Gardens, Lavender and Carnations to Fill Our Senses

hat’s On The Show Today?

Join Garden Historian Stuart Read talk about some gardens of note in the garden history segment, find out which veggie is a hiding place for little demons in Vegetable Heroes; spice up your home with these fragrant flowers you can grow in Plant of the Week.;Lastly, a flower that’s strongly linked with perfume in Talking Flowers.

GARDEN HISTORY

Ginaghulla 

There are a lot of heritage items in Australia that get commemorated by a plaque but how many gardens get the same recognition?

Probably only a handful and these are not even well known.

So the Garden History Society started to take note of some historic gardens and with a local council in Sydney, are recognizing that it’s not just built spaces that make up the fabric of history.

Let’s find out about some of these.

I'm talking with Stuart Read, Garden Historian and committee member of the Australian Garden History Society

. 

These 'garden plaques' celebrate famous gardeners and notable gardens.
Does your local council have a garden plaques program?

If so let us know so we can give them a shout out. 

The Australian Garden History Society has branches in all states and the A.C.T. which arrange local activities and act as advocates for issues which are of interest to the society. 

For further information contact www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au/

If you have any questions either for me or for Stuart, you can email us Realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2rrr, PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.

VEGETABLE HEROES

Brussel Sprouts

Brussel Sprouts are a member of the Brassicaceae family which also includes, cabbage, broccoli, kale and kohlrabi.

Is there one veggie that you have trouble growing?
For some reason, that veggie doesn’t work out to how it looks on the seed packet.
Maybe it’s your environment, think weather or your soil or your regime of fertilising.
It could also be that whenever you try to grow this veggie, hordes of pests descend onto your veggie plot and turn those plants into a horrible version of what they should be?
That’s my lot with Brussel sprouts.
Before we go any further, you may not be surprised to know that Brussel sprouts are one of the most hated veggies in the UK and US.

So why call a veggie Brussel sprouts?

Maybe because it was sold in Brussels' markets in the 1200's, or, maybe Brussels sprouts were named after the capital of Belgium where some say that’s where they were first grown.
Brussel sprouts are also one of the few vegetables to have started off in the northern Europe.
You probably know what a Brussels sprouts looks like - miniature heads of cabbage-about 2.5 to 4 cm. to be precise.
They taste a bit like cabbage, but slightly milder in flavour and denser in texture.
If you’ve ever grown Brussel sprouts, you’ll know that the sprouts grow like buds in a spiral along the side of long thick stalks of around 60 to 120 cm tall.
They all don’t mature at once but take several weeks, starting from the lower to the upper part of the stalk.

If you want to grow them well, there’s a few tips that you need to know about.

• Firstly, when learning how to grow brussel sprouts they need a firm, fertile soil because the main cause of failure (blown buttons) is the opposite, that is, loose, infertile soil. 
• Those gardeners with a fairly heavy soil have an advantage over those of us with loose sandy soil. 
• If your soil is loose, then your sprouts will be tasteless, loose and open, and only you’re to blame and not the seed company. 
• If you’ve got the room to follow crop rotation, then you’ll be planting them where you last planted peas and beans. 
• If not, dig in a whole lot of compost and cow manure and leave it for a couple of weeks to mature. 
• AND, because compost, especially home- made compost can be on the acidic side, add some lime to your soil while you’re in the veggie bed. 
• That old saying “feed the soil not the plant” applies especially to Brussel Sprouts. 
• Tamp the soil down with the back of your garden rake to make it firm when the soil is dry. 

When to Sow;
For temperate districts, February until May, for arid areas until the end of June, for cool temperate zones, until the end of April and for sub-tropical areas, April seems to the month for you.
To grow sprouts, sow the seeds into seed trays or direct into the garden, or you can buy seedlings from a garden centre, organic markets and so on.
It’s cheaper of course to start from seed.
The seedlings are ready to transplant when they’re 10cm high.
Did you know that you can get early and late cropping varieties?

You can plant out your brussels sprouts either in full sun or partial shade, in fact partial shade is a bit better in warmer districts.

• Water plants the day before you aim to transplant them into that well-firmed bed that you prepared. 
• After you have transplanted your seedlings, firm the soil around each plant with your hands or the dibber. 
• Remember - firm planting helps to grow firm, tight brussels sprouts. 

Tip#3: a better reason to start your seeds off in punnets is that when you transplant your seedlings from pots or seed beds, this encourages a stronger root system to be established in their permanent bed.

Water the young plants in dry weather but unless you have a prolonged dry spell the mature plants shouldn’t need watering.
As the plants get taller make sure you support them so that the strong winds in winter don`t blow them over - tie them to stakes.

Should hordes of pests come a calling, you name it, Mealybugs, aphids, caterpillars and other grubs, use Derris Dust or a liquid concentrate containing Spinosad or Neem oil.

Try eco Neem from www.ecoorganicgarden.com.au  and Success from Yates

When to harvest
When the brussels start looking like they’re ready you don’t have to pick them all at once because, the plant holds the mature buttons for many weeks without opening. 

Ways to eat Brussel Sprouts
To eat Brussel Sprouts, you don`t want those ` sprouts that have had all their colour and crispness boiled out of them.
Try dicing or grating your brussel sprouts raw and serve them up in a salad - go on, be brave!
Most importantly: Don’t overcook your Brussel sprouts; Overcooking Brussels sprouts produces a sulphur-like smell, which is usually what turns people off
Why are they good for you?
Brussels sprouts pack in 4 grams of protein per cup which is high for a veggie,
That same cup will give you 4 grams of fibre but only 56 calories— “
Brussels sprouts can also provide you with some special cholesterol-lowering benefits if you use a steaming method when cooking them.
Brussels are also a good source of vitamins A and C, iron, and potassium .
One 80-gram serving of these healthy veggies delivers four times more vitamin C than an orange.
And finally, Brussel Sprouts should be kept cool at all times and eaten before the leaves discolour or they develop a strong smell.

One last anecdote:
If you ever ate Brussels sprouts at home, there's a good chance you cut little crosses cut into the bottom of each one.
Most people assume it is done to speed up cooking, but they would be wrong. The real reason we cut crosses into our sprouts is because of a medieval superstition.
It was once believed that leafy vegetables such as sprouts and cabbages were the hiding places of tiny demons, and eating them would expose you to their evil influence unless you exorcised them with the sign of the cross before cooking—and that's actually not a surprising conclusion if you consider the evil odours Brussels sprouts sometimes inspire. From www.grunge.com

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Carnations New and Old
Scinetific Name: Dianthus caryophyllus
Did your dad or grandad, grow certain flowers in your garden which you think are too hard to grow?
Well the plant world and it’s bevy of hybridisers have been working garden to make this old fashioned flower new again.

They probably grew the "old school"carnations which grew long and lanky and needed some type of staking to prevent them flopping over.
Let’s find out how to grow the newer varieties.
I'm talking with Karen Smith, editor of www.hortjournal.com.au and Jeremy Critchley owner of www.thegreengallery.com.au

Dianthus caryophyllus Oscar series.

Carnations love alkaline soil , therefore adding lime to the garden bed will help with any acidic soil problems.

Tip: Not to be grown where Azaleas and Camellias like to grow.

Keeping your Carnations tip pruned will encourage more flowering.

Carnation Oscar is a dwarf growing to 10cm in only 5 colours but designed for the balcony gardener.
Super Trooper and Sunfloor-also a dwarf around 20-25cm in height, with a high amount of fragrance.
In fact it’s hard to choose between what makes carnations special;the fragrance or the flower.
If you have some information to share, why not drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675

TALKING FLOWERS

Lavender, Lavender, Lavender.

Need to relax? Or get a good night's sleep? 

You need cleansing, calming lavender in your life. 

Lavandula angustifolia: English Lavender for cooking

Lavenders are a fabulous, long-lasting cut flower and you can dry them to use in sachets and pot pourri. And by the way, lavender is a great insect repellent.
Lavender is a favourite, whose flowers range from white to deep blue purple and include pink.
You can cook with Lavender flowers but you must use Lavandula angustifolia or English lavender flowers.
The other varieties have too much camphor and will make food taste a little bitter.
Use your Lavender spice flowers in cakes, biscuits, pasta and salads.
I'm talking with Mercedes Sarmini of Flowers By Mercedes 

 Recorded live during radio broadcast of Real World Gardener on 2rrr 88.5fm in Sydney

Cinderella Pumpkin Plus Lavender Cakes and Carnations

What’s On The Show Today?
Choose the right cultivar for your cooking in Spice it Up, Cinderella will thank you for growing this one in Vegetable Heroes We’re talking touchy feely plants in design elements and a flower that royalty in Talking Flowers

SPICE IT UP

Lavender in Cooking

Lavendula angustifolia
Lavender was first used in Herbs du Provence which is dried herbs used in slow cooked dishes. 

But the correct lavender to use in any cooking is important if you want the flavour to be pleasant and not reminiscent of camphor.

Lavandula angustifolia and Lavandula spica or the ones to use.

English Lavender

Commonly called English Lavender.
But did you know that so much of this plant is grown in France that they called it French Lavender rather than English Lavender.

The true French lavender is Lavandula dentata, which has serrated leaf margins and much larger almost woollier flowers. French lavender seems to flower for most of the year.

This one has a high camphor content which is unpleasant to taste. 

Lavandula angustifolia or English lavender has smooth sided leaves and a very slender flower and a long stalk.

Confusing if you want to use the correct plant’s flowers in cooking.
Let’s find out  more about Lavender in cooking.

I'm talking with Ian Hemphill from www.herbies.com.au

For the lemon and Lavender cakes recipe go to this link Lavender and Lemon Cakes

Remember:The  Lavender we should use in cooking is English lavender or Lavandula angustifolia, has a smooth leaf and the flower head is on a skinny long stem.
Ian mentioned how Lavender bottles, a lost art. Just search the web on making instructions...there are plenty.
If you have any questions about which Lavender to use in cooking then why not email us realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.

VEGETABLE HEROES

Pumpkins
Pumpkins (Cucurbita spp.) (could be Cucurbita pepo, or Cucurbita maxima and so on) are members of the Cucurbitaceae family along with zucchini, gourd, squash, melons and cucumber.

Pumpkins are a little different from the other members of the Cucurbit family because Pumpkins are normally hard-shelled whereas the squashes have softer skin, but there are exceptions.

The name “pumpkin” originated from the Greek word, “pepon,” which means, “large melon

Did you know that technically pumpkin is a fruit, and has been in cultivation for more than 5,000 years?

So where did Cinderalla’s pumpkin come from?

In some countries you can get a pumpkin variety called Rouge Vie d' Etampes". roughly translated "Red Life of the Times which turn a deep red when they’re ready to eat.
Supposedly the illustrator for the Cinderella Fairytale used this variety of pumpkin for Cinderella's coach, so that today this pumpkin is better known as a "Cinderella".
They look just like the pumpkin that Cinderella's fairy godmother transformed into a carriage.

Pumpkin is considered an annual, and comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes, colours and patterns.

Pumpkins can weigh anywhere from 1–600kg. The largest pumpkin on record was grown in the USA, weighing 667kg.

Honestly, for those of us who have a compost heap, one of the most often things to grow out of the heap other than tomatoes, is the pumpkin.

Usually a Butternut or Queensland Blue.

Just as well that Pumpkins like compost heaps because the vines need fertile, compost-rich, well-drained soil in full sun, and are most easily grown as ground-cover plants.

There is a bush variety called Golden Nugget, that can be grown in a pot but all the rest grow way too big for pots.

Vines can be trained over frames provided they can support the weight of the heavy fruit.

When to sow:

Start early, with your pumpkin seed planting, because, before you know it, summer is here and you’ve run out of time to grow it to maturity.

In temperate zones, plant your pumpkin seeds from September until the end of December. Arid zones have from September until February, sub-tropical regions have between August and February, Cool temperate districts have between October and December, and in Tropical areas you can grow them all year round.

Growing Pumpkins 
Pumpkin seed needs a soil temperature of 20˚C for germination.
You can either sow them individually in 10cm pots and plant them out when the pots are filled with roots. 

Here’s a tip you’ve probably never heard of before.
Use Jiffy pots or pellets to limit the symptoms of transplant shock

Plant the seed with pointy end down, as this is where the roots start growing. This is not an issue when planting in the garden, but in small pots it becomes more important.

Or, sow seed or plant seedlings into mounds of rich compost, with lots and lots of chook poo, made over loosened soil.

The seeds are large so sow them about 2 cm deep.

Make sure you acclimatise your seedlings slowly to outdoor conditions before transplanting
Plants take 70–120 days to mature. That’s 10 -17 weeks or 2-4 months!

TIP: Pumpkins are shallow-rooted so they need regular watering in dry or windy weather.
It’s no good watering every other day in warm weather because your pumpkin will end up splitting.

Pinch out growing tips of those rambling stems to keep the plants in check, otherwise they may take over you whole backyard!

When I worked at Yates, getting those pumpkins to fertilise was the bane of quite a number of people’s veggie growing.

The complaint was lots of leaves and few flowers or that the embryo fruits and flowers fall off.

In fact, after Des wrote in that his pumpkin vine only had male flowers, I decided to include information about the flowers and fertilisation.

PUMPKIN FLOWERS and Fertilisation

• Pumpkins produce short-lived male and female flowers that can close by mid-morning. Female flowers open above the swollen, distinctive embryo fruit and male flowers produce pollen. 
• If the embryo fruit falls off, that usually means it didn’t get pollinated. 
• Native and honey bees are normally able to complete pollination, but sometimes ants harvest pollen before this occurs. 
• High temperatures can affect fruit formation over 30˚C, and here you may need to try hand pollination to improve fruit set. 
• To hand pollinate, pick male flowers, remove the petals then dab pollen on the stigma of female flowers. 
• Squeezing female flowers aids pollination in wet weather. 
• Remember,, sometimes female flowers take two weeks or longer before they start appearing. 
• This is because the pumpkin vine has to grow to a decent size where it can support fruit, before the female flowers appear. 

Jarrahdale Pumpking

Varieties of Pumpkin to Try:
There are as many different varieties of pumpkins as there are of tomatoes, except you can’t get the Cinderella pumpkin in Australia.
Golden Nugget is best for small gardens, for a medium sized pumpkin, try Hybrid Grey Crown or Queensland Blue.
Turk’s Turban is an exotic-looking pumpkin (although its flavour is a little dry).
You might prefer the stronger taste of Jarrahdale, from Western Australia.

For those who like something unusual, why not try Pumpkin Marina di Chioggia, with its thick knobbly grey-blue skin, and a rich deep yellow-orange inside. This one takes 100 days to maturity but keeps well. 

Pumpkin Galeux Deysines is another unusual pumpkin with whitish salmon-pink skin covered with peanut shell like warts. These warts are caused by the sugar in the skin as it ripens.

Don’t be put off by that, because the orange inside flesh, is sweet, and moist.

Harvesting and storing

Your pumpkin is ready to pick when it’s finished swelling which is when the vine is dying off, and they sound hollow when you tap on the shell.
This is when you remove them with as much of the stalk as possible.
Ripe pumpkins with unbroken skin store very well if kept in a cool, dry, well-ventilated space.
For the seed savers out there, seed can be saved one month after harvesting them.
Scoop seed from the flesh, wash, dry and store in a cool, dry spot away from sunlight.
To ensure seed-grown progeny comes true, save seed from one variety grown in isolation.

Why are they good for you?
The bright orange colour of pumpkin is a dead giveaway that pumpkin is loaded with the antioxidant, beta-carotene.
Beta-carotene is one of the plant carotenoids converted to vitamin A in the body.
They’re also a good source of vitamin C, with Queensland Blue coming top of the pumpkin class for this vitamin.
Pumpkins are a source of dietary fibre and supply (especially Golden nugget and Butternut) a good source of potassium.
One cup of cooked pumpkin has 2 g of protein, 3 g of dietary fibre.
Pumpkins are 90% water and a great for those watching their waistline
Why not make mashed pumpkin instead of mashed potato because Pumpkins don’t have a lot of carbs- just 12 g from 1 cup, but some of it is present as natural sugars, which is why they taste sweet.
Like Zucchini flowers, pumpkin flowers are also edible.

THAT WAS YOUR VEGETABLE HERO FOR TODAY

DESIGN ELEMENTS

Creating Tactile and Sensory Gardens

For those gardens with just green leaves you need to zhoosh up the place with some touchy feely leaves.
So that when you walk along the garden path, you can brush your hand along the leaves of the plants for a nice intoxicating scent of just for the feel of the leaf;peculiar, sensational or otherwise.
But what else are gardens for?

Chelsea Flower Show photo M Cannon

Let’s find out. I'm talking with Peter Nixon, principle of Paradisus Garden Design

Peter mentioned these two mostly
Sinningia bullata is like a fibrous bowling ball.
Kalanchoe beharensis-(pictured right) Madagascar felt plant has contorted silver grey leaves that looks wicked.

The best place to get these succulents is at African Violet societies for the sinningia and Succulent societies for the Kalanchoe beharensis.

Let’s not forget the textured aromatic leaves of Pelargoniums.

TALKING FLOWERS

Carnations

There are a lot of meanings for the carnation flower and each one varies with the different colours.

The scientific name of the carnation is Dianthus caryophyllus.

This translated means the "flower of love" or "flower of the gods" and one of the oldest cultivated flowers in the world.

The carnation dates back to the Roman era.

Carnations take up food dye very well so that the green carnations you see people wearing on St Patrick's Day is dyed that colour.

Carnations are easily grown in the home garden preferring limey  or alkaline soil.

Home grown carnations have a stronger scent than those grown in greenhouses.

All the more reason to grow your own.

I'm talking with floral therapist Mercedes Sarmini of Flowers by Mercedes

Recorded on Facebook during broadcast of Real World Gardener on 1st November 2017