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Gardening Australia Season 37 Episode 15
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00:05Hey!
00:06Hey! Hi!
00:11Whoa!
00:17Hey!
00:20Hey, Mike.
00:22Hey!
00:24Hey!
00:34Hello. We have been working hard to unearth a real bounty of stories for you this week.
00:41And it's time to reveal just what we've discovered.
00:44Welcome to Gardening Australia. Here's what's coming up.
00:50I'm visiting this beautiful garden in South Australia's Barossa Valley.
00:54And it goes to show that with some careful planning, you can create a resilient and delightful garden in a
01:01dry region.
01:02I'll be sharing some design tips about some of my favourite plants.
01:07It's always interesting to see how trees will respond to being hedged.
01:12I'm visiting a garden in central Victoria about an hour and a half northwest of Melbourne.
01:17This is incredibly tough country, but the gardeners here have hand-built something absolutely beautiful.
01:25And we meet a devotee of a true Australian icon.
01:37The Barossa is one of the most iconic regions of South Australia, but it's not known for being a high
01:44rainfall area.
01:45Sophie's visiting a garden that shows, with a bit of planning, just how much can grow in such a climate.
02:03I'm in the beautiful Barossa Valley, about an hour northeast of Adelaide.
02:08It's an area known for its vineyards and its Mediterranean climate, which is perfect for winemaking.
02:17But it's also home to a number of glorious gardens, carefully designed to thrive in the dry conditions.
02:25Third generation horticulturalist, Alicia Lynch, has created an inspiring patch near the small Barossa Valley town of Lindoc.
02:34Drought tolerant native and exotic plants are flourishing here, in a garden that only gets extremely limited water.
02:46This is a gorgeous garden in a harsh climate.
02:50How do you get water?
02:51So we actually have no mains water and no boar water here.
02:55We just rely on the rain water that is held in our tanks.
02:59And so how much rainfall a year do you get?
03:02So on a good year we'll get about 500 mils, but it can be a lot less than that.
03:07And it's a classic Mediterranean-like climate, isn't it?
03:10It is. So we receive most of our rain in winter, but in summer we can go up to seven
03:16or eight months without any rain.
03:18And I notice you're watering by drip irrigation.
03:20Drip irrigation, yes. It's the most efficient way to water.
03:24Wow, let's take a closer look.
03:27Alicia moved to the 16 hectare property with her husband and two kids eight years ago.
03:33And she immediately got to work building a dry climate garden, teeming with drought tolerant plants.
03:40When we first purchased this property, it was just a blank canvas.
03:44We had the house and then just a bare paddock on a deep sloping site.
03:50It was a real challenge in the first three years.
03:53I had lots of failures.
03:56But once some of the plants became established, then the microclimate started to evolve and it became a bit easier.
04:05This is one of the first challenges for my garden, a very steep slope out the front of our house.
04:12And it's north facing. So it gets hot sun all day.
04:16And there's also a lot of water runoff.
04:19And I've chosen lots of mounding and dome shaped plants here to cover the bank.
04:25Well, it's looking fabulous.
04:26Now, I can see there's a bit of a colour theme going on.
04:29We've got sort of magenta, lavenders, blues and purples.
04:32Have you got any favourites?
04:33I do.
04:34This is Gomphrina decumbrance and I just love the little magenta button flowers.
04:40I also really like the dome shape and the way it softens the edges of the rocks.
04:46I also really love Verbena lilacina.
04:49It flowers all winter and the bees love it.
04:52Well, I can see that. The bees are in there now.
04:54Yes.
04:57So this garden has many perennials in it, but we're here in winter and yet it's still full of colour
05:03and interest.
05:04Winter is one of my favourite seasons of the garden because we get more rainfall and the plants just look
05:10more vibrant.
05:12I've chosen lots of plants specifically for their winter interest and winter colour.
05:17Now, choosing perennials that survive in this harsh climate is a bit of a trick.
05:23Yes.
05:24How have you discovered what works and what doesn't?
05:26Leaf shape and size actually determines how hardy the plant can be in this environment.
05:33Perennials with much smaller leaves, grey leaves or fine hairs on the leaves can actually be a lot more tolerant
05:41to our dry and hot conditions here.
05:47I've chosen plants that come from a very similar climate to what we've got here.
05:52There's lots of Mediterranean plants, Australian natives, North America, Mexico and South Africa.
05:59So what draws you to a plant?
06:02I don't just choose plants based on their flower colour.
06:05I'd look at their shape and form as well.
06:08Succulents give a really great form and texture in the garden, bold textures.
06:14And then I can soften those with softer perennials and ornamental grasses.
06:19And they give lots of movement and personality to the garden as well.
06:30So I love to be able to check out other people's productive patches.
06:34And these beds look pretty and productive.
06:37Yes.
06:38I use companion planting in my veggie gardens and the flowers really help to encourage all the pollinators to the
06:45garden as well.
06:46It's really helpful to have wicking beds in such a dry climate and it reduces the water that we use
06:53dramatically.
06:54Even in the hottest part of summer, I just top them up once a week and they water themselves.
07:00This is a pretty harsh climate for veggies.
07:03Have you done anything to make the microclimate more favourable?
07:06Absolutely.
07:07So the almond tree actually provides shade in the hottest part of the summer afternoons.
07:13Perfect.
07:14And I've positioned two different hedges.
07:16They help to slow the wind and just create a bit more of a natural microclimate, more favourable microclimate in
07:24here.
07:24Because people forget that the wind dries your veggies out so much too.
07:28It absolutely does.
07:43This is what I call the gum tree garden.
07:45It's really challenging growing anything in here because of the competition of the big blue gum tree.
07:51Oh, I bet the soil would be pretty poor.
07:53And yet these plants are thriving.
07:55Any favourites?
07:56Yeah, the agave is one of my favourites.
07:58It's got a great sculptural element and it's tough as nails.
08:03And they're so architectural.
08:04And what's happening over the fence?
08:06That's our blue gum grassy woodland.
08:09And we've started under planting some mid-storey plants in there.
08:14Our local natives to create more biodiversity.
08:17Fantastic.
08:19So I noticed that you're on the top of a hill.
08:22Does that mean you don't suffer frost?
08:24The vineyards down in the valley beneath us, they receive frost.
08:27But I think we've just got enough elevation here that we avoid frosts up on the hill.
08:32How wonderful.
08:34So where did your connection to gardening come from?
08:37It started with my grandparents.
08:39They had a nursery, a production nursery.
08:41I spent lots of my childhood playing down at their nursery.
08:46And then my mum is a devoted plants woman also.
08:50And my dad is a landscaper.
08:53So I just grew up around gardens and plants.
08:56I actually spent seven years as the head gardener at a Paul Bangay designed garden at a cellar door here
09:04in the Barossa.
09:05It was a real privilege to work alongside Paul.
09:09And just bringing his vision to life from the early construction stages to the beautiful garden that it is today.
09:16And how much has his style influenced you?
09:20Oh, quite a lot.
09:22I like his use of repetition and cohesion across the gardens.
09:26And the way he mixes his perennials together is quite inspiring.
09:32Nowadays, Alicia teaches at a local school kitchen garden and is passionate about encouraging other gardeners.
09:40So what are your top tips for getting plants established in this hot, dry climate?
09:45It's all about the time of the year that I plant.
09:48So I plant all of my plants in either autumn or winter.
09:51And then they've got enough time to establish before our really hot, dry summer arrives.
09:56Fantastic.
09:57Do you want to show us what you do?
09:58Yeah.
09:59So this is a native mulla mulla, a perennial, that I'll be planting in the perennial garden here.
10:05Beautiful.
10:06Wow.
10:07Look at that soil.
10:08That looks pretty good.
10:08It's amazing, but it has taken quite a few years to get it to this stage.
10:13So you've added lots of organic matter over that time.
10:16Yes.
10:17And it really increases the water holding capacity of the soil also.
10:21First, I add some composted cow manure to the hole.
10:26And then a handful of pelletised manure, fertiliser.
10:33Lastly, a handful of coir peat soil wetter.
10:37So then I just tickle it in and then add some liquid fertiliser to water it all in.
10:47So now it's time to put the plant in the hole.
10:50Well, in that lovely soil with all those goodies, I'm sure it's going to thrive.
10:56I feel really proud to create something from scratch.
11:00It's really inspiring and energising.
11:06I've tackled one garden bed per year and it's just evolved over the last eight years.
11:12And so does that mean the garden boundary keeps moving as you encroach into the paddock?
11:19It absolutely does.
11:22Lots of people have asked me, how big is your garden going to get?
11:26And I keep saying, I think I've got enough garden for now.
11:30And then the next year I start planting another one again.
11:33Love it.
11:36It's been inspiring to visit Alicia's Dry Climate Garden.
11:40With access to only limited rainfall, it's great to see what can be achieved with planning,
11:46soil preparation and appropriate plant choices.
11:56How do I help my potted chillies survive a chilly winter?
12:00Chillies are perennial plants and they will keep producing for three years or longer if you look after them.
12:07For some parts of Australia, winter is the challenge.
12:10Once temperatures drop below about 10 degrees, chillies start to slow down.
12:14This is where they need extra care and attention.
12:16To help them through winter, move potted chillies somewhere protected,
12:21under cover, near a warm wall or even indoors in a bright spot.
12:25Also, reduce watering, stop fertilising and pick off all the chillies, even the unripe ones,
12:32because they're not going to ripen now.
12:34When it gets to late winter, you can give them a light prune, repot and feed them up
12:39so that when the weather warms, they'll be ready to bounce back for another spicy season.
12:45How can I control agapanthers?
12:48Agapanthers are a divisive plant, found commonly in many gardens, but they can be problematic.
12:55They're a genus of hardy South African flowers with blue, purple and white flowers and green strappy leaves.
13:03In large parts of Australia, they've escaped gardens, invaded local bushlands and choked out native plants.
13:11Controlling agapanthers is difficult.
13:13You need to dig out the thick, fleshy rhizome and dispose of it in your general waste bin,
13:18and never your compost pile or bushland.
13:22Digging clumps of agapanthers out can be very laborious, but you can do it a bit at a time.
13:27I find an excavator works best.
13:29But in the meantime, make sure you cut off any of those flowering heads once they've set seed,
13:34so they don't keep spreading.
13:36Do all citrus like a warm climate?
13:39Most do, but it is still possible to grow citrus in cooler climates or places with cold winters.
13:46The key is to choose the right variety that's adapted to the cold,
13:50and also make sure you have the right position.
13:53Ideally, you want a sunny, warm microclimate, and you need to have good drainage.
13:59This is a Meyer lemon, and this will grow really well in colder areas,
14:03as do Lisbons, mandarins, kumquats and Seville oranges.
14:07You also need to make sure that you mulch to insulate the root system
14:11against extremes of cold, because the root system is rather shallow.
14:25One of the things about good design, particularly planting design,
14:29is that you can be around it, but you don't always appreciate it first up,
14:34until you take a closer look.
14:36And in this case, I want to walk you through five species of plants that have been combined
14:43to create a beautiful effect, but at the same time solving a problem.
14:48That is, this is a hot, dry location that's windy and exposed to the sun.
14:55Classic Mediterranean conditions.
14:58Look at the combination that has been put together.
15:01There's this succulent, Crassula.
15:03Look at those crinkly leaves.
15:05They catch your eye and you want to walk your way through it.
15:08It leads you to this shaped Eliagnus, which by creating the ball shape,
15:14the Crassula hugs around it.
15:16So that creates wonderful contrast.
15:19Rosemary along the border here is a classic Mediterranean plant,
15:23and if you brush up against it, you're going to get that beautiful smell.
15:26It can be clipped or it can be left to go a little bit wild and just clipped randomly.
15:34Westringer or coastal rosemary sleeves seamlessly into this combination of planting,
15:40because it can handle the hot, can handle the wind,
15:42and can also be shaped into whatever kind of forms you like.
15:47And then for a little bit of random and total texture,
15:51we've got this pocket of aloe.
15:54It's sharing similar shades of green,
15:57but then it pops up the yellow flower just to say,
16:00hey, are you watching? I got you, right there.
16:04These plants all share similar growing needs.
16:08And when you start to play with them from a design point of view,
16:12you start to make these repetitive combinations,
16:15all of a sudden you get this wonderful movement and colour and texture throughout your garden.
16:23And the thing to remember is wherever you're walking, wherever you're travelling,
16:27have a look for plant combinations in different gardens and parks
16:32and think about where is it? What is it? What do they need?
16:36Is it the cool side of a garden? Is it the hot side of the garden?
16:40Is it exposed? Is it shady?
16:42And that way you can start to collect wonderful plant combinations
16:46and give them a go at your place.
17:01Yum! Passion fruit.
17:03I cut mine like this.
17:05You just take the top off and you don't spill a drop.
17:11So good.
17:13These are the last fruit on the vine, but I'm not worried.
17:17It's one of the easiest backyard crops you can raise.
17:20I have a couple of tips to make sure of a fresh supply next season.
17:25Now a passion fruit vine won't last forever.
17:27You can go from giving buckets to your neighbours to barely enough for your pavlova.
17:32Because they grow so vigorously, they can wear themselves out in five years or less.
17:37This one here is already four.
17:39Oh, and passion fruits hate waterlogged soil.
17:42So if your drainage is poor, wet weather will kill them.
17:45The cooler months are the key time to work on your passion fruit crop.
17:49So, what are we waiting for?
17:51Tammy?
17:53Tammy?
17:55I'll be with you in a sec.
17:58I promise. It's my last one.
18:03Okay, here we go.
18:04First thing to remember is that passion fruit only flowers and fruits on new season growth.
18:10That means all this last season or old growth is useless.
18:14And we need to cut it back.
18:16In practice, this means you need to cut back your vine by at least a third.
18:20Yes, a third.
18:23Look particularly for the messy tangles and for the lateral growth like this.
18:31The aim is to improve airflow around the plant.
18:35Expose leaves to the sun to encourage the new growth that will flower and fruit.
18:41Once you finish pruning, you can train your remaining vines horizontally.
18:45This wire is perfect.
18:49Secure it firmly with soft garden ties.
18:52The plant will look a little bare for a few weeks.
18:55But as the weather warms, you'll see little buds swell along the prune stems and lots of green growth.
19:01By the end of spring, you can get 50 centimetres of growth in a fortnight.
19:09And to make doubly sure, give it a good feed.
19:13Blood and bone for growth.
19:16Potash or a fruit tree fertiliser to boost flowering and help the fruit set.
19:22Now this old vine might give out any year now.
19:25I'm not taking any chances.
19:27So here's my new passion fruit vine and this one's Nellie Kelly.
19:31See this?
19:32That's a graft.
19:34Most Australian passion fruit plants are grafted onto tough, disease-resistant rootstock.
19:39Now just make sure your rootstock isn't shooting.
19:42You'll get nothing from it that you can eat.
19:48This new vine should see green shoots in a couple of weeks.
19:51And it'll harvest its first fruits next summer.
19:55The cooler months are the time to plant, prune and feed your passion fruit vine.
19:59And keep yourself in the sweetest and easiest backyard crop.
20:11If you're in Victoria's gold fields, you'll know it can be a pretty tough place when it comes to gardening.
20:18Millie's discovered a beautiful garden out that way that shows when the going gets tough, the tough get gardening.
20:33Out in Goldrush country in central Victoria, between Daylesford and Castlemaine, is the small hamlet of Clydesdale with a population
20:42of just 62.
20:44I'm about to meet two of them at their aptly named historic property, The Stones.
20:52And in only a few short years, the garden that Grant and Jeremy have created has become renowned.
20:58And I'm so excited to be here for a tour.
21:03Gosh, I love all of these paths.
21:05They just make you want to explore the garden.
21:08I've always loved paths because it's that mystery thing where you follow the path and then you're not quite sure
21:15where it's going and then it leads you into something and then you go to another place.
21:18This is the oldest building on the property, probably 1854, 1855.
21:25It's an old miners hut.
21:27I think they lived in that while they were building the main house.
21:31It's set on six and a half hectares, with the cultivated garden taking up almost a whole hectare.
21:37When we first arrived here, every nook and cranny felt different.
21:43And so in creating a garden, we sort of just wanted to create that difference, but with a flow going
21:48between it and then the buildings as well.
21:51Each sort of separate area had its own vista that you could sort of look out to or sort of
21:57a little world within itself sort of thing.
21:59Yeah, the garden, it kind of dictated how the garden was going to be.
22:03I think once we just listened to the atmosphere of the place, it just started to develop.
22:11Over the past 12 years, they've both slowly added to the original garden beds.
22:16There was tons of bulbs everywhere.
22:19Yes.
22:20And trees, and that was about it.
22:22Yeah, yeah.
22:22And it's sort of a basic layout of a garden, but not much really was there.
22:27But we knew that we could sink our teeth into it.
22:29We just desperately wanted something that was old and historic.
22:32We kind of felt like we'd found the jackpot.
22:35From the very beginning, it was all about DIY.
22:39I mean, the house was hand-built by two brothers and they just used the materials that were at hand.
22:46I think the windows were brought up on a horse and cart from Melbourne.
22:50We've sort of done that with old posts and whatnot and bits of iron work and stuff that we found
22:55that was just sort of laying around when we first came here as well.
22:59You know, we've never had a professional person in to do anything.
23:02We've kind of done everything ourselves, all of the walls, steps.
23:05And you're on a budget.
23:07Yeah, that's it.
23:07We've worked with what there is in the land that's sort of sitting there.
23:10I mean, you can't always afford to, you know, get the professionals in to do grandiose things, but nor should
23:16you.
23:16There certainly was tonnes of rock sitting around when we came.
23:19Yeah, yeah.
23:19So it was a good thing to use, you know.
23:23This stone is amazing. It's like truly volcanic rock.
23:27Yeah, it is. It's the basal.
23:30I mean, we are on the last finger of lava from Laugenbucht, Mount Franklin.
23:35So the whole district is covered in these rocks and they're quite irregularly shaped, which makes building walls quite difficult.
23:42But then on the other hand, once you find the right combination of things, they do lock in, which is
23:47great for me because I'm not a professional.
23:49So you've done all of this stonework yourself?
23:52Yes.
23:53I've always loved rocks and there was just so many of them.
23:57It just kind of made sense that in building a garden and rocks at hand that, you know, I'd be
24:04building walls.
24:05So for the last 10 years, I've been building one wall after another.
24:09They are not only really beautiful in the garden, but really functional.
24:12Yeah, well, they are.
24:13And I mean, this is our vegetable garden in here.
24:15So it's a great way of keeping the rabbits out to begin with.
24:20The 500 square metre vegetable garden was one of the first things the couple tackled, building up the soil and
24:26planting lots of seedlings.
24:28And it's paid off.
24:30In a good year, it keeps them well fed.
24:38When you talk about a historic property, we're only talking a couple of hundred years.
24:43But things like the peppercorn, they're really iconic plants in the Australian landscape.
24:47A lot of people think they're native.
24:49Yes, they do.
24:50This whole area was, you know, the gold fields.
24:53So there was a lot of miners from California that came to central Victoria
24:57and they brought the peppercorn trees with them.
25:00And then they also took away eucalypts back to California.
25:04So there was this kind of weird exchange that happened.
25:07But the peppercorn trees are such a strong element here in this particular garden
25:13because we have like a ridge of them behind.
25:16And it happens to be, you know, one of my favourite parts of the garden too.
25:20Those evergreen colours of the peppercorn tree have been a theme throughout the garden
25:24in stark contrast to the colourful Melbourne vintage store they both run.
25:36We've got a very busy work life and that involves a lot of colour, a lot of pattern,
25:42and it's visually quite exhausting.
25:44It's great, but we need to have some kind of visual relief.
25:48When we're at home, we just want things to be soft and quiet and, you know,
25:52it just needs to be more of a sanctuary than something that's stimulating.
25:56So that's kind of tailored the garden for us.
26:01And the environment dictated that as well.
26:03Because certain things just won't work here.
26:06That's right.
26:07In the environment.
26:08So it's very foliage-based.
26:09But certainly we've never sort of planned it really.
26:12It's just kind of happened as we've gone along.
26:17Much of what you can see planted is what has survived.
26:21Their garden battles searing summer heat and severe frosts.
26:24And what they've ended up with is a pallet of plants that suit the extreme climate,
26:29the soil and the site.
26:32And there's the occasional pop of colour mixed in with a good dose of creativity.
26:39Come through.
26:40Oh, that's beautiful.
26:41Grant, I love the way you've used whatever materials you've got
26:45to create such beautiful features.
26:48Yeah.
26:48Well, this...
26:49The arbour, I actually collected all the new growth of the willow
26:53from down at the creek.
26:54Oh, there's plenty.
26:55Yeah.
26:56And I just sort of arched them over and I've wired them together.
26:58To create a sort of a lattice work.
27:01And then just kind of let the grapes grow over.
27:04In the end, what I'm hoping for is that the grapes will kind of grow up
27:09and gradually, you know, become more woody
27:12and they'll become kind of a self-supporting structure.
27:15Right.
27:16And they will do that.
27:17I mean, they're such robust plants.
27:18Yeah.
27:18It's just helping them get established
27:20and then eventually it'll just pull itself up.
27:22Yeah.
27:22When it's green in the spring and they're all going nuts and growing,
27:25I tend to sort of lash them down so that to sort of, you know,
27:28get them to go in the right direction.
27:30And then, you know, as the season finishes,
27:32once the leaves fall and everything, I trim it all back again
27:35and then gradually it woods up.
27:37It's totally beautiful.
27:41How do you work together?
27:43Like, how do you combine your skills?
27:45I probably tend to like, you know, sort of controlling
27:50and cutting back things a bit more than Jeremy.
27:52Jeremy likes things to be wild and expressive and all of that.
27:56And I'm a bit more perhaps a neat gardener than Jeremy would be.
28:02But when you put the two together, when there's wild and clip side by side,
28:07there's a kind of magic to that.
28:08I mean, I love how it looks, you know, at the end of all of that.
28:12But I do love a rake.
28:14I love raking.
28:15That's true.
28:16And I love a hose.
28:18They're my two favourite things.
28:19I can walk around and rake and hose all day long.
28:21Just water everything, all the pots.
28:23And clipping.
28:24And I love clipping all the, you know, all the box hedges
28:27and all that sort of stuff.
28:28A case of taming the wilds, I think.
28:30You know, I mean, I've never thought of our garden as somewhere
28:34other than just somewhere that I feel good to be in.
28:38Do you know what I mean?
28:38That's it, yeah.
28:39You're creating your own little paradise, really.
28:41And it's nice that other people like it as well.
28:44Yes, yeah.
28:45That's a nice thing.
28:46Yeah.
28:55Where do I get gardening inspiration from?
28:58Well, there's no better place than the sand plains of Western Australia
29:04and the Kwongan flora is what captured my heart.
29:08It is the most amazing place.
29:10It's on a human garden landscape with mallee trees and small bushes and shrubs and perennials.
29:17It survives frost and drought and fire.
29:21It lives on some of the most impoverished soil on earth.
29:26And in the worst of those conditions, it is as rich as any coral reef.
29:32The flowers themselves are so intricate, I dare anybody not to go there in springtime and fall in love.
29:43Still to come on Gardening Australia,
29:46Josh explores the final frontier.
29:51Hannah digs gingers.
29:54And we meet a bird putting on a spectacular show.
30:06If your kind of gardening requires plants from the indestructible meets stunning range,
30:11then look no further than Plectranthus parva floris, blue spires.
30:15It's a small, evergreen succulent that forms neat, spreading mounds up to 40 centimetres tall.
30:22Its fleshy stems and leaves help it cope with dry periods and it's also frost tolerant.
30:28It adapts to most soils, will take full sun or deep shade and flowers nearly all year round,
30:34producing spires of blue flowers that attract birds and insects, especially native bees.
30:40It also smells great.
30:45Beautiful flowers, will handle really tough spots and grow from cuttings.
30:49What's not to like?
30:57Throughout history, wherever humans have travelled,
31:00we've taken our favourite plants along for the ride.
31:03Now Josh is in Perth visiting a research project
31:07that explores how we could do the same and take plants with us into space
31:13as we venture into the great unknown.
31:20Growing plants in extreme environments
31:23is something that scientists have long been finding solutions for.
31:27You don't get a more extreme environment than beyond our atmosphere, out in space.
31:32Zero gravity, no air or water, not very conducive to growing plants.
31:38But researchers here at the University of Western Australia
31:42are working towards changing what is possible.
31:46Oh, they look great.
31:48Molecular biologist Professor Ryan Lister
31:50runs one of a consortium of Australian laboratories
31:54in the Plants for Space Research Initiative.
31:58Well, for people to be able to survive and thrive in space,
32:01like anywhere on Earth,
32:03we need to take the plants that we absolutely require to support us.
32:06So, on Earth we require plants for the food that we eat,
32:10the oxygen that we breathe,
32:12fuels that we burn,
32:13many of the medicines that we take that are important for our health,
32:17and also for our mental wellbeing.
32:23So, we're able to figure out how plants react to and survive in harsh environments.
32:28We have new tools and technologies that allow us to both understand the information
32:31that controls plant characteristics,
32:33but also then to be able to very precisely edit that
32:36and to introduce new capabilities into plants.
32:41Plants for Space is two years into a seven-year lifespan,
32:44and at the time of filming, there are around 200 scientists involved in several distinct,
32:51but related areas of research.
32:53We're looking for how we can use plants as programmable biological factories.
32:58So, instead of taking a whole pharmaceutical factory up into space,
33:02and the challenges of that, instead we can take a seed.
33:07One form of genetic engineering that could be used is gene editing.
33:10So, we could take, for example, antibodies that have particular therapeutic benefits,
33:14such as anti-inflammatories, that have a human origin originally,
33:18but we can take the gene that encodes them
33:19and precisely introduce that into a plant genome,
33:22so that the plant starts to produce that when and where we want it.
33:26We need to be able to control where the genes are turned on or off.
33:29So, it might be application of a chemical to trigger,
33:32or it could be a change in temperature or a change in the light spectrum.
33:35We're able to control whether a gene is turned on or off,
33:38but also where and when that happens.
33:44There are dwarf plants which are perfectly suited for these small spaces on a space station,
33:50but there are also plants that have other unique capabilities
33:52that aren't so conventionally thought of as typical foods.
33:56Duckweed is one of the fastest growing plants that we know.
33:58It will double every two days.
34:00It also naturally has a great nutritional content.
34:03We could introduce pathways that make useful materials,
34:06such as the precursors to make biodegradable plastics,
34:10or pathways to create useful drugs.
34:16In a neighbouring lab, Dr Troy Miller and research associate Jess Gugliotta
34:22are tackling a fundamental issue.
34:25How plants interact with water in space.
34:30Convection is a process where water naturally mixes oxygen.
34:34So, water's always got oxygen in it,
34:36and that's kind of how the root hairs of plants absorb oxygen from the soil.
34:40Without gravity in space, this convection process doesn't happen.
34:43So, this water around the root zone,
34:45those cells around the hairs of the roots will use all that oxygen,
34:48but then all that oxygen will readily go back into the water.
34:51So, you're essentially drowning your plant.
34:53How do you actually test that when we've got gravity?
34:56On Earth, plant roots grow downward,
35:00and that's because they are directed by gravity.
35:02They have a natural sense of the direction of gravity.
35:05So, this machine is called a kleinostat.
35:08What the kleinostat here tries to simulate,
35:11in simulating microgravity, is the lack of that direction.
35:16And so, what happens to the roots in microgravity,
35:19or on the space station, is they don't know which way is down,
35:23and so they grow in all directions.
35:24They curve around, there's no real pattern to their growth.
35:28And so, that's what we see when we start to spin them,
35:31and we kind of confuse them in that way.
35:35We're actually liking the sense that we have some collaborations with NASA,
35:39and so we were working with them in an experiment where they grew lettuce.
35:42The same lettuce is actually in these kleinostats that we work on.
35:45So, they were grown in space on the International Space Station,
35:48and we got those plant samples back down to Perth, to UWA.
35:52So, we actually have real plants that have been grown in space,
35:55and we're going to do various analysis on those plants
35:57to kind of see what's going on genetically behind the scenes.
36:01We're kind of hoping that through Jess's project,
36:02that we can put this kleinostat in a room that's simulating
36:05as many aspects of space as possible with microgravity,
36:09and then use these same analysis to see,
36:10are they actually responding the same way they do in space?
36:25Even though we live in cool-temperate Luchua to Tasmania,
36:29with the right infrastructure, you can still grow crops
36:32which usually thrive in more tropical climates, including ginger.
36:40With these north-facing windows which welcome all that sun
36:44and the red bricks which help hold on to that heat,
36:47we're creating a microclimate that feels more like Brisbane instead of Hobart.
36:57I actually grew up in Brisbane,
36:58and I really miss being able to grow crops like ginger abundantly.
37:02So, it was one of the first things I put into this greenhouse when we built it.
37:06It's coming along pretty nicely
37:07and is around seven or eight months old right now,
37:10and while I can't harvest the whole plant,
37:13I can start doing something called bandicooting around the base
37:16to harvest a few little gems here and there.
37:20At this time of the year, in autumn,
37:22you'll start to see the larger plants
37:24push some of their rhizomes up towards the surface,
37:27and they've developed a bit of a pink tinge to them.
37:30This is a sign you can start harvesting some of them if you want to.
37:33When it comes to harvesting,
37:35you're really looking around the edge of the plant
37:37because you don't want to interrupt the whole system too much.
37:40Calm down, little boy.
37:42And so you're looking for the easiest ones that you can simply snap or cut off.
37:47You can see why it's called bandicooting
37:49because we're imitating the animal's natural character
37:52of scratching and digging around plants to find some food.
37:57That's exactly what we're doing.
37:59OK.
38:02Oh.
38:04So I've snapped off this beautiful little nugget here,
38:07got this nice pink tinge at the top,
38:09and it's actually a whole new plant there.
38:11But this one is going to go straight into my kitchen
38:14while the other bits of the plant keep growing for spring.
38:28Coming into winter, I'm going to do a nice thick mulch around the whole garden bed.
38:33This is going to protect any of those rhizomes emerging from the soil from the sun
38:37and if they're outside, potential frost.
38:40Over winter, all these green leaves are going to turn brown.
38:43At that point, I'm just going to cut them off at the base
38:45and then in early spring, I'll lift the whole crop, harvest,
38:50as much as I want to eat and then replant some fresh rhizomes
38:53to begin the whole process again.
39:06This early harvest ginger is so delicious,
39:09but the stuff I'm going to harvest in spring will be even farrier.
39:14It's going to really pack a punch.
39:15The other thing about this early harvest ginger is that it has a really thin skin,
39:20so it doesn't store very well.
39:21So it's very much about eating or drinking right now.
39:27This is just literally fresh ginger and boiling water.
39:31You can also add some honey or lemon in there as well.
39:34I love gingers so much,
39:35so I'm usually drinking this hot drink at least twice a day.
39:38Being able to grow it in my own garden is a dream come true.
39:42I am never going to take that greenhouse for granted.
39:58I haven't seen a podocarpus grown as a hedge before,
40:02and it's always interesting to see how trees will respond to being hedged.
40:07So this one here is a podocarpus henchellii.
40:11But straight away, I can see that it's actually been maintained and managed correctly right from the start,
40:19because it's kept all its lower branches.
40:22What you need to do is actually grow your hedge slowly, keep pruning it,
40:28because every time you prune it with a disturbance, it throws out these lower branches,
40:32which keeps it nice and thick and gives you the privacy down low where most people want it.
40:38It's been in for a few years now.
40:40And when it was planted, they put it in at about one metre or so apart,
40:47and it's been hedged to a width of about 800 millimetres.
40:51It's been kept down to about...
40:54Oh, well, I'm two metres, so maybe...
40:59All right, I'm not two metres.
41:01So it's been kept... 1.53, 4.5.
41:05It's been kept down to about four, four to four and a half metres,
41:09and the growth is dense, it's nice and thick.
41:13Any new growth after it's been pruned comes out this lighter lime green,
41:18which is a nice seasonal detail.
41:20And it's doing the job on the south side of this house.
41:24It doesn't see too much sun in winter, so it can handle low light,
41:29but then in summer it gets full sun,
41:31and that's when it really invigorates it to bush up and keep going.
41:36And, yeah, it's a stunning green screen.
41:49Australia's home to some of the world's most unique and extraordinary animals.
41:53Now, it's easy to be distracted by the cute and cuddly ones.
41:57They often steal the spotlight.
42:00But there's one bird like no other, and it's captured my heart.
42:05What it's capable of is going to blow your mind.
42:09Check this out.
42:34So that call there, that's the territorial whistle song.
42:38That's their own call.
42:40This one's not.
42:41That's a grey shrike thrash.
42:45So, again, mimicry.
42:48Whip bird.
42:49So that's a real tricky call to do.
42:53That's actually an introduced black bird, a European black bird.
42:57And then the black cockatoo.
43:00And a red wattle bird.
43:04That's a tree creeper.
43:05And the wing beats of a small bird.
43:08And, of course, everybody knows that one.
43:10That's a kookaburra.
43:11That's actually a boobook owl.
43:13And back to the whip bird.
43:15And now he's back onto his own whistle song.
43:19That's the lye bird's own call.
43:22Music
43:37My name's Alex Mazie.
43:39I'm a research fellow at La Trobe University.
43:42I'm a wildlife ecologist with a real interest in ecosystems
43:46and how they work, particularly the superb lye bird.
43:52Lye birds have been an interest of mine since I was really young.
43:56And I was very fortunate in living right next to Sherbrooke Forest here,
44:01as a ten-year-old, that I could come into this forest and see these birds.
44:05Music
44:07Once you get to know the lye bird, they just become more and more interesting.
44:12And the more you know, the more you realise you don't know.
44:15So you just want to keep coming back and learning more.
44:19It is something that you just sort of pinch yourself sometimes and think, you know,
44:23is this really what I'm able to do for work?
44:31So incredibly privileged and I certainly feel that.
44:37The lye bird's distribution is actually pretty broad.
44:41It ranges from about Fish Creek in southern Victoria all the way up to the Queensland border along the Great
44:48Dividing Range.
44:49And I really like those wetter forests where you get lots of tree ferns, lots of litter fall and lots
44:56of moisture in the environment.
44:58So here where we're standing in a wet forest, there's lots of beautiful habitat structure around us that protects the
45:05nests.
45:05This is optimal lye bird habitat here. This is where you want to be.
45:12So lye birds are a long-lived songbird, a passeran or a perching bird.
45:17If they get to adulthood, they become really savvy and they might take seven years to mature.
45:23But once they get there, they might live up to 25 or 30 years.
45:27We don't really know the upper limit.
45:36Lye birds evolve mimicry probably as part of sexual selection, females choosing males that could mimic well.
45:46Lye birds evolve mimicry probably as part of sexual selection, females choosing males that could mimic well.
45:48That's a really good kookaburra.
45:51So the idea is that these songbirds are mimicking all of these sounds to try and show that they're really
45:58clever because it's hard cognitively.
46:01It's hard to mimic all of these sounds so accurately and they have to practice a lot.
46:06So if you're a male like this one, who's in a really good territory and he's able to dedicate so
46:12much of his time to mimicry and practicing that mimicry.
46:29And if you can get good at it, maybe you're actually a really good male to mate with because you've
46:33got good genes that allow you to do that.
46:37So lye birds grow a really long tail and the tail is part of sexual selection.
46:44So it's judged by the females.
46:46And if you can survive with a really long beautiful tail and not get eaten by foxes and not get
46:52attacked by other predators in the environment,
46:54then you've probably got good genes and a good bet to mate with if you're a female lye bird judging
47:00your mates.
47:03Here we're looking at a lye bird display mound.
47:07So this is constructed by the male lye bird and this is where he performs his song and dance.
47:13It's essentially his stage.
47:15So it's beautifully lit.
47:17The sun's coming in behind me.
47:19It's actually hitting the mound now.
47:21So there's a nice gap in the canopy.
47:23And it's surrounded by all these dense batwing ferns and it's just like the curtains of a stage.
47:31So it's really visually a big impact when the bird actually comes onto this mound and gets ready to do
47:38his dance.
47:39It's all very harshly judged by the female.
47:43She'll circle the tail, look at the dance, look at his fancy footwork.
47:47And he's got to get the coordination between the song and the dance steps right to convince her that he's
47:54the one.
47:55And eventually when she decides who's best, he'll mount the female and she moults these feathers.
48:02And that's how we can tell there's been a successful mating on this mound.
48:16Lye birds are actually really incredibly accomplished ecosystem engineers.
48:21They move more material per unit area than any other organism on the planet that's been recorded to date.
48:28So compared to bandicoots, which are doing a lot themselves at around six to eight tonnes per hectare,
48:33lyre birds are around 150 to 200 tonnes per hectare in these forests.
48:40It's an incredible disturbance process, unparalleled in the animal kingdom.
48:45So here we're looking at a foraging pit.
48:49And this foraging pit has been made by a lyre bird scratching through the litter and soil.
48:55And I can see on the ground here thousands of little seedlings that have all germinated
49:00because where the lyre bird has actually removed the top layer of litter
49:05and exposed the seed bank to the sun and to the moisture of the rain.
49:10And these have all germinated as a response to that lyre bird foraging here.
49:15So when lyre birds forage, they dig through the litter and soil
49:19and they bury all of the litter from the topsoil and integrate it into the mineral earth.
49:25And this has really wide implications for the forest.
49:29It buries a whole heap of these fine fuels and decomposes them much quicker
49:34when they're buried under moist soil than if the lyre birds weren't here.
49:38So that affects fire regimes.
49:40So the entire fire regime of the forest might change if you have lots of lyre birds.
49:44But they also change the micro habitat for invertebrates that live in the soil.
49:49So some areas are foraged and opened up where there's exposed mineral earth like this.
49:56Other areas are mounded in like a little compost heap.
49:59So this is great for all of those little detritivores that live in the soil
50:03and break down the organic matter.
50:06And then there are other areas around that are left more intact.
50:09So it's all of these little micro habitats that different species take advantage of.
50:15So really important for nutrient cycling, fire regimes and invertebrate assemblages,
50:21which of course is what they eat.
50:23So it's a really beautiful balanced system of disturbance in these forests.
50:42This is a now disused lyre bird nest from last season.
50:46And this has been constructed by the female bird all on her own.
50:50So no help from the male whatsoever.
50:53And she's gone and gathered over a thousand sticks in this.
50:57So dug them all from the ground just to find the right lengths,
51:01taken them back here and placed them in this location
51:05that she's judged to be a good place to build her nest.
51:09And it's this beautiful domed nest that keeps the rain out.
51:12And on a tree like this in the rain,
51:15the water can be running down the back of the tree.
51:17And you can look in the nest and it'll actually use the tree as the back wall.
51:22And the water runs straight down and the nest is perfectly dry
51:25with a little bit of grey feathers in the bottom.
51:28And then at the end of the process of building the nest,
51:32you'll get a few little green sprigs of usually eucalypt leaf.
51:36And she'll pop those in the lining of the roof.
51:39And that just is like the finishing touch.
51:42So pretty remarkable in the camouflage of the nest.
51:46And this one, as you can see, it's on the ground.
51:48So for a predator like the introduced red fox, it's very vulnerable.
51:52So they have to be really careful when they're coming to feed the chick
51:56that they take the chick's droppings away
51:58and either bury them in the surrounding soil or drop them in a creek.
52:01And that removes the scent and keeps that nest nice and safe
52:05from predators that use olfaction to find their prey.
52:12Well, I think when it comes to the protection of lyrebirds and their habitat,
52:18there are a lot of things we can do in our local area.
52:21Obviously, if you have pets like dogs or cats,
52:24keeping them out from natural areas like national parks is really important.
52:29But also on a broader level, thinking about how the actions that we take,
52:33the things that we consume and the way we live our lives
52:37impacts on the environment at a broader level is really important
52:41because aspects of environmental change like climate change
52:45have really the potential to change fire frequencies in these forests.
52:49Now we're lucky.
52:50We have lyrebirds that are trying to stabilise these ecosystems essentially
52:55through their foraging.
52:56They don't know it, but they're this stabilising disturbance process
53:00in a bizarre way.
53:02And climate change really threatens that delicate balance.
53:06So it's important as individuals that we think about how our impact
53:11can go on to affect the wider world beyond our own lives.
53:29It's time to put down your phone and get to it.
53:32Your jobs of the weekend are here and ready to roll.
53:41Cool temperate gardeners, bare root ornamental trees and fruiting favourites
53:45can go in now.
53:46For smaller gardens, miniatures and multi grafted trees are just the ticket.
53:51Daphnes are in full on fragrant flower.
53:54And while they have a bit of a diva reputation,
53:57when planted in a pot and watered well, they're a divine addition to any garden.
54:02Citrus trees are flush with fruit, so keep your harvest happening
54:06and give them a fortnightly feed.
54:08Liquid seaweed and potassium are best to strengthen cell walls
54:12and promote ripening.
54:15In warm temperate areas, pansies are perfect winter colour.
54:19These pretty annuals benefit from having their first flush of flowers pinched off,
54:24promoting better growth and bigger blooms.
54:27Camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons are hitting their peak flowering period
54:31now.
54:32But if your plants are all bud and no bloom,
54:35give them a kick with fertiliser for acid loving plants.
54:39Golden shallots are tough, tasty and ready to plant.
54:43Bulbs prefer a rich soil, tolerate full sun to part shade
54:47and take around six months to mature when they can be lifted and stored.
54:52Craving home grown blueberries in the subtropics?
54:55Track yourself down a sunshine blue, a semi-dwarf low-chill blueberry
55:00that fruits readily in warmer climates.
55:03Grate in pots, grab two for better pollination.
55:06Whack in some fast-growing veg to fill gaps left after harvesting.
55:10Corn salad, rocket, Asian greens and lettuce are easy to sow
55:14and go from patch to plate in just a few weeks.
55:18For year-round colour in a tough spot, you can't beat a Chinese fringe flower.
55:23The deep purple foliage of this compact shrub adds drama to any style of garden.
55:30In the tropics, why not sow some lufa seeds?
55:33These vigorous climbers are best grown up a pergola, support or screen.
55:38The mature fruits are harvested and dried to make an excellent exfoliating sponge.
55:44Sweet potatoes can be harvested and replanted this month.
55:47Using a fork, dig and lift tubers from the ground and store while replanting runners for a continuous crop.
55:54Fill gaps in garden beds and pots with attractive edible ground covers like the mushroom plant,
56:01a perennial herb whose foliage has the flavour of your favourite fungi.
56:06In arid gardens, find a spot for a mulberry.
56:09They're fast-growing, tough, terrific shade trees.
56:13And those delicious spring berries?
56:15Yum!
56:16Try the red chatoot variety for huge fruits that don't stain.
56:20If bindies have got you frightened to go barefoot, it's time to pummel those prickles.
56:25Hand removal is most effective, otherwise put the kettle on and hit them with boiling water.
56:31It's important to be one foot in front of frosts that can damage sensitive plants.
56:37Clear nights with overnight lows of two degrees or less should have you reaching for the frost protection.
56:44This weekend, get out there and plant something, harvest something, enjoy the great outdoors
56:49and head to our socials to let us know what you've been up to in the garden.
57:01Well, that is all we have time for.
57:04But don't be alarmed.
57:06Calm the farm.
57:08Or I should say, be calmed by your garden.
57:11Because we've got plenty coming your way for next time.
57:15Check it out.
57:18I'm visiting a fairytale garden complete with mosaic walls and an actual DIY castle.
57:25It's a passion project of two ex-Queenslanders who now call Huon Valley Tasmania home.
57:32Australian plants are absolutely amazing.
57:35I'm in Western Victoria to visit one of our most passionate propagators and growers of Australian species.
57:41And I'm meeting a couple whose combined skills have created a garden that's beautiful and practical
57:48and inspires artistic expression.
57:51I've tried to capture the birds' songs.
57:55I'm getting better.
57:55However, my friends call Huon Valley and your family,
57:56With the water-shaped and the water-shaped organization.
57:58I'm getting better.
57:59I'm getting better.
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