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00:00Ha-ha-ha!
00:05Hey! Hi!
00:11Whoa!
00:17Hey!
00:19Hey, mate!
00:21Hey!
00:33Hello and welcome to Gardening Australia.
00:36There's always something to do in the veggie patch,
00:40and it's this time of the year
00:42when we get to enjoy the fruits of our labour.
00:45Picking, eating, preserving and storing.
00:49It's showtime.
00:51And to lend a hand,
00:53we've got some stories to keep you fired up.
00:56Take a look at what's coming your way.
01:01These colourful little characters
01:03are the unsung heroes of my garden and my kitchen.
01:07I'm going to show you the many ways
01:10I put seed to use at my place.
01:13What happens when two doctors set their mind
01:16to creating a water-wise productive patch in the Adelaide Hills?
01:19Well, this!
01:21An extremely fruitful and beautiful garden.
01:25How many tomato varieties do you think there are in the world?
01:29Hundreds? Thousands?
01:31What about 10,000?
01:33Well, today I'm going to try and eat as many as I can
01:37and meet a grower who is passionate about the perfect tomato.
01:41And we take in some stunning arid scenery.
01:45Dawn is my favourite time of the day here
01:48at the Australian Arid Lands Botanical Garden.
01:51This is where the desert meets the sea.
01:59As the weather heats up,
02:01a lot of flowering perennial plants put on a show.
02:05Hannah's visiting a nursery
02:06that's an absolute feast for the eyes.
02:13Perennials are certainly having their moment.
02:15People can't seem to get enough of them.
02:18Here in Granton, in the northern suburbs of Hobart,
02:21I'm in a gorgeous perennial nursery
02:24where I'm going to meet avid perennial grower
02:26and manager Richard Hull.
02:28In the last, say, five to ten years,
02:30there's been a huge interest from the general public,
02:33whereas before, people...
02:35It just wasn't in people's front of mind sort of thing,
02:39but they're certainly becoming a lot more popular now.
02:40Richard, what is a perennial?
02:42A perennial is a plant that will live more than one year.
02:46It can be either herumbaceous perennial,
02:48like what we grow here,
02:49or it could be a woody perennial, like a shrub or a tree.
02:52And which perennials are just so popular,
02:54people just reach for them all the time?
02:56Certainly the more drought-tolerant ones,
02:58things like the agastache, like this one here,
03:01similar to a salvia, very easy to grow.
03:04Loves it hot and sunny.
03:05It'll take it cold in winter.
03:06It'll be dormant then anyway.
03:08It doesn't need a lot of water.
03:09And also the grasses, the ornamental grasses,
03:12in recent years have become very, very popular.
03:14The true ornamental grasses that we grow,
03:17they do need to be cut back, most of them, once a year,
03:20but they're really nice for softening up the garden
03:22and they can be used in lots of different styles.
03:24Do you think perennials play an important role
03:27in building climate-resilient landscapes?
03:29Oh, definitely, without a doubt,
03:30because the fertiliser requirement is very low
03:33and it's actually, in many cases, a benefit
03:36not to use chemical fertilisers on them.
03:38And also, once they're established, they need very little water,
03:40so there's much less opportunity for runoff
03:42to become a problem in the environment.
03:44So you're having more stable and healthy ecosystems?
03:47Definitely.
03:47And they attract insects, which is a good thing,
03:49and so these insects may be in to feed on the plants
03:51and at the same time they're going to benefit
03:53other plants in your garden.
03:54And Richard has some sound advice for customers
03:56first meeting a perennial at a nursery.
04:00The perennials can often look quite underwhelming in a small pot,
04:04but once they get in the ground, the rapid growth,
04:07they'll establish pretty quickly.
04:09And especially, you know, if you're planting them in groups,
04:12multiples, which really is the best way to show them off,
04:15you won't be worried about them
04:18not looking particularly impressive in a pot.
04:21When Richard's not at the nursery,
04:23he's tending to his one-hectare property in Dromedary,
04:26just 15 minutes down the road along the River Derwent.
04:31I can see some gorgeous perennials around the house,
04:34but I'm curious to see the rest of the block first.
04:38So, Hannah, we bought this property about 20 years ago,
04:41and the original plan was I was going to plant lots and lots
04:46of silver birches and liquid ambers,
04:47lots of deciduous trees in this area.
04:50And then over time I started to realise
04:52that we just didn't have the rainfall to support
04:54a lot of these plants that I wanted to grow.
04:56So rather than waste time babying them, I suppose,
04:59I just let them take their natural course.
05:02So after a year or so it was pretty obvious
05:05that I wasn't going to be successful with some of these choices.
05:08So I switched my thinking over to putting a lot of native trees in
05:11and that's what I did.
05:12So, well, I've got the benefit of maybe a little bit of a bush block
05:15as well as a reasonable garden up near the house as well.
05:18So it's a little bit of both, really.
05:22Time to check out the perennials around the house.
05:30Oh, this garden is pretty beautiful, Richard.
05:34Thanks, Hannah. Thank you.
05:36Yeah, I'm loving the diversity.
05:37You've got these grasses that really hold the space
05:39with these colourful herbaceous plants running through the whole lot.
05:42That's right. That's what we tried to do here
05:44was really soften the front of the building,
05:46especially when you come in through the driveway to start with.
05:48And I think the grasses especially,
05:51combined with the perennials, has created a nice soft area effect.
05:54And looking around here, it's pretty crowded.
05:57There's maybe no bare space.
05:59Yeah, that's right. That's a good observation.
06:01That's a deliberate thing.
06:02I think the more bare space, the more space for weeds,
06:05and also I think having it packed in quite tightly
06:07tends to conserve a bit of moisture in there as well.
06:10Some people might think,
06:12oh, I guess you just throw different plants in that are perennial,
06:15but you've got a really clear strategy here.
06:17There's a pattern I can see.
06:19Yeah.
06:19How do you determine that?
06:20Well, there is a pattern,
06:21and the grasses are used predominantly to give it a little bit of height,
06:25not necessarily just at the back,
06:27but they create a bit of punctuation through the rest of the plants.
06:31With the things like the different shapes,
06:34that's quite important as well.
06:35I think we've got flat shapes of things like the Achilles,
06:38and we've got uprights from the Salvias,
06:40and then we've got round shapes from the Echinaceas and the other daisies.
06:43So that's what we've tried to do there,
06:44is just repeat patterns of shapes, really.
06:47Why do you love grasses so much?
06:49Oh, I think I really like grasses because they move, first of all.
06:53The garden gets movement instead of having shrubs.
06:56As you can see, they move at the slightest breath of wind.
07:00And I also like, again, that they grow so quickly throughout the season
07:03so that you do get a change going on in the garden.
07:06You're not waiting a long time as you might be for a shrub or a tree.
07:10What are some of your top grass species that you turn to again and again?
07:14Yeah.
07:15Well, these three here,
07:16you've got Callamagrostis carlforster at the back,
07:19we've got Steepa itchu here,
07:20and we've also got the Anamantheli or the New Zealand wind grass.
07:23They're my three favourites.
07:25And they offer different shapes
07:27and they offer different things to the garden.
07:29The Steepa itchu really gives movement at the slightest puff of breeze,
07:34where the carlforster's just so upright,
07:35it's really, really nice to use at the back of the border.
07:39And then the wind grass over here,
07:42that's a really nice rounded shape
07:43and it gives a nice hazy effect when it's in flower like that.
07:46Oh, it's beautiful. I want to see more.
07:48Sure.
07:50I love the yellow arrow.
07:52Yes.
07:52Trying to create a bit of rhythm and repetition as we go through the garden.
07:55I want everything to flow
07:57because, especially at the back,
07:58you can see everything relatively easily as you drive in,
08:01so I don't want a sudden dramatic change in what people are looking at.
08:04And that way I think you get quite a restful effect.
08:07Along with rhythm and repetition,
08:09there's a third R in Richard's approach.
08:11Restraint seems to be the hardest part for a lot of people,
08:14especially gardening lovers.
08:17But if you can adhere to those principles to some degree,
08:20it certainly makes a difference in my opinion.
08:22Yeah, I'm going to have to learn a bit more restraint, I think.
08:25I think we all are.
08:27When it comes down to picking a good flower for this type of garden,
08:30what is it that you're looking for?
08:31Well, I'm basically looking for as simple as possible.
08:33And what I mean by that,
08:35we're trying to look in this garden to get away from double flowers
08:39and hybridised plants
08:40that the modern nursery industry really pushes these days.
08:44I like more simple flowers and so do the insects.
08:46They find it a lot easier to access the pollen,
08:49which is part of the reason that we have this garden.
08:51So simple is really what we're looking for.
08:54When it comes to selecting plants, Richard is all-inclusive.
08:58Originally, it was all Australian native plants,
09:01and I enjoyed that for a time.
09:02But I was looking for something a little bit more dynamic
09:05and something that would change as the seasons change.
09:08So we decided to go with the Herbaceous perennials.
09:11I tend to look at plant selection similar to the United Nations.
09:15It doesn't really matter to me where the plants come from,
09:17as long as they all get together well
09:19and they all want the same things and play well together.
09:22I think that's more important than the actual origin, in my opinion.
09:26Much like this Scotsman who has made Australia home,
09:29his diverse range of perennials are also thriving in their home.
09:34Every day you come into the garden, it looks different.
09:36There's always a new flower to look at
09:37or something's emerging out of the ground.
09:40So it's never boring.
09:41It's continually changing, and that's what I love.
09:51Will Hardenbergia grow vertically?
09:53Purple coral pea, Hardenbergia, is a native garden favourite.
09:58In the wild, it will carpet the bush, tumbling over the ground.
10:02But if you give it the right support, it will also climb.
10:06Just a year ago, we planted it at the base of a bamboo pyramid,
10:09and look at it go!
10:11These poles are four metres tall!
10:14Hardenbergia's climbing secret is called stem twining.
10:17It spirals up something relatively slim, like these poles.
10:21So it won't climb a wall like Bougainvillea,
10:23but if you can help it up the wall with a pole or trellis,
10:26you might tempt it to run along the top.
10:29I've now planted this white variety of Hardenbergia.
10:32It's called whiteout, and it's going to weave its way up
10:35and join its purple cousin,
10:37and it's going to form a beautiful colour contrast next season.
10:40I can't wait.
10:42Can I coppice a mallee?
10:45Mallee's are small eucalypt trees
10:47that produce multiple stems off a woody base called a lignotuber.
10:52For an example is this eucalyptus caesia.
10:55I cut it back hard, but it re-established,
10:57it's got multiple trunks, and it's presenting beautifully.
11:01What are cotyledons?
11:03Well, they're those first leaves you see that come out of a seed.
11:07They are actually stored within that seed,
11:09and when they come out of the ground, they unfurl,
11:11they hit the sunlight, start to photosynthesise,
11:13and fuel the growth of that little plant.
11:16Now, we have monocots.
11:18Monocotyledons have a single seed leaf,
11:20things like grasses and corn.
11:22And then you've got many diacots,
11:24and they have two seed leaves.
11:26They come out of the ground, and they are interesting to look at,
11:29but they're also really useful.
11:30You can use them to hold the seedling without doing any damage.
11:34And it's a great little fact to have in your pocket too.
11:42As summer draws to a close, a gardener's mind turns to seed.
11:49Those tiny, unassuming little packages
11:53that carry the promise of next year's garden.
11:57But that's not the only role they play.
12:00They also star when you move from the garden to the kitchen.
12:04Jerry knows exactly what I mean,
12:07and he's here to show us how to get the most out of your seed.
12:28As a passionate gardener, I never underestimate the power of seed.
12:33Of course, every plant's life begins as seed,
12:37and today I'm going to show you the various ways
12:40I work with these tiny little wonders.
12:51That sounds a little seedy.
12:53You've probably saved seed to propagate plants in your own garden,
12:58and for the more than 500 species I have in my garden,
13:02propagation by seed is probably the most cost-effective
13:06and efficient way of growing plants.
13:09Here in subtropical Brisbane, it can be hot and dry in spring,
13:14and I use this time to let my winter crops go to seed,
13:18and rather than watering, which can be really hard work,
13:21I use the conditions to help ripen my seed.
13:25So I use spring to create my primary seed crop.
13:31This is my Ethiopian cabbage,
13:33and to save the seed you just harvest a few pods.
13:43And then it's simply a matter of pressing the seed along the seam,
13:48and that liberates the seed,
13:52and I can save them and sow them again next year.
13:57Don't they look cute?
13:58Like peas in a pod, except they're cabbage.
14:04For really small seed, like this Nicotiana,
14:08you need to use pantyhose.
14:10The seed from this plant make the cabbage seed look like footballs.
14:16And the problem is they disperse so easily.
14:19But pantyhose is just brilliant.
14:22You put this over the end of the plant,
14:25and all of the seed are captured.
14:28You just tie it up at the end.
14:30Now, the brilliant thing about this
14:33is that if it rains, the seed will dry very quickly.
14:37They won't get spoiled by moisture.
14:41My top tips for successful seed storage
14:44are to always dry the seed before storing it.
14:47Use silica gel packs to help remove excess moisture.
14:52Use an airtight jar and label it clearly.
14:54Store the seed in the fridge
14:56and common seed like peas, beans, tomato and capsicum
15:01will last for up to ten years.
15:04Of course, a lot of seeds aren't just used to grow food-producing plants.
15:09They are food in their own right.
15:13Rice, lentils, peas feed billions.
15:16But I've got a few which you can get a good crop out of,
15:21and you don't need acreage.
15:24And these are my much-loved sword beans.
15:27These are the seed, and these are the plants.
15:29They've just started growing.
15:31I'll harvest these in winter, and they're a heavy cropper.
15:35You peel the fresh seed and boil them,
15:38and as far as protein content goes,
15:41they're every bit as nutritious as steak.
15:45Another favourite edible seed of mine is sesame.
15:49It's a heat-tolerant, quick-growing crop,
15:52and these seedlings here are just ready for thinning.
15:55I find the flavour of black sesame is far richer
16:00than the shop-bought white sesame seed,
16:03and it's far more nutritious as well.
16:09Many spices are made from seeds,
16:12such as cumin, coriander and mustard.
16:15I've got a few spicy numbers growing in my garden,
16:19including this black pepper,
16:21which is happily climbing a fruit tree.
16:23It's more commonly grown on palm tree trunks
16:26because it accepts quite a lot of sunshine.
16:29The seed is black peppercorns,
16:32and this is a distinct before-and-after moment in your life,
16:37because once you've grown your own
16:39and you've smelled the aroma
16:41and the flavour of homegrown peppercorns,
16:44there's no going back.
16:47My black cumin has just started flowering.
16:50It's an easy ornamental that produces seed with ease.
16:53And the seed are slightly bitter and peppery,
16:56and they're amazing for breads, curries and pickles.
17:00Take a gander at my coriander.
17:03This spice is absolutely essential,
17:06and look how easy it is to harvest.
17:09It's just so simple.
17:10You just rub the seed off using your fingertips.
17:14People complain that coriander goes to seed,
17:17but that's the second crop.
17:19My curries wouldn't be the same without it.
17:27Seed can also be turned into fresh, tasty sprouts in a matter of days.
17:32The process of sprouting is so simple.
17:35Sprouts are essentially germinating seeds,
17:38so most things work.
17:40Think beans, radish, mustard seed and pumpkin.
17:43So why not experiment?
17:45You don't need a garden to grow sprouts.
17:49All you need is a well-lit windowsill.
17:52To get them going, you use a sterilised jar.
17:54I put a tablespoonful of mung bean seed in,
17:58soak them in water overnight.
18:01The following morning,
18:02you put a little bit of shade cloth over the top,
18:04use a rubber band to hold it in position,
18:06and then you turn it upside down to drain off all the surplus water.
18:11Every morning, every evening, you fill it with water,
18:15rinse it around and then drain off the water.
18:17And in days, you've got nutritionally dense food,
18:20which is at its best before the seedlings produce their first pair of true leaves.
18:28I think seeds are absolutely wonderful.
18:31In particular, the way they give a gardener agency.
18:34They give you a real sense of power and they're portable.
18:38This is half of my garden.
18:41If you exploit their potential to the max,
18:44your garden and your kitchen are going to flourish.
18:57At this time of the year, productive gardens really come into their own.
19:02And Sophie's visiting one in the Adelaide Hills
19:05that's mixing up plenty of produce with some interesting plant choices.
19:13This lovely Adelaide Hills garden is the meticulously planned,
19:17waterwise creation of two doctors, Cathy and David Sprott.
19:22They've designed a garden featuring an abundance of productive plants
19:26on their 2,000 square metre property in Mount Barker.
19:30Cathy, David, I can see there's so much going on here.
19:34Look at the produce in the front yard, the pistachios.
19:36Yes, they're fabulous.
19:38Welcome to our habitat.
19:39We live in our garden.
19:41We've got vegetables.
19:42We've got nuts.
19:43We've got shady garden, shady in summer, sunny in winter.
19:49It's our habitat and a habitat for the birds and the lizards and the possums.
19:56There's a lot more to see.
19:56Why don't you come through and have a look?
19:58Oh, please.
20:05Wow, look at this.
20:07What a view.
20:09Look at that stunning, weeping Japanese maple.
20:12This is probably the hardest part of the block
20:16because it's the north-west corner,
20:19so it gets intense sun and heat.
20:22This plant would not survive if we didn't create a microclimate.
20:26Manage that by putting a nice pergola with a glory line on it
20:30which creates shade all through summer
20:32and then in winter they all lose their leaves
20:34and you get a totally different view out into the whole garden.
20:39Out the back, there's a veggie patch.
20:41Lots of lovely native and exotic plants
20:44carefully chosen to suit the conditions,
20:46including at least 100 fruit and nut trees,
20:49providing bountiful crops.
20:52Wow, look at this beautiful lawned area.
20:55So the lawn is on top of the rainwater tank.
20:58It's 115,000 litres.
21:00Wow.
21:01And it supplies the whole house.
21:03The house only needs about 50,000 litres
21:05but that leaves us 65,000 to drought-proof us for the garden.
21:09How amazing.
21:10And how much soil is on top then?
21:13About 400 mills, which is not a lot.
21:15That's not much at all.
21:16So we've got to be careful while we plant on top.
21:19So that grevillea, the standard grevillea,
21:21is growing in 400 mills of soil.
21:24And the only reason it can do that
21:25is that it's grafted onto grevillea robusta
21:29and that is such a tough plant.
21:32It's actually thriving.
21:33David has to keep cutting it back
21:35because it wants to take over the lawn.
21:38Wow, and it's just about to come into flower?
21:40Yes, yes.
21:41We're very excited about that.
21:43What colour flowers does this cultivar have?
21:45It's golden yellow.
21:46Beautiful.
21:48And someone said to us,
21:50why have you got your clothesline right in your view?
21:53It's because it's iconic.
21:55And it's beautiful.
21:56Look at the water stains on it.
21:58It's so functional.
21:59It's so beautiful.
22:01Absolutely.
22:02So you've got ponytail palms over there.
22:04I bought those when I was at university
22:06more than 40 years ago.
22:07And I also love the Kasonia,
22:09the South African cabbage tree.
22:12They're gorgeous
22:12and they have that similar interesting bulbous root system.
22:15I really like architectural plants
22:18and it just makes this artistic approach to the garden.
22:25Kathy and David have lived here for 30 years,
22:28but in 2017, a fire, thought to have been sparked by a power fault,
22:33destroyed their house.
22:37It was very devastating.
22:39And you already had a beautiful garden around your home.
22:44What then?
22:46Well, we were essentially in no man's land for quite a while,
22:49trying to work out what we were going to do.
22:51It was a very, very difficult time.
22:54But the fire did come with a silver lining.
22:57It allowed Kathy and David to start again from scratch.
23:00They built their dream house,
23:02an eco-friendly north-facing home where the garden is central.
23:06There are a variety of beautiful views of the garden
23:09from every room in the house.
23:12The garden informs the house
23:14and the house informs the garden.
23:16We were really keen to minimise the barrier
23:21between the inside and out.
23:22It's not planned on a piece of paper,
23:25but it is very planned, it is very intentional,
23:28but it's also aiming to be natural.
23:31Following the fire, we were able to build the garden,
23:37but we still had the bare bones of the previous garden
23:41with the big trees like this one and the gum trees.
23:45We love our gum trees.
23:46They were all still present
23:47and allowed us to have these mature trees
23:53incorporating into what we wanted to do.
23:57So what are your roles in the garden?
23:59We've learnt to work together.
24:02This is our 40th year of marriage.
24:04I've trained him.
24:06He's just about right now.
24:08And I've finally learnt as well.
24:11But we work together and we respect each other
24:15and we have lots of discussions
24:16and those discussions don't always have words.
24:20David has an incredible artistic eye.
24:23My thing is I like shade.
24:25So I like big trees to be able to go into the garden
24:28and under the garden.
24:29I also like space.
24:31I like the empty space between the plants.
24:35I feel that's just as important, if not more important,
24:39than the actual plants.
24:40And we learn from each other.
24:42David says he likes the space between.
24:44It's very tempting for me to go,
24:46oh, there's a space.
24:47It's a space for me to go.
24:49It's a space for me to go.
24:50It's a space for me to go.
24:51Now you've got a fabulous-looking veggie patch
24:53with, you know, corn and beans
24:55and cake gooseberries and zucchinis.
24:58And the tomatoes and self-seeded.
25:02Tommy toe.
25:03Would you like to pinch one?
25:04Please do.
25:05Please do.
25:05Let me try.
25:06Nothing beats the flavour.
25:09Mmm.
25:10Mmm.
25:14Heaven.
25:15Sun-ripened, warm,
25:17and flavour-rich.
25:19Absolutely.
25:21So you produce a lot of food.
25:24Oh, yeah.
25:24What do you do with all that?
25:26We share with neighbours.
25:27We share with our children.
25:29We share around our communities.
25:32So Cathy also preserves.
25:34And so we usually can preserve enough
25:39to last a year.
25:41How much has your work as doctors
25:44affected your garden?
25:47I think it's actually had a very significant effect.
25:52Working as a doctor, you are looking after people's wellbeing.
25:56And the garden, it's not designed for wellbeing,
26:00but it's certainly turned out that way.
26:04We both feel really happy when we're out in the garden,
26:08sort of just to recharge and move around, do things.
26:13Basically, yeah, live life and live a very contented and well life.
26:20We get regenerated when we come out.
26:23Fatigue tends to fall away.
26:25We come out to look at something, just check something out and see how it's going.
26:31And hours later, David says, dinner's ready.
26:34Come on in.
26:36I've just got to do one more thing.
26:39Yeah, it's on the table.
26:41Come on.
26:42It's our happy place.
26:46Well, it's been a delight to tour this carefully thought out garden and see the productive
26:51plants that are thriving.
26:52A little later in the program, we're going to take a look at several special fruit trees
26:57that are growing here that you may not have tasted before or even heard of.
27:05Still to come on Gardening Australia, Josh's fig tree feels the heat.
27:11We sample the delicacies of some unusual fruit trees in an Adelaide home orchard.
27:17And we're off to a botanic gardens that will take your breath away.
27:29If you're gardening down south this season, chances are you're up to your earlobes in tomatoes.
27:36But if you're anything like me, you're already thinking ahead to next season.
27:42What worked?
27:42What didn't?
27:43What varieties can I experiment with?
27:46Well, Millie's visiting a tomato farmer who's got the scoop on what's hot.
28:03I reckon it doesn't matter what country road you go down in Australia,
28:08you're bound to find an interesting grower.
28:11And there are not many growers more interesting than Florian Hoffinger.
28:17On his property at Mount Franklin, north of Daylesford in Victoria,
28:21he grows an incredible variety of beautiful heritage tomatoes.
28:29So, in the interests of research and journalistic integrity, I'm more than willing to make the ultimate sacrifice
28:37and sample as many of these varieties as I can.
28:42How many different varieties have you got in the paddock here, Florian?
28:46Roughly about 60.
28:48Wow.
28:4860 plus.
28:50And do you keep track of them?
28:51Like do you know what's where or are they all planted in together?
28:55No, I keep track of it usually inside my head, but I do have a little sort of a farm
29:01map where I do write it down for crop rotation purposes and also just to see, you know, what's good
29:10enough and what isn't.
29:17In here we've got another 50 varieties of tomatoes under cover.
29:22What makes these varieties need to come under cover, Florian?
29:26Two purposes.
29:27One, to extend my growing season, because we can get very cold summer nights.
29:33And second, to keep the rosellas out, which are great lovers of tomatoes.
29:40Who isn't?
29:41Who isn't?
29:42Yes.
29:42We've got a beautiful variety here, Millie, it's called Black Beauty, and I believe it's the darkest of all tomatoes.
29:49And totally midnight black.
29:51Red inside, super sweet.
29:53Time to try.
29:55Oh, beautiful.
29:58Go your halves.
30:02Mmm.
30:04Oh, yum.
30:06It's sweet, but it's still got that acid, isn't it?
30:08Like, it's really bright flavour, not that real honey sweet.
30:13And here we've got a variety called Chocolate Stripes, which is another super sweet beefsteak variety.
30:23Also red inside, but a beautiful bronzy looking colour with green stripes.
30:28Does it go even more chocolate colour as it gets riper and riper?
30:31It will get darker and softer as well, and sweeter.
30:35Oh, delicious.
30:38Nice.
30:39Mmm.
30:40So that's much sweeter sweet, like almost a bit richer in flavour than some of the really high acid tomatoes.
30:48Yeah, great snack.
30:50This is a variety called Cosmic, which is a small size heirloom tomato.
30:55Red inside, very sweet.
30:57This one is still a bit under ripe, but if you look at the colours.
31:02Really delicious.
31:04I feel like with all those colours, it's like all the food groups in one.
31:07This variety here merely is called Helsing.
31:11Helsing.
31:12Helsing.
31:12Helsing, and I'll show you why.
31:16Oh, wow.
31:17It's Dracula's killer.
31:19Pitch black with a red star on top and red inside.
31:22It's absolutely spectacular.
31:24Super sweet.
31:25Well, it looks absolutely beautiful.
31:28Try the taste.
31:31Mmm.
31:33Oh, sweet, isn't it?
31:35You could eat a lot of those.
31:37Florin, you grow heirloom tomatoes.
31:40What's the definition of that?
31:42Well, heirloom tomatoes, the definition is true to type.
31:45So in theory, if you save the seed, you can grow the same tomato again the following year.
31:53Even in a mixed situation like this?
31:54Only occasionally things go wrong, which happened last year, were these two varieties.
32:01This is a black trifle and these are tigerellas.
32:06Had a bit of a hanky-panky and produce a tomato variety which I named a triferella.
32:13What is it that makes you think that it's these two that have crossed?
32:17Because I grew them next to each other last year, the stripes look like a bit tigerella-ish
32:23and the size a bit like the trifell, you know.
32:26I'm going to grow some in another polytunnel next year, see to isolate them and see what happens.
32:32Yeah.
32:32This is a beautiful little variety known as blueberry.
32:35It's a truss type and you can see it's named after these gorgeous little berries.
32:39But it has this beautiful soft skin, lovely to eat.
32:42But for a market gardener, hard to put in a box and take to market.
32:45So this is one that's great for the home gardener, but not as much for someone commercially growing.
32:50But perfect for you to eat.
32:56Has anyone checked the science on how many tomatoes you can eat before it goes wrong?
33:05I really do marvel at the variety of tomatoes Florian grows.
33:10The shapes, the colours, the sizes and of course, the taste.
33:14But surprisingly, Florian hasn't always been a grower.
33:18In fact, for many years he had an entirely different career.
33:22I was a chef for 29 years, that's right, yeah.
33:26So it was still a food-related profession, of course, but I took the produce, you know, from the grower.
33:33For now I'm on the other end, you know.
33:36I always wanted to have a veggie garden.
33:38That was one of the main reasons to move to the country.
33:41And, yeah, it's just sort of got out of control and taken over my whole life.
33:48So what's the key for growing a really good tomato?
33:51Well, for starters, you need the right soil acidity, like pH.
33:56About six and a half pH is pretty good.
33:59You want reasonable good drainage in your beds.
34:03What I basically do, as soon as my growing season finishes,
34:06I grow a cover crop of fava beans for nitrogen and mustard to fumigate the soil.
34:12Then that gets turned into the ground in spring.
34:17And then I apply compost, potash, a little bit of pelletized fertilizer, not too much.
34:27And I mulch with straw.
34:29I only use strippers because you don't want to get water on your leaves for, you know, disease spread.
34:36Then I raise my seedlings in a hothouse and plant them after the last frost.
34:43How do you know when that is?
34:44Yeah, well, farming is just another form of gambling half the time.
34:50And then really the only other thing I do, I suppose, is I spray them with a sulphur solution to
34:58keep mildews at bay.
35:04And as if I hadn't eaten my fill of tomatoes already today, Florian's promised to pull out some of his
35:09old chefing skills and prepare a special treat.
35:19Here you go, Millie. My favourite tomato.
35:22Rainbow.
35:23That is beautiful.
35:24I love it when chefs do good things with good produce, which is often nothing.
35:29Less is more.
35:30Less is more.
35:31All right.
35:31Well, it does have my friend Beata's olive oil on it, basil from the garden and a drizzle of salt
35:37and some burrata cheese.
35:39That's all it really needs, I think.
35:41All it needs.
35:41All right.
35:42So we slide a slice out.
35:43Oh, my gosh, that cheese.
35:46Ah, it's incredible.
35:49It's so fresh, yeah?
35:50Cheers.
35:51Cheers.
35:52Enjoy.
35:52Sorry.
35:53You're going to watch me eat one more.
35:56Oh, that's beautiful.
36:01It's amazing you get so much flavour still in such a big tomato.
36:04Mmm.
36:05It's hard not to feel smug sometimes when you're eating your vegetables that you've grown yourself in that.
36:12It's always such a treat to get to spend time with someone who's really thought so deeply about growing something
36:19we love.
36:19I love the tomato.
36:20It's a humble vegetable, some say, but it is also one of the most joyful things you can grow.
36:26And I love also when that person is as passionate about eating them as the rest of us.
36:33Thank you for it.
36:34Delicious.
36:34My pleasure.
36:36Mmm.
36:45Check out the bark on this fig.
36:47See how it's rough and scaly?
36:51Last summer here in Perth was one of the hottest on record with a number of scorching days, which resulted
36:57in this tree getting sunburnt.
37:00The bark is dried out and cracked, damaging the vascular tissue underneath and making the tree vulnerable to rot.
37:07Now, in a healthy tree with a strong canopy, the leaves protect the branches.
37:12But when the tree gets moist and stress and loses its leaves, which is what happened here, the branches are
37:19exposed.
37:20And the same thing can happen if you heavily prune a tree.
37:23Now, one response is to coat the sun-facing side of the branches with a water-based lime paint or
37:31make sure the tree is properly fed and watered to get a really vigorous canopy, which is going to be
37:37my focus here.
37:39I'm applying pelletised manure, compost and mulch, and making sure the irrigation is working properly.
37:53This combination will encourage healthy leaf growth and keep the branches well protected.
38:06Earlier in the program, I caught up with Doctors Cathy and David Sprott in their amazing Adelaide Hills garden.
38:12Now I'm going to have a look at some of the more unusual fruit trees they're growing here.
38:19Look at these fascinating fruits.
38:21They're called meddlers.
38:22And in medieval times, they were all but essential in a royal orchard or a monastery.
38:29Don't be put off by their appearance.
38:30They have rough brown skin and talon-like sepals because they're a member of the rose family.
38:35And here's a cheeky fact.
38:37It's impossible to ignore that open centre they have.
38:41And the French actually call them cul de chien, which means dog's backside.
38:46They're mentioned in literary classics by Chaucer and Shakespeare, but they've been outdated by their cousins, which are apples and
38:54pears, that you can eat straight off a tree.
38:57While I don't actually like the flavour of the fruit raw, I love it when you take the time to
39:03cook it to make paste or jelly.
39:05With meddlers, you actually have to pick the fruit towards autumn, and then you let them ripen inside.
39:12And you actually have to wait till they blet or go mushy before you can cook them or eat them.
39:18So why would you grow them?
39:20Well, I've always grown them because I love their autumn colour.
39:23Their leaves turn the most beautiful tones in autumn, and actually they're holding fruit at the same time.
39:30So if you want to, you can pick stems with fruit on them and enjoy the autumn colour and the
39:35fruits in a vase.
39:39Another fruit that's closely related to the meddlers, that's not as commonly grown as it once was, is the quince.
39:45They also enjoy many historical references as the so-called golden apples from literature in the Middle Ages.
39:54These days they've fallen out of favour compared to their apple and pear cousins that have been highly cultivated to
40:01be more palatable and transportable and can be eaten straight off the tree.
40:04However, the quince has a distinct flavour and is a beautiful long-lived tree.
40:11They're remarkably hardy to grow in many areas of Australia, and they're drought, heat and frost tolerant.
40:17Now, as far as eating them raw goes, their texture's a bit tough, and they're extra tart, like an extra
40:25tart apple.
40:26So many people don't like them raw, but cooked, they're amazing.
40:30You can use them to make jellies or paste, but they can also be steamed or poached, they could be
40:36baked or roasted,
40:37and that way the flavour becomes really sweet and delicious, and they get that beautiful ruby red colour to them.
40:44So quinces are a great tree to grow for their produce, but also they're highly attractive in your garden.
40:53These are jujubes, although some people call them jujubies.
40:57They're like tiny little apples, but they're rather underappreciated here in Australia.
41:02Native to China, Mongolia and Korea, jujubes are one of the oldest known cultivated fruits in the world, dating back
41:107,000 years.
41:12They're hugely popular in parts of Asia, but jujubes have only recently been gaining attention in Australia.
41:19And because they are tolerant of salinity, alkalinity and dry conditions, they are one to consider if you need a
41:27robust fruiting plant for a tricky spot.
41:30They grow 7 to 10 metres high, but can be pruned lower if necessary, and they also can be espalliate.
41:38Most are self-fertile, although multiple pollinators will give you better fruiting.
41:43Most jujubes you'll find in Australia are grafted onto a hardy rootstock so that the trees grow better.
41:48There are a number of different cultivars, and they vary in size, from small fruits like this to ones that
41:54are about that size, almost small passion fruit size.
41:58They can be eaten fresh when they're ripe, and they have a crisp, sweet taste, a bit apple-like, absolutely
42:05delicious.
42:06Or they can be dried and they go brown, which gives them the name, the Chinese date.
42:12It's fun to try your hand at fruit growing, and we all love the usual suspects like apples and pears.
42:18But why not branch out and try your hand at some fruits favoured in ancient times?
42:42Okay.
43:10Various Three
43:26Huge parts of Australia are arid and I know from all of my travels that it's some of the
43:32most beautiful and precious country you'll see anywhere. There's a botanic gardens in
43:39South Australia that really champions the plants that grow in these areas and
43:44today we're taking a tour.
44:02Dawn is my favourite time of the day here at the Australian Narrowlands Botanic Garden.
44:10I really like the early morning light it's cooler and the birds are just magic.
44:18We are looking across Spencer Gulf to the wonderful Flinders Ranges.
44:23This is where the desert meets the sea and below we see the beautiful grey
44:28mangroves which are a unique part of our botanic garden.
44:33I'm Brian Reichelt from the Friends of the Australian Narrowlands Botanic Garden and I'm
44:38absolutely passionate about this garden.
44:42We're in Port Augusta, South Australia. We're on Bangla and Nookuna land. This area is the
44:49entrance to Eyre Peninsula and it's also known as the Crossroads of Australia because you
44:55can move north, south, east and west across our corridors. The garden is 250 hectares. All of the
45:05plants that are grown here are known as low rainfall, under 250 mil of rainfall so they're all desert species
45:12and they cover approximately 70% of Australia.
45:17We are an ark for the plants that will be growing across Australia in the future with climate change.
45:27We're on the keenopod plains of the arid zone of Australia. These plains support many, many
45:35different species of salt bushes, blue bushes, mariana species, all of those different types
45:41of plants. It's a haven for reptiles, small bird life and insects. It covers a very wide portion
45:50of the arid zone of Australia. As people drive past keenopod country right across Australia in the
45:56arid zones, they treat it as, oh, it's just another dry, lifeless area. But when you get out of your
46:03car and take a stroll and depending on the seasons, the variety and the things that you see, they're such
46:08beautiful plants, but unless you get out of the car and take a walk through it, you're not going to
46:13see it.
46:16It's amazing to see these marvellous little lichens and fungi which are growing in this arid zone.
46:23They are amazing. They survive right through the hot, dry summers. The first little bit of rain,
46:29they come back to life. You see here, we have an example of blackbush, which is really a great home
46:36for our birds and insects. It's also an excellent garden plant because you can prune it to whatever
46:41shape you'd like to have. It's one of those plants that once you put in the garden, it needs minimal
46:46amount of water. Another great example is the pearl bush mariannacetifolia. It has this very unusual
46:54bead-like leaf in a soft grey and it has very like fine little hairs on it. It's actually a
47:00beautiful
47:00plant, very nice in a native garden setting. In this sort of region, you're going to see birds of prey,
47:08in particular the little nankeen kestrel, because it's much easier for it to hunt for its prey.
47:13We also have lots of little wrens, fairy wrens, mainly the white-winged fairy wren in the open
47:19country. But also we have a little rufous-filled wren, which are very secretive and occasionally
47:24rise to the top of a salt bush and sing so that you get an opportunity to see. But unless
47:28you take
47:28the time in this type of country to look, you're going to think it's lifeless and barren.
47:38Bird watching is a passion of mine along with the garden. There is something about the birds that if
47:44you have the interest to take and look, you'll find little different variations within birds,
47:49their calls, their songs, everything is just brilliant and exciting to think about.
47:56I've been watching birds since I was about 12 years old, so that's about 55 years now.
48:01Original studies showed that we had around 49 species recorded here and we're now recording
48:07around 160 species in total that come and go from the garden. It's a good sign that we
48:14are acting as a home for birds, in particular in the bad times out in the bush. They know they
48:19can migrate into this region and there is a safe place with food and water.
48:32We're now in the sandhill country of the Aridlands Botanic Garden and we're in the home of the
48:36iconic Western Mile. It's a tree that has long lived, up to a hundred years some of the specimens
48:43that you're seeing here at the moment. It's so dry here that you can see the roots that are
48:49sitting above the surface which have been eroded by the wind. However, there are still minute
48:54rootlets that move out from the bottom to sustain moisture for the plant in the dry seasons.
48:59You can see the silver foliage that we have here compared to the green.
49:03This is a change in the foliage. It acts as a reflector of the heat and reduces its moisture loss.
49:11It's been recorded that this lowers the temperature beneath the tree by up to 15 degrees during the
49:18hot 45, 50 degree days. They are extremely tough. They can go for up to five, six years without any
49:26decent rainfall and so therefore they have to be hardy. You get a nice rainfall and they seem to come
49:32back automatically to full life. We have this beautiful splash of yellow from Eucalyptus
49:45Pimpiniana, very useful to birds and insects for pollination and food sources. This is a dwarf
49:52eucalyptus which would be excellent for home gardeners. This is another one of our beautiful
50:00lemon yellow flowering plants. It's the Desert Melaleuca. It's a plant that grows in the northern
50:07areas of South Australia towards the Northern Territory border. Such an exquisite flower and it
50:13has these tiny little capsules which contain the seed that which are very much like a nut off of a
50:19casuarina or some other species. A true desert plant. This plant would be quite frost tolerant
50:26because of the type of foliage that it has and I would suggest that you could probably grow this
50:30in a lot of gardens across Australia.
50:40The plants that are grown through all the arid zones of Australia run in temperature gradients of
50:46a night down minus three minus five to as high as up to 49 50 degrees and maybe in some
50:54days even higher
50:55than that when we get into some of the northern regions of the arid zone.
51:00We have some very rare trees in the botanic garden and this is one of them. It's the waddy wood
51:06which is
51:07an extremely rare plant that grows around the edge of the Simpson Desert region of Australia. The wood is the
51:13hardest wood known in the world and these trees can live to be around 500 years old and I absolutely
51:21love them.
51:23This is another one of our rare trees. This is the leopard wood. This is a extremely rare tree which
51:30grows from white cliffs in New South Wales north into Queensland. This tree is about 30 years old and once
51:38it
51:38loses all of its lower foliage and the trunk enlarges it will blotch out in white heads its name leopard
51:44wood.
51:55This is our Eremophila garden and we have 200 types of Eremophila within the garden. We think
52:00that is probably one of the biggest collections of Eremophila in a botanic garden in the world.
52:05They all vary in shape, colour, size and colour of flower. This Eremophila is Eremophila bigniflora and you
52:13can see it has fruit and flower on it at the moment and it's a very popular garden plant and
52:18a nice shade
52:19tree within your garden. These plants are ideal for growing in many different environments across
52:27Australia, cool and temperate climates as well. However, must be careful about whether they are
52:33frost tolerant and secondly that the soil type is important. Most of these plants tend to grow in more
52:39sandy, aloamia soils so they require free drainage, moisture but not wet feed.
52:52The idea of us having a garden in Port Augusta commenced approximately 40 years ago with the friends
52:58and council staff. Eventually we were able to convince council and the state government to be involved and that was
53:06the beginning of our garden.
53:07We live on a very low budget and rely heavily on donations. The Botanic Garden here is free admission
53:15which is really great. The garden itself is very, very popular. We're averaging in just over 120,000
53:22visitors a year now to the garden which makes all of us extremely proud of the achievements this garden
53:28garden has and it's the highest regional botanic garden numbers of anywhere in Australia.
53:46My love for these plants is not only the beauty of the plants but
53:50their ability to withstand such huge changes in climate because as we warm these plants are already
53:58able to tolerate those hotter drier climates.
54:12It's time to roll your sleeves up. Your jobs for the weekend are knocking at the door.
54:23Cool temperate gardeners, it's time to pop in your parsnips. Sowing now allows them to settle in
54:29and get cranking before the cooler weather hits. Sow fresh seeds into fluffy soil about three centimetres
54:36apart. If some of your foliage is looking furry and funky reach for the full cream milk. One part milk
54:42into nine
54:43parts water is a fantastic fungus fighter and will make short work of powdery mildew. Add colour to your cottage
54:51garden with wallflowers. Plant in a sunny spot where their showy flowers and clove scent can be appreciated
54:58from autumn right through to spring. In warm temperate gardens, wisterias are romping away so it's time to
55:07tame them. Prune back young whippy growth and cut side shoots back to within 10 centimetres of the main lateral
55:14stem.
55:15Prep for autumn plantings is underway so it's time to turn to your compost, literally.
55:22Aerate and turn your heat. The more love you show it now the better it'll be come planting time.
55:28Lift and divide old clumps of daffodils which failed to flower last season. Shake off the loose soil
55:35and store in a cool airy spot like the shed or garage for replanting in April.
55:42Subtropical gardeners, if your camellias are producing bucket loads of buds but few flowers,
55:47thin them out by twisting off some of the buds leaving one to two at the tip and two along
55:53the stem.
55:54If you're a lover of lawn, summer in the subtropics can be tough. To keep your turf tip top and
55:59lawn luscious,
56:00mow as high as possible to conserve moisture and prevent weed infestation. With autumn on the doorstep,
56:08take time to plan your patch before you plant. Nurseries and public gardens are great places for
56:13ideas and inspiration on trees, shrubs and plants perfect for your place. Amaranth is an amazing addition
56:21to tropical veggie gardens that can be sown now. The leaves are edible when cooked and are a super
56:28spinach substitute, plus they're great companion plants. Get a green manure crop going and add life
56:35and nutrients to fallow beds before autumn planting. Sow barley, lucerne, peas and beans,
56:42cutting and turning into the soil before seed set. It's a very good time to prune your mulberry tree,
56:48cutting it right back to around waist height. Mulberries fruit on new wood, so pruning hard now
56:55means more fruit that are easier for you to pick next season. Arid gardeners, aphids are active,
57:03but spraying with white oil can do more harm than good in the heat. Instead, squash them with your
57:08fingers or blast with the hose. While we're talking pests, set up some molasses traps to catch hungry
57:15grasshoppers. Add 500ml of molasses to a bucket of water and pop it in the patch. You'll catch
57:21handfuls of hoppers in no time. Native hibiscus is a tough, tidy shrub for a sunny spot. Growing two
57:29metres by two metres, this stunner will reward you with masses of showy purple flowers from spring through
57:36autumn. With autumn around the corner, now's the time to get prepping and planning before some serious
57:43planting. Let us know what you get up to on the GA socials.
57:53Well, that's everything we have on the roster this time, but there's plenty more coming your way next week.
58:02Some gardeners have that extra special something and Dolores Melak is one of them.
58:07Wow, you've trained these figs into archers. The garden is a celebration of her Maltese culture,
58:13family and friendship. When it comes to form, structure, privacy and creating space in gardens,
58:20our gardening minds often turn to thinking about hedging and screening. I've got some top tips on the
58:26perfect natives to use. And can pools be a safe space for humans and wildlife? Well, I'll be finding out
58:34how to
58:34make both things possible.
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