Having a Shearing Time with Flowers

TOOL TIME

Shears and Hedge Shears

Do you use a whipper snipper for just about every edging job in your garden?
Are you happy with the results?

Whether you are pruning a Knot  Garden or just a few shrubs you need to know what works best.

Knot Garden-Hatfield House photo M. Cannon

Whipper snippers aren’t so good for areas where you’ve got lots of low growing plants that have crept over your lawn.
If these plants get whippered snippered back, not only does it look ugly, but sometimes these plants don’t recover that well if ever.
The same with electric trimmers. They tend to tear the branches.
So what’s the alternative?
Hedge shears, Grass shears, Topiary shears. Straight blades or wavy blades.
Which is best to use for you?
Let’s find out about hedge and grass shears. I'm talking with Tony Mattson, General Manager of www.cutabovetools.com.au

The old saying goes "you get what you pay for" so by investing in quality tools, you’re likely to have less fatigue, fewer breakdowns and longer tool life.

When choosing the type of hedge shears you want, think about how much you'll use them, where you'll use them, who will be using them, and, of course, how much you can spend on them.Wavy and straight blades are interchangeable in their use.

The wavy blades hold the stem of what your cutting rather than pushing it out. 

Wavy blades are no harder to sharpen than straight blades, with various sharpening devices to accommodate them.

There's also no difference in weight between wavy and straight blades. 

The weight is mainly in the length of the handles.

Hedge shears should not be used to cut twigs or branches bigger than a ladies fingers.

Grass Shears

Bigger plant material than that, and the blades will be bowed out which is pretty hard to fix.
There’s no need to use your hedge shears to cut your lawn edges; for that your need grass shears or edging shears because these are perfect for lawn edges.

If you have any questions hedge shears, drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675

VEGETABLE HEROES

Edible Flowers

Have you ever thought of eating the flowers of some of your plants but decided you didn’t know if they were safe?

Why would you eat flowers anyway? Did you know that flowers that are edible are featuring in some of Australia’s top restaurants, including those of violas, baby’s breath, fennel, coriander, peas, rocket and Borage?
Some explanation can be found from the history of edible flowers which can be traced back thousands of years.
Romans used edible flowers such as mallows, roses and violets in a lot of their dishes.
You’ve probably heard of and even eaten capers, but did you know capers (Capparis spinosa) are the flower buds of a Mediterranean evergreen shrub and have been used to flavour foods and sauces for over 2,000 years? 

Edible flowers such as daylilies and chrysanthemums have been used by the Chinese and Greeks for centuries.
In a fifteenth century book of recipes is a list of herbs considered necessary for the garden and include borage flowers, daisies, violets to be used in soup, violets for sauce and gilly flowers (that’s clove pinks to you and me) for drinks."

Seems like eating flowers is nothing new

Which Flowers?

Nobody says you should tuck into a plate of flowers, because that would be too much.
If you suffer from hayfever, then give eating flowers a big miss as well.
Never eat flowers bought at a flower shop or nursery as these may have been treated with harmful chemical
Another warning, not all flowers are edible, and some are poisonous if you can’t identify the flower, then don’t eat it.
Then there are some that aren’t poisonous, but don’t taste nice.
Stick to the ones you can identify from the ones that are mentioned in this segment.

Which flowers are safe?

Well, I’ll talk you through a number of flowers some you might know already.
Back to that question of why are restaurants adding flowers to their dishes?..
Is there something that you eat that’s a tad boring that needs an extra bit of zing and colour?
Ever thought of tossing Nasturtium and Calendula petals into a fresh garden salad, or top a parfait with a couple of violets or heartsease?
Everyone’s heard of stuffed zucchini flowers, and maybe Nasturtium flowers as well. They’re easy to identify.

But what do they taste like?
Nasturtium flowers are sweet with a peppery flavour.
Zucchini flowers taste sweet, with a honey nectar flavour.

What about any others?
Calendula or Pot Marigold tastes a bit like Saffron-spicy tangy and peppery.
Flowers of the herb Rocket are much less peppery than the leaves, but the propeller shaped flowers are delicate, so handle these carefully.

Violets and heartsease taste like sweet nectar and suit desert dishes.

Borage is another one that many people might know already-those bright blue flowers on the blue-green stalks with large leaves that are a bit rasp like to touch. Borage flowers tastes a little like mild cucumbers.

Borage flowers

Pea flowers –guess what, they taste like peas.
What should you do when collecting the flowers and how do you use them in your dishes?
First of all, unless the flavour suits the dish, then there’s no point to adding the flower, so good chefs say.
Take note all you budding Masterchefs.
Looking pretty isn’t enough, it has to enhance the food.
You might use pea flowers with other green flavours, and of course the flowers that taste of sweet nectar are used to lift the flavours of sweet dishes.
Those with peppery or spicey flavours go well in salads.

Less peppery than the leaves.

How to pick your flowers.
Pick your flowers just before you’re about to use them if at all possible.
Check them carefully for bugs, but don’t wash them, because the petals are fairly delicate.
Store them in the fridge in a plastic container covered with a damp paper towel while you’re preparing dinner, or lunch.
Just as you’re about to serve the meal, add the flowers as a final touch.
Sweet flowers can be combined with tea or frozen into ice cubes.
Ground dried petals can be mixed into biscuit pastry or pancake batter for something different.
Some flowers in your vegetable garden you don’t want to pick because they’ll grow into veggies that you want.
So just be selective.
There are others that you need to pick even if you’re not going to eat them because the leaves of these plants become bitter, these are greens including spinach, kale, mustard, bok choi, broccoli, and lettuces,radish and for herbs, basil, coriander, thyme, and mint.

Why are edible flowers good for you?
The flowers contain a portion of the same nutrients that the plant they came from has. Simple as that.
Finally, remember if you’re not sure, to check with a reference book, your garden centre or nursery, before eating a flower to make sure it’s safe to eat.

LIVING PLANET

How To Look After Your Worm Farm? Getting Started.

Still not convinced about worm farms?
Well did you know that in one worm, there is around 474, 075 million bacteria ?
These bacteria do an incredibly important job – mainly making minerals available to your plants.
From the reference “Earthworms in Australia’, by David Murphy,
When compared to the parent soil (the original soil), worm castings (the worm’s poo) have approximately:

7 times the available phosphorous: 6 times the available nitrogen
3 times the available magnesium: 2 times the available carbon
1.5 times the available calcium
So which worms go best in worm farms?
Let’s find out. I'm talking with Sophie Goulding, environment project officer with a local council.

Worms like to be kept moist and covered because they're Sensitive to light.
Keep your worm farm in a shady spot so that they don't overheat and on hot days, give them a sprinkle of water.

worms hate light.

The worms don’t create the minerals out of thin air but change their form from insoluble to soluble by digesting them.
That’s reason enough to get into worm farming.

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Crucifix Orchid.
Epidendrum ibaguense

For some people, orchid growing successfully eludes them but there’s a reason why.
Most supermarket chains sell the gorgeous and enticing moth orchid, but they’re not for beginners.
If you’ve failed with a moth orchid, (Phalaenopsis  spp.) you need to go for something tough and easy that you can practically throw onto the ground and it will grow.
Let’s find out about this plant.I'm talking with the plant panel- Karen Smith, editor of Hort Journal www.hortjournal.com.au and Jeremy Critchley, The Green Gallery wholesale nursery owner. www.thegreengallery.com.au

Crucifix orchids are constantly in flower and don’t have any trouble clinging to rock, as their roots work their way into tiny crevices and cracks.

Epidendrum ibaguense

Crucifix orchids have tough, leathery leaves along reed-like stems, which can be up to 1.2m long. The clusters of starry flowers appear at the end of each stem and come in red, orange, yellow, purple, white and salmon.

This is the perfect orchid for beginners as they’re incredibly tough and can be grown in any free-draining mix in pots or the garden, or simply tucked into a rockery.

Gardening with Shear Frost Diamonds

TOOL TIME

Do you use a whipper snipper for just about every edging job in your garden?

Hedge Shears

Are you happy with the results?
Whipper snippers aren’t so good for areas where you’ve got lots of low growing plants that have crept over your lawn.
If these plants get whippered-snippered back, not only does it look ugly, but sometimes these plants do recover that well.
The same with electric trimmers. They tend to tear.
So what’s the alternative?
Hedge shears, Grass shears, Topiary shears.
Straight blades or wavy blades.
Which is best to use for you?
Let’s find out hedge and grass shears. I'm talking with Tony Mattson, General Manager of Cut Above Tools. www.cutabovetools.com.au



Edging Shears

Grass Shears

There's no difference in weight between straight and wavy blades.
However, if you try and cut branches that are too big or hard for the shears, then you risk bending the blades or putting them out of alignment.

Try and work out what your purpose is and what you're trying to cut. You might need those long handled loppers for the tougher parts of the job.

Blades' length vary from 20 - 25 cm (8 - 10 inches,) any longer than that is not efficient.
By investing in quality tools, you’re likely to have less fatigue, fewer breakdowns and longer tool life.

When choosing the type of hedge shears you want, think about how much you'll use them, where you'll use them, who will be using them, and, of course, how much you can spend on them.
There’s no need to use your hedge shears to cut your lawn edges; for that your need grass shears or edging shears because these are perfect for lawn edges.


If you have any questions about hedge or grass shears, or have some information to share, drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675

VEGETABLE HEROES

Do you like to try to grow new plants you’ve never heard of before in your garden?
Well here’s one for you, Cardamom (Elletaria Cardamomum) is a member of the Zingiberaceae or ginger family.

Cardamom has been long used for medicinal purposes and even today Cardamom is the world’s third most-valuable spice by weight (after saffron and vanilla).
Did you know that Cleopatra is said to have found the scent so enticing that she had the palace scented with cardamom smoke when Marc Anthony came to visit?
Ancient Greeks and Romans used cardamom in foods as well as for Medicines and perfumes.
In the New Testament which was largely written in Greek "amooman" appears in reference to the aromatic plant cardamom.
The word means blameless without reproach.
Around 200 years ago, most of the world's supply was sourced from wild plants found in rainforests of the Western Ghats in Southern India.
These wild plants covered the whole region  which was named the Cardamom Hills, a name that remains to this day.
Cardamom seed is a staple seasoning in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisines, in which it is used to flavour meat, vegetables, baked goods, coffee and other Cardamom is a perennial (means it won’t grow a trunk or turn into a tree) with tall simple canes or stems that grow out of rhizomes.
It’s native to the shady forests of India, Ceylon and Malaysia.
Today it is grown mainly on plantations in Guatemala and India
The tall plants, grown on these plantations in flower for eight or nine months of the year.
Each pod, or capsule, ripens slowly, but must be picked when it is three-quarters ripe.
After harvest, the pods are washed and dried and the colour of the pod depends on how it’d dried.
White pods have been dried for many days in the sun leaving them bleached.
Green pods have been dried for one day and night in a heated room.
The flower spikes produce white or pale green flowers that produce green pod capsules that contain 10 to 20 seeds.
These seeds are small black and sticky.
The best quality cardamom seeds are ripe, hard and dark brown in colour.
 The seeds have to be hand picked which is why it’s one of the most expensive spices.
The pod itself is not the spice but the three seeds inside each pod, that are considered the spice.
If you go online to look how to grow Cardamom, you’ll find information that tells you that it’s difficult to grow.
I dare say this information is written by people in the America or England.
I beg to differ, it’s easy to grow in especially in temperate climates, although I haven’t seen any seed pods on mine or on the plant in the Sydney Botanic gardens. Maybe they’re both too young because it takes 4 years for plants growing in plantations to produces flowers and pods.
What does it look like?


Cardamom plant

A low-growing, leafy tropical plant to about 2 metres, which grows on the jungle floor in the wild: Cardamoms have smooth dark green sword shaped leaves on long stalks, which are spicily scented when bruised.
Growing Cardamom-
Cardamom is a tough plant and drought tolerant as well if you grow
it in the right spot.
So-get a rhizome because the cardamom you buy from the spice section of your supermarket has been dried, and won’t ever germinate.
True to its original habitat, cardamom prefers humous rich  soil, filtered light and room to grow.  
You can grow it in a pot if you really  must, but over summer it will get pot-bound, and refuse to flower, so you must keep dividing the plant and passing it out to friends (a great gift, by the way).
Even if your plant doesn’t flower you will have a huge supply of fragrant leaves, which is just as good to have as the spice.
From winter to middle of summer feed your plant with fish emulsion.
Cardamom doesn’t like chilly weather, so move your plant indoors in Autumn as soon as the temperature drops below 5 ⁰ C.
It grows into quite a big plant so too big for a sunny windowsill, but a sunny spot indoors or on the verandah in cooler climates will work especially if you mist it
periodically, or shower it in the bathtub from time to time.
In the wild, cardamom gets a lot of rain;  so a potted cardamom also needs plenty of moisture, but it won’t tolerate poor drainage, which can cause the rhizomes to rot.
Usually trouble free but if plants are too cold their leaves turn brown.
In that case move it to a warmer place, then cut off the brown leaves cut because they often regrow although this can take a long time.
Keep the plant fairly dry while it’s recovering.
If the leaves develop brown tips at any time (even if the plant is kept warm) it is a sign of overwatering.
By the way, Cardamom makes quite a dense clump, a bit like Strelitzia or Bird of Paradise plants.
You might find if it gets quite big, that  it’s quite difficult to dig out if you no longer what the plant in that situation.
What do you do with it?

Cardmomo pods-green.

The leaves don't smell the same as the seeds, but can be used to wrap around fish, rice or vegetables to add flavour during cooking.
The long stalks are useful to tie the leaves together to make a neat parcel of food. The cardamom pods sold for cooking are picked when unripe so the seeds will not grow if you try to sow them
Cardamom seeds lose their flavor quickly when ground so buy them whole whenever possible.
Green pods are superior to white pods for flavour.
Green cardamom has a subtle to sweet fragrance.
Why is it good for you?
Cardamom helps digestion and helps if you’ve got stomach cramps.
It’s a good stimulant and beneficial for those suffering from flatulence and gas.
Cardamom also helps in cleansing the body as it has detoxifying properties.
It improves blood circulation , enhances appetite and provides relief from acidity in the stomach. It’s used in the cure of halitosis or bad breath.
If you are lucky enough to have access to a cardomom plant, the leaves also have a cinnamon fragrance and are ideal for wrapping small parcels of meat and rice for steaming.
These are best wrapped and steamed the day before you want to use them, then  stored in the refrigerator over night and re-warmed up in a steamer just prior to serving. The mild cinnamon-pine flavour will permeate the contents adding a subtle aroma - perfect for coconut rice.
AND THAT WAS YOUR VEGETABLE HERO FOR TODAY?

DESIGN ELEMENTS

Hard Surfaces for Outdoor Dining

Formal outdoor settings photo M Cannon

This garden series with Garden Designer Peter Nixon, is all about garden challenges thrown at us mostly by nature but also due to a situation in your garden that you might need to fix.
Today’s garden challenge is for those areas in your garden where you want to put outdoor dining table and chairs.
For your dining setting you'll probably have chairs and a table, but you don't want them to sink into the soil.
If you don't want formality because it will be at odds with your planting, then you need to consider the alternatives that will be outlined in the podcast.
Let’s find out. I'm talking with Peter Nixon, garden designer www.peternixon.com.au


Peter suggested using salt textured concrete that’s really just concrete that’s finished with a different finish and doesn’t appear as a hard surface.

Informal setting for outdoor dining. photo M Cannon

While the concrete surface is not set, you can also use coloured oxides and then either some pebbles, or press any large leaf onto the concrete as a stencil.
Push the pebbles into the hard surface with a rubber mallet so they don’t become a trip hazard.
Then use edging material to create a channel around the edges and into that plant mini mondo grass.
If you have any questions about what hard surface to have in your garden, or have some information to share, write in realworldgardener@gmail.com

PLANT OF THE WEEK

New Euphorbias:Euphorbia Diamond Frost
Euphorbia Stardust Pink Glitter and Euphorbia Stardust White Sparkle.
Some of you may know Euphorbias in the perennial border.
Did you know that the variation within this genus is amazing, some people might even say awesome.
From low-growing garden weeds called petty spurge to giant, cactus-like succulents.

Euphorbia Diamond Frost

Segue to an annual called Gypsophila or baby’s breath. What do they have in common with several newish cultivars of Euphorbia for your garden
Let’s find out …I'm talking with the Plant Panel; Karen Smith editor of Hort Journal magazine, and Jeremy Critchley wholesale nursery owner www.thegreengallery.com.au

The petals are actually small and dainty like baby’s breath, but there are so many of them that the leaves are scarcely visible.
These new delicate looking but tough, high impact Euphorbia plants flower every day of the year in warmer climates.

Euphorbia Diamond Frost

Stardust is more compact than Diamond Frost and is ideal for patio pots and garden borders in full sun positions.

Heat and drought tolerant, a truly low maintenance plant.

Euphorbias all produce a mostly white latex which they oozes out of the stems when cut, and this sap is often toxic.

If you have any questions about growing Euphorbia white Stardust or Pink Stardust why not write in to realworldgardener@gmail.com