Perfume Princess with Bite and Vanilla Bean Spice

Starting with the vanilla bean story part 2 with herb and spice guru Ian Hemphill, growing a root veggie that some people add to schapps in vegetable heroes, a the new series on old fashioned shrubs for every region in Australia continues in Design Elements and all the perfume you could want in Plant of the week.

SPICE IT UP

Vanilla bean:Vanilla planifolia "Andrews"

Vanilla tahitensis

Commercially, Vanilla fragrans and Vanilla tahitensis are used but they have less vanillin in them.

Harvesting and curing the vanilla bean is very labour intensive.

Once the green bean has matured, then they are laid out during the day on drying racks.

At night , they are wrapped up in woollen blankets.

This process goes on for 2 months. 

I'ts really labour intensive, but if you missed it, you can catch up on my blog for last week.
There was so much to tell with the story of this spice that I had to split it up into two parts.

But this episode is about how we can economise with our hugely expensive cured vanilla bean in cooking.

I'm talking with Ian Hemphill, owner of www.herbies.com.au
Let’s find out.

Plenty of tips on how best to use real vanilla in cooking plus a why not make a vanilla flavoured rum?

Vanilla Flavoured Rum Recipe:

• Choose your favourite Jamaican rum to which you add 1 vanilla bean and 1 cinnamon quill.
• Infuse for 1 1/2 - 2 weeks.
• Remove vanilla bean and cinnamon and you will be left with a transformed flavour that equals botrytis semillon.

Vanilla Bean and Poached Pears: 

The rest is mostly synthesized from either guaiacol (which accounts for about 85 percent of it) or

1 Vanilla Bean and champagne OR

1 vanilla bean and sugar syrup of your choice.

Simmer for 30 minutes.

 Remove the vanilla bean and store if canister of caster sugar for a week. 

This gives you vanilla flavoured caster sugar.

NOTE: As long as the vanilla bean hasn't been used on milk, you can use the bean up to 3 times before discarding.

Here’s why you shouldn’t use imitation vanilla.

Did you know that less than one percent of the world’s vanilla fl lignin.
Guaiacol is a fragrant liquid obtained by distilling wood-tar creosote or guaiac (resin from the guaiacum tree).
If you have any questions either for me or for Ian, drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675

VEGETABLE HEROES

Horseradish

Armoracia rusticana syn. A. lapathifolia

Horseradish is a member of the mustard family or Brassicaceae

You may be wondering what comic book character loved this veggie and what country adds it to their beer and make Schnapps with it?”

If you were a fan of the comic strip that featured Dagwood and his wife Blondie, well you would know that Dagwood ate horseradish.

"Blondie," by Dean Young and Stan Drake.”

But did you also know that Germans still brew horseradish schnapps and some also add it to their beer?

Apparently the Egyptians knew about horseradish as far back as 1500 B.C.

And early Greeks used it as a rub for lower back pain and as an aphrodisiac.

In Germany, it’s called "meerrettich"

In the 1600s, Englishmen loved to eat their beef and oysters with horseradish.

But not only that, the loved it so much, that the English, grew it at inns and coach stations, to make cordials to revive exhausted travellers.

So Why grow Horseradish?

Armoracia rusticana

Gardeners grow horseradish for its thick, fleshy white roots.

Did you know that the bite and aroma of horseradish root is totally missing until it’s grated or ground?

That’s because as soon as the root cells are crushed, volatile oils known as isothiocyanate (ISO-THIGH-O SIGH-A-NATE)  are released.

Vinegar stops this reaction and stabilizes the flavour.

Very similar to Wasabi really.

If you’re interested in making your own horseradish, and you don’t want it too hot and bitey, just add the vinegar straight away.

Growing Horseradish

Growing horseradish is easy – the tricky bit is stopping it taking over your garden.

• 
• Horseradish is a perennial to 1.5m high above ground but below ground there is a parsnip like tapering, fleshy taproot to 60cm long and 5 cm thick
• The above ground parts look like lime-green large rough textured  leaves, 30-90 cm long, so that’s about 1-3 ruler lengths.
• The edges of the leaves are extremely saw toothed, or serrated and as botanists would say, leaves with toothed margins.
• Horseradish has white flowers in the middle of summer to mid-autumn.
• Plant your horseradish in a permanent position and don’t disturb it because new plants will spring up from any broken roots and will quickly spread throughout the garden bed.
• Horseradish can grow in most soils even damp soils and grows quite quickly.

TIP: This deep rooted plant can be used in orchards to open up compacted soils and return nutrients to the soil’s surface.

By far the easiest way to grow Horseradish is from root cuttings.

Now’s the time to get a piece from a friend or your friendly garden club members because Horseradish is propagated by root division in spring or

Don't worry too much about soil or position, other than too much shade because it’ll die off.

Dig out a trench at least 60cm deep – horseradish has extremely long tap roots.

Replace about 40cm of topsoil and then add some compost .

Lay the roots of horseradish on this about 30cm apart and then cover with more soil.

Firm down the soil.

If you can get seed. the time to sow it is in early spring.

Keep your horseradish well-watered.

Next year by mid-autumn if you were lucky enough to have planted it last year either in autumn OR spring, the roots should be ready to harvest.

Dig up all the plants.

Use the larger roots to make horseradish sauce and store the smaller ones in sand for replanting next year.

You could plant some of the smaller shoots in pots – either give them away or sell them once they start showing signs of growth.

By digging up all the plants, you’ll stop the horseradish from getting out of control and taking over your garden.

Although I must say, in my garden it’s extremely well behaved.

I have found suggestions that sinking half of an old rubbish bin into the ground, with its bottom removed stops its spread.

Horseradish is very versatile – not just as a sauce with beef, but it goes well with smoked mackerel, sausages, ham, trout, eggs and avocado.

Why is horseradish good for you?

Tuck into some horseradish sauce

Horseradish is a natural antibiotic.

If you’re on a low salt diet, then horseradish is really useful as a seasoning.

Horseradish has only 2 calories a teaspoon, is low in sodium and provides dietary fibre.

Where do you get it? Well there’s an online company that has divisions, but they won’t be available until July. Otherwise, the herb section of most nurseries and garden centres do stock this plant.

AND THAT WAS OUR VEGETABLE HERO SEGMENT FOR TODAY!

DESIGN ELEMENTS

Old Fashioned Shrubs and Trees for Cool Climate Gardens

Last week I mentioned that gone are the days when you had lots of variety in garden centres to choose from.
So this series is all about what were those old fashioned shrubs.
But we’re not just doing a blanket five but going through each climate zone in Australia, including some of Peter Nixon’s zoning.

Michelia doltsopa

Some of these other zones might suit your area as well even though they’re classified as say arid or sub-tropical.
It all depends on whether or not you’ve got a micro-climate in your garden that will suit.
Let’s find out what old fashioned shrubs suit cool temperate areas.
I'm talking with Peter Nixon, garden Designer and project Manager from Paradisus Garden design.

Tabebuia chrysostricha

Tabebuia chrysostricha

• Cool temperate can mean highlands and alpine regions and areas where you get a hoar frost..
• Bauhinia acuminata-small tree less than 4m.
• Syringas-lilacs
• Michelia doltsopa or Michelia Maudii small tree with white scented foliage and dark green leaves.
• Camellias japonica C.sasanqua, C. reticulata or C.vernalis.
• Peter suggested the ‘girl’ series sasanquas from Paradise nursery.
• Tabebuia chrysostricha-intense yellow trumpet flowers.
• Daphne odorata, kniphofia, and peonies 

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Daphne 'Perfume Princess'

If you love fragrance, you’re probably going to buy plants that aren’t supposed to do well in your district.

Daphne Perfume Princess photo M Cannon

Plants like Luculia, or Lilac (Syringia vulgaris) which are for cool climates mostly.
There’s another plant that has a reputation of keeling over without warning, but gardeners still want to grow if because of its high fragrance.
Now, there’s a new variety with flowers double or triple the size of the old species (Daphne odora) and hopefully, a bit more resistant to some of the problems that plagued the predecessor.
So, what so good about it? 

Let’s find out.….


I'm talking with Karen Smith, editor of Hort Journal www.hortjournal.com.au and Jeremy Critchley, The Green Gallery wholesale nursery owner. www.thegreengallery.com.au

• Daphne Perfume Princess is apparently no ordinary Daphne and should be on every plant collector’s list.

Not only are the flowers bigger than the species Daphne, but it flowers longer, can grow anywhere in Australia and it has the strongest fragrance of any Daphne.
A definite must have.

Old Fashioned Shrubs Plus Spices to Entice

Starting with the vanilla bean story with herb and spice guru Ian Hemphill, growing winter savory and why you should in vegetable heroes, a new series on old fashioned shrubs for every region in Australia in Design Elements and groundcovers that suit in Plant of the week.

SPICE IT UP 

Vanilla planifolia and cvs

Have you ever wondered how and when the spice trade started?
Maybe not but did you know that nutmeg was once worth more by weight than gold?
Also that in the 16th century, London dockworkers were paid their bonuses in cloves?
There was so much to tell with the story of this spice that I had to split it up into two parts.
Here's part 1.

To produce the green bean, each vanilla flower needs to be hand pollinated.

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

The vanilla bean is  a long green bean. When it's mature the beans are put on curing racks during the day, then wrapped up in woollen blankets at night. 

this is done everyday for 15 - 28 days.

It's up to the head curer to judge the readiness of this stage.

After the 28 days have been reached, the beans are then wrapped for a further 2 months. 

Vanilla bean curing is very labour intensive and so far hasn't been mechanised successfully enough to give the complexity of aromas reached by the manual method.

Thanks to Ian’s encylopeadic knowledge of the spice trade we can look forward to part 2 of the vanilla bean story next week.
There’ll be plenty of tips on how best to use vanilla in cooking plus a surprise tip that will just delight you. We’ll also re-cap a little tiny bit of the story.
If you have any questions either for me or for Ian, drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675

VEGETABLE HEROES

Winter Savoury

Did you know that Savory, is the Herb of Love!

• How many times have you heard the phrase "a savory stew?"
• Or, it’s got a savoury flavour or taste?
• Now you know that savory is actuallyherb, in fact an annual or perennial herb, Satureja hortenis, for Summer Savory, or Saturejo montana being for Winter Savory
• Did you know that Savory is used in herb combinations, such as Herbes de Provence, a French combination of herbs used for seasoning.

If you’ve heard of Savory before, you might already know that it’s best known for its use in dishes made with beans.

• So where does savory come from?

All Savory’s belong to the mint or Lamiaceae family. They have dark-green, very narrow little leaves for winter savory and light green narrow leaves for summer savory.

The savories can be used fresh or  dried and crushed.

I can’t say that it’s a well know herb but the history of savory goes back about 2000 years and it’s one of the oldest culinary herbs.

Satureja montana: Winter Savory

• Interestingly, the botanical name Satureja was named by the Roman scholar Pliny and is derived from the word satyr, the half-man, half-goat creature in mythology who owned the savories.
• Would you’ve guessed it was used in a love potion? Of course.
• Weren’t they all back then? Sure seems like it.
• Apparently it’s been associated with love potions for centuries.
• Romans also used savory as a medicinal (for example for treating bee stings) and culinary herb long before they discovered pepper.
• When the Romans brought savory to England, it was used there as an herb for chicken stuffing instead of a medicinal.

There are two distinct varieties of savory - summer and winter. Summer savory is most often used for healing.

• There is a myth or old wives tale that Summer savory increases your sex drive, while winter savory decreases it.
• Make sure you get your savories right.

Savory has active ingredients called  carvacrol, p-cymene and tannins.

Because it’s an astringent and mild antiseptic if you made a tea from summer savory,  it was said to control diarrhea, stomach-ache and mild sore throat.

Rubbing a sprig of savory on an insect bite will bring instant relief.

How To Grow Savory:What does winter Savory like?

• It’s an evergreen perennial plant, with dark green narrow leaves that are aromatic.
• The tiny 5mm flowers are white and pink and appear in the middle of summer on terminal spikes. The plant itself only grows 30cm high with a small spread of 20cm.
• If you do manage to get savory seeds, they’re very tiny, so it’s probably best to start them in punnets –and they need light to germinate usually
• also, it's a bit like Coriander, these tiny plants resent being transplanted.
• The better method of getting new plants is either by cuttings in spring or by root division, also in spring time.

Winter Savory flowers

• If you know of someone with this plant, put a note in your dairy to ask them for cuttings later on in the year-the cuttings should be soft-stem cuttings of about 2-3 cm long.
• Put them in some seed raising or propagating mix.
• You probably don’t even need to cover it, because, just like the herb Thyme, it strikes very easily.                 
• As for grow ing you winter savory, well, it’s no different than growing Thyme, it likes full sun with well-drained soil.

Savory prefers to be planted in soil that's slightly alkaline.

• Give it a side-dressing of compost or worm castings whenever possible.
• All savories are a bit bushy and low-growing so it makes an excellent edging plant for a kitchen garden, herb bed, or vegetable garden.
• Trim your savory plant from time to time, to promote new growth and keep it looking good.
• Savory doesn’t like wet feet or clay soils, or cold wet winters.

If some of those conditions sound like something you have, you need to put your savour in a pot in a sheltered position.

Harvesting and Storage

You can begin to take the leaves from your savory plant as soon as it reaches 13cm or about 6 inches in height. Keeping the plant pruned means you’ll always have some. When they insist on flowering, cut the whole plant and put on a some paper in a warm shady place. When dry, strip the leaves and store in airtight jars or tins. When the seed begins to turn brown, harvest them for next years planting. My plant dies down a bit in winter, but always regrows, so that’s a good reason to get some summer savory for your herb garden.

Tips For The Chef

• Winter savory, Satureja montana, is a nice herb to use when you are cutting back on salt-it's flavour is mild, a little bit similar to thyme, but with it's own unique flavour.
• Both summer and winter savory are used in cooking. Summer savory has a peppery taste much like thyme, while winter savory has a more piney taste. To me, it has a slightly peppery flavour, but a piney fragrance when you crush it in your hand.
• Savory blends well with other herbs such as basil, bay leaf, marjoram, thyme and rosemary. It is said that the taste of savory brings all these herbs together in a unique taste.
• Savory is popular in teas, herbed butters, and flavoured vinegars. It complements beef soup and stews, chicken soup, eggs, green beans, peas, rutabagas, asparagus, onions, cabbage, and lentils. Use savory when cooking liver, fish and game. Winter savory, which has a stronger presence, works well with game that has a strong flavor.
• You can chop up winter savory finely and combine it with bread crumbs for coating fish or add some leaves to vegetables such as squash before sautéing or steaming.
• Of course there’s that famous bean, garlic and savory dish.

Why is it good for you?

The Savory herb has many minerals and vitamins which make it an excellent herb to use for medicinal purposes.

The shoots and leaves of this herb are a rich source of zinc, magnesium, calcium, iron, potassium, manganese, and selenium. The vitamins that this herb contains include Vitamin A, Vitamin B-complex group vitamins, Vitamin C, pyridoxine, niacin and thiamine. You would need to eat about 100g of savory leaves which is a bit too much, but making a tea of the leaves would have health benefits as well.

Make baked mozzarella sticks by cutting the cheese into squares, dip in eggs and dredge in bread crumbs with minced savory leaves. Bake in a 180 Degrees C until the cheese just begins to melt.

AND THAT WAS OUR VEGETABLE HERO SEGMENT FOR TODAY!

DESIGN ELEMENTS

 Old Fashioned Shrubs: Introduction of 5 part series.

Gone are the days when you had lots of variety in garden centres to choose from.
Now you only get the familiar plants like Murrayas, lilly pillies, star jasmine, viburnum odoratissium, with a spattering of smaller sub-shrubs like Osteospermum with a kaleidoscope of colour.
Thanks for that. Gardeners need colour.

Lilac: Syringia vulgaris

But what happened to the shrubs of old?
Have they just disappeared or can we still get them and which ones suit where?
Let’s find out with this new series on old fashioned shrubs
I'm talking with Peter Nixon, garden Designer and project Manager from Paradisus Garden design.

What could be nicer than a lilac bush ( for colder climates), May bush (most climates) or even a Daphne or two?

May Bush

You can visit Peter’s garden Sea-Changer’ which is opening Sat 4th May no gate, 10am to 2pm at 21 Lavinia Street Forresters Beach 1 hr from Wahroonga Pacific Motorway on ramp.
For a day out of the city, lunch at Bamboo Buddha Holgate and BURSTING with freshness & flowers. WHAT could be nicer?

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Carpet Bugle:Ajuga reptans

Do you want a ground cover that suits shade, still flowers and provides plenty of colour?
William Turner, a 16th century physician and naturalist described it as ‘It is a blacke herbe and it groweth in shaddowy places and moyst groundes.’-

I'm talking with Jeremy Critchley owner of www.thegreengallery.com.au and Karen Smith editor of www.hortjournal.com.au





Let’s find out. more.




Spoiler alert, there’s a new variety out now called Ajuga Princess Nadia. Lookout for it in your nearest garden centre.
Not only does Carpet Bugle cope with shade but it copes with sun as long as it gets sufficient watering.
Nobody knows why it’s really called Bugle flower , it’s one of botany’s mysteries.

Vanilla Scented Gardening

REAL WORLD GARDENER Wed. 5pm 2RRR 88.5fm Sydney, streaming live at www.2rrr.org.au and Across Australia on the Community Radio Network. www.realworldgardener.com
REALWORLD GARDENER NOW ON FACEBOOK
The complete CRN edition of RWG is available on http://www.cpod.org.au/ , just click on 2RRR to find this week’s edition. The new theme is sung by Harry Hughes from his album Songs of the Garden. You can hear samples of the album from the website www.songsofthegarden.com

SPICE IT UP

with Ian Hemphill from www.herbies.com.au
The Vanilla bean orchid that this next spice comes from originates in the highland forests of Mexico, so that gives you some idea of where it grows best.
Somewhere warm and humid and where the temperature doesn't fall below 20⁰C

But hey, don’t let that stop you from trying to grow it, after all it’s an orchid.

The plant you need to grow is Vanilla planifolia "Andrews" if you can get it.

 

 

 

The green vanilla bean itself has no odour or flavour.

It's not until heated that the enzyme within the bean comes to life.

Then the process begins of being put out in the sun during the day and wrapped in blankets at night for 28 days.

Let’s find out what’s great about this spice.

 

  

 To get the vanilla bean the flower must be pollinated by the Melipone bee which is almost extinct in Mexico.
For that reason, even in Mexico, each vanilla bean flower on every vanilla bean farm, needs to be hand pollinated to get the bean.
Outside of Mexico of course there's no alternative anyway.

If you buy imitation vanilla essence then you’re buying a mixture made from synthetic substances which imitate the vanilla smell and flavour.

This often contains propylene glycol which is also found in automotive antifreeze!

It’s mass produced and relatively cheap but, of course, not in the same class as true vanilla extract.

The plant usually doesn’t flower until it’s at least 3 metres tall and it can reach a size of 20 metres and more.

If you want to try to grow this orchid, you must be sure to get Vanilla planifolia-used to be called Vanilla fragrans.

The flowers are like a skinny Cattleya (that’s an orchid) flower and they’re yellow.

A friend of mine has the variegated one growing in his laundry that faces north.

Seems to be doing pretty well.

If you have any questions about growing Vanilla orchids, drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com
  

 VEGETABLE HEROES

Well it’s TIME FOR VEGETABLE HERO. –

Okra,

OKRA the way to pronounce is "Oh krah" not "Aukra"

Okra is also known as Lady’s fingers.

Okra is in the Malvaceae or Mallow family and called

Abelmoschus esculentus. (A-bell-mow- shus es-kew-lent-us)

It used to be called Hibiscus esculentus so that may you give you a clue as to what the bush might look like.

Did you know that Okra is related to cotton, cocoa, hibiscus and Rosella plants?

"Okra probably originated somewhere around Ethiopia  and Okra is found growing wild on the banks of the river Nile. According to records, the Egyptians were the first to grow it as a veggie it in the basin of the Nile during 12th century BC .

And as Okra made it’s way to North Africa and the Middle East, more uses were developed.

Not only were the seed pods eaten cooked, the seeds were toasted and ground, and used as a coffee substitute (and still is).

Another amazing fact is that in the 1800's slaves from Africa used ground okra as a part of their diet, and this apparently led to the use of ground okra seeds as a coffee substitute by other southerners during the American Civil War blockades of the 1860's.

You might have also heard of a dish called gumbo. This comes from using Okra or gumbo as a thickener especially in soups.

 So what does the Okra bush look like?

Okra varies in height from 60cm to 2m high depending on the variety of seed you buy.

The leaves are heart shaped with plenty of yellow hibiscus-like flowers with a maroon throat.

In case you don’t know Hibiscus flowers, think of Hawaiian or Tahitian girls with flowers in their hair. Might also be a Hibiscus or a Frangipani.

As you know, after the flowers comes the fruit that looks like a five-ribbed small pod with a cap on it, sort of like a gumnut cap.

Much smaller than beans or cucumbers.

Pick these a week after the flowers emerge because the Okra, gets too tough and stringy after that.

I’m told the leaves can be used as Spinach.

Doubly useful.

When to sow.

So when do you grow it?

In sub-tropical districts, you can plant them in August and September and then again January and February.

In temperate climates, sow seeds in October through to December,

Arid areas have between August and December to sow seeds directly into the soil.

Cool temperate districts, for you, the advice is to grow them in a greenhouse, but I discovered a blog from Adam whose from a cool mountain climate and Adam says “Okra does indeed grow in the cool areas, it just needs a bit of help to establish.

Adam puts an old plastic milk bottle over the plant until it fills the bottle, then away it goes.

Just pick the warmest part of your garden.

You’ll get a small crop if you have a cold Summer, but should have heaps is the summer is warmer. Thanks Adam!.

Finally for Tropical districts, you’ve won the jackpot this week, because you can grow Okra all year round!

Growing Okra

Okra seeds germinate reasonably well, but will be helped along if you soak them in a shallow dish of tepid water for 24hours.

This will soften the hard outer seed coat.

Pick a spot that gets full sun and has plenty of compost dug into the soil.

One thing that Okra detests, and that’s wet, boggy soil or soil with poor drainage.

Okra will also be set back if you get a cold snap in your district.

Either sow the seeds directly or into punnets for later transplanting.

I have heard that they don’t like being transplanted that much so you could try sowing them in pots made of coir, or make them yourself from newspaper or toilet rolls.

A very permaculture thing to do.

Because they grow as a largish bush, space the seeds or seedlings if transplanting, about 50cm to a metre apart.

Water your Okra fairly regularly, and if your soil is too hard or clayey, grow some Okra in a pot no problem.

By the way, Okra are partial to high amounts of Potash.

During the growing period, water in lots of liquid fertiliser, such as worm tea and add handfuls of compost.

Tip pruning will also give you a bushier plant with more flowers and more Okra pods.

In warm areas of Australia, your Okra will be ready to pick in 10 weeks. In cold temperate zones however, it may take as long as 16 weeks.

Pick your Okra when they’re small and certainly before they get bigger than 10cm in length. Around 5 – 10 cm length is best.

Tip: Okra pods are referred to as mucilaginous.

What does that meant? Ughhhh! This can make them a bit slimy in cooking, so if that bothers you, don’t slice them, keep them whole.

Alternatively, add a couple of drops of vinegar or lemon juice.

I’ve also read that you should avoid growing Okra where you’ve had tomatoes, capsicums or potatoes growing previously.

For different varieties of Okra, go to www.4seasonsseeds.com.au

Two varieties I found online in Australia, are Okra Clemson Spineless, a bush that grows to 1 ½ m and Okra red Burgundy. Red Burgundy has red pods on a vigorous 1.5m tall plant with green leaves and attractive bright cherry red stems.

Why are they good for you?

Okra contains lots of valuable nutrients, almost half of which is in the form of soluble fibre, and a half of a cup of okra contains about 10% of the recommended levels of B6 and folic acid.

By the way, Okra has black seeds inside the pod. Don’t feel you have to remove them because you don’t. The seeds add flavour to the cooking.

The fibre is in that mucilage.

How about trying a mix with peppers and eggplant! Or grill it on the BBQ! :) try it !! grill it on its side for 2 minutes each!its yummy!!!!

AND THAT WAS YOUR VEGETABLE HERO SEGMENT FOR TODAY

 

DESIGN ELEMENTS

with landscape designer Jason Cornish

A few weeks ago, the topic of pool conversions covered a couple of different ways of going about it.

There’s the aesthetic and environmentally appealing pond conversion.
Sounds great, and then there was the more expensive filling in with landfill conversion.

This conversion though is a bit different and focuses on reusing the space in another way.





Let’s find out what this is all about.

 

As Australia seems to be getting drier, this conversion seems to have the most merit.

One thing that should be mentioned with the pond conversion, yes you have all the beneficial insects and pond life that come to your pond, but the evaporation will be even higher than with a normal pool, because of the plants 


.

Where there once was a pool is now a rainwater tank below ground.

 

 

PLANT OF THE WEEK

 with Hort Journal magazine editor, Karen Smith

Dipladenia

 

 

Many gardeners have  thought that these next plans- dipladenias and mandevillas and are the same plant.Sure they’re pretty much alike  but dipladenia foliage is bit smaller and the plant is more shrub-like.

However, both plants are very similar gorgeous tropical looking plants that have sky rocketed in popularity because they have so many uses. Let’s find out more about them

 

If you still don’t know the difference between a mandevilla and a dipladenia try this.

The leaves, of each plant will let you know which plant you are growing. Mandevilla leaves are longer and narrower than dipladenia leaves, which are wider and heart-shaped. Dipladenia leaves have a thicker, leathery, smooth feel, while mandevilla leaves feel rough and textured.

Dipladenias can be used pots, hanging baskets, or on their own in the garden.

Mandevillas will need some sort of trellis to support their growth.

They are easy to grow and should flower their heads off all season long.

At the end of winter give Mandevillas a hard prune to give them some shape and encourage more flowers.

Tip prune Dipladenias at this time and feed with an organic fertiliser.
sometimes Dipladenias and Mandevillas have aphids swarming on the new growth.
Often the aphids are a yellow or black colour-quite different to the aphids that you see on roses.
Nothing to really worry about because they don't affect the growth that much.
Aphids can be controlled with eco Oil.