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Gardening Australia - Season 37 Episode 15
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00:05Hey!
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00:19Hey, buddy!
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00:27Hey, buddy!
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.
00:46Here'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,
00:57you can create a resilient and delightful garden in a dry 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,
01:19but the gardeners here have hand-built something absolutely beautiful.
01:24And we meet a devotee of a true Australian icon.
01:37The Barossa is one of the most iconic regions of South Australia,
01:42but it's not known for being a high rainfall area.
01:45Sophie's visiting a garden that shows, with a bit of planning,
01:50just 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,
02:12which is perfect for winemaking.
02:17But it's also home to a number of glorious gardens,
02:20carefully designed to thrive in the dry conditions.
02:25Third-generation horticulturalist Alicia Lynch
02:28has created an inspiring patch near the small Barossa Valley town of Lindoc.
02:33Drought-tolerant native and exotic plants are flourishing here,
02:37in 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 rainwater 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,
03:05but it can be a lot less than that.
03:07And it's a classic Mediterranean-like climate, isn't it?
03:10It is.
03:11So we receive most of our rain in winter,
03:13but in summer we can go up to seven or eight months without any rain.
03:18And I notice you're watering by drip irrigation.
03:20Drip irrigation, yes.
03:22It's the most efficient way to water.
03:24Wow, let's take a closer look.
03:27Alicia moved to the 16-hectare property
03:30with her husband and two kids eight years ago,
03:33and she immediately got to work building a dry climate garden,
03:38teeming with drought-tolerant plants.
03:40When we first purchased this property,
03:42it was just a blank canvas.
03:44We had the house and then just a bare paddock
03:48on a steep sloping site.
03:50It was a real challenge in the first three years.
03:53I had lots of failures,
03:55but once some of the plants became established,
03:59then the microclimate started to evolve
04:02and it became a bit easier.
04:04This is one of the first challenges for my garden,
04:09a very steep slope out the front of our house,
04:12and it's north-facing.
04:13So 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
04:23to cover the bank.
04:24Well, 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 Gomfrina decumbrance,
04:36and I just love the little magenta button flowers.
04:40I also really like the dome shape
04:43and 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.
04:53The bees are in there now.
04:54Yes.
04:57So, this garden has many perennials in it,
05:00but we're here in winter,
05:01and yet it's still full of colour and interest.
05:04Winter is one of my favourite seasons of the garden
05:07because we get more rainfall
05:09and the plants just look more vibrant.
05:12I've chosen lots of plants specifically
05:14for their winter interest and winter colour.
05:18Now, choosing perennials that survive in this harsh climate
05:21is 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
05:30how hardy the plant can be in this environment.
05:33Perennials with much smaller leaves,
05:36grey leaves or fine hairs on the leaves
05:38can 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
05:51to what we've got here.
05:52There's lots of Mediterranean plants, Australian natives,
05:57North 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 look at their shape and form as well.
06:08Succulents give a really great form and texture in the garden,
06:12bold textures.
06:14And then I can soften those with softer perennials
06:17and ornamental grasses and they give lots of movement
06:21and 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
06:41and the flowers really help to encourage
06:43all the pollinators to the garden as well.
06:46It's really helpful to have wicking beds in such a dry climate
06:50and it reduces the water that we use dramatically.
06:54Even in the hottest part of summer,
06:56I 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
07:10in the hottest part of the summer afternoons.
07:13Perfect.
07:14And I've positioned two different hedges.
07:16They help to slow the wind
07:19and just create a bit more of a natural microclimate,
07:22more favourable microclimate in here.
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
07:48because of the competition of the big blue gum tree.
07:51Oh, I bet.
07:51And 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.
07:59It'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.
08:20So 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
08:30that 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.
08:57I actually spent seven years as the head gardener
09:01at a Paul Bangay designed garden at a cellar door here in the Barossa.
09:05It was a real privilege to work alongside Paul.
09:08And just bringing his vision to life from the early construction stages
09:14to 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
09:36and is passionate about encouraging other gardeners.
09:40So what are your top tips for getting plants established
09:43in 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
09:54before 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,
10:02that I'll be planting in the perennial garden here.
10:05Beautiful.
10:06Wow.
10:06Look at that soil.
10:08That looks pretty good.
10:09It's amazing, but it has taken quite a few years
10:12to 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
10:20of the soil also.
10:21First, I add some composted cow manure to the hole.
10:26And then a handful of pelletized manure, fertilizer.
10:33Lastly, a handful of coir peat soil wetter.
10:37So then I just tickle it in and then add some liquid fertilizer
10:41to water it all in.
10:46So now it's time to put the plant in the hole.
10:50Well, in that lovely soil with all those goodies,
10:53I'm sure it's going to thrive.
10:56I feel really proud to create something from scratch.
11:00It's really inspiring and energizing.
11:06I've tackled one garden bed per year
11:09and it's just evolved over the last eight years.
11:12And so does that mean the garden boundary keeps moving
11:16as you encroach into the paddock?
11:19It absolutely does.
11:22Lots of people have asked me,
11:24how big is your garden going to get?
11:26And I keep saying,
11:27I think I've got enough garden for now.
11:30And then the next year I start planning another one again.
11:34Love it.
11:36It's been inspiring to visit Alicia's dry climate garden.
11:40With access to only limited rainfall,
11:43it'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?
12:00Chilies are perennial plants
12:02and they will keep producing for three years or longer
12:05if you look after them.
12:07For some parts of Australia, winter is the challenge.
12:10Once temperatures drop below about 10 degrees,
12:13chillies start to slow down.
12:14This is where they need extra care and attention.
12:16To help them through winter,
12:19move potted chillies somewhere protected,
12:21undercover, near a warm wall or even indoors in a bright spot.
12:25Also reduce watering, stop fertilising
12:28and 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,
12:36you can give them a light prune, repot and feed them up
12:39so that when the weather warms,
12:40they'll be ready to bounce back for another spicy season.
12:45How can I control agapanthers?
12:48Agapanthers are a divisive plant,
12:51found commonly in many gardens,
12:53but they can be problematic.
12:55They're a genus of hardy South African flowers
12:59with blue, purple and white flowers
13:01and green strappy leaves.
13:03In large parts of Australia,
13:05they've escaped gardens, invaded local bushlands
13:08and choked out native plants.
13:11Controlling agapanthers is difficult.
13:14You need to dig out the thick, fleshy rhizome
13:16and 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,
13:26but you can do it a bit at a time.
13:27I find an excavator works best.
13:29But in the meantime,
13:31make sure you cut off any of those flowering heads
13:33once they've set seed,
13:34so they don't keep spreading.
13:36Do all citrus like a warm climate?
13:39Most do,
13:40but it is still possible to grow citrus
13:42in cooler climates
13:44or places with cold winters.
13:46The key is to choose the right variety
13:49that's adapted to the cold
13:50and also make sure you have the right position.
13:53Now ideally,
13:54you want a sunny warm microclimate
13:57and you need to have good drainage.
13:59This is a Meyer lemon
14:01and this will grow really well in colder areas
14:03as do Lisbon's,
14:04mandarins,
14:06kumquats and Seville oranges.
14:07You also need to make sure that you mulch
14:09to insulate the root system
14:11against extremes of cold
14:13because the root system is rather shallow.
14:25One of the things about good design,
14:28particularly planting design,
14:29is that you can be around it
14:31but you don't always appreciate it first up
14:34until you take a closer look.
14:37And in this case,
14:38I want to walk you through five species of plants
14:41that have been combined
14:43to create a beautiful effect
14:45but at the same time solving a problem.
14:48That is,
14:49this is a hot, dry location
14:51that'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
15:06and you want to walk your way through it.
15:08It leads you to this shaped Eliagnus
15:11which by creating the ball shape,
15:14the crassula hugs around it.
15:16So that creates wonderful contrast.
15:19Rosemary along the border here
15:21is a classic Mediterranean plant
15:23and if you brush up against it,
15:25you're going to get that beautiful smell.
15:27It can be clipped
15:28or it can be left to go a little bit wild
15:30and just clipped randomly.
15:34Westringia or coastal rosemary
15:36sleeve seamlessly into this combination of planting
15:40because it can handle the hot,
15:41can handle the wind
15:42and can also be shaped into
15:44whatever kind of forms you like.
15:46And then for a little bit of random
15:49and 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?
16:01I got you.
16:02Right there.
16:04These plants all share similar growing needs
16:08plants and when you start to play with them
16:10from a design point of view,
16:12you start to make these repetitive combinations,
16:16all of a sudden you get this wonderful movement
16:19and colour and texture throughout your garden.
16:23And the thing to remember is,
16:25wherever you're walking,
16:26wherever you're travelling,
16:27have a look for plant combinations
16:30in different gardens and parks
16:32and think about where is it?
16:35What is it?
16:35What do they need?
16:36Is it the cool side of a garden?
16:38Is it the hot side of the garden?
16:40Is it exposed?
16:41Is it shady?
16:42And that way you can start to collect
16:44wonderful 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
17:07and you don't spill a drop.
17:12So good.
17:13These are the last fruit on the vine
17:15but I'm not worried.
17:16It's one of the easiest
17:18backyard crops you can raise.
17:20I have a couple of tips
17:21to 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
17:29to barely enough for your pavlova.
17:32Because they grow so vigorously,
17:34they can wear themselves out
17:35in 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,
17:43wet weather will kill them.
17:44The cooler months are the key time
17:47to work on your passion fruit crop.
17:49So what are we waiting for?
17:51Tammy?
17:53Tammy?
17:56I'll be with you in a sec.
17:57I promise.
17:58It's my last one.
18:03Okay, here we go.
18:04First thing to remember is that passion fruit
18:06only flowers and fruits on new season growth.
18:09That 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
18:19by at least a third.
18:20Yes, a third.
18:23Look particularly for the messy tangles
18:26and 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
18:39that will flower and fruit.
18:41Once you finish pruning,
18:43you can train your remaining vines horizontally.
18:45This wire is perfect.
18:49Secure it firmly with soft garden ties.
18:53The plant will look a little bare for a few weeks,
18:55but as the weather warms,
18:57you'll see little buds swell along the prune stems
19:00and lots of green growth.
19:01By the end of spring,
19:03you can get 50 centimetres of growth in a fortnight.
19:09And to make doubly sure,
19:11give it a good feed.
19:13Blood and bone for growth.
19:16Potash or a fruit tree fertiliser
19:18to 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
19:29and this one's Nellie Kelly.
19:31See this?
19:32That's a graft.
19:34Most Australian passion fruit plants
19:36are 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
19:50in a couple of weeks
19:51and will harvest its first fruits next summer.
19:55The cooler months are the time to plant, prune
19:58and feed your passion fruit vine
19:59and keep yourself in the sweetest
20:01and easiest backyard crop.
20:12If you're in Victoria's gold fields,
20:14you'll know it can be a pretty tough place
20:16when it comes to gardening.
20:19Millie's discovered a beautiful garden out that way
20:21shows when the going gets tough, the tough get gardening.
20:33Out in Goldrush country in central Victoria,
20:36between Daylesford and Castlemaine,
20:38is the small hamlet of Clydesdale
20:41with a population of just 62.
20:44I'm about to meet two of them
20:46at their aptly named historic property, The Stones.
20:52And in only a few short years,
20:54the garden that Grant and Jeremy have created
20:57has 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.
21:09I've always loved paths
21:10because it's that mystery thing
21:12where you follow the path
21:13and then you're not quite sure where it's going
21:16and then it leads you into something
21:17and then you go to another place.
21:18This is the oldest building on the property,
21:22probably 1854, 1855.
21:25It's an old miner's hut.
21:27I think they lived in that
21:28while they were building the main house.
21:31It's set on six and a half hectares
21:33with the cultivated garden
21:35taking up almost a whole hectare.
21:38When we first arrived here,
21:40every nook and cranny felt different.
21:43And so in creating a garden,
21:45we sort of just wanted to create that difference,
21:48but with a flow going between it
21:49and then the buildings as well.
21:51Each sort of separate area
21:53had its own vista that you could sort of look out to
21:55or sort of a little world within itself sort of thing.
21:59Yeah, it kind of dictated how the garden was going to be.
22:03I think once we just listened to the atmosphere of the place,
22:06it just started to develop.
22:11Over the past 12 years,
22:13they've both slowly added to the original garden beds.
22:16There's tonnes 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,
22:25but 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 found the jackpot.
22:35From the very beginning, it was all about DIY.
22:39I mean, the house was hand-built by two brothers,
22:42and 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,
22:53and 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.
23:06And you're on a budget.
23:07Yeah, that's it.
23:07You work with what there is in the land that's sort of sitting there.
23:11I mean, you can't always afford to, you know,
23:12get the professionals in to do big grandiose things, but nor should you.
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 Laugenburg, Mount Franklin.
23:35So the whole district is covered in these rocks,
23:38and they're quite irregularly shaped,
23:40which makes building walls quite difficult.
23:42But then on the other hand, once you find the right combination,
23:45things they do lock in, which is great for me,
23:48because I'm not a professional.
23:50So you've done all of this stonework yourself?
23:53Yes. I'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,
24:02that, you know, I'd be building 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, 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.
24:18It's a great garden to begin with.
24:20The 500-square-metre vegetable garden
24:22was one of the first things the couple tackled,
24:25building up the soil and planting 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.
24:49This 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.
25:03So there was this kind of weird exchange that happened.
25:07Yeah.
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,
25:25in stark contrast to the colourful Melbourne vintage store they both run.
25:37We've got a very busy work life, and that involves a lot of colour,
25:41a lot of pattern, and it's visually quite exhausting.
25:44It's great, but we need to have some kind of visual relief.
25:47When we're at home, we just want things to be soft and quiet,
25:51and, you know, it just needs to be more of a sanctuary
25:54than something that's stimulating.
25:56So that's kind of tailored the garden for us.
26:01And the environment.
26:02And the environment.
26:02Dictated that as well, because certain things just won't work here.
26:06That's right.
26:07In the environment.
26:08So it's very foliage-based.
26:09Well, 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.
26:25And 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.
26:38Come through.
26:40Oh, that's beautiful.
26:41Grant, I love the way you've used whatever materials you've got to create such beautiful features.
26:47Yeah.
26:48Well, the arbour, I actually collected all the new growth of the willow from 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 to create a sort of a lattice
27:00work and then just kind of let the grapes grow over.
27:04But in the end, what I'm hoping for is that the grapes will kind of grow up and gradually,
27:10you know, become more woody and 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 and then eventually it'll just hold itself up.
27:22Yeah.
27:22When it's green in the spring and they're all going nuts and growing, I tend to sort of lash
27:26them down so that to sort of, you know, get them to go in the right direction.
27:30And then, you know, as the season finishes, once the leaves fall and everything, I trim
27:34it all back again and then gradually it woods up.
27:37It's totally beautiful.
27:42How do you work together?
27:43Like, how do you combine your skills?
27:45I probably tend to like, you know, sort of controlling and cutting back things a bit
27:51more than Jeremy.
27:52Jeremy likes things to be wild and expressive and all of that.
27:57And 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, there's a kind of
28:08magic to that.
28:08Yeah.
28:08I mean, I love how it looks, you know, at the end of all of that, but I do love
28:13a rake.
28:13I 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.
28:22Just water everything.
28:23All the pots.
28:23And clipping.
28:24And I love clipping all the, you know, all the box hedges and all that sort of stuff.
28:28A case of taming the wilds, I think.
28:31You know, I mean, I've never thought of our garden as somewhere other than just somewhere
28:36that I feel good to be in.
28:38Do you know what I mean?
28:39That's it.
28:39Yeah.
28:39You're creating your own little paradise, really.
28:41And it's nice that other people like it as well.
28:44Yes.
28:44Yeah.
28:44That's a nice thing.
28:55Where do I get gardening inspiration from?
28:58Well, there's no better place than the sand plains of Western Australia and the Quangan
29:05flora 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
29:41in love.
29:43Still to come on Gardening Australia, Josh explores the final frontier, Hannah 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, then
30:11look no further than Plectranthus parva floris, blue spires.
30:16It's a small evergreen succulent that forms meat, spreading mounds up to 40 centimetres tall.
30:23Its 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?
30:56Throughout history, wherever humans have travelled, we've taken our favourite plants along for
31:02the ride.
31:03Now, Josh is in Perth visiting a research project that explores how we could do the same and take
31:11plants with us into space as we venture into the great unknown.
31:20Growing plants in extreme environments is 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 are working towards changing what is possible.
31:45Oh, they look great.
31:48Molecular biologist, Professor Ryan Lister, runs one of a consortium of Australian laboratories
31:53in the Plants for Space Research Initiative.
31:58Well, for people to be able to survive and thrive in space, like 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, the oxygen that we breathe, fuels that we
32:13burn,
32:13many of the medicines that we take that are important for our health, and 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 that controls
32:32plant characteristics, but 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
32:48involved in several distinct but 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 and precisely introduce that into a plant genome,
33:23so 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 it,
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,
34:09or pathways to create useful drugs.
34:17In 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 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.
35:25They curve around.
35:26There'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
35:41where 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.
36:00We're kind of hoping that through Jess's project
36:02that we can put this kleinostat in a room
36:04that's simulating as many aspects of space as possible
36:07with microgravity, and 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 Luchuuta Tasmania,
36:28with 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,
36:45and the red bricks which help hold on to that heat,
36:47we're creating a microclimate that feels more like Brisbane
36:50instead of Hobart.
36:57I actually grew up in Brisbane, and 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 and 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, you'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, you'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.
37:59Okay.
38:04So I've snapped off this beautiful little nugget here,
38:07got this nice pink tinge at the top,
38:09and there'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,
38:29I'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
38:36from the sun and 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, but the stuff I'm going to harvest in spring
39:12will be even fireier.
39:14It's going to really pack a punch.
39:16The other thing about this early harvest ginger is that it has a really thin skin,
39:19so 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, so I'm usually drinking this hot drink
39:37at least twice a day.
39:39Being able to grow it in my own garden is a dream come true.
39:41I am never going to take that greenhouse for granted.
39:58I haven't seen Apodocarpus 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 Apodocarpus henchellii, but straight away I can see
40:13that 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.
40:27Keep pruning it, because every time you prune it with a disturbance,
40:30it throws out these lower branches, which keeps it nice and thick
40:34and gives you the privacy down low where most people want it.
40:38It's been in for a few years now, and when it was planted,
40:42they put it in at about one metre or so apart,
40:46and 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,
41:15comes out this lighter lime green, which 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, a stunning green screen.
41:49Australia's home to some of the world's most unique and extraordinary animals.
41:54Now, 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 strike thrash.
42:45So, again, mimicry, whip 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.
43:01And 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.
43:14And now he's back onto his own whistle song.
43:19That's the lie bird's own call.
43:37My name's Alex Mazze.
43:39I'm a research fellow at La Trobe University.
43:41I'm a wildlife ecologist with a real interest in ecosystems
43:46and how they work, particularly the superb lie bird.
43:52Lie 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.
44:08Once you get to know the lie 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
44:22and think, you know, is this really what I'm able to do for work?
44:31So incredibly privileged and I certainly feel that.
44:37The lie bird's distribution is actually pretty broad.
44:41It ranges from about Fish Creek in southern Victoria
44:45all the way up to the Queensland border along the Great Dividing Range.
44:49And I really like those wetter forests where you get lots of tree ferns,
44:54lots of litter fall and lots of moisture in the environment.
44:58So here where we're standing in a wet forest,
45:01there's lots of beautiful habitat structure around us
45:04that protects the nests.
45:05This is optimal lie bird habitat here.
45:08This is where you want to be.
45:12So lie birds are a long-lived songbird, a passerun or a perching bird.
45:17If they get to adulthood, they become really savvy
45:20and 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.
45:37Eye birds evolve mimicry probably as part of sexual selection,
45:41females 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
45:56to try and show that they're really clever 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
46:10and he's able to dedicate so much of his time to mimicry and practicing that mimicry...
46:29..and if you can get good at it, maybe you're actually a really good male to mate with
46:33because you've got good genes that allow you to do that.
46:37So lie 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
46:49and not get eaten by foxes and not get attacked by other predators in the environment,
46:54then you've probably got good genes and a good bet to mate with
46:59if you're a female lie bird judging your mates.
47:04Here we're looking at a lie bird display mound.
47:07So this is constructed by the male lie bird
47:10and 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, so there's a nice gap in the canopy
47:24and it's surrounded by all these dense batwing ferns
47:28and 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
47:36and gets ready to do his 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
47:52to convince her that he's the one.
47:55And eventually, when she decides who's best,
47:59he'll mount the female and she moults these feathers
48:01and that's how we can tell there's been a successful mating on this mound.
48:06The two are really good for the birds.
48:17Flybirds are actually really incredibly accomplished ecosystem engineers.
48:21They move more material per unit area than any other organism on the planet
48:26that's been recorded to date.
48:28So compared to bandicoots, which are doing a lot themselves at around 6 to 8 tonnes per hectare,
48:33lyrebirds are around 150 to 200 tonnes per hectare in these forests. It's an
48:40incredible disturbance process, unparalleled in the animal kingdom. So
48:46here we're looking at a foraging pit and this foraging pit has been made by a
48:52lyrebird scratching through the litter and soil and I can see on the ground
48:57here thousands of little seedlings that have all germinated because where the
49:02lyrebird has actually removed the top layer of litter and exposed the seed
49:06bank to the Sun and to the the moisture of the rain and these have all germinated
49:11as a response to that lyrebird foraging here. So when lyrebirds forage they dig
49:17through the litter and soil and they bury all of the litter from the topsoil and
49:22integrate it into the mineral earth and this has really wide implications for
49:28the forest. It buries a whole heap of these fine fuels and decomposes them much
49:34quicker when they're buried under moist soil than if the lyrebirds weren't here.
49:38So that affects fire regimes. So the entire fire regime of the forest might
49:42change if you have lots of lyrebirds but they also change the micro habitat for
49:48invertebrates that live in the soil. So some areas are foraged and opened up
49:53where there's exposed mineral earth like this. Other areas are mounded in like a
49:58little compost heap. So this is great for all of those little detritivores that
50:03live in the soil and break down the organic matter. And then there are other
50:07areas around that are left more intact. So it's all of these little micro habitats
50:12that different species take advantage of. So really important for nutrient cycling, fire
50:19regimes and invertebrate assemblages, which of course is what they eat. So it's a
50:24really beautiful, balanced system of disturbance in these forests.
50:41This is a now disused lybird nest from last season and this has been constructed by the
50:48female bird all on her own. So no help from the male whatsoever. And she's gone and
50:54gathered over a thousand sticks in this. So dug them all from the ground just to
51:00find the right lengths, taken them back here and placed them in this this location
51:05that she's judged to be a good place to build her nest. And it's this beautiful
51:10domed nest that keeps the rain out and that on a tree like this in the rain the
51:15water can be running down the back of the tree and you can look in the nest and
51:19it'll actually use the tree as the back wall and the water runs straight down and
51:24the nest is perfectly dry with a little bit of grey feathers in the bottom. And
51:29then at the end of the process of building the nest you'll get a few little green
51:33sprigs of usually eucalypt leaf and she'll pop those in the in the lining of the roof.
51:39And that just is like the finishing touch. So pretty remarkable in the camouflage of
51:45the nest and this one as you can see it's on the ground. So for a predator like the
51:50introduced red fox it's very vulnerable. So they have to be really careful when
51:54they're coming to feed the chick that they take the chicks droppings away and
51:58either bury them in the surrounding soil or drop them in a creek and that
52:02removes the scent and keeps that nest nice and safe from predators that use
52:06olfaction to find their prey.
52:12Well I think when it comes to the protection of lyrebirds and and their
52:18habitat there are a lot of things we can do in our local area. Obviously if you
52:22have pets like dogs or cats keeping them out from natural areas like national
52:27parks is really important. But also on a broader level thinking about how the
52:32actions that we take the things that we consume and the way we live our lives
52:37impacts on the environment at a broader level is really important because aspects
52:42of environmental change like climate change have really the potential to
52:47change fire frequencies in these forests. Now we're lucky we have lyrebirds that are
52:51trying to stabilize these ecosystems essentially through their foraging they
52:56don't know it but they're this stabilizing disturbance process in a
53:01bizarre way and climate change really threatens that delicate balance so it's
53:08important as individuals that we think about how our impact can go on to
53:12affect the wider world beyond our own lives it's time to put down your phone
53:31and get to it your jobs of the weekend are here and ready to roll
53:41cool temperate gardeners bare root ornamental trees and fruiting
53:45favorites can go in now for smaller gardens miniatures and multi-grafted
53:49trees are just the ticket. Daphne's are in full-on fragrant flower and while they
53:54have a bit of a diva reputation when planted in a pot and watered well they're a
54:00divine addition to any garden. Citrus trees are flush with fruit so keep your
54:05harvest happening and give them a fortnightly feed liquid seaweed and
54:10potassium are best to strengthen cell walls and promote ripening. In warm
54:16temperate areas pansies a perfect winter color these pretty annuals benefit from
54:21having their first flush of flowers pinched off promoting better growth and
54:26bigger blooms. Camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons are hitting their peak
54:31flowering period now but if your plants are all bud and no bloom give them a
54:35kick with fertilizer for acid loving plants. Golden shallots are tough, tasty
54:41and ready to plant. Bulbs prefer a rich soil, tolerate full sun to part shade and
54:47take around six months to mature when they can be lifted and stored. Craving
54:53homegrown blueberries in the subtropics? Track yourself down a sunshine blue, a
54:58semi dwarf low chill blueberry that fruits readily in warmer climates. Grate in pots,
55:03grab two for better pollination. Whack in some fast-growing veg to fill gaps left
55:09after harvesting. Corn salad, rocket, Asian greens and lettuce are easy to sow and go
55:15from patch to plate in just a few weeks. For year-round color in a tough spot you
55:20can't beat a Chinese fringe flower. The deep purple foliage of this compact shrub
55:26adds drama to any style of garden. In the tropics why not sow some luffa seeds? These
55:33vigorous climbers are best grown up a pergola, support or screen. The mature
55:38fruits are harvested and dried to make an excellent exfoliating sponge. Sweet
55:44potatoes can be harvested and replanted this month. Using a fork dig and lift tubers
55:50from the ground and store while replanting runners for a continuous crop. Fill gaps in
55:56garden beds and pots with attractive edible ground covers like the mushroom plant, a perennial
56:01herb whose foliage has the flavour of your favourite fungi. In arid gardens find a spot
56:09for a mulberry. They're fast-growing tough terrific shade trees and those delicious spring berries?
56:14Yum! Try the red chatoot variety for huge fruits that don't stain. If bindi's have got you frightened
56:22to go barefoot it's time to pummel those prickles. Hand removal is most effective, otherwise put
56:28the kettle on and hit them with boiling water. It's important to be one foot in front of frosts
56:34that can damage sensitive plants. Clear nights with overnight lows of two degrees or less should
56:40have you reaching for the frost protection. This weekend get out there and plant something,
56:47harvest something, enjoy the great outdoors and head to our socials to let us know what
56:52you've been up to in the garden.
57:01Well that is all we have time for. But don't be alarmed, calm the farm or I should say be
57:09calmed
57:10by your garden because we've got plenty coming your way for next time. Check it out.
57:18I'm visiting a fairytale garden complete with mosaic walls and an actual DIY castle. It's a passion
57:26project of two ex-Queenslanders who now call Huon Valley Tasmania home.
57:32Australian plants are absolutely amazing. I'm in Western Victoria to visit one of our most
57:38passionate propagators and growers of Australian species. And I'm meeting a couple whose combined
57:44skills have created a garden that's beautiful and practical and inspires artistic expression.
57:51I've tried to capture the birds' songs.
57:54...
57:55...
57:57...
57:58Woof, woof, woof.
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