- 6/7/2025
Gardening Australia Season 36 Episode 15
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00:06Hey!
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00:18Hey, buddy.
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00:28Hello and welcome to Gardening Australia.
00:36It's getting cooler and plant growth is slowing down, but we aren't.
00:41In fact, we're not even taking our usual winter break this year
00:46because we've got so many stories and ideas we want to share.
00:50So let's dive straight into our winter special.
00:54Canelias symbolise love and devotion nowhere more than in an Adelaide nursery
01:01where for the past 120 years the same family has been inspired to nurture
01:07these well-loved old-fashioned garden favourites.
01:11Today I'm sending out an SOS to all you gardeners.
01:15Our native frog populations are being decimated by a fungus.
01:20Here in these tanks is a simple solution.
01:23So join me a little later to find out how we all can be a part of it.
01:28If you have a spot that doesn't get much sun, one of the very best for part shade
01:33are the graceful and gorgeous Harden Burgers.
01:36And I'll be giving you some tips on how to grow them for a showy display.
01:40And we meet a gardener who's transforming his family's large country garden
01:45into areas for relaxation, productivity and a growing business.
01:57While they may be piling on the layers down south,
02:01short sleeves are still the order of the day up north.
02:04And Jerry's soaking up the sunshine in a stunning country garden.
02:13I'm in semi-rural Mount Crosby, about 30 kilometres south-west of Brisbane City.
02:19The reason I'm here is to see how a bush block has been converted into a grand cottage garden.
02:25And I can't wait to see what's behind that gate.
02:33Hello, hello.
02:34Hi, Jerry, how are you?
02:35Good to meet you.
02:36Nice to meet you.
02:37Hi, Jerry, lovely to meet you.
02:38Welcome to Mount Crosby.
02:39Paul and Paula Herbert bought this one and a quarter acre bush block 18 years ago.
02:45This is the crew.
02:46We've got Pip.
02:47Hello.
02:48Bowie and Ziggy and they're brothers, these two and the youngest.
02:51Let's go.
02:53You've got a lovely balance of light and shade in the garden.
03:01Light and shade does play a big part in the design of it.
03:05And you've got masses of nectar producing plants, grevilleas and aloes.
03:10Yes, yes.
03:11They must be great for the birds.
03:12They absolutely love it.
03:14And I love having them come and visit as well, too.
03:17And what they've created is absolutely charming.
03:20Were these grass trees here originally?
03:22No, these were ones that I planted.
03:24They were only just a couple of frongs.
03:26They're probably about 15 years old and they provide beautiful structure.
03:30And I just love that glaucous colour.
03:32Oh, yeah.
03:33Now, here's a plant you don't see very often.
03:37Variegated lamandra.
03:38No, you don't often see it in nurseries these days.
03:42Just lifts the garden contrast with the foliage of the darker greens.
03:46And yeah, it's just a really hardy lamandra.
03:49Doing just as well in full sun over there as it is here in the shade.
03:54In the shade.
03:55Yeah, very versatile.
03:56And with lamandra being so popular, you'd think you'd just see a few more, wouldn't you?
03:59You would do.
04:00But I guess it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I love it.
04:05So have you always been gardeners?
04:07He hasn't.
04:08But I have ever since I was a little girl.
04:11I used to get out in mum and dad's garden and clip the hedges with the scissors.
04:16So always like things nice and neat and perfect.
04:18It's the third garden we've done together now.
04:20And it's certainly a partnership now as opposed to me sort of dragging the chain initially.
04:25Your idea, the ideas department.
04:27Absolutely.
04:28And you're the delivery department.
04:30Feels like it.
04:31Yeah.
04:32The couple see their garden as a way to build on Paula's creativity.
04:37She's also a painter and clay artist.
04:40I use all the elements of design and things like repetition, colour, texture, unity, space.
04:49Now we've paused.
04:50Next is some texture.
04:52We have Miscanthus Flamingo, one of my favourite Miscanthus.
04:56I just love the way that it turns a beautiful orange colour during the winter.
05:01And then you have that contrast with the variegated foliage of the Carrack's Feather Falls.
05:06I do use this a lot as a repeated plant.
05:09And it just creates unity throughout the garden.
05:12So I've got Gaimia lilies as well.
05:14That nice, strappy foliage that you get in big foliage as we tend to make statement pieces.
05:19And a clearly defined clump.
05:21Yeah, absolutely.
05:22Groups of three.
05:23I notice you've got a lot of Casuarina here as well.
05:26I do.
05:27The green wave.
05:28It's beautiful.
05:29It's wet.
05:30Loves the dry.
05:31I shape it.
05:32Or you can leave it to just do its thing.
05:34So it becomes nice and fluffy.
05:35Beautiful texture.
05:36Very versatile.
05:37I have a bit of a passion for them.
05:40I have 90.
05:42We have 90?
05:43Oh my goodness.
05:44That's more than I thought.
05:46Wow.
05:47So who trims them?
05:48Me.
05:49Oh right.
05:50So you counted.
05:51We bought four electric hedger and she absolutely loves it.
05:58I don't have a horticultural background but I ended up working in horticulture and that's
06:04just basically because I used to visit the local nursery and got quite friendly with the
06:08staff there and was offered a job there.
06:10So I feel I'm very lucky to be able to be in the industry.
06:14What a fantastic way of getting a job.
06:17Oh absolutely.
06:18I think it's the best.
06:19Going from paying them to them paying you.
06:22Well I do spend a lot of that money back at the nursery as you can tell but I absolutely love it.
06:30One of the things that I look forward to is every day Paula comes home from work because
06:34they never know what's going to be in the back of the ute which dictates what our weekends
06:39might look like for the next few weeks so it's always exciting.
06:43The gardens are roughly defined by small open areas of grass interspersed with large ornamental
06:50garden bed plantings all framed by hedges.
06:54And they're not just straight lines we've chosen to bring some curves and some personality
06:58into it and swoops and what have you which sort of create rooms and a bit of fun and
07:03playfulness in the garden.
07:05Mount Crosby sits 182 metres above sea level and while the elevation creates opportunities.
07:12Being that little bit west of Brisbane and getting that cooler temperature we're able
07:17to grow the Manchurian pears, snow pears, weeping mulberries, lots of deciduous trees.
07:24It also presents some challenges.
07:26We do get a really strong south-east prevailing wind and it sort of kicks in especially in
07:31summer quite strongly.
07:32We sort of had to counter that with hedging to sort of slow the wind down and protect
07:36some of the gardens as well.
07:38Tell me about the Moraya hedges.
07:40I know it's not everyone's favourite and it's not the most environmentally friendly because
07:44it can quite easily set seed in our natural bush but we're very diligent in actually taking
07:50off that seed if it does produce the seed.
07:53So trimming it back absolutely helps eradicate that.
07:57I love the way you've married the garden with the original forest.
08:02When we got here it was a real dust bowl with just the eucalypt trees and a few grasses and
08:06sort of over the years we've taken advantage of the elevation and the height of the gum trees
08:10and incorporated the gardens around them.
08:12And a lot of unsung here is happening in the garden as well too.
08:15I love my rosemary.
08:16Oh yes.
08:17Really hardy.
08:18They love the dry and they don't mind being planted underneath these eucalypts.
08:22I've seen them all over the place and they work really well.
08:25So what's this building over here?
08:29So that's our chook shed.
08:31So this has been repurposed for an old kids' cubby house we built many years ago.
08:36We've even got a chandelier in there because you know all chooks need a bit of glamour in
08:39their life.
08:40Oh bless.
08:41They've got cathedral roofs and a chandelier.
08:43They do, yeah, yeah.
08:45You both clearly love a project.
08:48Would you say your garden's actually complete?
08:51There's always something to do and that's what we choose to do.
08:54It helps us relax and I think brings a bit of joy to our friends and family as well.
08:58This is my outlet that I, you know, fortunately get to express myself.
09:02I'm very lucky, you know, that I get to use this as my canvas.
09:15How can you ripen late season tomatoes when winter is just around the corner?
09:20Well, as you can see in my tray, you can harvest tomatoes at different stages.
09:25Everything from quite red to really green.
09:28As long as they have a tiny red blush on them, you can actually harvest them, take them inside,
09:33lay them out in a single layer in your kitchen bench and they'll ripen beautifully over three
09:37to seven days.
09:38And most importantly, the flavour is not compromised at all.
09:44Should I panic if mushrooms pop up in a pot plant?
09:47Well, in most cases, no.
09:49I mean, fungi are an amazing kingdom of their own and they have such an important role in the natural world.
09:56Many of them are mycorrhizal, which means they attach to the root system of the plant and extend those roots.
10:01They help them take up moisture and nutrients.
10:04In other cases, like I suspect is happening here, they actually work to break down dead materials.
10:09So they live in our soil and our forests and they turn things like wood and break it down into organic matter.
10:16That's what I reckon is happening here.
10:18You've got potting mix, which is made from a composted bark.
10:21That's what the fungi is doing in this pot.
10:23So really, this little plant, well, it's two great organisms for the price of one.
10:28Why do we use different fertilisers for our Australian native plants?
10:33Native plants in our country have adapted really well to poor soils, very low in nutrients.
10:39In fact, this Banksia, it's a member of the Proteaceae family, like the Grevilleas and the Hacias.
10:45Well, this Banksia, if you put that into your veggie garden that you've been feeding up with lots and lots of nutrients,
10:51especially phosphorus, that probably would kill this whole plant.
10:55The Banksia will just keep on gobbling up the phosphorus and that's what will kill it.
10:59Kill it quite quickly too, you've really got to watch it.
11:02So, every now and again, twice a year say, you can give them a little bit of very low to no phosphorus fertiliser.
11:09You can see on the back, this one's got no phosphorus at all.
11:13And just a small handful like that and that'll just give them a nice little kick along.
11:18This is Fauna Park in the grounds of Sydney's Macquarie University.
11:35And it's dedicated to the study of lizards, birds, fish and spiders.
11:40But the reason I'm here today is to find out about some incredible research that's helping save our native frogs from extinction,
11:49especially our green and golden bell frog.
11:53Anthony Waddle is a US-born PhD science fellow and conservation biologist in the Applied Biosciences Department.
12:02He set up research to tackle a fungus that is killing off frog species.
12:09Anthony, great to meet and what a space.
12:13Frogs are really special to me.
12:15Yeah.
12:16They're part of my life, my backyard.
12:18But, you know, you're really out there resolving some big problems.
12:23Yeah.
12:24So my research is working on chytrid fungus.
12:27Chytrid is an invasive aquatic pathogen and it has an infectious spore that swims through water,
12:33finds a frog and then attacks its skin and destroys its ability to hold onto water
12:38and also electrolytes that they need for their heart to function and at cardiac arrest.
12:43So this is a global pandemic pretty much for frogs.
12:47Yeah.
12:48The fungus has spread worldwide and it's caused over 90 extinctions.
12:52And this makes it the worst infectious disease ever.
12:55Nothing has caused this much devastation and neither cats nor rats nor cane toads.
13:00None of that compares.
13:01How did it end up getting to the continent here?
13:04So as far as we know, it just arrived once around 1978 through the Port of Brisbane and it spread nationwide.
13:11Today, we're looking at our native Australian green and golden bell frogs.
13:16And they've been really hammered by chytrid fungus.
13:19And in fact, in Australia, six species have already gone extinct.
13:22So what exactly is going on here in all of these tanks?
13:27Yeah.
13:28So these are the way that we hold our frogs.
13:30We put netting over the top.
13:31What that does is it keeps wild frogs out.
13:34So wild frogs have chytrid.
13:37And we're right next to a pond.
13:39All the frogs there would have chytrid.
13:40And we want to keep it out of here because these are a really susceptible species.
13:44So your research has been credited with solving the problem of this frog pandemic.
13:50Yeah, this is a really simple innovation.
13:53What you're looking at here, we call a frog sauna.
13:56It's a very simple setup, a vegetable greenhouse and a pile of masonry bricks.
14:01But what you may not know is that it provides a situation where the frogs can cure themselves.
14:08So chytrid likes to be cold.
14:11And in winter, there's big outbreaks of chytrid.
14:14And just like the human flu, there's seasonal epidemics.
14:17So there's big outbreaks in the winter.
14:20So during this time, this is when they get infected and die.
14:24But by putting these out in the really bright Australian winter sun, they heat up.
14:28The frogs like to be warm.
14:30They like this habitat.
14:31They increase their body temperatures and they stop their infections.
14:34So from a gardener's point of view, you're effectively creating a microclimate.
14:40Yeah.
14:41And it's a really like low input of work.
14:43It's just a pile of masonry bricks.
14:45They cost about a dollar each, put a $40 little veggie greenhouse over the top
14:49and really accessible and feasible way that people can lend a hand in helping this crisis.
14:57What's the technique?
14:59Oh, it's a bit of gymnastics.
15:01You've got longer legs.
15:03You'll be all right.
15:04I can see how the greenhouse serves a specific purpose.
15:07But what's the function here of the bricks?
15:09Yeah.
15:10Well, the bricks are actually where the frogs find their home when they sit.
15:14They're made of clay.
15:15So they bring lots of moisture from the ground.
15:17It gives them a nice, humid and hot place to sit.
15:20They seek out these little refuges, these little holes and the cracks in between them.
15:23Oh, there's one.
15:24So as I pull them out, yeah, there's one making his home in the holes.
15:27The bricks are heating up.
15:28That also heats up their body.
15:30They use their habitat to get warm.
15:33So let's grab another brick here.
15:35Oh, there's a couple more frogs in this one.
15:37Oh, look.
15:38This little fella's sticking his head out.
15:40Yeah, this is a really healthy-looking male green and golden bell frog.
15:44And you can really tell how they've gotten their name because he has these amazing, gorgeous, bright green and golden colors.
15:50He's right in the front of the breeding season.
15:53It's about to start soon.
15:55So he's got a nice throat coloration.
15:57His forearms are huge.
15:59And that's for kind of fighting other boys and to grabbing onto the girls that he likes.
16:03Now us gardeners are a pretty practical mob.
16:14How can we go about building one of these saunas at our place?
16:19Yeah, it's really simple.
16:20You get 10 of these really cheap masonry bricks.
16:23You paint them black with furniture paint.
16:25Once it's dry, it's fine for the frogs.
16:27And I just build a little apartment building for them.
16:30And how I do that is I grab three bricks that'll be used for the base.
16:34You put them approximately your thumbs width apart.
16:38This little gap is important so frogs can get in between as well as in the holes.
16:42And then you take three more bricks perpendicular.
16:49And then finally, this is our top four.
16:51This is where our VIP frogs will be.
16:54Yeah, did I buy extra?
16:57Absolutely.
16:59And then I have one last brick.
17:01This kind of just holds the whole structure together.
17:03And that's it.
17:04That's the brick part.
17:05So now that that's done, what's the next step?
17:09So we make it into a sauna.
17:11And to do that, we first have our frame built of our greenhouse.
17:15And then we make it into a true sauna by taking this cover here.
17:22And putting it over the top.
17:23And what this does is it holds in a bit more heat.
17:26And also it holds on to that humidity that the frogs need.
17:33So I put it on just like this.
17:37And I want to leave a little bit of a gap at the bottom so the frogs can get in and out.
17:42Ah, okay. That's key.
17:43Yeah.
17:44And if there's a little bit of extra on top, that's fine.
17:46So where should people set a sauna like this up?
17:50So you want to put it where there's frogs.
17:52So around frog habitat or nearby frog habitat, you can think of a place that has a bit of vegetation, maybe some water, hoist ground.
18:00And you need sun somewhere that gets a bit of sun throughout the day.
18:04And what about a timing point of view?
18:06When do you set it up?
18:07And do you leave it set up?
18:08Yeah.
18:09So in Sydney, Kitchard really ramps up around the end of March, early April.
18:12So autumn.
18:13And setting them up around then and leaving them up until late spring.
18:17So maybe November.
18:18And then they don't need to be up anymore after that.
18:20So are other species going to see the sauna and think, hey, I'm heading in?
18:24Yeah, absolutely.
18:25So we have these set up in wild populations and we find all sorts of frogs inside.
18:31What an amazingly simple remedy to a massive national and global problem.
18:36What Anthony and the team here at Macquarie Uni are doing is helping save our native frogs from extinction.
18:45This is citizen science at its best.
18:48Let's get on board and help him out.
19:00We might think of winter as a less colourful time of year than other seasons.
19:05But there's always colour to be found in the wonderful world of plants.
19:09And one of the best sources right now are the captivating camellias.
19:15From the Himalayas to Japan and south to Indonesia, camellias have travelled far to our shores.
19:21But they are well established as an old favourite in the garden.
19:26There are over 300 species of camellia worldwide.
19:29The two most common being the japonica and ssenqua.
19:34A family run nursery in the Adelaide suburb of Tea Tree Gully have for three generations been consumed with breeding and growing these elegant plants.
19:46Dan is the third generation to carry on the family tradition.
19:49So the most common camellia, or the one people recognise the most, is a japonica.
19:56Yeah.
19:57What are the main features of these beautiful plants?
19:59Oh, large elaborate flowers, I guess, that are bred for flower form.
20:02Growth habits do vary a lot within the species, so some varieties are nice and compact and good for tub culture.
20:08Some varieties are large, lanky things, so they do vary a lot.
20:13And they've got the beautiful, big, bold, solid foliage too, haven't they?
20:16Yes, yes.
20:17Lovely, dark, glossy green foliage.
20:19Generally we say they're best in part shade, so sort of morning sun and afternoon shade, unless you're in a cool climate.
20:26Yep, yep.
20:27East or south facing we usually recommend.
20:29But once established, they're actually a lot tougher than people think.
20:33Oh, absolutely.
20:34They break the rules.
20:35Things like Great Eastern will stand out in the hot sun and will suggest that they need more protection.
20:40And people are like, no, no, I've got a big one in my front yard out in the north.
20:43So it can be done in the right soil and watering.
20:46With so many different varieties of japonica camellias, have you got a favourite?
20:51Oh yes, it would have to be this one named after my late grandfather, Roger Hall.
20:55Beautiful.
20:56Which is a chance seedling and raised and flowered shortly after his death, so it was named after Roger.
21:02Beautiful.
21:03And I've seen it and it's gorgeous.
21:04It's a formal double, isn't it?
21:06Yeah, lovely formal double.
21:08Not much bigger than a tennis ball, but lots and lots of petals and a lovely rich colour.
21:12And it flowers in September?
21:14Yeah, around the Royal Shade is how I remember it.
21:16Beautiful.
21:17Let's check out the Sasanquas.
21:19Yeah, they're a smaller leaf, earlier flowering varieties.
21:24So the Sasanquas can start flowering in March and go through July.
21:28They used to be mainly singles, but they've done quite a bit of breeding and there's more
21:33formal doubles now, aren't there?
21:34Yeah, they go right into formal doubles and a lot of different flower forms.
21:38Sometimes people don't like the singles because they say they don't hold as well on the plant,
21:43but I like the effect they make when they fall on the ground.
21:45Yeah, make a carpet of colour underneath the shrub.
21:50My favourite part of these is their sweet, earthy smell and the fact that the honey-eating
21:55birds love them too.
21:56Yeah, most of them with the stamen showing have a beautiful fragrance.
21:59And there's so much diversity in height, ranging from tall, upright plants that can
22:04be five metres high down to little ones.
22:06Yeah, there's some varieties which are really compact and small and something like that
22:10would be the same age as everything else in this size pot.
22:13Beautiful.
22:14The other thing with Sasanquas is that they are more sun tolerant.
22:18Doesn't necessarily mean full sun in a baking climate.
22:22The smaller leaf, they will take the heat a lot better and the smaller leaf lends themselves
22:27to hedging and screening uses.
22:29Let's check out the hybrids.
22:30So this one here is a Sasanqua hybrid called Sweet Jane, really pretty double flowers.
22:44What's that been hybridised for?
22:46Long flowering.
22:47So it starts with the Sasanquas and flowers right through to the Japonicas.
22:51So it's probably the longest flowering Camellia we have.
22:54So that's almost from March, April right through till October.
22:57Yep.
22:58That's six months of flowering.
22:59Yep.
23:00Wow.
23:01And of course Camellias are flowering in winter when all the deciduous plants go bare,
23:04so they add colour to your garden.
23:05That's right.
23:06So tell me about these new Floribunda hybrids.
23:08Yeah, very free flowering, really stocky, as hardy as a Japonica and as tough as a Sasanqua.
23:15And look at the number of buds on them.
23:17Yeah, they tend to be very free flowering and loaded with flowers from quite a young age.
23:24So if you've got a whole lot of different Camellias and you see seed heads form,
23:29you could have a go at growing those?
23:31Absolutely.
23:32The seeds will pop out like a little coffee bean.
23:35So they'll be grown on in peat moss and then once they're germinated,
23:40they'll be potted up all together in a big group like that.
23:43These were seedlings from 2019 that my father put down and some of them are just starting to flower.
23:50So in theory, these are unique plants which have flowered for the first time.
23:54So when you're growing from seed, it really is a question of chance, isn't it?
23:58Absolutely.
23:59Yet if you get huttings of that, and that would be exactly the same.
24:02Correct.
24:03So if you're growing as a ground cover, how wide could they get?
24:06Up to three metres, I suppose.
24:07With age could go further.
24:08So as well as a ground cover?
24:09Yes.
24:10Yes.
24:11Yes.
24:12Yes.
24:13Yes.
24:14Yes.
24:15Yes.
24:16Yes.
24:17Yes.
24:18Yes.
24:19Yes.
24:20Yes.
24:21Yes.
24:22Yes.
24:23Yes.
24:24Yes.
24:25Yes.
24:26Yes.
24:27Yes.
24:28Yes.
24:29Yes.
24:30Yes.
24:31Yes, the beginning of the day, all the way too, the mieszändler camellia with age could
24:32go further.
24:33So as well as being grown in the ground, say over a rock типа, they could also even be
24:36grown in a hanging basket.
24:38Absolutely.
24:39On the edge of a retaining wall or on a bank, that they'll spread out and sort of meander
24:43along.
24:44Now here we've got a standard weeping camellia and that's actually snow, could you make your
24:52own?
24:53Yes, if you get a little plant like this you can certainly stake up that terminal leader
24:57and take off everything else and as it puts on the growth train it up a stake and end
25:01up with that mushroom sort of shape.
25:03Obviously you'd need to leave a stake there to support the trunk?
25:06Yes, they'll get quite top heavy in time.
25:08And sometimes when you buy them they're actually grafted?
25:10Yes, this particular one is a snow grafted on probably more likely a hiriyu, which is
25:16a vigorous fast-growing sasankwa.
25:26If you want to grow a camellia but you haven't got the space, say for a shrub, you could actually
25:32grow one against a wall, almost like a climber, as an espalier, couldn't you?
25:36Absolutely, it's a lovely effect if you've got like a nice east-facing wall or something
25:41you want to cover.
25:42You can espalier, most sasankwa do lend themselves to espalier, they fill in nice and quickly
25:46with a smaller leaf and they have a whippier or a willowy growth habit that will suit being
25:54manipulated.
25:55So if you wanted to make your own, what would you look for when you're choosing a plant?
25:58Yeah, I chose this plant to espalier, it's got lots of nice flexible growth that you'd
26:04be able to tie out and get that two-dimensional shape to it nice and quickly.
26:09Okay, and then you simply tie it in position?
26:11Tie it off, cut as minimal amount off as you can but if anything's poking out or sitting
26:17at the back you'd prune it off and then you'd clip or tie back your growth to suit.
26:23That seems quite easy.
26:24Hmm.
26:25And probably very rewarding.
26:26Yeah, if you've got a bit of spare time.
26:30Camellias are pretty bulletproof but sometimes their foliage can go a bit yellow.
26:39If you're getting a really yellow camellia, it's often a pH issue, not necessarily a nutrient
26:45issue.
26:46Getting the right pH around the five to six mark, well-drained organic acidic soil is crucial.
26:51Now, sometimes people also find that flowers ball, you know, they sort of brown off on
26:56the plant.
26:57Yeah, that's if the flower gets damaged or even if it gets some dew on there and some
27:01morning sun and marks the outside petals as they're forming, they'll often swell from
27:06the inside and cause that flower to sort of twist off and abort.
27:09The flowers with the stamen showing in the middle, they'll often pop open with less fuss.
27:14And another big mistake people make with camellias is putting a small plant into a great big pot.
27:19We just like to see them graduated from one pot size to the next every two to three years.
27:24Camellias are multi-talented plants.
27:28With their many showy forms, versatility and resilience, they'll adapt to almost any space
27:34in your garden.
27:35I hope you've been inspired to find the right one for you.
27:38Still to come on Gardening Australia, Hannah's showing us some long flowering perennials
27:50that will thrive in the coolest states.
27:53Winter is the perfect time to give your fruit trees some TLC.
27:57And Josh is showing you how.
28:00And we meet a young man who's achieved more in his garden than most of us will in a lifetime.
28:06We're off to catch up with Clarence now, who's showing us a really exciting way to display
28:18a wonderful winter bloomer and really pump up the wow factor.
28:27One of the very best for part shade are the graceful and gorgeous Harden Burgers.
28:32And today, I'm planting up a colourful container to really show off the Harden Burgers.
28:37And whilst they're happy in a pot, as a ground cover or a climber, they'll provide dense cover
28:43to just about anything.
28:44And best of all, they start flowering as the temperature drops right through into the warm
28:49season.
28:50That's also a bonus for the pollinators in the cooler months when there's not much
28:54else in flower.
28:55Harden Burgers can survive in poor soils.
28:58They'll tolerate wind and salty coastal conditions and will suit climates from cool temperate
29:04to subtropical to Mediterranean.
29:07I've got a selection of cultivars here, and I've also chosen a pot that's a decent size.
29:12Now, this one's about 50 centimetres across, and that'll give the plants heaps of space
29:16to fill out and up.
29:19To support the plants to climb, I'm using fallen sticks that I've collected from around the place.
29:24Now, they're about two metres, and once they're in the pot, it'll give me about a metre
29:29and a half of real estate for the plants to climb on.
29:34I'm half filling the pot with premium native mix.
29:40That'll provide good drainage and nutrition.
29:46Now, this beautiful cultivar is free and easy, and lovely white flowers, but still that hint
29:53of purple.
29:54It really is a beautiful plant.
29:56This one is Happy Wanderer, and pop that in there, I've still got room for a few more,
30:11which is great.
30:12Plenty of real estate.
30:13It's going to look fantastic with so many plants in here.
30:17Now, it's just to work out the colour arrangement more than anything.
30:22Quite busy.
30:27White cluster, two purples on the outside.
30:43This should look fantastic as they grow into each other.
30:46Just go back, Phil.
30:47Give this pot up a scratch, or at least up to level.
30:58Hardened bergera are in the pea family, along with plants you're likely to know like beans
31:03and sweet peas.
31:04Now, many species in this family, including hardened bergera, have the useful ability to
31:09capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and take it down into the soil.
31:13Now, nitrogen is essential to plant growth.
31:16One of the benefits of having unlimited access to nitrogen is that the plants can be fast-growing.
31:22Now, give them a regular light prune to keep them in check and looking their best.
31:27After they've finished flowering, give them a hard prune and they'll bounce back just fine.
31:32Now, it's time to take my sticks and get my airspace sorted out.
31:39Go for the pentagonal shape.
31:44Get them down on the edge.
31:50Try and be as artistic as possible.
31:57And, of course, what is brown and sticky?
32:03Well, that one.
32:05There we go.
32:07Just tie these off.
32:09Keep them in place.
32:12Just bring that one around.
32:14There we go.
32:15That should...
32:17Alright.
32:20Now, because we've got plenty of soil, it's nice and firm in the pot.
32:24Beautiful structure for our hardened bergera to climb on.
32:28But because these plants have come with the existing stakes, it's worth just getting them out
32:35and take them out, take the others out.
32:40Certainly free and easy and then a bit of happy wandering.
32:43It's one of the good things about using sticks from the garden.
32:46The notches provide natural support.
32:50Hardened bergera will climb up through here.
32:52Lovely form and structure.
32:56Hardened bergera can survive on the smell of an oily rag.
32:59But to help them really thrive, you can give them a feed of general purpose.
33:03Slow release fertiliser in spring and autumn.
33:06And every few weeks, give them a complete liquid feed.
33:10Just follow the instructions on the container.
33:19Perfect for that part shade area at your place.
33:22This really is a project to climb up and into this weekend.
33:43Here in cool temperate Tasmania, we had some pretty chilly and long winters.
33:47So I'm always interested in finding some really colourful plants
33:51that can stand up to our colder months.
33:53Like this beautiful wallflower.
33:55These perennial shrubs come in a range of colours
33:58and I love to plant them through my garden
34:00to make sure I've got colour all through from autumn to spring.
34:04Unlike annual flowers, perennials come back year after year
34:08and often with abundant colour.
34:10But a lot of perennials only have fleeting flowering periods.
34:14So I like to look for the ones which stick around for longer.
34:18Here's another wallflower that's really in its prime.
34:22These pinks and purples light up my garden, which is so fun.
34:25This one's growing out of a raised garden bed,
34:28but overall they'll grow up to around one metre tall
34:30in really good conditions.
34:32But they can also hack drought conditions, marginal soils,
34:37full suns and they can tolerate mild frost.
34:40They can also be used to form a neat short hedge or border.
34:44It's time to prune them when you see the main flowers die back.
34:47Now these ones are still in full flight,
34:49so I'm not going to do a proper prune today.
34:51But you can still prune the long ones off
34:54if you want to make space for the young flowers to come back up.
34:57This can make way for new flowers to emerge.
35:00And of course they also make a great posy.
35:05Come on Olly.
35:09This is pineapple sage, another flowering perennial.
35:16It's tough and hardy because it's a salvia,
35:19which also means it comes in hundreds of cultivars.
35:22Salvia elegans is native to Mexico and Guatemala.
35:26It's an easy care shrub,
35:28which flowers almost year round in areas with mild or no frosts.
35:32Growing to 1 to 1.5 metres tall,
35:36its brilliant red flowers provide nectar for pollinators
35:39over a long period,
35:41especially in the cooler months
35:43when there aren't many other blooms.
35:45As if these bright red blooms weren't enough,
35:51you can also pick the leaves
35:53and they smell like pineapple, hence their name.
35:57You can use them to infuse drinks and desserts.
36:00I've planted this salvia on the steep slope.
36:03It develops deep, spreading roots over time,
36:06which is ideal for stabilising soil
36:09and best of all, it's quick growing
36:11and easy to divide the roots to propagate more plants.
36:14This salvia loves full sun,
36:17but you can find salvias that will handle part shade just fine.
36:24You can see these blooms are coming to the end of their life.
36:27This indicates it's a great time to prune.
36:30So, safety glasses on,
36:33and I'm going to take around a third of their height off.
36:36This means it'll help it bush out and make way for new blooms.
36:44You can see the salvia's got caught up with another geranium plant,
36:46and they've kind of become one massive shrub.
36:47That's okay. I just prune them all together,
36:48because they're both really hardy,
36:49and come spring, they're going to bounce back full of colour and life.
37:05So, if you love colour,
37:08consider planting some long flowering perennials in your garden
37:11to make sure your garden is bright and beautiful for many months.
37:15Healthy crops of delicious homegrown fruit
37:29is one of the highlights of summer.
37:31To reap the rewards,
37:33a bit of prep and TLC during the winter dormancy period
37:37is key to success.
37:39With our mild winters in Perth,
37:43it's not uncommon for some varieties of deciduous fruit trees,
37:47like this Packham's triumph pear,
37:49to hold onto its leaves and not go into full dormancy.
37:53And that rest is critical for good cropping.
37:56The dropping of leaves signals the start of the dormant period,
38:00so I'm helping it along.
38:02There's a trick to removing leaves
38:05from deciduous fruit trees at this time of year.
38:08You start from the top,
38:10gently work your way down,
38:12and they should just really brush off.
38:14Be careful not to tear the bark
38:16and not to knock off any buds.
38:22With the branches stripped bare,
38:24I've got full view of the condition of the structure.
38:26I'm inspecting the branches
38:28for any obvious wounds or shrunken bark,
38:31anything that might need removing.
38:34I do my main pruning in summer,
38:38after fruiting.
38:40But in winter, with the leaves off,
38:42I can do a final detail pruning.
38:44Along with damaged wood,
38:46I'm taking out overlapping branches
38:48and high branches up top
38:50that are beyond reach at harvest time.
38:52Next, I'm weeding around the base of the trees,
38:58to reduce competition when the trees wake up
39:02and need water and nutrients.
39:04It's also a good time
39:14to apply granular fertiliser
39:16and compost ahead of bud burst,
39:18so the nutrients are on hand
39:20when the trees need them.
39:22Then a layer of mulch
39:24to keep weeds down
39:26and retain moisture come spring.
39:28It's also a good time
39:30to plant deciduous fruit trees,
39:32because there's plenty of stock around
39:34and also, because they're dormant,
39:36you can give the roots a good tease
39:38before planting them out,
39:39so they get off to a good start
39:40once they're in the ground.
39:44I've chosen a dwarf trevat apricot
39:47to grow against the fence trellis
39:49along my driveway.
39:50It will grow to around 2 metres high
39:52and 2 metres wide
39:54and is self-pollinating,
39:56so we'll eventually provide plenty of fruit.
40:06Well, that's a set of important tasks
40:08taken care of at the right time.
40:10And whilst I'm at it,
40:12I'm going to get my fruit fly lures
40:15and protective knitting organised
40:17so I'm prepared before that pest
40:19becomes active
40:20and ruins all of this hard work.
40:22Then I reckon I'm ready for another
40:24cracking summer.
40:26Last year, we met a passionate gardener
40:33at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.
40:36Someone who inspired me for the love of growing
40:40was probably Peter Cundall.
40:43He was probably a big inspiration
40:46on, like, the vegetable garden.
40:49When I was in Year 5, I got into, like, a Park School Parliament thing
40:56and I was Environment Minister
40:58and I started the Veggie Garden there
41:00and it was, yeah, really good.
41:02We were so excited about his descriptions of his garden,
41:06we followed him home to have a closer look.
41:09And we're so glad we did.
41:12Check out what he's achieved in his family's country garden.
41:16No one couldn't.
41:17No one could.
41:26Go to the time of your garden.
41:27No one could.
41:28No one could.
41:29No one could.
41:30No one could.
41:31No one could.
41:32No one could.
41:33My name is Joshua Ruff.
41:40I live out in Maldon in central Victoria on the foothills of Nuggetys Range.
41:52I designed this garden when I was in hospital in 2020.
41:56Yeah, the property is 16 acres.
42:01It's a very long, narrow block, and there's lots of different gardens that I've created
42:07on here.
42:08I got the aloe garden at the front, and there's a cottage garden, a Japanese garden, vegetable
42:15garden, and we just started on a lavender farm down the back.
42:26This is my Japanese garden.
42:33This was the first garden that we built.
42:35It has a few plants in here that I really like, the ginkgo, there's a magnolia, and Japanese
42:42maple.
42:43I also like the baby tears that are running along the ground.
42:47I love the tranquility of this garden.
42:50My bedroom overlooks it, and I love looking out at it at different times of the year and
42:56seeing the seasonal changes creates a bit of peace and calm for me.
43:01I have Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
43:05I was diagnosed at the age of five because I kept falling over a lot and wasn't able to
43:11keep up with the rest of the kids.
43:15My muscles got weaker over time, and by the time I was 12 years old, I was in a wheelchair,
43:23and I've been permanently in a wheelchair ever since.
43:28Can you hold these for me?
43:30Take them in.
43:32I have six kids, two girls, then Joshua was next and then three boys after that.
43:37What else do we need to do around here?
43:39After the lavender's finished flowering.
43:43We got the news that he had muscular dystrophy, Duchenne.
43:47It was, oh, at first we didn't really know what it was, we just, until we researched and
43:54found out that, you know, his life expectancy was his early 20s.
44:00We lived for the next 15 years thinking that he wasn't going to survive much past his 21st
44:06birthday.
44:07During that time, the garden was quite important to me.
44:14Sort of the garden is passed down through the family sort of thing.
44:19From my nana to my mum, then to me.
44:25I remember growing up, always being out in the veggie garden with my mum.
44:32She was a very avid gardener, and when I would, before I go to school, she would go out in
44:38the garden, and when I get home she would be out in the garden, and I would go down to
44:43her and talk to her about my day and see all the veggies growing, and I know it was a really
44:51good childhood.
44:54We should pick the silver beet for dinner.
44:57Yeah.
44:58If you go through and I'll pick the silver, silver beet.
45:01Yep.
45:02We connected so, so strongly with the garden side of things.
45:07We both had a love for the garden, creating gardens.
45:12He loved his nana and pop, and they spent a lot of time with Josh, and passing on nana's
45:20love of gardening to us all, and trying to make Joshua's life the best we can for him.
45:30This is the memorial garden that we designed to remember my nana and my auntie that passed
45:37away in the last few years.
45:41One of the plants that we got in here is called the Margaret English Lavender.
45:46The other one that reminds me of my auntie is the Carla Rose.
45:52My nana was an important figure to me with my garden, always pushing my passion.
45:58It was really good to be able to, with establishing Henley Gardens.
46:03She was able to see the beginnings of everything I'm trying to create here, and she's quite excited
46:10that I named Henley Gardens after her maiden name.
46:16In 2020, I had a cardiac arrest.
46:20I was driving with my mum and I sort of, sort of couldn't breathe.
46:26Then I looked in the revision mirror and I saw his eyes go back in his head.
46:30He passed out.
46:32So I pulled over the side of the road, jumped out, waved the first car that came along.
46:37She got out of the car and said, we need to get him out, I'm a nurse.
46:41And she started CPR on him.
46:42And I was doing mouth-to-mouth.
46:46I sort of died for about six minutes and then they put me into a coma.
46:53And I was in a coma for three days and then when I awoke, it was quite a scary time.
47:03And that's when they sort of told us, he won't have quality life after this.
47:09At that time, he couldn't talk to us, he had to do everything with an eye chart.
47:14So he wanted to eat a strawberry.
47:17That's what he told us.
47:18We've always grown strawberries and all he wanted, he wanted to get out of hospital and
47:22eat a strawberry.
47:23Couldn't eat, couldn't drink.
47:25I had to, difficult communicating, but with the help of my family, I was able to come up
47:32with a design of the garden when they drew it up for me and it's pretty much exactly what
47:39I designed when I was in hospital.
47:49I didn't know what the future was going to be and mum and my siblings, we talked about
47:57like the garden that I wanted to create and it sort of gave me a lot of hope and motivation
48:03to push myself to get out of hospital and make this dream come true.
48:12One of the main things about Henley Gardens is that family is such an important part of
48:18it.
48:19And I have many siblings, which is really good and I'm so grateful for the whole family that
48:27helps out making this dream of a lavender farm and garden possible.
48:34Joshua is the glue to the family.
48:36He's a purpose that we all want to make his life the best that it can be.
48:44To further my passion of gardening, I've started to think about different ways of making an income
48:51that can help me maintain the gardens.
48:55And I was looking for a plant that was well suited to this climate and lavender seemed like
49:01a great plant and it's so versatile, there's so many uses for lavender.
49:08You can use the lavender for like cosmetics, candles or for sprays.
49:14It's a great cleaning product as well.
49:17Seeing lavender growing so well, it makes me feel pretty good.
49:22The smells that it releases, like the fragrance is just quite amazing.
49:28I'm liking seeing the changes throughout the summer months, the lavender flowers coming along,
49:35seeing the insects and the bees.
49:39Pacific blue is my favourite lavender of the English lavenders and it comes out a lot earlier
49:46than all the other lavenders and I really like the dark blue colour of it.
49:53Later this year, I'm having the Lavender Association holding their Field Day event here at Henley Gardens,
50:02which is something I'm really looking forward to.
50:06We're planning to do some workshops on that day with the distillery.
50:11This is my sister Cassie, we're harvesting some lavender that we're planning to steal in my distillery.
50:21Yeah, so Josh has a 40 litre traditional copper alembic steel, which is a bit of a mouthful,
50:29but through the condensing, the oil and the hydrosol comes out.
50:34The hydrosol is really great because you can use that around the house as it is, the lavender water.
50:41And the oil similarly, you can mix it with different carrier oils and you can use it in different products and things like that.
50:49So just keep picking lavender and putting it through the still and mixing around different mixes and see what we get.
51:02Before my cardiac arrest, I suffered a lot of self-doubt and didn't really believe in myself
51:10and didn't believe I could achieve anything or do anything that could give back to the community.
51:18But when I had that cardiac arrest that sort of let go of all my fears
51:23and then I started to think about ways I could give back to my community and be able to help people.
51:31At the moment I'm like running a men's circle, which gives me a lot of satisfaction, being able to help people.
51:40And with the lavender farm, I'm hoping to do the same with being able to open up to the community
51:48and make it so everyone just finds some peace and like relaxation.
51:54I want to be able to help other people with disabilities like mine that they can believe in themselves
52:01and find their true potential.
52:04Once you start opening yourself up to the community and just everything just comes your way,
52:12the doors open up and so many opportunities.
52:16So that's the main thing I want to do.
52:20It's sort of in a way helping my younger self.
52:31Now Joshua is 31 years old.
52:34What he's achieved with the help of family.
52:38It's just amazing.
52:40This one.
52:44Go.
53:02In cool areas, chop and prop tree dahlias as they finish flowering.
53:06Cut canes into 50 centimetre lengths.
53:09Lay them in a shallow trench and cover with soil.
53:12The canes will root and shoot, giving you even more delightful dahlias.
53:17If you like berries, why not branch out a little?
53:21Try logan berries, gooseberries and yoster berries.
53:25Plant a cane or two now and you'll be enjoying the fruits of your labour by summer.
53:30If there's a job for a rainy day, it's cleaning up your boots.
53:34Get in there with a stiff brush to clean them out and apply a beeswax polish to re-waterproof.
53:41Warm temperate gardeners dust off the secateurs to prune apples and pears.
53:46Remove inward growing branches, damaged wood and shorten side shoots to four plump healthy buds.
53:54If you're drowning in silverbeet at the moment, remember it can be blanched and frozen to be used in future dishes.
54:01Productive spring gardens are made in winter.
54:05Start building up vacant beds with manure and compost now, so they'll have time to mature for spring plantings.
54:13In the subtropics, continue to harvest papayas.
54:17If garden interlopers are getting to them before you do, remember they'll ripen easily indoors.
54:24Save some space for Mary Washington asparagus.
54:28Tube stock or crowns can be planted now and foliage cut to the ground.
54:34Harvest in as little as two years.
54:36Need a no-fuss native ground cover?
54:39Check out Creeping Boobiella.
54:42It's a leafy ground cover and will rapidly form a dense mat in a sunny spot, smothering out weeds.
54:50In tropical areas, if your bougainvillea have finished flowering,
54:54put on gloves, glasses and long sleeves and get stuck into them.
54:58They love a heavy hackback, flowering on new growth.
55:02It's time to get ginger into the ground at your place.
55:06Find a sheltered spot with rich moist soil and plant your rhizomes.
55:11It's the perfect time of year to show your potted herbs some TLC.
55:16Refresh tired potting mix, give them a feed and don't forget to mulch your pots.
55:22In arid areas, get onto Asafoetida.
55:26Used as a spice since the days of the ancient Greeks, grow it in open sun and good drainage.
55:33The stems might stink, but it disappears when cooked, leaving a signature taste nothing can replace.
55:40Water straight from the tank or tap can be too chilly for the delicate roots of many indoor plants.
55:47So it's a great idea to treat them to room temperature or tepid water over winter.
55:53While we're on water, now's a good time to flush out the lines of your drip irrigation.
55:58Pipes can become clogged with soil particles and mineral residues in the water.
56:03So opening one end and letting it flow can clear it all out.
56:08Welcome to winter gardeners.
56:10If you need to take cover from the weather out there,
56:13remember, you can always head to ABC iview to catch up on Gardening Australia anytime.
56:25I'm looking forward to next week when we bring you a show packed with the latest floral, garden and design ideas.
56:33I'll see you then.
56:36This week we're coming to you from the biggest garden show in the Southern Hemisphere.
56:43Sophie's finding out what's blooming good.
56:46Just a profusion of different flowers that the public can come in and just absolutely feast their eyes and enjoy.
56:52Millie and I will be getting amongst the greenery to check out the latest design trends and popular plants.
57:00We've got a road question here.
57:02What's going on?
57:03What's going on?
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