- 9 hours ago
Gardening Australia 2010 Season 37 Episode 18
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00:00Whoo-hoo!
00:05Hey! Hi!
00:12Whoa!
00:17Hey!
00:20Hey, buddy.
00:22Hey!
00:23Hey!
00:35Feel the serenity and settle in.
00:38We have got an action-packed episode for you this week
00:42with everything you need to feed your gardening journey.
00:46Welcome to Gardening Australia.
00:47Here's what's in store.
00:51I'm learning about light pollution
00:53and how it's impacting animals, including us,
00:56and how gardeners can get their light right.
00:59A good ecologist friend of mine says
01:00every time you light a tree, you've destroyed someone's home.
01:03Future-proofing.
01:04It's all in the planning.
01:06Present-day Josh is going to find out
01:08if the garden plans prepared by 2013, Josh, have worked.
01:14I'm going to take a very close look at miniature gardens.
01:17They're creatively inspired by pieces of driftwood, rocks and succulents.
01:21It's a tabletop garden for your home.
01:24And I'm at the beach, east of Hobart,
01:26to meet a landscape designer and his family
01:29who are passionate about Tasmanian native coastal plants.
01:32Shall we give this saltbush a bit of a prune?
01:34Yeah.
01:34We can actually eat this plant, Sonny.
01:37Yummy.
01:44As the cold weather starts to bite,
01:47it's easy to dream of escaping the winter chill
01:51and gardening somewhere that you can live out
01:55that subtropical food forest fantasy.
01:58Well, Gerry's met someone who's done just that
02:02and they're taking us on a tasting tour.
02:17I love growing in the subtropics.
02:20The summers are brilliant for tropical plants
02:22and the winters are great for temperate plants.
02:25There's a whole world of plants that you can experiment with.
02:31And today I'm in the Moreton Bay hinterland
02:34northwest of Brisbane.
02:36It's here near the Diagula Ranges
02:38that Jason Spotswood has been growing a food forest
02:42that's home to some rather unusual subtropical fruit trees.
02:46So here we've got Champagne Loquat.
02:49Yeah, they're quite nice.
02:50Not as strong as a standard Loquat.
02:52OK.
02:53But still pretty good.
02:55Grama Chama.
02:56Love them.
02:57Over here.
02:57They're fabulous.
02:58Just coming out into fruit right now.
03:01The mixed plantings of fruit trees
03:03aim to mimic the naturalistic setting of a forest.
03:07So over here we've got the Smallleaf Jabodacaba.
03:11Yeah, this is one of my favourite plants.
03:13Now this is also known as Brazilian grape, isn't it?
03:17That is right.
03:17Because it's from Brazil.
03:18From Brazil and the northern South America regions, yep.
03:22They're made for the subtropical climate
03:24because they do well with periods of dry and then lots of water.
03:28So you can use that to your advantage to get the fruiting.
03:31Just beautiful taste on these guys.
03:34You just grab one from the trunk.
03:36That's right.
03:36And I think that's what gets most people's attention.
03:39They fruit and flower directly from the trunk.
03:42They're caulifluorescent plants.
03:48They're really nice and sweet.
03:50But then when you start chewing on the skin a bit more,
03:53you get that kind of sour taste.
03:56A bit of both.
03:57It's complex.
03:59Yep.
03:59But they're very moorish, aren't they?
04:01Yeah.
04:02Thank goodness you can freeze them.
04:04Yes.
04:04Oh, exactly.
04:05So you can prolong your harvest.
04:07And I use them in smoothies.
04:10It's just great.
04:10You get all these antioxidants and stuff like that.
04:13And the seeds and everything just blend up.
04:17So over here, I've got another type of jabotikaba.
04:20It's the grimmel.
04:21And it's just beautiful, beautiful fruit.
04:26Have a taste compared to the small leaf.
04:29Mmm.
04:31That's a big difference.
04:33Much sweeter.
04:34Yep.
04:35It's not as good for smoothies because it's got more pect in it,
04:39so it can thicken up your smoothie.
04:42But eating out of hand, you can't beat it.
04:44That's great.
04:46Jason grew up in Canada,
04:48where the extreme winters made gardening a challenge.
04:51So you come from Canada.
04:54I originally come from London.
04:56Both of them are cold climates.
04:58Yeah.
04:59How did you react when you first landed in Australia?
05:02I was amazed about the possibilities.
05:05That was unreal as a Canadian.
05:07It started with a Washington navel.
05:09And I just couldn't believe that you could grow an orange, right,
05:13which is so mundane in Australia when you look at everything else.
05:16But for me, that was something pretty special.
05:20Jason and his partner moved to the two-hectare property 20 years ago.
05:25They built a home for their growing family,
05:27and Jason transformed the agricultural land around the house
05:31into this subtropical orchard.
05:35So another one I've got here is the canistel,
05:39otherwise known as the yellow sapote,
05:41and that's because it's best to eat the fruit when it's soft.
05:44Now, this is a fruit tree you don't see very widely grown.
05:48Yeah.
05:49I think it's in part because the flavour is not quite as a lot of other fruits.
05:54How would you describe it?
05:55Well, it was love at first bite.
05:57Yeah.
05:57And it tastes like sweet pumpkin with a butterscotch undertone.
06:03And I just couldn't stop eating them.
06:05This is amazing.
06:08Yeah, nice.
06:09I find it's not as good in smoothies,
06:11but, you know, great with a yogurt or to use in baking and stuff like that.
06:16I find it fairly easy to grow here,
06:18but the trick is if you want to get some good fruiting
06:21is to not fertilise it too much, but it loves water.
06:24Right.
06:24Lots of water.
06:26So one of the things for me is the more unusual plants
06:30and being able to try them out.
06:32I do have a bigger block here,
06:34so there's a lot more of an opportunity to give things a go,
06:37like the bing ne here up behind us,
06:40which is similar to a pomegranate, but a bit more fibrey,
06:43and it just kind of hangs and dangles down.
06:45What is it that motivates you to garden?
06:48Oh.
06:48What keeps you going?
06:49It would have to be the ability to be able to harvest stuff
06:53that's not in the supermarkets,
06:55to be able to share information and knowledge,
06:58particularly with my family.
07:06Many people would be familiar with jackfruit,
07:10but far fewer would be aware of its cousin, Kwai Mook.
07:13Yeah.
07:14It's a delicious tree.
07:16Oh, yes.
07:16Lovely.
07:16It's really good.
07:17It's like a sweet rhubarb.
07:19Mm-hmm.
07:20Yeah, that's quite enticing as someone that comes from Canada.
07:23It's hard to grow rhubarb in Brisbane,
07:25as it gets root rot.
07:26So, yeah, it's great to have a tree like this.
07:28Part of, I guess, some of the many trees
07:31that I like to experiment with.
07:33You can see here, Jerry,
07:34it's just starting to come out in some flowers for some fruiting.
07:38They're quite small, though, fairly insignificant,
07:42as compared to the good old jackfruit,
07:44which is much, much larger.
07:46What have been the challenges in establishing this food forest?
07:50Well, one of the big ones initially was the wind factor.
07:53So I've planted bamboo to the south.
07:55On the west, I've got jackfruit.
07:58I've got cherry of the Rio Grande, loquat.
08:01These are things that can take wind really well and still produce.
08:05My soil is a decomposed granite,
08:07which is great when it's a subsoil,
08:09but not so great when it's a topsoil.
08:11So I had to improve it a lot.
08:13So I put a lot of organic matter in there.
08:15I use Pinto's peanut as a living ground cover
08:18and a lot of chop and drop.
08:21And I love the fact that even the footpaths
08:24that we're standing on are low-flat composting.
08:26Yes.
08:27That's brilliant.
08:29When I first set it up, particularly,
08:30was to use swales,
08:31and that really helped to then slow down the water.
08:34Also, in those high rainfall events that we get,
08:36it makes sure that the roots aren't getting too waterlogged
08:39because they're up a bit.
08:41Well, you've got good taste.
08:43Oh, thank you.
08:45Dwarf Ducasse bananas.
08:46This is the ideal backyard banana, isn't it?
08:48It is.
08:49This was a bit of an experiment.
08:50Thought I'd try them in the middle of the food forest,
08:53and it's worked really well.
08:54They really, really love this location,
08:56so they're a lot bigger than in other spots.
08:59And they have a wonderful flavour too.
09:01They do.
09:02Sweet, but also with a bit of a kind of a tangy taste.
09:05They don't brown when you cut them.
09:08Great with drying, freezing, eating out of hand.
09:13Nice.
09:14Lovely.
09:15Let me take you through what I have every day,
09:19which is my smoothie,
09:20and it's all from fruit from my garden.
09:22So I'm going to use some oranges.
09:27I've got a Davidson's plum that's fallen off from the tree.
09:34Some Dwarf Ducasse bananas.
09:37Gingers are really, really good for your health,
09:39and it adds a nice bit of a zing.
09:42Some Jabodikabas here, but they're not going to be enough,
09:44so I'm going to pick some more straight off the tree.
09:47Not food miles, food centimetres.
09:50That's right.
09:52Pineapple picked fresh.
10:02Davison's plum adds a nice little tart flavour to the smoothie,
10:07which helps to counteract all the sweetness.
10:10Colourful too.
10:11It is, yes.
10:21Yo.
10:21Cheers.
10:27Wow, it's a lovely flavour.
10:29I love starting my day with this.
10:32So looking around, how do you feel about what you've achieved?
10:36Really good.
10:37It's amazing to put all this effort in,
10:40and then you literally get to harvest the fruits of your labour.
10:43That's pretty special.
10:52What do you do if you have a rabbit problem in your garden?
10:55Well, in the short term, I would definitely look to protect new plants.
11:00Rabbits won't eat everything in your garden, but they certainly can make a mess.
11:04So until you work out which plants they like and which ones they don't,
11:08put individual guards around your new plants.
11:11Long term, I would actually look to put a rabbit proof fence around parts of your garden,
11:17or the whole garden.
11:19And that involves using mesh that goes not only up the fence, but it has a skirt.
11:24So the bunnies come up to it, try to dig through, can't get through and go elsewhere.
11:29Finally, contact the local authority to find out what vermin management options there are.
11:36Is it always safe to plant clumping bamboo?
11:40Clumping bamboo are generally far better behaved than the running types,
11:43but it still pays to choose carefully.
11:46Most garden varieties are tight clumpers, meaning they slowly expand from the centre
11:51and stay where you want them.
11:53But some species are wide clumpers and grow several metres across,
11:58and extremely tall.
12:0030 metres, you reckon?
12:02Check the label for the mature height and clump width
12:05to make sure your space can handle it.
12:08And you can help slow the spread of clumpers
12:11by removing shoots as they emerge from the soil.
12:15Bamboo can create a spectacular screen,
12:17and if you control the space you want it to grow,
12:20you won't end up with a jungle you didn't plan for.
12:24Want food scraps? Can I feed to my chickens? And goats?
12:27The best thing to do is start off with any fruit and vegetable scraps.
12:31Think leafy greens, soft mushy stuff,
12:34as long as it's not mouldy and going off.
12:36These will broaden your chooks diet
12:38and help supplement their nutritional needs.
12:41Avoid oily foods, dairy, meat and seafood.
12:44These can attract pests, especially rats and mice.
12:48If you feed them at night time, that's actually when they go to sleep,
12:50so you're basically just putting out a beautiful spread
12:52for the local rodents to move in.
12:56Feed them first thing in the morning,
12:58so the chickens have all day to get through the scraps.
13:07As gardeners, we're plugged in to the rhythms of the natural world around us
13:13and the ways we impact it.
13:16Millie's meeting an expert who's shining the light
13:19on an aspect of life that's creating some big challenges.
13:30Life on our planet has always lived with the natural pattern of light
13:34and has evolved to use light as a reliable biological cue.
13:39But then came artificial lighting and the natural pattern has been disrupted.
13:45What form this disruption has taken,
13:48and what we as gardeners and homeowners can do about it,
13:51is well worth exploring.
13:55I'm Dr Kaori Yokoshi.
13:57I'm a wildlife ecologist
13:58and also a lecturer at Deakin University in Victoria.
14:02I'm also a member of Network for Ecological Research on Artificial Light.
14:07It's really amazing to have this sort of an area right in the city.
14:11Yeah, for sure.
14:11I'm in the middle of the suburbia.
14:13Really, it's like a refuge.
14:17It's late afternoon,
14:18and Dr Kaori Yokoshi and I are strolling through Uambri,
14:22a Trust for Nature property in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Heathmont.
14:26So what sort of wildlife would you find in here?
14:29Oh, well, obviously possums.
14:32Got a few gliders, you know, owls probably during the night,
14:35and definitely I can see this as a really good habitat for mycobats.
14:39And what sort of tools would you use for observing in a place like this?
14:43What is this? This is like a thermal scope?
14:45Yeah, so that's a thermal scope.
14:48This we normally use at night time,
14:50but it can be useful during the day as well because it picks up the heat signature.
14:54At night time, especially if you wanted to observe the natural behaviour of animals
14:58without shining light on, these are really cool.
15:03So for me, my research and what my, I guess, interest focuses on is the light pollution.
15:09When we talk about light pollution, it comes in two main different ways.
15:14So one is those direct light.
15:16So, you know, your street light, light at home, light in your garden,
15:19all those lights are individual lights that you might be able to turn on off.
15:23And there's another, I guess, form which we call sky glow,
15:27which is more of a larger scale that what you can see towards city,
15:32if you're looking from, you know, like a rural area outside from city.
15:35That's like accumulation of all those lights that's pointing outwards.
15:39And how is that impacting wildlife?
15:41In many different ways because wildlife has evolved with natural patterns of light.
15:47So by changing the natural pattern, we are kind of impacting the wildlife
15:52in how they go about everyday life.
15:54What would be an example of that?
15:56Well, so any wildlife species that you can think of will probably be impacted,
16:01but it's just the extent that's different.
16:03So some local studies have found, for example, Australian magpies.
16:08So they should be sleeping at night normally, right?
16:11But if they're in a lit area, their sleep is disrupted.
16:16And so that will lead to, you know, immune system and all the physiological,
16:21I guess, processes that have been compromised.
16:25Also, things like willy wagtails, you know, you might have them in your garden.
16:29Naturally, they sometimes cold during the night.
16:32That's their natural behaviour, but that can be altered because of the light,
16:37both sky glow and also direct.
16:46So my research focuses on microbats.
16:49So those are the small insectivorous bats that's flying around in our gardens.
16:54So if you live in Australia, you're living with microbats.
16:57In Australia, we have over 70 species.
17:01For example, in greater Melbourne region, we have over around 17 species.
17:06It's that most, I guess, diverse group of animals that actually live with us.
17:14Kaori, what is happening here and what's it going to do?
17:17So this is the bat detector.
17:19So because we can't hear the calls of the micropat because it's in ultrasonic range,
17:25this helps us actually record the calls and then let us see, you know, what's around.
17:32I normally leave this out for maybe two weeks or so to get enough data.
17:36And then once I get enough data, I take it back and then load it onto my computer and then
17:41actually visualize it.
17:43And then I can see, you know, different frequency of the calls and like a different shapes.
17:47And that's how you can tell, you know, what kind of species you have in that area.
17:51So you can't hear it, but you can see it.
17:53Yeah. Yeah.
17:54And if you, you can also slow it down to actually listen to it and kind of figure out what
17:59it might sound like if you could hear them.
18:05And so what have you shown are the impacts on the micropats with artificial life?
18:10We have found and also other studies have found is that some particular species, especially those that prefer to stay
18:18in what we call clutter,
18:19so vegetative areas, they just avoid the lit areas.
18:23What is the bat's role in the ecosystem? Why should we care?
18:27Yeah. So the bat, especially the insectivorous bats that I focus on,
18:31they are small and they're hungry because they need to fly around.
18:36They need to use a lot of energy.
18:38So they are really good controllers or natural controllers of insects.
18:42So agricultural pests or, you know, like mosquitoes.
18:45So having micro bats around are actually really good thing.
18:49Tell me about the research into mosquitoes and life.
18:52A study has found that in a lit area, female mosquitoes' biting season is extended.
18:57So they bite humans for longer.
19:01Right.
19:01And also if you think about bats being, you know, deterred by the blight.
19:05So there are less bats eating these mosquitoes.
19:08Mosquitoes eating, you know, eating humans, I guess, drinking blood for longer,
19:13can actually increase the risk of mosquito-borne disease in humans.
19:17Do you see hope for change and that we could actually wind back some of these impacts?
19:22Yeah, absolutely. I think so.
19:24One thing with this light issue is that it's one of those issues that as long as people are aware,
19:30they can actually turn it off and they can change the way we use light.
19:35Right. So we need light, but we can use it in a better way, more sensitive way.
19:40And I think that's absolutely possible, especially if people are more aware of this issue.
19:45Our cities obviously are always going to be places that are really well lit.
19:48Are there areas still that are naturally dark?
19:51Yes, so there are some areas, but those areas are becoming rarer and rarer.
19:57And for me and any ecologist who is working in this area,
20:00for us that's such a valuable habitat for wildlife.
20:04And we really need to be thinking about creating corridors of these dark areas,
20:09just like we think about corridors of vegetative areas.
20:12And that will really help wildlife living in urban areas.
20:18Later in the show, I'll be meeting someone dedicated
20:21to helping homeowners create those darker areas around the garden.
20:31You know that I'm into recycling, but the next level is repurposing,
20:36giving something another lease on life pretty much in the same form that it is.
20:41Now, this is an oldie, but a goodie.
20:43It's a container that I'm going to cut and basically turn into a little greenhouse
20:49that'll protect the seedlings from any predators while they're soft and tender.
21:04So I've cut just above the base to the point where the side of the container is nice and straight.
21:12And that way I've got a nice depth to give it plenty of room for the seedling to grow.
21:19And I can push that down and it goes straight in
21:22and isn't going to get blown around in the wind.
21:46Now what you can do is unscrew the cap to allow for some ventilation over the plant,
21:53but equally you can leave it on to create that little greenhouse.
21:56This protects it from wind, but also the cold.
22:00Now this little DIY trick will give your seedlings a great little head start
22:05without the need of having to apply any other control methods on insects and pests.
22:12Check it regularly because you want to be sure that no insects have gotten in there
22:17and are taking advantage of an all-you-can-eat buffet in a confined, humid, moist space.
22:24Other than that, give it a go.
22:35With such a large rural property, with different garden areas and microclimates,
22:40there are invariably weeds.
22:42The good news is that there are no running weeds like Kuch or Kukuya,
22:46which I've struggled with in previous gardens,
22:49but there's certainly an assortment of other weeds.
22:51So I hand-weeded the garden area on my hands and knees,
22:55and then planted my plants and put newspaper or cardboard down between them with mulch on top.
23:01That's a version of sheet mulching, and more or less it's kept the weeds at bay.
23:05Now you can sheet mulch directly over weeds,
23:09but then you need to wait for about three to six months for them to be smothered properly.
23:14The reason that I weeded before sheet mulching is I was desperate to get planting.
23:20Now out the front, I ran out of newspaper, so I put mulch out,
23:24and there's definitely more weeds, so I simply hand-weed.
23:30Out the back, I've sheet mulch with pea straw,
23:32and it works, but only because I've got a high fence to stop it blowing away.
23:38You do get a few peas come up,
23:40but you can either weed them out or wait till they die off in the warmer weather.
23:44You can also use gravel as a mulch,
23:47which is great because it's heavy and it won't blow away in strong winds.
23:51Ideally, put newspaper or cardboard down underneath the gravel.
23:55You will still get weeds that self-seed into the gravel.
23:58You could use an organic herbicide if the weeds are tiny.
24:01You could use a flamethrower, but I prefer to use a hand-hoe.
24:05And if you're lucky enough to have rain in your area,
24:08the weeds will come out easier when the ground is moist.
24:12As much as I'm not a fan of weeds,
24:14they can tell you a lot about what's happening in the soil,
24:17and they're quietly working away on improving soil structure.
24:21Also, in areas where there are disturbed ecosystems,
24:24they can be a valuable source of food for wildlife
24:27where there are no other choices available.
24:30For example, stinging nettles are actually caterpillar food
24:33for the Australian admiral butterfly.
24:35So if you're about to pull out a lot of weeds,
24:38make sure that you replace them quickly with plants
24:41or mulch to protect the soil and keep the good bugs happy.
24:51There's nothing I love more than seeing the home gardens
24:55of our presenters change over time.
24:58It's like this window to observe the intent and then the outcomes.
25:04We're going to head over to Perth now to see how Josh
25:07is writing the next chapter for his garden.
25:16This part of our backyard is a bit like a story
25:19that's still being written.
25:21So before we get stuck into the ending,
25:23let's take a look at how we got here.
25:25Because back in 2013, when we built the garden,
25:29this area was a nature play space.
25:31And right here was literally a sandpit.
25:34The space was a big hit with our two young children at the time,
25:38but it was future-proofed.
25:40I had designed it to be repurposed as a feature garden.
25:44And in 2019, I started that incrementally
25:47around the edges of the sandpit.
25:49By 2023, it was time for the sandpit to go
25:53with the addition of soil
25:55and home to a selection of hardy native plants.
26:02They've established well and are on their way to filling out
26:05this section of what is now a garden bed.
26:07But today's focus will be in this back area.
26:09It's slightly smaller at about three square metres.
26:12And the idea is to put in new plants
26:14and create habitat for local wildlife.
26:17These logs are already offering up spots for lizards
26:21to sun themselves, as well as plenty of nooks
26:24where they can hide from predators.
26:28As a feature of this garden bed,
26:30I've had this birdbath fabricated
26:32from an old metal plough disc.
26:35And you can see I've used some second-hand steel tube,
26:38which has been rolled, and a base plate.
26:40And the idea was to choose materials that ties in nicely
26:43with the existing trellis behind.
26:45I've also installed a water supply line
26:48with some pipe that runs up through this tube
26:50and ends with a little dripper.
26:52So when the water comes on, it tops the birdbath up.
26:56Next, I'm extending drip irrigation to the new area.
26:59It's much easier to do now before the plants go in.
27:04Planting out this space starts immediately beneath the birdbath.
27:09I'm preparing the area first by digging a shallow basin.
27:14The idea is to create a damp land environment
27:17to make the most of water that spills out of the birdbath.
27:20Now, normally, being on sandy soil, the water would just disappear.
27:24So I'm going to add some of this stuff,
27:26which is bentonite clay, to help hold on to the water.
27:34I've gone with a combination of species
27:37that thrive in a damp land setting.
27:40Centella asiatica and Lobelia anseps,
27:44both low-growing herbaceous plants that make great frog habitat.
27:47And then around the outside, a low-growing lomandra called Little Pal,
27:53which looks like it belongs next to a damp land,
27:55but is actually very hardy.
27:58Around the edges, the prickly leaves of Corozima fire sticks
28:02will offer some protection for small birds.
28:07These will grow to about a metre by a metre,
28:10and they get covered in these amazing bright orange and hot pink flowers,
28:15hence the name fire sticks.
28:17When they're finished flowering,
28:19you can give it a good cut back by about half
28:21to keep it nice and compact,
28:23and that way you'll get new growth and lots of flowers the following year.
28:28Like the other plants, Astartia scorparia will take some shade.
28:34It will get to about one and a half metres high,
28:36and in spring it produces white flowers
28:39that look like Geraldton wax flowers.
28:42Then lastly, a few Correa dusky bells to fill gaps in the front section
28:48to attract nectar-feeding birds.
28:53I have another habitat hack.
28:55Twigs collected from elsewhere in the garden
28:58get a second life when tied into bundles with twine.
29:02By placing these bundles between the plantings,
29:05they'll become habitat for invertebrates,
29:07which are food for lizards.
29:13I've played the long game with this garden,
29:15and really it continues as these plants establish
29:18and local wildlife is attracted to the habitat that I've provided.
29:23Seeing all of this unfold in the seasons ahead,
29:26well, that's the great reward of gardening.
29:32Still to come on Gardening Australia,
29:35Hannah hits the coast.
29:37Oh, wow, this looks amazing.
29:41Clarence takes advantage of a boggy spot.
29:43Luckily, there are plenty of natives
29:45who love that kind of environment.
29:48And Millie sheds some light on the situation.
29:51It is literally as simple as flicking a switch.
30:02So much of gardening is about curation.
30:06You can put the right plants in the right place,
30:09but it's the finishing touches that matter,
30:12putting that best leaf forward.
30:15Tammy's visiting a nursery to learn about a technique
30:18that will have you serving up plants alongside dinner.
30:28They say size isn't everything, but sometimes it is,
30:32because today I'm bringing into focus small-scale gardens,
30:35perfect for a sunny spot in your home,
30:37but will equally thrive outdoors in a shady spot or on a balcony.
30:42Welcome to the wonderful world of miniature gardens.
30:48Here in Empire Bay on the central coast of New South Wales,
30:52Susan Gao owns a beautiful nursery with vast numbers of plants,
30:55where she creates tabletop gardens with succulents from all over the world.
31:04Hi, Susan.
31:05Hi, Tammy. How are you?
31:07This is an amazing nursery you have here.
31:10Yes, paradise.
31:12How many plants do you have here?
31:14I think I lost count.
31:16It's more than 150,000 plants here.
31:19Wow.
31:19And where did this all start from?
31:22Well, ten years ago I was doing business development in Shanghai,
31:26and my plane got delayed, and I didn't know what to do.
31:30But then I went to the Shanghai Botanical Garden,
31:33and I was having a headache,
31:35but the headache went away after I looked at the plants,
31:38and especially the succulents there.
31:40So then that changed the whole trajectory of your career?
31:44Yeah, it's easier to do gardening than dealing with people.
31:49That's why we're in this profession.
31:50Yes.
31:52And what inspired the idea?
31:54Oh, I was walking at our beach,
31:56which is five minutes away from the nursery,
31:58and my little cavudo Lulu,
32:01one day she was running up to me and brought me a piece of drip wood,
32:05and I thought, wow, it's quite pretty.
32:07It looked like a dolphin.
32:08And I should actually put some plants in it to make it really pretty.
32:12And I put it in a sunny spot with the plants in the drip wood,
32:17and I forgot.
32:17But then one month later, I stumbled across this beautiful drip wood.
32:22The succulents not only live, but thrive.
32:25You know, they grow into one clump
32:27and hanging really tight to the cracks of the drip wood,
32:31just like how they survive in nature.
32:33So one piece leads to another,
32:36and I'm just making the drip wood bigger and bigger and bigger.
32:40Now the biggest one in our nursery is more than two metres long.
32:44Wow. And did Lulu bring you that one too?
32:47She needs to grow more muscles.
32:54Susan, what are some of your go-to plants?
32:56It's a big family called Echeverias.
32:59And it is so big, it has got a lot of different colours and forms and texture,
33:05which is perfect for our arrangement.
33:07You can see some of this is called Echeverias.
33:10And it's got these very waxy leaves.
33:13It can get so big and colourful.
33:15And then we have the very nice pretty ones like Echeverias Beyonce.
33:20It is a beautiful variegated plant that has got bumps in it,
33:24like a beauty mould.
33:26It has got a very nice round rosette
33:29and we can use the smaller ones
33:31to actually make it into a very nice combination.
33:34I mean, there's so much variety for you to play with.
33:36Yes, it's just like cooking.
33:38You need lots of ingredients.
33:41And what other plants do you like to use?
33:43Aeonums, another favourite plant that we use a lot in the arrangements.
33:48Look at these rainbow colours.
33:50This is pink witch.
33:51It's got that beautiful pink colour.
33:53It's one of the classic.
33:55And then we have a darker one called Medusa
33:57and Chanel over there that has got a darker edge.
34:02They look like roses, but they will last for a whole year
34:05rather than you have to throw it away after one week.
34:08So it can make a very nice table top arrangement.
34:12We use a lot the cediums.
34:15Cediums can actually hold the soil together
34:18and they can cover the soil.
34:20So when you look at the beautiful driftwood,
34:22you won't see any dirt exposed.
34:24So this is cedium ogon and we have rainbow bulb.
34:28They all have these amazing colours.
34:41This is a very large piece of driftwood, but it can be done with a small one
34:45or it can be in pots or anything recycled.
34:49Plants are not fuzzy.
34:50They're so strong, they don't choose where to live.
34:53First of all, we're going to put all the taller plants in, Tammy.
34:57So if you could pass me.
34:59This one is called teddy bear.
35:01It's got that beautiful foliage.
35:03And the next one is called bear's paw.
35:07Look at that.
35:08They have got beautiful flowers.
35:10We have this beautiful Cressula baby necklace.
35:13It can get taller and it can have very interesting flowers.
35:17So we're going to put it next to the bear's paw as a highlight,
35:22which adds so much interest.
35:24So we add all the tall plants at the back first.
35:26Yes.
35:27That will be a very nice background.
35:29Yep.
35:29And then the next layer we're going to have is,
35:32we're going to put in our centrepiece,
35:34which should be the biggest plant.
35:36And the one you have in hand is called Atena.
35:39It's a beautiful frilly plant,
35:41which can grow to 30 centimetres in diameter.
35:45And usually we put in two highlights.
35:47The purple one as well.
35:49This is called Sheviana neon light.
35:52It won't be as big as Atena,
35:54but it is the nice complement to the centrepiece.
35:57Next we are going to put in some smaller plants in the base as a filler.
36:02So we're going to put in this lovely plant called heartthrob.
36:06Look at them.
36:06They're smaller in size, but they are so cute.
36:09So they really don't mind being planted so close together.
36:13Oh, this is how they like it in nature.
36:16We fill the rest of our log with Echeverias,
36:19the Frank Reinout and Red Knight varieties.
36:22And it's really cute to have a frilly one
36:24and then just a very structured one together.
36:27And between the two plantings,
36:29we have a gap we're filling with Sedum Joyce Tulla.
36:32It's almost like a bridge connecting the two centres.
36:36That's beautiful, Tammy.
36:38That's beautiful.
36:40We're not quite finished yet.
36:42There's more fillers to pack in.
36:45The lime green of the Sedum Ogon provides a lovely contrast
36:49with the reds of the Echeveria.
36:52And finally, we're adding string of pearls
36:54to soften the edges of Susan's tabletop design.
36:58So how much care does this require?
37:01It's very easy.
37:02They don't need much care.
37:04But make sure it is shady in summer
37:07and as much sun as possible in winter.
37:10And only water once a week.
37:11Very easy.
37:20Susan also runs community workshops
37:23where art and tabletop gardens meet,
37:25whether on driftwood or in planters.
37:28Mandy, what have you got there?
37:30This is a piece of driftwood
37:32with a mixed array of stunning succulents.
37:35I just love it.
37:36There can be restrictions on collecting driftwood from beaches,
37:39so check your local area.
37:41I've made a beautiful outdoor display of Echeveria,
37:44so the Frank Rennell variety.
37:45And they get these beautiful sort of red and green colours.
37:48I've got a lovely arrangement of living stone,
37:50which can be indoors or outdoors.
37:52The pink ladies here brighten up in the sun,
37:55so it makes the pot and the succulents pop out.
37:59And when you do your workshops,
38:00how does it make you feel to be able to bring this sort of creativity
38:03and connection to nature to people?
38:05I feel like it's not just the product at the end
38:09that people value.
38:10It's actually the process of making it together.
38:13Dirt, wood and real plants.
38:16You feel like you're reconnecting with nature.
38:19Your breathing slows down.
38:21Your dopamine flows.
38:23And you'll remember, you'll create beautiful memories
38:26with your friends and family.
38:38We're a coastal nation.
38:40Did you know that 87% of us live within just 50 kilometres of the ocean?
38:46It has certainly shaped our identity.
38:50Hannah is hitting the road to take in the salty breeze and explore a stunning seaside garden.
39:04This is beautiful Dodgers Ferry, 40 kilometres east of Nippaluna Hobart,
39:09where I'm meeting up with gardener and landscape designer Paul Whelan and his family,
39:13who share a love of native coastal plants.
39:18Paul's been showing his daughter Sunny some of his favourite native beach plants
39:22and teaching her various local plant names.
39:25Hey, what's this tree Sunny?
39:27Is it a boy or a girl?
39:29It's a sheo.
39:30That's right.
39:32Beautiful trees aren't they?
39:33Yeah.
39:35Hey Paul, hey Sunny.
39:36Hey Hannah, how are you?
39:37Is it all good?
39:38Check out this beautiful native coastal vegetation everywhere.
39:41I've used a lot of these plants in my garden up on the hill.
39:43Can we go check it out?
39:44Sure.
39:44Let's go and have a look.
39:45Let's do it.
39:48How long does it take to walk up to your place from here?
39:51About three minutes.
39:52Oh, it's so hard.
39:54Yeah.
39:55The family's holiday house has been the perfect place for Paul to put his love of coastal
40:00natives into practice in a low water usage, sandy soil garden.
40:08Oh wow, this looks amazing.
40:10Like, check out these rock walls.
40:13Everywhere I look actually, Paul, it's like a bit of an artwork.
40:18Colour and texture and a lot of the plants we can see from down the beach, can't we?
40:22Yeah, I've used a lot of the same plants that we saw down there but just, you know,
40:25try to give them a bit more structure and shape and a bit of pruning.
40:28Yeah, you're just basically enhancing what they're already doing.
40:31They're gorgeous.
40:32It's really playful to prune the natives, I reckon.
40:35Yeah, it mimics that windswept look you get on the coast.
40:38Yeah.
40:38I like the trunks and the branches, which look so old and knulled.
40:41They do, don't they?
40:42They're kind of like the dinosaur of the plant world, I reckon.
40:46And it pops off the silver, off this one over here.
40:48Yeah, lucifida brownia is a great plant.
40:50I love the silver colour and texture.
40:53It can be quite a short-lived plant, often only last two, three, four years.
40:57But I often put little ones around and let them grow up so when this one dies I can take
41:02it out.
41:02Yeah.
41:03There's another one to fill its place.
41:04Because even though it's a native garden, it's still always changing and you have to keep thinking about what's next.
41:10Oh yeah, there's always trials and tribulations.
41:12And then over here behind you you've got this gorgeous banksia, yet another different form but a similar plant.
41:18This is Banksia serrata, you get these beautiful big cones and this lovely nailed trunk.
41:24I've used a lot of banksias in the garden, the two Tasmanian species as well as some Western Australian banksias.
41:29And it's nice to demonstrate that you can have the prostrate ones, the tall ones, everything in between.
41:33There's such a variety just in the Banksia family.
41:36It's gorgeous.
41:39The 600 square metre block was bare with just a few struggling trees when Paul bought it 17 years ago.
41:46There was nothing here really, it was just grass.
41:49I think there might have been one tree, a native cherry tree.
41:52It's just hanging on.
41:53Well the good thing about designing this, it was a slow process.
41:57So you know, we started off with a caravan in the corner and we'd just camp here and then design
42:01the house with a friend.
42:02And design the garden around the house.
42:05I always wanted the garden to be the focal point.
42:08Yeah I love using timber piles in my gardens.
42:11I do a lot of bushwalking in South West Tasmania and they really remind me of the duck boards you
42:15see out there.
42:16They do, they absolutely do.
42:17It's like bringing the wilderness into the urban area.
42:20They really frame plants well so you can raise them up and have plants growing over them.
42:23Yeah, no it's stunning.
42:26A lot of the backbone of the garden Hannah are plants that I know are going to really thrive here.
42:30Like this Dodonia viscosa, a fast growing plant that you can prune to any shape you like.
42:35Yeah, you can box hedge it if you like.
42:37That's it.
42:38And this Rigodia, you know tough as nails but just a good backdrop to other plants.
42:43Even though they're wild on the coast you can really fit them into small spaces.
42:47That's it.
42:47I mean a plant like that, some people might think it's quite weedy but you know you put other plants
42:52like this pink cushioned hake here in front of it.
42:53Yeah.
42:54It really just pops.
42:55Oh 100%, that's a stunning combination.
42:58Yeah.
42:59Looking around the garden's quite a curvaceous design with the plants, the stepping stones and the structure.
43:04It's gorgeous.
43:06Yeah I really wanted the contrast with the strong sort of stark lines of the house with all the steel
43:10and glass and the stone.
43:12Yeah.
43:13So yeah it really softens it.
43:14And it's a great combination I reckon.
43:16It works beautifully.
43:17Thanks Hannah.
43:17Yeah.
43:21Paul, what's your connection to Dodgers Ferry?
43:24Growing up in the northern suburbs of Hobart.
43:26It was a long way from the coast so I used to come here as kids and play on the
43:29beach and camp down here.
43:31Great little summer holidays.
43:32So lots of good memories.
43:34Oh great memories.
43:34So you came here as a kid and now you bring your kids here.
43:38Is that a really nice thing to be able to share?
43:41Yeah it's great.
43:41I think they've got, they'll have some great memories of growing up here and I'll get them to help me
43:45in the garden.
43:45And moving soil and planting and you know you saw Sonny I'm trying to teach her all the plants.
43:50She's your secateurs and we'll just cut it back like that.
43:52And do that.
43:55Nice work.
43:56We can actually eat these plants Sonny.
43:59You want to try a bit?
44:02Is it yummy?
44:04A bit salty?
44:06Yeah.
44:07She doesn't always enjoy it but I think she'll thank me for it one day.
44:10I think she'll thank me.
44:11I totally think so.
44:11Yeah it's going to be in her.
44:15I just love sitting back and just you know looking at what we've planted and seeing how things evolve.
44:20And didn't plan all of it.
44:21Some of it's you know fortuitous plantings.
44:24Some things have just popped up on their own.
44:27Love all these little grasses around here.
44:29I love to use this coastal spear grass.
44:32It's an ostrostipus styphoides.
44:34It always holds that really nice form.
44:37It can be a bit spiky on the top so maybe don't put it next to paths.
44:41That's a good tip.
44:43And you've got another Banksy here of course.
44:45Yeah this one I planted at the same time as some of those other ones but this one's just taken
44:49off.
44:49Yeah it's pumping.
44:50Obviously love this spot.
44:51Yeah it's happy.
44:57Check out this great bullock.
44:58Oh it's a beauty.
45:00I think they're great landscaping plants.
45:02They've got that really soft foliage.
45:04But the great thing about them is they provide their own mulch.
45:06They're so prolific aren't they?
45:08And it's so soft underneath.
45:09Yeah.
45:10And it's actually so great for your soils which are sandy.
45:13The more mulch the better.
45:14Yeah they keep that moisture in.
45:16Yeah perfect.
45:16It's a very low rainfall area here.
45:19Less than 500 mil.
45:20Yeah.
45:21And we're only on tank water.
45:22Yep.
45:23So you know the plants don't get much of a drink.
45:25And I think that's the benefit from choosing local natives or hardy natives that suit the site.
45:31That's it.
45:31I mean there's a plant for every spot.
45:33Yeah.
45:34Yeah.
45:34I mean you look around they look pretty healthy.
45:36Oh they look stoked.
45:41I mean there's kids there.
45:43There's no houses here.
45:44The dragons used to roam these land.
45:47Now you're a family of creatives.
45:49How has that impacted how you've created this space?
45:53I just wanted to create a space for fun really.
45:56You know we come down here for our holidays but it's never just our family.
46:00It's always several families and hordes of kids.
46:03And you know we come down here and it's parties and games.
46:06Yeah.
46:06Trips down to the beach with surfboards and toys.
46:09Yeah it's just a lot of fun here.
46:10Sounds like a really good time.
46:12Yeah it's great.
46:25What natives can I plant in that spot in my garden where there's always water?
46:31Yeah.
46:31Now stopping that flow can be near impossible because it could be coming from anywhere.
46:35It could be coming from the neighbours, from way uphill, from the water table.
46:39Luckily there are plenty of natives who love that kind of environment.
46:42With its masses of red white flowers, Pacrus longifolia or native fuchsia looks like a Christmas candy cane.
46:50Now it's common to sandstone gullies from the New South Wales central coast right through to the Illawarra.
46:56Melaleuca claret tops, copes both with water logging and with dry.
47:01It's a great contrast foliage that responds beautifully to pruning to keep it dense and tidy.
47:07And Casuarina green wave, a low growing she oak that moves beautifully in the breeze.
47:13With a root system that binds the soil, it also reduces erosion in those wet areas.
47:18As well as loving a wet environment, they also fix nitrogen, just like the acacias.
47:23So they'll help feed those plants around them.
47:35Earlier in the show, I met Dr Kaori Yakoshi, a wildlife ecologist who told me about the impact of artificial
47:41light on our native wildlife.
47:43It's a huge problem.
47:45And so I needed to find someone with some simple solutions.
47:51My name is Landon Bannister.
47:53I'm a lighting professional and the chair of the technical committee at the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance.
47:59In my day job, I'm a lighting consultant.
48:01I help people decide what lighting should go where and how to make spaces look beautiful, functional and work.
48:07And in an evening environment, I'm usually talking people how to try to use too many lights and pare things
48:12back.
48:13We really want to see the establishment of dark sky places in Australia.
48:16That's a big part of it.
48:17So areas of land that are protected from light pollution.
48:20And we really want to see this trend of our cities, you know, destroying a view of the stars reversed.
48:26And if you're standing in the middle of Melbourne, you can't see a star.
48:29You're lucky you can get maybe three and block out a few street lights and maybe you can pick up
48:34two or three stars.
48:34But it's become an incredibly bright skies that the majority of us are living under in Australia.
48:40Does the type of light you use matter?
48:42We can obviously question the quantity of light, but the colour of the light's really important as well.
48:47So we like warm colour temperatures.
48:50It is generally much better for humans.
48:53So it's going to have a far less impact on your sleep patterns and your circadian system with warm light
48:58than cool light.
48:59Because cool light's a daytime source.
49:00We can look for things like warm light.
49:03Sometimes it's represented in correlated colour temperatures, CCT.
49:06So we generally say to people, look for something 2,700 or lower.
49:10And those are really good.
49:12Not only that, they generally make your spaces feel nicer and cosy.
49:17Oof.
49:18Wow.
49:19And this is exactly that kind of over lighting we were talking about.
49:22Do you feel comfortable here at the moment?
49:24I've got to say, if I was here for a party, I'd be down there in the back of the
49:27yard in the dark.
49:29Exactly.
49:29Yeah, because this is daytime lighting and a lot of people do this to their nighttime environments.
49:32It's not comfortable.
49:34More importantly, it's not good for the environment.
49:36You can actually see how much light's escaping this space.
49:39It's hitting the neighbors' facades, going straight up into the sky.
49:42Bad for wildlife.
49:43Bad for us.
49:44Bad for the environment in general.
49:46Causing sky glow.
49:47This is the type of thing we should really try to avoid.
49:49And it's a terrible vibe.
49:51It's a bad vibe.
49:53Not good at all.
49:54But we could probably do this a little bit better.
49:57So I'm just going to show you just an example of that.
50:00So you can see the light's being pushed down.
50:01It's not in our eyes anymore.
50:03We haven't got that glare.
50:04It's being controlled in the environment.
50:06And does that feel a little bit nicer to sit around, maybe have a glass of wine, have a conversation?
50:11It's enough light.
50:12I promise you, if we sat here for 15 minutes, that'd probably be too bright and you might ask me
50:15to dim it down.
50:16Generally of an evening, one or two of these scattered around, keeping the light controlled.
50:20And people get very caught up in, you know, we want to push light out to where we're sitting.
50:25We don't see light.
50:26Light's actually invisible.
50:27Light doesn't exist until it hits an object.
50:29And so lighting objects, lighting columns, lighting things that reflect light are far more important than just trying to shoot
50:36light into random areas and try to direct it away from objects.
50:44A good ecologist friend of mine says, every time you light a tree, you've destroyed someone's home.
50:48So the first thing I will say about lighting trees is just be aware it will vacate.
50:52The insect life will leave.
50:53You're basically destroying habitat.
50:55So we have to be really, really careful about it.
50:57The other thing I'll say, though, is lit vertical elements is actually really nice seeing it, if you do it
51:01properly.
51:02The fact that the lighting's hitting the edge of the tree means the lighting's also going past the tree.
51:05So there's a lot of wasted light, a lot of wasted energy with this.
51:09And because everything's sort of lit, everything's flood lit, it's actually quite two-dimensional and boring.
51:13Let's have a go at fixing it.
51:14All right.
51:17So that last light we had, that was 30 watts of energy.
51:20I'm going to now show you one that's just four watts of energy and we'll see if we can do
51:24a little bit of a better job.
51:25If we have to light a tree, we don't really recommend it, but the light should be controlled.
51:30It should be warm, much warmer than what we had before.
51:33And more importantly, you can see the beam is actually contained within the tree.
51:36We're not spilling light out into the atmosphere.
51:38And it's also directional, so we can actually angle it in at the tree.
51:42We're nice and close and all of that texture and all of that dimension actually makes it far more visually
51:47interesting
51:47with a lot less energy and a lot less light pollution.
51:50So a much better way of doing things.
51:51I mean, I imagine you might do this for a few hours when you're actually using the garden and then
51:55you can turn it off.
51:56Absolutely.
51:57Please don't leave this running all night because I can guarantee all those little ant life and insect life
52:02is slowly vacating the tree as we do this now.
52:06So this is a really good example of, I guess, a dark sky-sensitive light.
52:10The light's targeted to where we want it to be.
52:12It's a pathway so we can see the path.
52:14It's very low wattage.
52:16It's at a low level.
52:17The light's quite controlled.
52:18It's not spilling everywhere.
52:20And it's warm.
52:21So, to be honest, we don't need a lot of them.
52:23It's true.
52:24It's like six or seven metres long and one light is plenty of light to find your way safely.
52:29Put this on a sensor and we've done a pretty good job of actually trying to reduce light pollution here.
52:35Beautiful thing about light pollution, it's very easy to solve.
52:38We just simply turn out all the lights.
52:40Right.
52:40It's not like trying to rehabilitate an environment that we've damaged.
52:44You can actually just switch it off.
52:45It is literally as simple as flicking a switch.
53:00Whoa, get prepared everyone.
53:03Your jobs for the weekend are smelling a treat.
53:13Cool temperate gardeners dust off the secateurs to prune apples and pears.
53:18Remove inward growing branches, damaged wood and shorten side shoots to four plump healthy buds.
53:25Don't bin your tree prunings.
53:27Straight branches can be used as stakes or plant supports.
53:30Smaller branches for garden edging and weaving.
53:33And fruit woods can be used for smoking foods.
53:36The soil is as cold as a dog's nose, but rhubarb divisions can still go on.
53:41Plant crowns into compost rich soil, spreading out the roots and leaving the top sitting just below the surface.
53:49In warm temperate gardens, plant an edible hedge of blueberries.
53:54A mix of varieties ensures an extended harvest.
53:57Space plants one metre apart on mounded soil rich with pine needles.
54:03As spring flowering bulbs like bearded iris and ranunculi start popping their heads up,
54:08a good feed with blood and bone will give them the tucker they need to rocket into spring.
54:14Fringed heath myrtle is flowering now.
54:16This small native shrub is a great garden addition.
54:20Tight fragrant foliage and masses of red buds opening to white winter flowers.
54:26In subtropical areas, save some space for Mary Washington asparagus.
54:32Tube stocks or crowns can be planted now and foliage cut to the ground.
54:36Harvest in as little as two years.
54:39Colourful crepe myrtles have finished flowering.
54:42So take hold of those hedges and give them a haircut.
54:45Lagustremia flower on new wood.
54:47So today's prune is summer's bloom.
54:50Show your timber tools some love.
54:53Sand splinters from wooden handles and apply a 50-50 linseed oil and terps mixture to help preserve the timber.
55:00You can also clean, oil and sharpen blades.
55:05The tropical staple bougainvillea are finishing flowering.
55:09So it's time to don gloves, glasses and long sleeves and get pruning.
55:13They love a heavy hack back, flowering on new growth.
55:17So some easy to grow sweet potato tubers.
55:20These vigorous vines spread, so make sure you've got the space.
55:24Regular compost top ups keep them happy and the foliage is edible.
55:28It's the perfect time to pick pawpaws.
55:31When harvested green, they're delicious in salads or left to ripen for a sweet treat.
55:36If they have some yellow colour, they'll ripen off the tree.
55:41Arid zone gardeners plan for spring and get a green manure crop in.
55:45Add life to fallow beds with faba beans, alfalfa, barley and buckwheat.
55:51Cutting and turning it into the soil before seed set.
55:55It's potato planting time.
55:57Using certified seed potatoes, sow your spuds in a sack, mound or even an old bin.
56:03Just make sure you can keep adding compost and soil on top as they grow.
56:08Get wet this weekend and install a drip irrigation system.
56:12Even a simple set up is excellent for establishing plants
56:15and can extend to pots, plots and fruit trees.
56:18Make sure you visit our website and sign up to our weekly newsletter
56:22so we can keep in touch with you during our break.
56:32Well, that's it for this week.
56:34We're on break now until August, but don't worry.
56:38Behind the scenes, we'll be digging up plenty of great gardening inspiration
56:43to share with you then.
56:44If you miss us, catch up any time on ABC iview.
56:49And of course, let us know what you're up to on our socials.
56:54Happy gardening until then.
56:58Bye.
56:59Bye.
57:01Bye.
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