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Gardening Australia - Season 37 - Episode 11: Autumn: Coastal Succulents & Rustic Natives
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00:05Hey!
00:34it's that time of the week your prescribed dose of inspiration greenery and down-to-earth advice
00:42and you better be ready because we're getting straight into it hello and welcome to gardening
00:48australia here's what's coming up autumn is a busy time in my patch here in tassie
00:56and it's a really good time to get lots of jobs done before the winter chill sets in today i'm
01:03going
01:03to plan for future pops of one of my favorite colors pink of course i'm meeting a team of
01:10working dogs that are playing a very important role in plant biosecurity and if you like the
01:17weather-beaten look i've got a planning idea for you it's as rusty as a red dirt sunset
01:28container gardening really stretches the limits of what's possible new places new ways new
01:35opportunities to grow tammy has found a fantastic idea that takes challenging places and turns them
01:44into vibrant pockets of green
01:56for those of us with busy lives looking to maximize our gardening happiness in the most time efficient
02:03way possible i'm visiting a gardener who may have found the perfect solution it's a planter designed
02:09to help plants thrive in the most tough space restricted environments rooftops paved backyards
02:15balconies and steep slopes
02:19here in darling point four kilometers from central sydney
02:22santa dixon's home and garden stretches out into the harbor
02:29oh look at this back in 2017 costa paid a visit to explore the steeply terrace garden which took loads
02:37of
02:38maintenance but since then santa has been finding ways to maximize her gardening pleasure
02:45with less effort here on her exposed terrace
02:50hi tammy hi lovely to see you lovely to be here what an amazing garden you have thank you i
02:57just love
02:57it it's my pride and joy
03:02and how long have you been here 50 years wow
03:08and was the garden looking like this no it wasn't it was just pretty shocking when we bought it um
03:15all the walls were falling down and it was just full of fish fern and weeds really so we're here
03:22today to have a look at the plants on the terrace can you tell me a bit more about them
03:26like they have
03:26to put up with a lot don't they they do have to put up with a lot firstly they have
03:30to put up with me
03:31because you know i try anything and give it a go they have to put up with the salt air
03:37they have to put
03:38up with the strong northeasterly which is a very harsh wind in the summer and the westerly sun in the
03:45afternoon hence succulents and cactus are the perfect ones for the job i am a great plant collector and i
03:53had
03:53about 10 000 plants so to have them in pots was extremely difficult because of the maintenance
04:01they'd be either too dry or too wet whereas when you've got them neatly planted into these fabulous
04:06gabins you can look after them so much more easily if you've got a pot you planted something in the
04:12top
04:13but if you've got these gabins you can part all the way around so hundreds of plants could go into
04:19you know one structure like that so when you say gabin so they're these large page like yes they're
04:26like a hay bale but they've got wire around them and then they've got this fantastic medium inside that
04:33nurtures the plants so that you can put very tall cactus in those which i mean what that would be
04:39what two and a half meters and hopefully he'll get bigger this one which i call my coral reef is
04:45just
04:45like a blanket that's over stairs and it's got short rooted plants if you've got a small space you can
04:52have masses of plants and make it neat and tidy so this gabion structure is what underpins all your
05:00plantings all of it absolutely in different shapes and sizes depending on where they have to go so i
05:06can see we've got various layers of fabric which would help then the roots cling on too that's correct
05:12before they grow deeper into the media the media yeah and this polystyrene allows the water to drain
05:20drain away a drip irrigation line runs along the top of the gabion releasing about a liter of water a
05:27day
05:27the water absorbs through the porous outer layer where it finds a capillary mat which holds moisture
05:33for the plants to draw on when needed the gabion acts like a rock face that plants cling to as
05:39they
05:39would in nature this is my coffin when it was nude it was the perfect size shape everything for a
05:49coffin
05:49and how do you know that well because we made them in the old days but not like these ours
05:55were in
05:55timber and only had one purpose and it wasn't a very pretty one so that was your business well it
06:02was
06:02one of the businesses yes that my husband and i owned yes but um my husband was an accountant and
06:10he worked out that you could only sell one to one person and so therefore you know it was a
06:17true
06:17businessman yeah absolutely so we gave that one up and these are so much prettier
06:24and what have you got planted here well euphorbias and agaves and other various cacti and succulents that
06:32i bought at various times different colors and textures that that's what my garden is really all about
06:38and where did you get the euphorbias from the magnificent a lot of them came from deceased
06:43estates they have auctions and they sell their plants that are in pots in the garden etc and he's
06:50done so well since he's been in this medium when he came he only had two arms and now he's
06:56got all of
06:56that he's just multiplied he has he's a happy chappy this is another gabion and he's got my leftovers
07:04but he's flourishing he seems to be thoroughly enjoying the leftovers so i can see you've got
07:09various like this kalanchoe there's blue chalk sticks they're all cascading like from the the gabion
07:15well that's right and that's the beauty of the gabion is that it it isn't just a flat top so
07:23that
07:24everything can fall down and cover the entire structure which i think is it's stunning it gives me
07:30pleasure every day when these do get um leggy as this one is you can just cut it off and
07:38then stick
07:38it back in it's just so easy to look after and this begonia this is not something that you typically
07:44see
07:45in such an exposed area but it's thriving it is it's the most extraordinary begonia was given to me by
07:52a
07:52friend she just gave me a small one and anywhere i've got a difficult spot in the garden i stick
07:58it
07:58in and i love the fact it's got that lovely red the back of its leaf it's beautiful all around
08:05i think
08:05yeah normally with begonias they can be quite not necessarily fragile but they're they prefer like
08:11filtered sunlight conditions but he's exposed and just does and it just takes it i don't know why but it
08:19does you've made it tough and hardy of course like me but this your coral reef yes this is this
08:30is my
08:31special little treasure there's so many different textures and shapes and even colors absolutely and
08:37many of them i can remember where i got them and so they're sort of it's a bit like a
08:42family album you
08:44can you know look look at them and enjoy memories of where they came from that's so sweet so there's
08:50you've got haworthias there's i think a few aloes in there and then agaves agave is a real recurrent
08:57theme in your garden they certainly are yes absolutely and so where does the name come from
09:02what the coral reef yeah my imagination really because on my very rare trip to the barrier reef when
09:10you snorkel down and you see all those different corals and they're all moving and and the colors
09:16and the textures that's just what this reminds me of as with most living things occasionally something
09:24dies and then you've got to you know find something else to put in and gosh where will you find
09:29something to put in it's tough tough yeah but somehow i managed
09:37so with all these planting schemes what does it bring to you untold pressure and particularly
09:43at night you know when you're on your own and to come out here and look at all my friends
09:50um it just gives me a tremendous joy
09:59i love how santa has transformed to a terrace from a multitude of scattered pots into a beautiful and
10:06intense display of form and texture and even better we can all think about using this technique at home
10:12whether you have a hot rooftop an awkward slope or a bare backyard it's a great solution
10:22where does cork come from well cork is the bark of the cork oak tree it's an evergreen tree from
10:31the mediterranean it grows to about 15 meters and you'll find it growing wild from portugal to italy
10:38and from morocco to tunisia this tree grows in a dry temperate climate and the cork is harvested
10:46when the trees are about 25 years old sheets of bark are removed very carefully so it doesn't
10:53damage the tree once the harvest is over it can be re-harvested every nine years the best thing about
11:00cork is that it's fully recyclable can i put eucalyptus leaves in the compost gum leaves are in abundance
11:09and they're a great resource too good to go to waste they reputedly have allelopathic properties
11:15which means they contain chemicals which can inhibit the growth of other plants but the more decayed
11:22they are the weaker this effect they can take a long time to break down but if you let them
11:27dry
11:27out first they can be crumbled up and spread throughout the compost or added in lightly with
11:33other materials so they don't form a thick layer now i think a better idea might be to make a
11:39pile of
11:39gum leaves on your lawn and run your mower over it that'll chop them into fine pieces and they'll
11:44break down quicker now remember when adding anything to your compost it's all about the right balance
11:50of brown materials that are dry including the eucalyptus leaves and green materials that are fresh
11:56and you need that balance to get the composting process happening properly what kind of shade
12:02cloth do i need for my shade house throwing shade is a little more complicated than you might think
12:07these are all shade cloths and they all have different shading abilities it's usually measured
12:13as a percentage the higher the number the more light it blocks and the more shade it creates
12:18this one's 30 percent this one's 50 percent this one's 70 percent choosing the right shade cloth depends
12:27on what you're growing and how much sunlight hits your structure forest orchids like stanhopia grow
12:33naturally in deep shade so they flower best under heavy shade cloth often 70 to 90 percent but orchids
12:41like soft cane dendrobiums sologeny and cattleyas need brighter light to trigger flowers so they prefer
12:48lighter shade cloth around 40 to 60 percent shade cloth isn't a one-size-fits-all too much shade gives
12:55you leaves but no flowers too little shade and plants burn
13:06oh fruit
13:10fresh off the tree and how good has it been over the last couple of weeks guest presenter tan the
13:17fruit
13:17nerd has taken us on a tasting tour of some of the most unusual fruits grown around australia and guess
13:25what he has saved the best till last one of the most unique looking fruits on the planet
13:33so if you want to grow a splash of edible color at your place then listen up
13:39yum
13:53as a fruit nerd i'm on a mission to get aussie gardeners expanding their fruit and veggie horizons
13:59and today i want to show you a fruit with out of this world skin flesh and flowers dragon fruit
14:07is
14:07name for its vibrant spiky skin it's the fruit of several climbing cactus species native to southern
14:13mexico guatemala costa rica and el salvador it's also known as pitaya and comes in red or white flesh
14:20variety it's cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions around the world and is extremely popular
14:28in southeast asia and china now i'm a bit of a dragon fruit whisperer because my name is tan and
14:34in vietnamese the meaning of tan long is dragon fruit now i can tell that this dragon fruit is
14:40really ripe because the skin is really thin and smooth and it's really plump and the distance between
14:46these two fins is quite far so i'm going to give it a harvest wow bountiful
14:55and here in the sunshine coast hinterland about 70 kilometers north of brisbane
15:00is a sweet spot for growing subtropical fruit i'm near the superb glasshouse mountains where
15:06the region's rich volcanic soils and subtropical climate makes it perfect for pineapples avocados
15:12but also lesser known crops like dragon fruit karen martin and her family have been growing dragon fruit
15:19here for close to two decades karen there's a lot of healthy looking dragon fruit plants here how did you
15:25get into growing them well we grow a number of subtropical fruit lychees and custard apple and we
15:30were looking for another type of plant that we could harvest at a different time of the year right
15:36what kind of varieties of dragon fruit do you grow we grow two varieties we grow the white flesh variety
15:41and this is the red flesh variety and what kind of growing conditions do dragon fruit plants like
15:46they like to grow in the subtropics they go from far north queensland right down
15:51south but they like the heat they get an annual fertiliser we mulch them as well and they like a
15:58lot of water just before harvest time and they're a climbing plant right yes the red variety love to
16:04grow on a trellis system we have three wires and we train the plants up the wires it takes about
16:10two
16:11years to get a good structure right and what about white dragon fruit they grow a little bit different
16:15we can have a look at that if you like all right let's go
16:24so tan these are the white flesh dragon fruit they like to grow on a single post
16:30as they go up the post they come out like an umbrella it cascades down and that's the way they
16:35like to grow now i can see these white cat guy look really spiky they are and these are the
16:40spikiest of
16:41the two varieties that we grow i always wear long sleeves and gloves when i'm picking the fruit
16:47i think it's time we give the whites and the reds a taste i agree tan there you go this
16:52is amazing
16:55all right shall i give it a cut yes go ahead let's do it
17:00looks beautiful and it's just such a vibrant fruit easy in a fruit salad and for those who you
17:06know are a bit wary about you know it being a difficult fruit to handle it's basically just
17:11like a watermelon yep you slice it open scoop it out with a spoon or cut it into wedges it's
17:17so easy
17:19just peel the fruit back
17:24delicious it is very juicy and i love the crunchy pulps when you bite into the seeds
17:30it's very textual and it's like a fruit salad taste people say it has a subtle flavor but i
17:35like that really gentle uh tanginess let's try the red red yeah oh check out the vibrancy that is
17:43such a stunning color the juice is all over the board and it feels like it's much more juicier than
17:47the white yes they are they are wow the pigmentation
17:54there's so much more aroma and perfume in this dragon fruit it's really floral oh that is stunning
18:01flavor what a delicious healthy snack they really look otherworldly don't they yes they they do wait
18:07till you try it with lime though
18:14i like that i'm going to keep that tip
18:20karen i hear that your family have a nickname for you well it's more more my husband he likes to
18:25call
18:25me the dragon lady i love that now as the dragon lady what should home gardeners look out for if
18:32they're keen to grow a dragon fruit plant there's a few tips that home gardeners can take on board the
18:38first one is deciding which variety they want to grow the second one is once you've worked that out
18:43what infrastructure you're going to be needing for that whether it's posts or posts and trellis you need
18:49space in your home garden because the plants will grow quite big you'd at least need a two meter radius
18:56which needs to be in full sun and you need to give it a good dose of water although it's
19:03a cactus during
19:04the flowering and the fruiting part of the season they like a lot of water and that helps get the
19:10size of the fruit but
19:11they're pretty resilient sort of plant now along with their very striking looks there's another side to dragon fruit isn't
19:17there
19:18yes it's a spectacular show of flowers and they come on usually of an afternoon and they are open
19:26through the night and they're pollinated through that evening and by the next morning they've wilted and
19:33they'll start that process of developing fruit because it's all timed by the moon phases so often
19:40of a night time will come out when it's a full moon they look like lights but it's the flower
19:46that's
19:47there and they're just hundreds and hundreds of flowers it's it's really spectacular i'm gonna
19:51have to come here during the full moon time yes what's remarkable about the flower is the size it's
19:57about 30 centimeters in diameter but the size of a dinner plate and it's very delicate flower and when
20:04you first come across that of a morning you'll see hundreds of honeybees native bees beetles flies
20:12everything that can go in there just love rolling around in that pollen looking right inside the
20:18flower it's quite a quite an experience yeah it's an event it is it is yeah how often do you
20:24need to
20:24prune the dragon fruit they're pruned once a year in about august and how about propagation very very
20:31easy so what we'll do when we're pruning we will take them off let them dry out a bit put
20:37it into the soil
20:38with a small stake and away you go you just need a bit of sun and a bit of patience
20:42you do you do
20:43here's one i cut about three weeks ago it's starting to grow shoots already why don't you take that home
20:49and you can grow it i'm going to give it a try thank you
20:56for us it's been an experience of learning what the plant does experience with the flowers and what to
21:03do with the fruit how to eat it in australia it hasn't been a very well-known fruit so if
21:09home
21:10gardeners are are interested in growing the plant it's not difficult to grow it's a little spiky but
21:15lots of other things are spiky in life as well so he says the dragon lady
21:31us gardeners know as the temperature drops the gardening action fires up at her place in
21:39chilly hobart hannah can't wait to get things cranking
21:58autumn is such a great time in the garden because there's so many fun jobs to do before the winter
22:04chill kicks in top of my list today is the plan for future pops of color and here the clue
22:13it's no secret i'm a huge fan of the color pink look around and it's hard to miss pink flowers
22:24our pink house and even pink hair
22:31so what's not to love about a pink flowering feature tree i reckon every garden needs at least
22:39one statement tree and while my garden has a whole lot of trees which i love i haven't actually got
22:46a
22:46feature tree so today i'm going to plant a hot pink number it's a crepe myrtle and it's going in
22:53right at our front gate so it can be our welcome tree every time we come home
23:02crepe myrtles are great trees they thrive in a variety of climates and soil types can get by on
23:09little water and have the triple appeal of long lasting flowers autumnal color as the leaves drop and
23:16shiny iridescent bark when the leaves have fallen and they generally don't get too big usually topping
23:23out at between four or five meters plant breeders have been hard at work and these days crepe myrtles
23:29are available in a variety of shapes and colors there's a real rainbow from white lavender reds
23:35and you guessed it multiple shades of pink
23:46autumn is a great time to plant trees as there's still some warmth in the soil but none of the
23:51heat
23:51stress that can come in the warmer months i'm digging a hole as wide as the pot the crepe myrtles
23:57in and a little bit deeper plus i'm sloping the edges it's almost a wok shape that i'm after before
24:04the plant goes in i'm watering well to help give it a good head start i'm going to gently nurse
24:11the tree
24:11out of the pot oh yeah and you can see it's got quite a lot of roots there it's a
24:17little bit root
24:17bound they're going to give it a tickle which is another way of saying give it a root prune
24:24and it will help activate more growth in its new home
24:33and now i'm back filling
24:41add a bit more water and there you go over the next couple of years it's going to spring into
24:47hot pink blooms ready to welcome everybody into our garden i can't wait to watch it grow
24:56so next on my list they're not pink but they will be a lovely shade of purple and my two
25:02young
25:02wisteria vines which are ready for a bit of autumn tlc now these two vines they've only been in the
25:09ground for around one year so they're very young so right now it's more about training them to make
25:15my life easier later on and some minor pruning to make sure i get a good array of flowers when
25:21you're
25:22using a ladder safety is always number one make sure it's on flat stable ground if you're going up
25:28really high it's worth tying it down up top if you can come on love and to be extra safe
25:36get someone to
25:37hold the ladder to make sure it's nice and steady today i've got my sweetheart anton helping never climb
25:44past the second highest ladder rung and never straddle the top of an a-frame ladder i'm pruning
25:49off the dead wood and some of the wispy bits wisteria flower on second year wood so prune the existing
25:56growth back to around four leaves or 150 millimeters from the old stem and this is where the new flower
26:02buds will form i'm twisting the vines around a steel rod in the direction that i want them to grow
26:08in
26:09last i'm using a bit of jute twine to tie them down to make sure they're nice and secure
26:22last on my autumn job list is to dig up and store some of my dahlia tubers
26:27i went big on dahlias this year planting many dozens and you guessed it some of them were pink
26:34but their glory has well and truly died back now leaving just the underground tubers which
26:40i'm about to dig up and store safely until we replant them in spring
26:46in warmer climates dahlia tubers will generally survive the winter in the ground and come back
26:51year after year you only really dig them up in order to subdivide them to make new plants
26:57plants but in climates with wet and long winters it's safer to lift and store your dahlias to prevent
27:04them from rotting in the cold wet conditions i can just ease the whole crump out nice and gently because
27:12they're quite brittle they can break quite easily oh and then you can have a look to see how many
27:20you've got in here you've got lots of tubers i'm gonna work all this soil off let them dry out
27:26in the
27:26sun for a couple of days or so then i'll gently separate them and store them in a bucket of
27:33sawdust
27:33in my cool and dry and dark shed when you're dividing your dry tubers you want each tuber to
27:43have at least one eye that's this little bump here and that's where the growth point is come spring i'm
27:51going to plant all these back into the garden again where there's going to be a flurry of blossoms
27:55overwhelming the garden with lots of colors including pinks
28:00i just want to hug these camellias because i've got this wonderful relationship with them
28:25it's in the camellia garden at the royal botanic gardens in sydney and about nine years ago i had
28:32the opportunity to do a pruning workshop for a lot of the apprentices and a couple of the staff here
28:39around how to do a structural prune on camellias because what had happened they hadn't been pruned
28:46for many many years and they'd all grown really big they'd created this wall of foliage so that when
28:52you enter the gardens at the top gate there you couldn't even see the beautiful old conservatory
28:58and the idea was twofold they wanted to open up the view but the main thing was to bring the
29:06camellias
29:07down so that visitors to the gardens could appreciate the flowers now a botanic gardens is an educational
29:16space you want to be able to see a flower get inspired and say wow i'd love one of these
29:22at my
29:23place so that meant going in hard and a structural prune is one of those things and if you come
29:29in here
29:30with your historian's hat on you can see exactly where these hard prunes took place and we basically
29:37cut these camellias back to just four or five branches in the shape of a vase now these ones
29:47after their big structural prune look at what it's done it's bushed them out over the years the staff
29:54have kept them down and each year you get all this beautiful new lime green growth from which you'll get
30:03new buds that then produce the flowers that everyone wants to see people will be able to come up to
30:11them and say oh right what's this one this is the aspasia macarthur and then from your garden point of
30:18view there's no reason why you can't have a feature japonica like this but keep it down
30:24in a garden bed with other things growing around it like these ones are now but if you wanted the
30:30other
30:31thing you could do is take out the lower branches which is something we call crown lifting and that
30:39way if that was in a courtyard or a small space you could have a table and chairs underneath it
30:45you
30:46can actually sit down and appreciate the canopy get the shade but at the same time look out through
30:52the leaves and the flowers so there's plenty you can do with camellias and i think the most important
30:58thing is don't be afraid a tough prune a bit of tough love will bring awesome results
31:08still to come on gardening australia clarence bangs the drum we visit a garden that's a cool climate
31:18centerpiece and we get you working with your jobs for the weekend
31:29protecting australia's biosecurity is important stuff and we need all the help we can get over in
31:37perth josh has found a few furry friends and they're doing their bit to help preserve our precious natural
31:48heritage
31:51this looks like a typical morning at perth's king's park dogs on a lead being taken out to stretch
31:58their legs but this is no ordinary walk in the park with arguably the cutest gang of hounds you're
32:04likely to see the cuteness is actually a disguise these are working dogs with a very specific job
32:12description and this is a big day for dr kylie island also has a very specific job description
32:24as the plant diseases program leader for wa's department of biodiversity conservation and
32:30attractions kylie is a plant pathologist leading a team on a mission to protect local flora from
32:37biological threats combating plant dieback a slow killer of plants is one of the team's most challenging
32:45assignments phytophora dieback is the disease and it's caused by a little pathogen called phytophora
32:50cinnamomai and it's a water mold so it actually isn't a fungus it's more closely related to brown
32:56algae and so it creates these amazing little motiles zoospores that can swim and infect roots
33:02and start to cause all that damage in a tree
33:10effectively it's choking up the whole kind of vascular system of the plant and affecting the fine
33:15roots and the roots of the plants they just can't get the water and everything up there to actually
33:20keep it alive so that's what we often see is those first plants starting to die off in that landscape
33:25and we have a sweeter species some are more susceptible than others so those are what we
33:31call our indicators so if we see them starting to flag then there's a good indicator that it's in that
33:36system so we find phytophora cinnamomai in every state except the northern territory so where you get
33:42higher rainfall you get bigger problems with phytophora cinnamomai places like wa it's known as the
33:47biological bulldozer because effectively it hits so many species it comes through like a front
33:53and certainly down in the southwest we see very clear lines of where it's been and where it hasn't
33:58been and it's present at king's park isn't it it is unfortunately the banksia garden at some point
34:03something's come in and contaminated that area but just across the way is the threatened species bed and
34:09it's clear in wa we have what we call registered dieback interpreters and they're effectively reading
34:14the landscape so they go around with the gps they map where those plants are dying and then they
34:20produce a map which you can use to manage so if you're going in there for forestry or if you're
34:25going in there for mining or you want to put a trail in you can start to plan where you
34:30would put it
34:30to reduce the risk of spreading further dieback is there an easier way to do it well we think there
34:36might be and so as soon as we found out the dogs might be able to sniff out phytophora we're
34:41like oh wow how
34:42could this work and the research has been really amazing they look like they're accurate they look
34:51like they're way quicker than the lab so the lab's like two weeks and we're dealing with maybe minutes
34:55with the dogs so we're really excited now to be welcoming three new little puppies into our team
35:01so our dear dieback interpreters they won't be out of jobs necessarily but they'll still be looking for
35:07all the other evidence but the dogs can take that nose evidence and we can add that to all of
35:12that
35:12mapping we do to understand where the dogs think it is in the landscape and build a better picture
35:18and also we've had some really dry conditions some really horrible conditions for our vegetation we
35:24can't map there very effectively anymore but the dogs with their noses might actually be the trick
35:33their heightened sense of smell is setting these dogs on a very important career path animal trainer
35:40ryan tate and his team have put the poochers through detection school at their new south wales
35:45base and today these canine graduates are ready for work in wa so what makes dogs so well suited to
35:53the task ah so the dog's nose is essentially how they see the world so they've got 40 times more
36:00olfactory receptors than we do and the part of their brain that's designated to looking for smell is
36:0640 times bigger than ours so you're talking at factors of you know one drop in 20 swimming pools
36:13they can sort of smell those kind of differences parts per trillion what the dogs are doing when
36:19they're working through the environment is they'll work in basically an area where it's negative right
36:24so there's nothing they can smell and they're searching the air for a single volatile organic
36:29compound of phytostero so they're searching the air for particles as soon as they find one particle
36:35they then want to work through what we call like a plume or a scent cone and work out where
36:40there's
36:40more and more and more until they work out i'm as close as i can possibly be to the strongest
36:45part of
36:46phytostero which is usually near like a dying banksia or something like that and that's where the dog
36:51freezes and says i believe i'm as close as i can be to the strongest part of phytostero and that's
36:57where
36:57the handler is you know usually going to mark and reward their dog there
37:08yes the dogs are really useful at helping us zone in where we take our samples from so even if
37:14they bump up our strike rate a little bit we're saving our lab technicians time by sending them
37:20fewer negative samples
37:25yes that's what i'm after good girl how accurate are these furry finders of phytophthora
37:32kylie says the lab results only confirm that these dogs are seriously good at this but we're excited
37:39about the dogs because if we know that they're mostly correct most of the time we can say we're
37:43confident in that and actually reduce the number of samples we're popping through the lab the way we
37:47verify whether phytophthora is in that system is the dieback interpreters will take samples from the
37:52best spot they can find we put it into a tub you cover it with water and because it's a
38:00water mold
38:00what happens is that stimulates the spores to actually start swimming up and we have little
38:05leaves and things like that on the top which it then infects and we isolate that in the lab for
38:11now
38:11detection identification and containment are our only defenses against phytophthora dieback
38:18everyone can play a role with limiting the spread of dieback so it spreads in like soil and plant
38:23matter and so anytime you're out hiking or anything like that basically practicing come clean go clean
38:29and i always say be mindful in between as well so being really mindful of your vehicles and your bikes
38:35if you're a horse rider as well you even got to watch those those feet look at your boots and
38:40you're
38:40like okay there's no soil on there or if there is grabbing a really good brush giving a good brush
38:44down so anything that can carry soil making sure that it's clean as you go into an area and then
38:50as
38:50you leave as well science and technology have never been more advanced yet nothing comes close to
38:57the sensitivity and sophistication of a dog's snout add dieback detection to a growing list of credentials
39:04and dogs really are our best friends
39:14gardening gives us a chance to get creative turn bits and pieces into something that we need
39:20of course you can buy it off the shelf but when you put some elbow grease into it skin into
39:27the game
39:28suddenly you're creating something that's unique one of a kind and i reckon this next project of
39:34clarence's well it's just shot to the very top of my to-do list
39:42doesn't matter where you are doesn't matter what you're made of aussie conditions take their toll
39:50look at me barely 30. lucky the rusty weathered look works well in a native garden with the right
39:57planters the right native plants you can do it yourself when it comes to rusty garden planters you
40:04can spend as much as you like on next the options made from core 10 kind of steel protected by
40:10a layer
40:10of rust so i've gone with the classic 44 gallon drum this drum is from a trusted reseller so i
40:16know it's
40:17safe to plant into and it takes about an hour to split with an angle grinder personally i love the
40:22look
40:23of a rusted 44 gallon drum you can buy these for about 25 bucks and these will eventually rust but
40:29if you
40:29are in a hurry there are a few tips and tricks first scrape off some of the paint a wire
40:37brush and a
40:37drill bit flat disc on a grinder whatever you like just be careful have a think about the aesthetic
40:44you want all over rust one side rust dings patches your dog's name go crazy do whatever you like all
40:52right
40:5344 gallon drums come with lids which are great if you want to keep your planter contained
40:57you just need plenty of drainage holes i'm doing 20 holes in this small one 10 in the big one
41:03you'll
41:04find out why very soon with the paint gone you might see some rust in the next couple of days
41:11if you want to speed up the process there's nothing like a bit of chemistry
41:14we take vinegar a little bit of nappy sand and salt the reaction let's wait and see
41:23it will froth but fresh is best for fast results
41:29spray it liberally on all the abrasions rust is just iron getting too friendly with oxygen
41:34and this is an oxygen rich solution and with any luck we will see rust fast
41:43and while i'm waiting i'll gather some plants for two different habitats one's kind of swampy the
41:49other more arid my two brand new rusty planters all right well it's only been about an hour this is
41:58working an absolute treat chemistry eh now before we plant these up we really got to give some thought
42:03to where to put them because they're going to be super heavy this one we can probably manage to move
42:07around this one there's a lot of weight going to be in here once we put the soil in it's
42:11going to be
42:12anywhere between 100 and 200 kegs this one's probably going to be about 50. this one we're going to have
42:18more of the swamp sort of feel so it'll stay a bit more moist thus only the 10 holes this
42:24one drier
42:25hotter 20 holes all comes clean in the wash
42:30when you're happy with your containers position add plenty of native potting mix
42:37you'll need six 30 litre bags between these two planters before the first is ready for its feature
42:44plant now the feature plant swamp banksia perfect with a little bit more moisture in the soil as the
42:53name suggests obviously grows in the swamp but the flowers as they start to form almost iridescent
43:00green just beautiful what's nothing like about banksias along with our feature plant we've got a
43:06little wa native this is a velvet rush these beautiful lovely chocolatey flower heads on top
43:13well they're really seed heads but they look like flowers good contrast with form and another contrast
43:20the soft beautiful coppery sometimes almost red foliage of the leprosperm of copper glow it will bush
43:28out quite a bit so it'll really keep a nice understory below our feature plant and our nice tall rush
43:36our dryer pot we're going to go with the beautiful baronias and this is baronia heaven scent beautiful
43:43dusky pink flowers the aroma from the flowers of this even the foliage absolutely stunning along with
43:51this one which is another baronia this is baronia dark prince more of a deep plum colored flower once
43:57it starts doing its thing and then to top that off this absolutely stunning lassia petalum bronze velvet
44:04gorgeous foliage that'll cascade over the edge of our pot and these little delicate flowers that
44:11just give it that really beautiful bronze velvet as the name suggests but to really tie these two pots
44:18together real burst of color what could go better than a couple of paper daisies putting a bit of
44:25pizzazz a little bit of color a little bit of oomph that'll look an absolute treat
44:30i'll get to planting once they're done we'll see what they look like sun and drought tolerance has
44:36seen a lot of aussie plants evolve muted tones in flowers and foliage these work great in rusty planters
44:42you really can't go wrong plants like grevilleas gums acacias and melaleucas your drums will look
44:49so sharp you'll want to take precautions now if you are worried about sharp edges grab a bit of old
44:55hose
44:56slice it down the middle it works perfectly as an edge now it's nice and smooth and soft
45:04it doesn't look too bad well i am unbelievably excited about how well these have turned out
45:12the science of the rust the color the form these different species are really setting each other
45:18off a little taste of australia right here in recycled 44 gallon drums nothing more aussie than that
45:36gardening makes you think about time some of the things you plant today
45:42will live on long after you've gone and sometimes you care for a garden only for a brief period of
45:50time
45:51the plants were there before you and they'll live on into the future our next story takes us to tasmania
45:59where one gardener is carefully guiding something precious into its next era
46:25i'm dinah and i live here with my husband philip ruby and ginger two vizlas we're here
46:33at killane which is on the edge of westbury a village in the north of tasmania i think it was
46:42named after killane castle on the west coast of scotland it's just a fabulous place to live
46:50this property was built in the 1840s and it was on a block 40 acres and we still have 32
47:00acres of that
47:01original property it's been passed down through many families many people killane has a really
47:12wonderful history the garden is about 10 acres and we irrigate 10 acres of course there's the lake
47:22which takes up about three of those 10 acres so it's a big garden some historic areas some much newer
47:30areas
47:31when i came here we had some original trees probably planted when the house was first built
47:42over the 13 years that i've been here we've watched these trees grow and grow they've just
47:49flourished this tree here is a sequoia it's not an original it was planted in 1878 it has its roots
47:58in
47:59the lake so it has plenty of water and plenty of space to grow so it is a beautiful example
48:05of a sequoia
48:07dendron or what we call wellingtonia pine they're absolutely beautiful trees
48:17this is one of my favorite trees it's um the indian bean tree katalpa biganoides we think this is
48:28about 110 years old and these are the beans they're not edible but they're the seed pods
48:37it's a beautiful tree for summer because it gives this very comfortable cool shade and it flowers at
48:45christmas time usually on the 23rd of december which is very handy because that's where we have our
48:52christmas lunch so a perfect tree for a big garden we grew up in hobart on a small property on
49:05the eastern
49:05shore and i've always enjoyed those days and we went to live in england for 12 years and
49:13there of course there are so many beautiful gardens and then when i came back i just didn't have time
49:21for gardening i worked for 40 years full time and it was hard to build gardening into my time but
49:29i was
49:30always interested and started to see gardening as the thing that i'd probably want to do as i retire
49:40the two gardeners before me were avid tree people they planted beautifully they could see visions of
49:48trees as they got bigger so i took it upon myself not to plant any more trees because i think
49:56we've got
49:56enough and tried to fill in that understory and i always loved woodland plants
50:05when we came we had a few hydrangeas in a beautiful bed which we can see from the
50:12house in the veranda you know hydrangeas probably to me were a bit old-fashioned but i did go to
50:21a
50:21lecture by a garden designer who said don't follow fashion look at what survives in gardens and he said
50:32hydrangeas
50:35this is just a an ordinary mop top and another type of hydrangea here they do well because it's the
50:44south side of the house they don't get direct sun and we give them plenty of water and i think
50:52the
50:52soil is just perfect ph for them one of the things we have to think about is pests we have
51:00deer visit
51:01the garden very regularly we have possums wallaby rabbits hares so i found over the years that
51:10hydrangeas just don't get eaten things like this big ears don't get eaten so really what's here in
51:18the garden is the things that will survive learning to live with that is part of gardening
51:30when you're the owner of a beautiful garden like this you often think about the people who've lived
51:36here and and what they thought and how they did things very fortunate that the lakers bought the
51:45property in the mid 60s dr laker and his wife were avid gardeners all their life and they really did
51:53put
51:53a lot of the bones back into the garden and i'm thrilled to bits to have judy come to see
52:03the
52:03garden and she hasn't seen it for 25 years hi hi how are you good welcome lovely to see you
52:13thank you
52:16so how does it feel i was really concerned about coming back as to what would have changed what has
52:24you know maybe not been looked after but that's certainly not the case it's wonderful to see that
52:29the garden has continued and grown from when i was here because basically it was it was nothing there
52:36were the lovely old trees but there was really no garden to speak of
52:40and when i left the garden father had created and of course that included all the lake and the
52:46landscaping there it was immense how did the lake come to be we were kids and all of a sudden
52:52it just
52:53happened in came the bulldozers and they took that field right out and made the dam wall with that
53:01so judy tell us about the oak tree
53:04um this tree over here because it's one of my favorites well diana i think this tree is one of
53:12the most unforgettable of my childhood we just loved it and i think it's very old it would have
53:20been one of the first trees on the property i'd say i would think so and that makes it probably
53:26180
53:2780 years old so it's amazing it's a magnificent tree you really do feel you're here just to look
53:36after it for the next people and and hopefully you don't change things too much that there were no
53:44no trees and you could see straight through to westbury there yes oh it's incredible it's amazing to
53:51think how how you can create a forest i know i look at the liquid amber liquid amber so i'm
53:59very
54:00fortunate to be the custodian even if it's only for a few years
54:18roll up the sleeves and grab the hoe your jobs for the weekend are here
54:29cool temperate gardeners it's time to prepare for bare rooting add some well-rotted manures and
54:35compost to your patch dig over and in a month or two you'll be prepped for planting bare root fruit
54:41trees keep your compost cozy in the cooler weather and chuck in some comfrey a cracker for adding heat
54:48to your heap a sprinkle or two of some blood and bone will also work wonders if sawfly larvae are
54:55clustering and attacking the foliage of your young native plants carefully cut off the small branchlets
55:01that harbour colonies and bung them in the bin in warm temperate gardens it's time to harvest persimmon
55:08fruits non-astringent varieties can be eaten straight away but let astringent fruits go soft and squishy
55:15before tucking in i love them it's a ripper time to transplant evergreen trees the milder conditions
55:22mean they're less likely to suffer stress and will re-establish readily rocketing away once the weather
55:29warms the cooler wetter weather sees snails and slugs up and about protect young seedlings and vulnerable
55:37plants with a beer trap in the subtropics if you haven't planted onions yet don't cry you can still get
55:44them in go for early varieties that thrive in warmer climates like gladiline brown or barletta for
55:51pickling have a grow of horizontal the leaves are an aztec delicacy and spinach substitute and the buds can
55:59be deep fried for a crispy treat so now they'll be ready to harvest in seven weeks prune your pandaria
56:07they'll respond really well to a hard haircut and if you remove seed pods and spent flowers this
56:13colorful climber will bounce back beautifully in tropical gardens have a go at some unusual heat
56:20loving perennial greens like okinawa spinach brazilian spinach and sambung easy to grow and good for you
56:28keep an eye out for japanese honeysuckle and give it the chop before it sets seed it's now a serious
56:34invader of native bushland so do your bit and bin your prunings did you know that australia has a native
56:41gardenia this tall shrub to small tree has fragrant flowers in the spring and delicious fruits in the
56:48winter find a spot in your garden for this stunner ornamental tough fast growing local and lemony what's
56:57not to love about native lemongrass perfect for arid gardens plant one out at your place where you can
57:03enjoy the fragrant foliage it's time to give your strawberries a sweet start and sow some seed into
57:10propagation mix keep them under cover or indoors in a seed tray and you'll be ready to transplant in
57:16four weeks leshinoltea are blooming now and come in a range of full-on colors these tough natives are
57:24hot in hanging baskets or pots and will reward you with masses of flowers for months get out there and
57:31have a great weekend in the garden and if you're craving more content head over to our gardening australia
57:37youtube channel
57:45well that's everything we've got in the seed packet for this week
57:49but there's plenty more coming next time let's take a sneak peek
57:57i am getting down and dirty and learning everything there is to know about growing one of the
58:02world's most popular vegetables
58:07i'm checking out some more unusual native plants that you may not be familiar with but they're all
58:13perfect for creating a beautiful layered urban garden
58:19and we meet a gardener killing the competition everyone say yaaas
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