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Gardening Australia 2025 Episode 37
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00:00Woo-hoo!
00:06Hey! Hi!
00:13Ooh!
00:18Hey!
00:20Hey, buddy.
00:23Hey!
00:24Hello and welcome to Gardening Australia.
00:36I'm here at the stunning Australian garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne.
00:42It's the perfect showcase for some of the best Australian native plants and you can
00:48look around and see how you could use these plants in your garden.
00:54It's one of my favourite places to visit for that very reason.
00:58And now, it might be a little bit windy here today, but it isn't going to affect the awesome
01:04line-up of stories we've got coming your way.
01:07Check this out.
01:09There's something special about nurturing a plant from seed, and this one's an absolute
01:15beauty.
01:16I'm getting some tips on how to grow the Sturt Desert Pea.
01:19Want to know the secret to growing heaps of fruit and veg?
01:23I'll show you how to supercharge your soil.
01:26I'm exploring a biodiversity project here at the Melbourne Cemetery, which is bringing
01:31the land back from the dead.
01:33We looked at what plants are appropriate for this site, regenerating the grassland environment
01:38that would have been here previously.
01:39And Millie's got a bit of a drip going.
01:42Today, I want to put in a drip system to help me water my garden more efficiently and more
01:48effectively.
01:49If there's a place in the world that's close to my heart, it's the Mediterranean.
02:00The sun, the lifestyle, the people, the food.
02:04And don't get me started on the plants.
02:07Josh has found someone in Fremantle who shares my feelings, so much so that she's brought a
02:14slice of the Mediterranean into her own backyard.
02:18We live in a Mediterranean climate, characterised by long, hot, dry summers and cool, wet, mild
02:32winters, being hallmarks of countries from the Mediterranean region.
02:37But what does that mean for gardeners?
02:39Hi Josh.
02:40How are you?
02:41Good.
02:42Welcome to the garden.
02:43I'm visiting the North Fremantle garden of Margot Tobin to find out.
02:49In 2009, after buying a tired 1905 workers cottage, Margot and her husband Guy set about
02:57designing a renovation and an extension, along with a new garden.
03:06Margot is a Mediterranean garden aficionado, who also happens to be the head of the Western
03:12Australian chapter of the Mediterranean Garden Society, an international garden club headquartered
03:18in Greece.
03:20First of all, Margot, what a journey yours must have been to get to a point where you're heading
03:26up the WA Mediterranean Garden Society.
03:29Just how far afield have you travelled pursuing this love of Mediterranean gardens?
03:35So France, Italy, Spain, Mallorca.
03:39We've been to lots of gardens there.
03:41We've been to Greece several times, including Corfu, which has a beautiful climate.
03:46So I have seen a lot of Mediterranean gardens, even California, Mediterranean climate in California.
03:51So I've been to lots of Mediterranean gardens there.
03:53And how have these travels informed your understanding of what a Mediterranean garden is, and how would
03:59you define it?
04:00I think from a design perspective, a Mediterranean garden's got to have three things.
04:04It's got to have water, because it dates back to the Islamic time where the water was sent
04:09down a rill or water channel from the mountains to irrigate people's gardens and provide water
04:14for their homes.
04:15And I particularly like this area where the rill is.
04:17I'll often go and sit down there with my cup of coffee in the morning and just chill there
04:22and look at the water and look at the fish.
04:24It's also got to have shade, because a Mediterranean climate can get very hot.
04:29And the whole Mediterranean lifestyle means that you've also got to have somewhere outdoors
04:33to eat, because people do eat outdoors a lot in the Mediterranean.
04:36So those three design things.
04:38And then of course, from the planting perspective, you've got to have plants that will grow in a
04:42Mediterranean climate.
04:43I've used a mixture of Mediterranean plants plus Australian native plants, but there's
04:49very little irrigation out here.
04:51And it survives some pretty hot summers in Fremantle.
04:54I mean, we've been getting 40 degrees in October sometimes, and that's pretty hot.
04:59And I've also put in quite a bit of shade from the olive trees, so they're going to give
05:02us a nice delicate shade over the plants.
05:05Now this old fig tree has caught my eye.
05:07Can we have a closer look?
05:08Oh, absolutely.
05:09I see that you keep it pruned in a traditional way.
05:15That's very Mediterranean, and I learnt it from my travels.
05:18They do keep it down lower in the Mediterranean, because it makes it a lot easier to pick your
05:22figs.
05:23So nobody wants to be getting up ladders to get figs.
05:26You can just walk out and pick them straight off the tree.
05:28Do you get plenty of fruit off this?
05:30I've been getting about 400 a year every summer.
05:33It's prolific, given that it's so old.
05:35It's probably close to 100 years old, but it is on its last legs.
05:39Hence, my husband training up the new fig, and that has produced figs as well.
05:45But we're sort of thinking of succession.
05:47What a great idea.
05:48I love that.
05:49So this is only part of the garden.
05:53What else is there to see?
05:54Well, the garden's called riot and restraint, and out the back here, a lot more restraint
06:00was shown, and I've been very limited in my planting, so a lot of species are repeated,
06:06and very little colour out here.
06:08The wastringia, they've got quite a bit of that, and the plectranthus at the back.
06:13Because the other garden is the riot part of it, and that's a riot of overplanting.
06:18Wow, this is a very different feel.
06:24Yes, this is probably my favourite part of the garden, Josh.
06:29This is where I get to indulge my love of plants.
06:31There's always room for one more plant, but every plant's got its space.
06:35It'll come to the fore at different times of the year, so the euphorbia's flowering
06:39now, and that'll die right back in summer, and other things will come up.
06:44So I've got pelargoniums and so on down there, and they'll come up in summer.
06:49So seasonality is a big thing, even in gardens where the focus is on foliage.
06:53Yes, well, it's my garden, so it has to look good 365 days of the year, and most of that's
07:00done with foliage.
07:01I don't have a lot of flowers here, but I just like the foliage, and of course I get
07:05to indulge a few favourites, like my favourite tree.
07:07Yeah, the Cassonia, now that is not common.
07:10No, it isn't.
07:11I've only seen three in Australia, so that's the Cassonia paniculata, the mountain cabbage
07:17tree.
07:18It's from southern Africa, but I got it a long time ago and had it in a pot, and I've
07:23got it for the bark.
07:24I just love that corky-type bark.
07:26It's just gorgeous, and it doesn't get any water.
07:29Probably steals it from other parts of the garden, but it's doing really well there.
07:32It's been in the ground about 10 years, and I like that silvery foliage too.
07:37Great pairing with the Kalanchoe.
07:39Yes, that's the Kalanchoe beherensis, so I've got a couple of those, but I quite like
07:44that.
07:45It's just so easy to grow here.
07:46It's very nice.
07:47It's got that furry leaf, which is pretty common for Mediterranean plants to help with
07:52moisture retention.
07:53And I've got the Euphorbia lambii in that corner, which I really like.
07:57Now, does this garden take much work to keep it looking this good?
08:00It gets a bit of water in spring if we haven't had enough rain.
08:04I might water in autumn if the rains haven't started.
08:07But like most Mediterranean plants, a lot of these are very quiet in summer.
08:12They almost go dormant.
08:13Well, some of them are dormant, but you don't really want to be watering then.
08:17It's not a huge amount of work.
08:19It's hard to get any weeds, but it's because there's no room for them.
08:25The idea of a Mediterranean garden evokes a vision of people enjoying the outdoor spaces,
08:32socialising, entertaining.
08:34Has this garden delivered on that promise for you?
08:37Oh, I think it has.
08:38We both love being out here in the garden.
08:40But we also get lots of visitors, family, friends, entertaining out the back.
08:45And all of the entertaining is done in the garden.
08:47You know, it's not in the house, it's out here in the garden,
08:49because that's where people want to sit.
08:51And it's really very special to us.
09:01How do bugs survive in extreme weather?
09:04Well, over winter, many hibernate,
09:07which is why you don't see as much activity in your garden.
09:10Moths and butterflies can pupate in their own little sleeping bags.
09:14Borers stay in their borer holes in trees.
09:17And many other insects find safer places.
09:20As the weather improves, you'll notice a lot more activity
09:24as the insects warm up their cold blood and start to breed.
09:28In the heat of summer, many thrive, like aphids and mosquitoes,
09:32while others seek out shade and shelter,
09:35which is why it's so important to have plenty of variety in vegetation,
09:39and water spots that are set up for bugs to get in and out of safely.
09:44Why is some of the new growth in my plum tree curling up?
09:47It might be that you have aphids in there,
09:49which love to get into the new leaves and eat them up for themselves.
09:53To stop this from happening, there are a few things you can do.
09:56Firstly, because this isn't a major infestation,
09:59I'm just going to come around and snip off any of the infested growth
10:03and stick it into a bucket of water with soap in there
10:05to drown the little fellas.
10:07Secondly, I'm going to come back in late winter before the buds swell
10:11and spray the whole tree with diluted horticultural oil,
10:14which you can make yourself at home with a bit of veggie oil
10:17and dishwashing liquid.
10:19Finally, I'm going to fill my gardens with even more flowers
10:22that attract beneficial predators like little wasps, ladybugs and lacewings.
10:28What is deep watering?
10:30Watering is a technique to refresh plants.
10:33That's obvious.
10:34But by watering deeply,
10:36you can improve the performance of your plants.
10:39You see, plant roots are designed to look out for moisture.
10:44So, a light watering will bring roots up to the surface
10:48where the soil is hotter and drier
10:50and plants can suffer heat damage because of that.
10:53But deep watering is done less frequently
10:56and it trains the roots to grow deeply down into the soil.
11:00Now, if you're watering a tree,
11:02that gives you deeper anchoring roots
11:05which are more storm resistant.
11:07So, you see, deep watering is far more effective
11:10and your plants are more sturdy.
11:14If you want to know the secret to growing heaps of veggies in your patch,
11:28like the team here at Paddington Community Garden,
11:31then this one's for you.
11:33We all know that fruit and veg are full of nutrients,
11:37which are good for us, of course,
11:40but they're essential for a plant's growth.
11:43All these minerals come from somewhere
11:46and that somewhere is the soil.
11:49Plants draw nutrients from the soil up through their roots.
11:53And as the seasons change and you harvest your crops,
11:57the soil can become depleted.
11:59So, if you want to make sure there's nutrients available
12:02for your next round of planting,
12:04it's time to supercharge your soil.
12:07The process of making synthetic fertilisers takes a lot of energy
12:13and can have a big environmental impact.
12:16So, today, I'm going to show you some soil additives
12:19that are made from organic materials instead.
12:23The simplest and cheapest way to naturally supercharge your soil
12:31is to make your own compost with your food scraps and garden clippings.
12:36It's ready when it gets this beautiful crumbly texture
12:41and a nice, earthy aroma to it.
12:44Compost is packed full of organisms
12:47that give your soil a massive boost.
12:49It not only adds good bacteria and microbes to your soil,
12:53it also provides a home and food for them.
12:56As all those microscopic little organisms get to work
13:00breaking down organic matter,
13:02they're also making nutrients more available for plants to take up.
13:06This compost has been built over about six months
13:12by adding a ratio of around 40% green materials
13:17to 60% brown materials.
13:20Now, green materials are things like your food scraps
13:25or garden clippings.
13:26They're full of nitrogen.
13:29Brown materials are things like cardboard, leaves and sawdust.
13:35They're full of carbon.
13:38Too much green material and it'll become wet and stinky.
13:42Too much brown and it'll become dry and won't break down.
13:48If you're struggling to find enough brown material in your garden,
13:52try putting a container of sawdust next to your compost bin
13:56and adding a scoop every time you add some green.
14:00Make sure you've got at least two compost bins
14:03so you can keep adding to one,
14:06while the other can be left to rest and break down.
14:09Whenever you're starting a fresh compost pile,
14:12begin by adding a shovelful of finished compost.
14:15It's a super boost of microbes and worm eggs
14:19to get your new pile going.
14:22Worm castings is the somewhat euphemistic word for worm poo.
14:28So what happens in a worm farm like this is you put your food scraps in,
14:32the worms eat it and when it passes through them,
14:35they leave behind this stuff.
14:38Worm castings.
14:40Now, if you don't have space for a worm farm
14:43or you might not even have space for a compost bin,
14:46you can always buy worm castings and compost
14:49from your local nursery or garden centre.
14:52Worm castings and compost both improve the soil structure
14:57and help with water retention.
14:59Worm castings are full of an incredibly diverse mix of microbes
15:03and good bacteria, as well as mycorrhizal fungi.
15:08The tiny threads can extend the reach of plant roots
15:11and make it easier for them to take up water and nutrients.
15:15Worm castings are also a great source of nitrogen,
15:18phosphorus and potassium.
15:20All things your plants need.
15:26Pelletised chicken manure is a natural fertiliser
15:29made from composted chicken poo.
15:32Now, if you've got chickens at home,
15:34you can compost their poo yourself.
15:36If not, it's available in ready-to-use bags.
15:40The key is that the pellets break down slowly,
15:44releasing the nutrients gradually.
15:48Pelletised chicken manure also improves soil structure,
15:51but the main reason to add it
15:53is because it's high in nitrogen,
15:55phosphorus and potassium.
15:57Leafy greens and veggies need all these things,
16:00so this is a really important addition.
16:04If you can stomach it, blood and bone
16:06is a classic organic fertiliser.
16:09The blood component contains slow-release nitrogen
16:13and the bone is full of calcium and phosphorus.
16:17Nitrogen supports leafy growth
16:19and the phosphorus will help the growth
16:21of strong roots and healthy flowers and fruit.
16:25I've got a couple of buckets of compost
16:27and a decent handful of each of the others.
16:31I've given them a good mix
16:33and now they're ready to add to this raised garden bed.
16:37This quantity will do about one square metre of soil
16:41and to protect it, always add some mulch
16:44to help keep the soil moist and slow down weeds.
16:48And did you know that snow peas are also soil superheroes?
16:53Their roots make the soil crumbly and loose
16:56for other crops to follow, especially leafy greens.
17:01Snow peas are legumes and they add atmospheric nitrogen
17:05to the soil through a symbiotic relationship
17:08with rhizobia bacteria on their roots.
17:11When their roots are left in the soil,
17:13they decompose and release the nitrogen.
17:16Nature has plenty of soil superchargers raring to go.
17:21Your veggies are as hungry for nutrients as you are.
17:26So in between crops, be sure to feed your soil
17:30with all the good stuff.
17:39What do you look for when you come to any garden show?
17:42What's the first thing you head for?
17:44Oh, for me, it's the plants.
17:46Like there's so much variety.
17:48We've got different growers in different states.
17:50And so everyone, I mean, different climates.
17:52So just to see what is available
17:54and then what I can go home with really.
17:56How big's the bag?
17:58I always love that.
17:59Like it's right.
18:00Like if you go straight to the plants in any place,
18:03you've been all around the world, Jane.
18:05You can get to know that place, you know,
18:06what the climate's like, you know,
18:08what the culture might be like.
18:10Are they growing lots of food?
18:11It's such a window into people's world.
18:13And it's good to see what's flavour of the month,
18:16if you like.
18:17You know, here there's lots of native plants
18:19which are really taking off.
18:20You know, it's great.
18:21And what do you love to see?
18:23I think a little bit like Jane,
18:25I love to be amongst lots of people
18:27who are excited about gardening.
18:29And I love that this gives an opportunity
18:31for people who are normally squirrelling away
18:33in their backyard, down by the compost by themselves,
18:36to meet other gardeners.
18:38And you might stand and look at a show garden
18:40and stand next to a stranger
18:42and have a conversation about what it is
18:43that they really love about it.
18:44And I just think it's such a great opportunity for that.
18:47I mean, we're really with our people.
18:49That's exactly right.
18:51Some plants seem destined to be just out of reach
19:01for the home gardener.
19:02A good example is the sturt desert pea,
19:05stunning, iconic flowers that leap out and say,
19:10this is Australia.
19:12Tammy's tracked down an expert with all the insider tips
19:16you'll ever need.
19:27The sturt desert pea with its unusual flowers
19:29attracts everyone from florists to gardeners.
19:32But they can be notoriously difficult to grow,
19:35especially in more humid and temperate climates.
19:38Hey, Jonathan!
19:39How are you going, Tammy?
19:40Good to meet you.
19:41Love to meet you.
19:43I'm getting top tips from Jonathan Libbetter
19:45at a native flower farm on New South Wales' central coast.
19:48He has years of experience growing desert peas
19:51for the Sydney market.
19:53We sell whole stems and whole plants,
19:56and sometimes these flowers can be used in big display events
20:01like in the Opera House or in movie sets or things like that.
20:06They naturally occur in the dry arid centre of Australia,
20:09pretty well in all Australian states except Victoria,
20:12where annual rainfall varies
20:14between about 250 millimetres to 500 millimetres a year.
20:18Despite them growing across some of the harshest climates
20:22in Australia, they actually prefer that
20:25to growing in our very high humidity here on the east coast.
20:29The high humidity means that they're prone to infection
20:32with foliage diseases such as botrytis,
20:35and that's one of our biggest challenges growing it here.
20:39We have chosen now to purely grow it as a summer crop
20:42because in these open structures we can't grow it 12 months
20:46of the year without too many significant problems.
20:49Right.
20:50So really it's about understanding the climate
20:52that you're going to try grow these in.
20:54Yeah, to give yourself the best chance,
20:56and you're treating it as an annual.
20:58Sturt desert pea seed can be sourced
21:00from nurseries or suppliers online.
21:03Jonathan uses seed collected from their own seed pods.
21:06Seed is incredibly variable in how viable it is
21:09when you seem to get it.
21:11So if we have our own seed we actually know what's going on.
21:14So does anything special need to happen to the seeds
21:16before we sow them?
21:17Well, sturt desert pea are a legume in the family Fabaceae,
21:20so they have a hard seed coat,
21:22and that needs to be softened before they can germinate,
21:26so it acts as a form of dormancy that means
21:28that they can last a long time out in the wild
21:31until the right conditions come along.
21:33And the process of scarification,
21:35which is softening the seed coat, what would you normally do?
21:38Well there's different ways.
21:39You can use a scalpel or a sharp knife
21:41to take a little bit of the seed coat off.
21:43You could use a bit of sandpaper, a bit of rubbing,
21:46or at the moment we're using hydrogen peroxide.
21:48Why hydrogen peroxide?
21:50I use it as a soak prior to sowing.
21:53Hydrogen peroxide can actually surface scarify
21:57because it oxidises the seed coat,
21:59not removing but softening to allow water to permeate.
22:03It can also act as a bit of a surface sterilant
22:07to kill any organisms that might be on the surface of the seed.
22:10And to make the solution,
22:12Jonathan is using 30 millilitres of hydrogen peroxide
22:15diluted with about 160 millilitres of water.
22:19Next, adding a couple of drops of detergent.
22:22This helps break down the surface barrier on the seed
22:26and ensures the seed gets fully wet
22:28and in full contact with the hydrogen peroxide.
22:31Give them a good shake.
22:34You can see that they start off, they're all sinking,
22:36which is a good sign that that's your normal assessment of a seed.
22:40I can actually watch its effect on the seed
22:42and whether the seed float
22:44and you can see the air bubbles coming out of them
22:46and whether they swell.
22:47It's actually fun to watch.
22:48It's quite therapeutic.
22:49Whilst Jonathan is still experimenting with this method,
22:52he's found about half an hour to three quarters of an hour
22:54is the sweet spot.
22:55If left to soak too long or the solution is too strong,
22:57that can kill the seed.
22:58They's still Hessen,
23:02they segregate into floaters and sinkers.
23:07And so the floaters that lift at this point
23:12will germinate about 80 per cent
23:13and the sinkers will only germinate about 20 per cent.
23:18They may germinate down the track
23:19but I'm always in a hurry.
23:25There's no time to keep in mind.
23:26There's no time to wait.
23:29There's no time to wait in a commercial operation.
23:33The seeds are transferred to a fine mesh bag, and the solution is disposed of responsibly.
23:39Then it's time to rinse the seeds a couple of times in water.
23:45The seeds are getting softer, so you've got to be a little bit careful.
23:52The frothing is largely just the detergent.
23:55You can see there the difference between the ones that are swollen and haven't taken
24:01on any water.
24:02Here you can see the ones that are clearly obviously expanding and starting to hydrate
24:07in preparation for germination.
24:10The seed raising mix that Jonathan uses is lightly sieved one part native potting mix
24:14to four parts fine perlite.
24:17Just placing on the surface you can see where you've been.
24:20Sometimes it's easier with a paint brush to pick them up, then less likely to damage them.
24:25Then you've got to be careful with the forceps so you don't...
24:28Squeeze them too hard.
24:29Squeeze them, yep.
24:31Then lightly cover the mix and water them in.
24:36The seeds stay in the tray for a week or so, and are kept moist in a protected spot.
24:43Once they germinate, they're potted on into tube stock.
24:46And so I'm just using this little stick as a dibbling stick to try and carefully extract
24:55this and put it in the hole with as little root disturbance as possible.
25:00And, yeah, so that's how we do it.
25:04You can just see that the root's there.
25:07Yeah, they're quite long already.
25:09Yeah, they've already quite developed.
25:10So how long do they stay in these pots for?
25:13Well, they stay in here for about six to ten weeks depending on how fast they're growing.
25:18And so, for example, this one's been in here eight weeks and you can see the root development.
25:24Wow.
25:25It's really holding the potting mix together.
25:26Yeah.
25:27Once the roots are strong enough, we'll pot them straight up into a 10-litre pot, which
25:31is nice and deep at about 30 centimetres.
25:33Yeah.
25:34And they'll stay in that until they finish their life.
25:39And another tip, because they're prone to some root diseases, good hygiene is a must.
25:44Use a clean water supply, potting mix and pots at every stage, from babies to beautiful blooms.
25:51Once they're in their pots, do you then apply a stone-based mulch on top?
25:55Yeah.
25:56We're looking for something to try and keep the leaves dry and the surface of the pot dry.
26:01In this case, we're using a leka ball, which is an expanded clay ball.
26:05It's very light, very easy to handle, and it helps keep the leaves dry.
26:10So when we're watering, we're actually using a dripper like this, which puts it down into
26:17the soil.
26:18It's also feeding the plant, because we're running liquid feed through there as well,
26:22because they're quite hungry and thirsty.
26:24Right.
26:25And, I mean, they require a bit to keep them going.
26:29Yeah.
26:30Are you up for the challenge?
26:32Are you willing to give it a crack?
26:34I think so.
26:35Yeah.
26:36I've grown a lot of plants, but nothing like this quirky character.
26:45And I've come prepared.
26:46I've brought with me a free-draining mix, basket and seeds, and I'm picking Jonathan's
26:51expert brain.
26:52So this is my homemade potty mix.
26:55It's made up of two parts potty mix to one part coarse sand and one part scoria.
27:01And I know yours is a seed raising mix because then you plan to transplant them, but I want
27:05to grow it in this hanging basket.
27:06Well, this could be better than our normal mix that we grow in because we just try and
27:10do everything a standard way with the same mix to keep things simple.
27:14Yeah.
27:15But, so, yeah, and I think it should be good.
27:17There you go.
27:18Have the stool.
27:19Get comfy.
27:20Yeah, get comfy and it's all yours.
27:22So how many do you think I should put in here?
27:25Well, you don't know how many are going to germinate, but if you use the swollen ones, maybe if you
27:30put about five in there, then prick out to two or three of the best when they grow to see how they go.
27:35And then I'll just lightly cover.
27:44Yeah.
27:45Just sprinkle a little bit of soil over the top.
27:47Can't even see where they put them.
27:48Yeah.
27:49They blend in so well.
27:51So now what next best thing I can do for my seeds?
27:55The seeds have got to stay moist.
27:57So a nice protected spot that's reasonably warm.
28:00And then when they start to emerge, maybe dappled light would be good to get them going.
28:05And once they come up a bit, you might put a gravel mulch under the leaves to stop the
28:10leaves getting too wet when you water them and reflex a little bit of heat up into the
28:14plant.
28:15Yeah.
28:16Maybe under cover to keep them out of direct rain.
28:19What about my hanging basket?
28:21Is this the good size to establish them in or to grow?
28:25Depth is your friend.
28:26So the deeper the pot, the better, because it keeps it drier on the surface.
28:31That depth isn't too bad.
28:32And there's plenty of room for the roots to expand.
28:35Yep.
28:36Perfect.
28:37Well, good luck.
28:40Well, I've got my green thumbs crossed.
28:43Hopefully, I'll be harvesting a bunch of desert pea blooms sometime soon.
28:51Still to come on Gardening Australia, Millie turns on the waterworks.
28:58We meet a sculptor recasting the natural world.
29:02And we've got all your jobs for the weekend.
29:08When you think of public spaces, cemeteries don't automatically come to mind.
29:22However, when the Melbourne General Cemetery opened back in the 1850s, it was designed as
29:28a large public park.
29:30And visitors will come to explore the trees, the winding paths and the grassy areas.
29:36Fast forward to around 170 years later, and the 43-hectare site is jam-packed with around
29:43300,000 recorded burials, multiple mausoleums, a Prime Minister's memorial garden, and even
29:52a grotto in honour of Elvis.
29:59This space is almost at the end of its working life as a cemetery.
30:03There's only a handful of graves left in this space, and there's a waiting list for those.
30:06But we've got an obligation to maintain this site into perpetuity.
30:10Helen Tewton is the Horticulture Assets Manager at Southern Melbourne Cemeteries Trust, which
30:17oversees several cemeteries in Melbourne, including this one, the Melbourne General Cemetery.
30:24She also used to be a researcher on Gardening Australia, but left to take up this new challenge,
30:30creating a beautiful, biodiverse landscape in an historical site.
30:36You have to be respectful of what has been here in the past.
30:39How do you go about that?
30:41We looked at old flora studies that have been done on this site, but we also looked at what
30:46the landscape would have been before this site was a cemetery, and we know it was, say,
30:51grassy woodland.
30:53We looked at what plants are appropriate for this site, regenerating the grassland environment
30:58that would have been here previously.
31:00So, how did the project get started?
31:08What happened here, first of all?
31:10The way this site was being managed was unsustainable in the long term.
31:15So, we were using a lot of herbicide, a lot of resources, to just keep the weeds down.
31:20And there's no environmental benefit in any of that.
31:23So, for us, we wanted to look at a way that we could reduce or get rid of our herbicide
31:29management, but also turn these really barren areas of the site that were prone to run-off,
31:35that were really unappealing, very, very hot, into something more meaningful.
31:41And that was how we came up with Project Cultivate.
31:46This is pretty rubbishy soil, so how did you get started?
31:50We didn't really have the ability to do soil improvement.
31:54We didn't want to import soil because of the size and the scale of the area that we're
31:58working through.
31:59The easiest thing for us to do was install mulch.
32:04All of the mulch was spread by hand because of the headstones, because of the possibility
32:08of damage.
32:09All up, by the time this project finished, we would have put in 5,600 cubic metres of mulch.
32:16We saw within a month or two of installing that mulch how quickly the soil had improved.
32:22It had worms.
32:23The colour had changed, and the change in that soil was actually quite dramatic.
32:27Cemetery itself is 101 acres, and the area that we've worked through with this project
32:32so far is around 30.
32:34All up, it'll be about 56 acres when we're done.
32:37So the only areas we've planted on here are unmarked graves.
32:41We don't want to plant on people's monuments unless they specifically ask us to, and we
32:45have had some specifically ask us to because they just love what we're doing.
32:49Oh, I think it's fantastic.
32:50Yes.
32:51That's really good.
32:52Yes.
32:53It's lovely when these grasses are just waving in the breeze.
33:00Beautiful, isn't it?
33:01It just brings movement to something that's so static.
33:03Yes.
33:04And, you know, some of the grasses that we've got out here, like our kangaroo grass, really
33:09important to the space.
33:10They're quite beautiful colour-wise, and they'll drop their seed, and we're starting to see
33:15the little babies...
33:16Coming up.
33:17...come up.
33:18Oh, that's...
33:19..but the kangaroo grass would have dominated this environment before it was a cemetery
33:23anyway.
33:24And what's this one?
33:25That's one of our tussock grasses, so it's one of our poa species.
33:27Yep.
33:28We have two poa species out here because it's been proven to be really an important plant
33:33for a lot of beneficial insects and native insects.
33:36Isn't this a lovely little area?
33:41Beautiful, isn't it?
33:42Yeah.
33:43They are really sensational.
33:44Little billybuttons, aren't they?
33:45Yeah, they're golden billybuttons are just...
33:48They're one of the real success stories in terms of, you know, some of our understory
33:53planting.
33:54So while the grass is really dominant here, we have to introduce that sort of diversity.
33:58Look, the bees love it and the pollinators and the hoverflies just come in and love it,
34:02but also the people come in and love it.
34:04You know, we planted all the way along the edge of the pathway here.
34:07And, you know, I think the pops of colour that we get from this yellow, they really nicely
34:11accent some of the other great pieces of colour that we've got in here.
34:15People underestimate grasslands and I think they're traditionally sort of undervalued.
34:18And, you know, once upon a time, grasslands in Victoria ran all the way from sort of the
34:24mouth of the Yarra River, just about all the way down to the border with South Australia.
34:28And there's now less than 3% of those environments left.
34:32So for us, being able to recreate a threatened environment like that, but also teach people
34:37about the value of this space so that they just don't walk past and say, oh, it's a bit
34:41weedy or why don't you cut the grass?
34:44Being able to invite them in and have a look and say, hey, but look at the wildflowers.
34:47Look at the insects that are using this space.
34:50Look at the hoverflies.
34:51Look at the birds that are flitting in and out.
34:53This is a very different little area.
35:10It's one of the older Church of England areas here and was planted less than 12 months ago.
35:16And the way it's established has been quite mind blowing under the cypress, but also there's
35:22no irrigation.
35:23We haven't watered anything in here.
35:25And you get these beautiful plume grasses and the wallaby grasses and the diapers and these
35:31gorgeous cryocephalums with absolutely no irrigation.
35:34No water though.
35:35That's just extraordinary.
35:36Isn't that amazing?
35:37Yeah.
35:38We didn't expect this area to do as well as it has because it is a little bit challenging,
35:40but it's absolutely thriving.
35:42It's now one of my favourite spots in the whole cemetery.
35:44I just love it in here.
35:46I think this area really talks about Project Cultivate and what we're trying to do here,
35:52where we're not taking away from the cemetery, we're adding to it.
35:56This sort of beautiful mix of the old and the traditional or cemetery traditional with
36:00the cypress and the new with the grasslands underneath.
36:09How many indigenous plants would you have struck into the ground?
36:13So far, it's a quarter of a million.
36:15Wow.
36:16So it's 250,000 so far and that's across the area of the site.
36:19When this project's done, by the end of sort of 2025, it'll be half a million.
36:24Half a million?
36:25Half a million.
36:26Yeah.
36:27So this area alone, which is actually a bit bigger than it looks, took 80,000 plants.
36:32Yeah.
36:33It's a lot of plants, but we wanted to make it diverse, but also to suppress those weeds.
36:38You know, we're demystifying cemeteries and saying, no, hey, we want you to come in and have a look.
36:47It feels like the sort of project that you maybe only get a chance to do once in a lifetime.
36:53But the people in 50 to 100 years, just like these cypress, will come in and say, hey, that was a really good idea.
36:58That was great.
36:59And, you know, for me, this area sort of brings all of that together and it just talks about the project.
37:06I love hand watering.
37:16It gives me a great opportunity to observe what's really happening in the garden every single day.
37:22But the truth is I'm getting busier and it is getting hotter and drier.
37:26And so today I want to put in a drip system to help me water my garden more efficiently and more effectively.
37:37Now, a lot of people are a bit intimidated by irrigation, but it can be quite simple.
37:42The first thing you need to know is how much water you have to work with.
37:49Time how long it takes to fill a bucket.
37:52This is a 10 litre bucket and it took about 15 seconds to fill.
37:56Now, in a 60 second minute, you get four lots of 15.
37:59So that means I get four buckets per minute of water, 40 litres.
38:04Now, in an hour, there are 60 minutes.
38:07So 40 times 60 gives me my total amount of water that I have to use.
38:15Just like everything else in the garden, it'll always be most effective when you've got a plan.
38:20So once you've got your flow rate, you can look at the areas that you want to water
38:24and ensure you've got enough supply from that water source to cover what you need.
38:31I've drawn a mud map of the seven beds that I want the system to water.
38:35Each is about five metres long by about a metre wide.
38:38Now, with this information plus your flow rate,
38:41you can go and get some help from an expert to make a plan.
38:44If you want some more information, you can hit up our website.
38:52You don't need many extra tools to do a job like this.
38:55In fact, my secateurs do most of them.
38:57But a trenching shovel will help so much.
39:00And a thermos is a great little bit of kit.
39:03Now you can see we've got this great trench here.
39:10In winter, it actually acts like a really effective drain for too much rain.
39:14But in summer and those warmer months, it gives an opportunity to use it for things like this.
39:20So I've run a feeder pipe from the water source all the way along the edge of each of the gardens.
39:26And it's a large pipe, it's 19 millimetres,
39:29which means we're going to maintain as much water flow as we can all the way down the slope.
39:34While the garden is essentially one large area, it is on a gentle slope.
39:39So I've decided to divide it into two separate watering areas.
39:43The top of the slope dries out much more quickly,
39:46so I'm going to put that on a separate line to these lower beds,
39:50which hold the moisture for much longer.
39:52I'm going to water them as a group,
39:54but at times we're going to have different needs in individual beds.
39:58Like this bed, when you sow out some seeds,
40:00for those first few weeks while they germinate and get established,
40:03it's difficult for them to actually reach the water from a dripper.
40:07So top watering is going to be much more effective.
40:10So each of the beds, of course, has its own feed line,
40:13and this is where the drip irrigation will join.
40:15I'm going to attach it to this feeder pipe.
40:18And of course, I've put a tap on every single bed.
40:21So if I need to, I can switch it off.
40:24And the next step is to attach the manifold to that feeder pipe.
40:27So I'm just going to line it up about where it's going to sit in the bed,
40:31and then cut that pipe.
40:35Next thing I'm going to fit the T, which goes from that 19 mill feeder pipe
40:38down to the smaller size for the drip.
40:41Now I've got to attach the manifold that's going to feed my drip to that T.
40:45Now this is where a little bit of hot water can go a long way.
40:49If you're doing lots of joins, dipping that pipe in will soften it up and make it much easier to join.
40:54Now I've just got to lay that pipe out in the bed.
41:09So you can see that I'm using a pipe that actually has inbuilt drippers.
41:21They're pressure regulated, which means that they'll let the same amount of water,
41:24two litres from each of those drippers out.
41:27And I've spaced the pipe a little bit closer than recommended
41:31because I want to get a really even wet across the bed.
41:34It'll mean I run it for a shorter period,
41:36but I'll get great delivery of water for every crop that I grow.
41:41Now for connecting your water source, your tap or your tank, to your irrigation system.
41:46Now I'm going to keep it really simple, but you can get far more complicated
41:50and far more automated than this.
41:53This is just the two feeder pipes that are coming out of the ground here.
41:57They run across the path and down to the garden.
41:59And I've installed a filter in each to stop any unnecessary stuff ending up in my drip system.
42:04And also I've put a pressure reducing valve at the top.
42:07That'll mean if that water pressure does fluctuate, go much higher,
42:11it won't overload that system.
42:13I'm also going to connect up a simple two outlet tap timer.
42:17And that means I'll be able to set each of those areas to water on different days
42:21for different lengths of time as they need it.
42:26The first time you fire up the system, leave everything open and let the water flow
42:30because it'll flush out any dirt or debris that's gotten in there.
42:34And I like to leave the ends open.
42:36Some people join it as a box, but I leave each and every one open.
42:41And instead of putting a cap on it, I just use a simple technique
42:44that means I can open it any time I want.
42:47I just clamp it together, just kick the hose.
42:50We all know what blockage that can cause.
42:53So that means that any time that I need to flush this line,
42:56if I accidentally put a hole in it and have to repair it,
42:59I can just take the end off and flush it clean.
43:02A little bit of mulch, of course.
43:09It's got to be how you finish every Gardening Australia story,
43:12but it's also going to help to keep that valuable moisture in the soil.
43:16And I won't lie to you, I find irrigation a little bit annoying
43:19and I have really resisted doing this job,
43:23but I'm sure it's going to pay dividends watering at the roots.
43:26It keeps water off the foliage, it prevents disease,
43:29and it's a really efficient way to do it.
43:32It's also going to give me a little bit of freedom
43:34to go away and leave my lettuce for the weekend if I so desire.
43:38So this bit of work, I think, is going to pay huge dividends
43:42for our little garden.
43:44I love it when art can make you look at the world a little differently.
43:55And when that art is looking at plants, ha, even better.
44:00Our next story is with a sculptor who's breaking the mould,
44:05combining plants with art.
44:07One of the things that's always fascinated me since I was a little boy
44:29was how things fit together and the mechanics of things
44:32and the way we interact with the stuff around us.
44:35My name's Jason Waterhouse.
44:40I'm a sculptor, fabricator, bit of a gallerist as well.
44:47And I'm out here today at a factory in Sunshine
44:50in the western suburbs of Melbourne.
44:56We do all sorts of sculpture fabrication,
44:59so everything from steel fabrication
45:01right through to bronze casting
45:03and all sorts of approaches to making artworks.
45:10About ten years ago, I made my first plant work,
45:14and I've been slowly making more and more plant-based works ever since.
45:18There's an overarching theme in my work where things are bending
45:24or mutating or shifting in these kind of impossible ways.
45:28I have this existing object that people can relate to.
45:37So you create a connection with the viewer,
45:39but then I kind of manipulate them and change them in a way
45:43that it becomes this possible thing that's completely impossible.
45:48And I love to think that that nature will, you know, conquer.
45:54In recent times, the cotyledon's been popping up lots in my artwork.
45:58I think just it's almost a convenience thing.
46:00It's sort of like my gateway to work,
46:02and there's all these planted out.
46:04And they cast beautifully as well.
46:06What I'm doing is direct investing a cotyledon for bronze casting.
46:12So here we use a process called lost wax,
46:15which is where you create an object out of wax,
46:19or in this case, a combustible material.
46:21We put a ceramic mould around it, which we can then pop in the kiln.
46:27Through the firing, it burns the object out,
46:29creating this void, if you like.
46:31So there's this magical moment where the sculpture is space and time,
46:35you know, it's just air.
46:38And then we take that air and we fill it full of bronze,
46:41molten bronze, which is at about 1,200 degrees.
46:46From that point, it's a waste mould,
46:48so we water blast off the ceramic from the bronze, revealing the piece.
46:53Hopefully it's a perfect cast.
46:55And from there, we need to then cut all those pipes and airs off the work
47:00so it goes back to the original object, in this case, the succulent.
47:04And here it is in its final post-cast finish.
47:08So we've cleaned all the surfaces on it.
47:11And then I'll be painting the succulent back to that sort of powdery white blue
47:17that they are naturally.
47:19We're really passionate about eco-ideas and green spaces.
47:25We have a huge solar array on the roof.
47:28We collect all our water.
47:30We have a reed bed which recycles our grey water as well.
47:33And these were the live-to-air satellite dishes from the ABC that we've used for planters.
47:42And then we've built this beautiful green space down the northern side of the factory,
47:47which we grow our veggies in through summer and winter.
47:50We also have an orchard and even a beehive.
47:52It's become this beautiful haven for birds.
47:54It's become a haven for us as well at lunchtime.
47:57And it creates this lovely shield from the greater wasteland that is the urban environment here.
48:03As well as my own art, I am in this very privileged position where I get to make artworks on behalf of artists
48:16who don't necessarily have the scope to do it in their own studio.
48:19So that tends to be large-scale works like public artworks or museum works.
48:24We recently were fortunate enough to create the new Indigenous smoking ceremony dish for City Square in Melbourne,
48:32yet to be revealed.
48:34The project was initiated with Greenshoot and the concept was dictated by Aunty Joy Murphy-Wandon.
48:42Aunty Joy was very passionate about speaking to the Manigums.
48:46And so Aunty Joy wanted me to sculpt Manigum leaves and flowers, but at all the different stage of flowering.
48:53And then the bottom plane of the work swings out and then reveals a second sculpt,
48:59which is a sort of more graphic interpretation of the Manigum flower.
49:05And then the person who is leading the ceremony can then burn the leaves and go through the Welcome to Country,
49:12or whatever the event may be.
49:14The Manigums.
49:15The Manigums.
49:16The Manigums.
49:17The Manigums.
49:18The Manigums.
49:19The Manigums.
49:20The Manigums.
49:21This piece here is for the new Anzac Station.
49:24Maynard did the design and then I hand sculpted a series of 11 poppies in wax.
49:31Like all things that we do here, they're always a first-time thing.
49:37So when I was approached to do poppies, I quickly visited a friend's garden and had a good look at those.
49:42And what I learnt was that they tend to have four petals on the type of poppies that relate to the shrine.
49:50We then put them through the lost wax casting process and here they are straight out of the cast.
49:57So these haven't been retouched or anything yet except for one of them.
50:01But I get the fun bit of putting all the information in and creating the textures to try to create a really beautiful object
50:09that's going to be a new gateway to the shrine.
50:15I'm really interested in this idea of the human sort of element in the natural world
50:21and that sort of push-pull between the built environment and the natural environment as well.
50:30I spend a lot of time in a factory in Sunshine and I really...
50:34I'm yearning a little bit to be in my home.
50:37Friday's a nice day because I get to return home to Glenlion
50:41and coming down the valley into the property and the air's clear
50:46and I get to hear the river and if it's the right end of the season.
50:50And it's just nice to be home.
50:57I live on a beautiful bush property with my partner Magalie.
51:01We've been there for 19 years and raised our three children there.
51:06What is the other stuff that's in the tree you see?
51:09What is that?
51:10It's a type of mistletoe. It's actually native.
51:12Oh, is it native?
51:13It's a lolly gobble. I don't know its real name, but Dad's always called it lolly gobble.
51:17That would be right.
51:19My father bought this property in 1984 when I was about eight years old.
51:24We found this place with the incredible river,
51:26although it was completely overgrown with noxious weeds.
51:29This area where I'm sitting was an impenetrable paddock of gorse.
51:33You couldn't get to the river here.
51:35But over many decades we've slowly cleaned the place up and revegetated huge areas
51:41and brought in native grasses again.
51:44And it's been one hell of a journey.
51:49This big old managum here behind me is one of my favourites on the property.
51:52It's been here since I was a boy.
51:54And all the little trees around it, the now big trees, I've watched grow from seedlings.
51:59It was this tree that supplied the branch for the work slump.
52:03You can see the broken off in the fork there.
52:06A mulch truck came through and knocked it down.
52:09I'm like, there it is. There's my branch for this artwork.
52:12And then what I had to do was collage from different branches and join each piece.
52:20So then they created the form and then I recarved sections and repainted sections
52:24and presented the actual managum branch, you know, sitting against a wall
52:29and in a state of kind of exhaustion.
52:32When you look at the work I've produced, it seems quite abstract,
52:36but it's strangely autobiographical because each work maps where I'm at.
52:41at the time, so slump is very much about me being pretty exhausted.
52:48Like, I've been working incredibly hard for quite some time
52:52and the work, I really wanted to speak to a certain tiredness
52:56but hold a beauty within that.
53:02I feel so incredibly lucky to have somewhere where I feel such deep roots
53:06and connection to the place I live, like it really is my home
53:09and I feel really privileged to be there
53:11and I think the managums coming up in my work are a bit of a celebration of that.
53:16This place for me is everything. It's where I belong and I thank every day for it.
53:22How's your gardening to-do list looking? A little light on?
53:37Well, I've got just the thing. Your jobs for the weekend.
53:41In cool temperate gardens, group potted plants together over summer.
53:51Clustered containers are less exposed to the elements
53:54and don't dry out as quickly.
53:56And it's less work when you water.
53:59If you've got some space in the sun, get another round of capsicums in.
54:04Varieties like Padron, Mini Sweet and Antohe Romanian
54:09produce smashing small fruits that crop and ripen quickly.
54:14Got a tricky shady spot where nothing seems to grow?
54:17Try a tough-as-boots silver spur flower, Plectranthus argentatus.
54:23The silvery foliage of this sprawling native shrub brightens a darker area
54:28and they do particularly well under eucalypts.
54:33Warm-temperate gardeners ramp up your rockery
54:36with a grouping of grass-trigger plants, Stelidium graminifolium.
54:41Blooming now, the showy pink flowers of these tough, tufting natives
54:46pollinate by an amazing explosive action.
54:50Plants with grey foliage are hardy and provide perfect colour and contrast,
54:55so it's time to go grey in the garden.
54:58Some silver stunners include saltbushes, Senecio, Flomus and Stachys, the lamb's ears.
55:06Up your indoor plant game with a native ginger, Alpinea cerulea.
55:11Fantastic in low light, the purple-tinged foliage pops
55:15while the edible small white flowers and rhizome have a mild ginger taste.
55:22In subtropical gardens, give tired-looking tomatoes a tidy-up.
55:27Removing shaded leaves and foliage from the centre of the plants increases air flow,
55:33keeping damaging diseases at bay and your toms ticking.
55:37Have a good look at Citrus Camellias and Gardenias for signs of magnesium deficiency.
55:44Yellow older leaves with a deep green V at the base.
55:48If the signs are there, treat plants with a foliar spray of magnesium chelates.
55:54Summer stress cycads are susceptible to scale infestations,
55:59so water them deeply each fortnight,
56:02give them a feed of organic fertiliser
56:04and treat any sign of scale with white oil.
56:08Tropical gardeners give your zucchini and pumpkins a hand with pollination,
56:12gently moving pollen from male to female flowers.
56:17Keep those salads spinning by succession planting quick-growing summer greens.
56:22Mustard, sorrel, tatsoi and silverbeet
56:25can be sown at three weekly intervals for continuous cropping.
56:30Look out for sap-sucking spider mites on indoor plants,
56:34identifiable by their fine webs.
56:37They hide on the underside of leaves and hate getting wet,
56:41so give them a good blast with the hose.
56:44In arid gardens, basil is the best.
56:47Versatile, vigorous, tough and tasty.
56:50Try Thai, Genovese or cinnamon basil
56:54for a world of wonderful flavours.
56:57Mouth-watering Mediterranean's like oregano, marjoram, thyme and sage
57:03are wonderful water-wise herbs and are perfect for pots.
57:08Next time you're spreading some mulch around the garden,
57:11remember to spread some around the tops of your pots and containers.
57:15This slows water loss, suppresses weeds and helps plants manage the heat.
57:21Let us know what you get up to on our GA social pages.
57:31Well, we're wrapping things up for another week.
57:34We've got plenty lined up for next time.
57:36Here's what's in store.
57:38Perennials are all the rage at the moment, but not all are suited to our climate.
57:45I'll show you some that have a better chance of survival
57:48in our increasingly hot, dry environments.
57:51The warm weather is upon us, so it's summer crop time at my place.
57:57I'm exploring a farm growing one of the world's most celebrated
58:01and cultivated flowers, the peony.
58:04Stop living with the fish.
58:06The ice tree.
58:07You've got plenty of plants coming out.
58:08You've got plenty of flowers.
58:10Definitely, the grapes are all the way to the sea of when you're in your life.
58:13Let's be conscious.
58:14Let's see.
58:15Yeah, make sure.
58:16Let's see.
58:17Let's see.
58:18Let's see.
58:19You're welcome.
58:20Let's see.
58:21Let's see.
58:24Here we go.
58:26Let's see.
58:29Let's see.
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