to get the compliments from the customers about the gardens. He says he’s only an amateur gardener, but the pandemic meant the staff had extra time for the garden-in anticipation of welcoming back customers.
His favourite plant is the King Fern (Angiopteris evecta) on platform 2, that’s been there for decades. Jerry says the size of the base shows how old it is. It’s even bigger brother sits at the station entrance. Jerry says this species is older than the dinosaurs, and this particular plant is as old as the railway itself.
Best Beer in Barossa – Gardening Australia episode 9 2022
Sophie visits cooking legend Maggie Beer to see what’s growing in her garden and taste a home-grown treat. The iconic Barossa Valley in South Australia is renowned around the world for its food and wine, but it has another famous export. Sophie Thomson visits legendary cook, writer, and television presenter Maggie Beer. Well known for her cooking, she’s also a passionate gardener inspired by fresh produce… and describes her own private veggie garden as her ‘joy’.
“It’s where I want to be, more and more, until I’m so sore I can’t move,” Maggie laughed. Armed with her knowledge she’s on a mission to improve the food quality in aged care facilities around the country through her Maggie Beer Foundation.
Pretty Eats
Hannah taste-tests the colourful range of edible flowers in her garden. Hannah is growing a productive garden full of not just fruit and vegetables, but also lots of flowers that are beneficial for pollinators, beauty, and add variety to her plate.
Not all flowers are edible or taste great, but the right ones are a delicious addition to the patch. It’s important to harvest them first thing in the morning during hot weather, before they dry out from heat stress, or just before you eat them as they don’t stay fresh for long.
Seeds 4 Free – Gardening Australia episode 9 2022
Millie discovers the productive patch that inspired its gardener to start posting out free seeds to strangers. Julie Bennett is a viticulturist by training and joined Montalto vineyard on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula when that opened. When owner Wendy Mitchell created a kitchen garden 20 years ago, she moved across and started working on that instead. She’s now head gardener.
It’s on just over 1 hectare and supplies 70% of the produce used in the vineyard’s three restaurants, but it’s also full of colour, form and texture – and everything in the gardens is edible. Julie is always saving seed to grow her next season’s crop, so when there was a sudden seed shortage in Lockdown 2020, she decided to do something about it. “I heard about a young man in the UK sharing seeds, and all these seed websites were out of stock, so I started sharing heirloom seeds.”
It started with spare seeds from work, then she set up a whole seed production line at home, offering them to anyone in Victoria. “I put out a FB post offering seeds for free – and offering to teach how to grow and save your own, to get people growing these wonderful heirloom plants, which offer so much more than the modern varieties you can only grow once.”