Seasonal Gardens, Cooling Gardens

The Good Earth

Are you finding that it’s too hot to garden most days?
Or are a wise old owl, up at the crack of dawn,  getting things done in the garden. Maybe you’re waiting until early evening to do those gardening things.
Whichever it is, here’s some tips for what really needs doing in the summer garden.
Let’s find out what these important tasks are…I'm talking with www.permaculturenorth.org.au representatives, Margaret Mossakowska and Lucinda Coates.
You don’t have to convert to permaculture, just take in a few suggestions to make your garden more efficient. After all, followers of permaculture got their ideas from somewhere else, like IPM or Integrated Pest Management, that is practised by many crop farmers and orchardists so they can reduce their reliance on pesticides.
If you have any questions about mulching, or IPM, why not drop us a line to. realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675, why not drop us a line by sending in your question to realworldgardener@gmail.com or by post to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675

Vegetable Heroes

THIS WEEK’S vegetable hero and its Cucumbers. or Cucumis sativus..
Cucumbers just love the hot weather, so they’ll germinate and grow quickly at this time of the year.
Cucumbers are a member of the gourd or cucurbita family and have been grown for 4000 years!
Cucumbers were widely eaten throughout Asia and Europe by the 6th and 7th centuries A.D
Did cucumber start off in India? No-one’s really sure.
Some pretty famous people have been known to be fans of cucumbers, even cucumber pickles.
Take, Julius Ceasar, he ate them everyday, Cleopatra, thought cucumber pickles help her skin complexion, and other pickle lovers included George Washington and Queen Elizabeth 1.
Would you have thought that Cucumbers are one of the world’s favourite vegetables?
I would’ve said the tomato, but there you go.
When is the best time to grow some cucumbers?
Cucumber plants do best in all types of temperate and tropical areas and generally need temperatures between 15-33°C. Cucumbers are happiest when the average temperatures are around 21⁰C
For this reason, they are native to many regions of the world.
Sow the seeds of Cucumber in late Spring and early Summer for cool temperate districts, spring and summer for arid and temperate zones districts, from August until March in sub-tropical areas.
Only the cooler months for tropical areas-so April until August unless you’re inland.
And where can you grow these delicious cucumbers?
You need to pick a sunny, well-drained spot, because Cucumbers are a subtropical plant, that needs full sun.
Cucumbers also want a decent amount of growing space in your garden.
If you’re short on space, try growing them up vertically on a trellis or even on some netting, perhaps a tomato trellis?
In fact, growing up a trellis would be a great way to avoid all the mildews and moulds that cucumbers are prone to in still humid weather.
There’s also a number of dwarf varieties if you’d like to grow your cucumbers in pots.
Try Mini White- one of the most popular. www.diggers.com.au
Grow it for yourself and see why.
The 10cm long fruit and is best picked when young. Gives you lots of fruit per plant and it’s burpless  Or you could try Cucumber Mini Muncher as well.
If you’re in Adelaide, go to the shop in the Botanic Gardens.
How to Grow Cucumbers
The best thing is that Cucumbers aren’t picky about soils.
As long as your soil is well-draining and has a pH of around 6.5.
Add in plenty of organic compost and fertilisers like chook poo or cow manure.
I’ve seen an idea where you make mini mounds, wet the soil first and then drop in 4 -5 seeds into the top of each mound.
Mulch the mounds so they don’t dry out but not too much or you’ll be wondering why nothing is germinating, that’s because the seed has rotted away.
When your seeds have germinated, pick out the strongest couple and throw away the others so you don’t get overcrowding.
Water regularly at the base of each plant – keeping leaves dry or you risk powdery mildew disease – and feed every couple of weeks with a soluble plant food.
Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that is spread by spores carried by the wind.
Look for white to grey fungal deposits on the leaves and stems of your cucumbers. As the mildew spreads, the leaves become brittle then start to die off.
There are some types of cucumbers that resist this disease for a time anyway.

You can also try a natural fungicide. 1 part whole milk to 10 parts water, and spray in the cool of the day.
Sudden wilt is a disease is caused by pythium fungus and causes the entire plant to die and wilt. Look for root rot. This disease usually happens in poor draining soil, so add organic compost to the soil before planting to improve drainage.
Growing your cucumbers in pots and raised beds, can help this problem.
Verticillium wilt, is a fungal disease called by the Verticillium fungus. Symptoms include wilting leaves and brown discoloration of the stems and roots. You’ll typically have to open the stem to see the problem. Eventually, this disease will cause the entire plant to wilt and die. This problem often lingers in the soil where tomatoes, potatoes, chillies, and other members of the nightshade family have been planted.
Crop rotation is important to avoid this disease. There’s no spray of any kind for this problem. Leave the garden bed empty for quite a few months before planting again.
Who out there hasn’t tried a cucumber that’s tasted bitter?
I’m sure some time in your life, that’s happened hasn’t it?
There’s seems to be a few theories for bitterness in cucumbers
One theory is that the bitterness is caused early in the plant’s development by terpenoid compounds that give a bitter flavour to the entire plant.
Usually the bitterness accumulates at the stem and below the surface of the skin of the cucumber.
According to this theory it’s a genetic problem.
Newer cucumber hybrids seem to have fewer problems with bitterness.
I’ve always thought it to be the result of Cucurbitacin.
Found in most cucumber plants, Cucurbitacin causes fruit to taste bitter.
Cucurbitacin levels increase when a plant is under stress, and can make the fruit taste really bitter.
The concentration of these compounds varies from plant to plant, fruit to fruit, and even within the individual fruit itself.
Did you know that the ability to taste detect bitterness or cucurbitacins also varies from person to person.
Even insects have varying preferences for cucurbitacins- the compounds attract cucumber beetles but repel other insects, such as aphids and spider mites.
Anyway, it proves that you shouldn’t stress out your cucumbers!

By the way, if you do get a bitter cucumber, peel it and cut of the ends by about 2.5cm, that’s where the bitterness concentrated.

Just like zucchinis, cucumbers have separate male and female flowers. Male flowers come out at first, but don’t worry too much because the female flowers will arrive soon after. Cucumbers should be ready at about 50-60 days and picking fruit often stimulates more to start growing. Some of you probably have realised that if you pick your cucumbers when they’re quite small, this is when they’re at their sweetest.
Twist the cucumbers off the plant or cut the stalk just above the cucumber tip.
They keep for 7-10 days in the fridge then the start to look like something that came from outer space…green and slimy
Why are they good for you?
Cucumbers have lots of Vitamins C but why you should eat them is because the silica in cucumber is an essential component of healthy connective tissue, you know, like muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and bone.
Cucumbers have some dietary fibre and Cucumber juice is often recommended as a source of silica to improve the complexion and health of the skin, plus cucumber's high water content makes it naturally hydrating—a must for glowing skin.
So eat them quick in sandwiches  salads or juice them for healthy glowing skin!

Happy CUCUMBER growing everyone!

AND THAT WAS OUR VEGETABLE HERO SEGMENT FOR TODAY!

 Design Elements

with Landscape Designer Louise McDaid

2013 was the hottest year on record and 2014 is tipped to be just as hot if not hotter. How can we cool off without it costing us too much?
The garden is the key and you need to plan a cool garden, not cool as in groovy or fab, but cool as in temperature.
Over the next four weeks, we’ll be discussing different ways and designs that you can incorporate into your garden to make it more cool.
Let’s start off with part 1….click on the link to


Lots of great suggestion that you can start with in your garden, whether it be planning a new pergola, adding a simple water bowl with a miniature water lily, or planting up some more trees.
Green has got to be the coolest garden colour but you need different greens so that when you look out into the garden it’s not uninteresting.

Next week, part 2 is this series will be about what flower colour or foliage colour constitutes a cool or cooling garden.

Plant of the Week-Poinsettias

Plants are clever things, and over the years adapt different ways to attract pollinators to compensate for lack of flower size, such as have a modified leaf that looks like part of the flower.
Quite a few plants do this and no-one knows why they evolved that way instead of growing bigger flowers.

Euphorbia pulcherrima or Poinsettia is a evergreen shrub or small tree, typically reaching a height of 0.6–4 metres.

It’s partly or completely deciduous in cold areas.

 

The coloured bracts—which are most often flaming red but can be orange, pale green, cream, pink, white or marbled—are often mistaken for flower petals because of their groupings and colours, but are actually modified  leaves.

The colours of the bracts are created through photoperiodism, meaning that they require darkness (12 hours at a time for at least 5 days in a row) to change colour.

At the same time, the plants need bright light during the day for the brightest colour.

For Christmas production in Australia, plants are kept in the dark with heavy curtains in glasshouses to get the right amount of darkness to colour up.

They’re also sprayed with a dwarfing compound to keep the small so they suit table decorations at Christmas time.

Of course as soon as people plant them in the ground, they shoot up to their natural height.

The flowers of the poinsettia are unassuming and do not attract pollinators. They are grouped within small yellow structures found in the centre of each leaf bunch, and are called cyathia.

The poinsettia is native to humid areas in southern Mexico

Just remember that Poinsettias are not frost-tolerant when choosing a site to plant out into the garden.
They will grow outdoors in temperate coastal climates.
Poinsettias are not poisonous. A study at Ohio State University showed that a small child would have to eat more than 500 leaves to have any harmful effect.
Plus poinsettia leaves have an awful taste. You might want to keep your pets from snacking on poinsettia leaves. Eating the leaves can cause vomiting and diarrhoea.
 

All Things Green and Beautiful

The Good Earth

Growing produce in shady gardens.
Are you finding that as your trees and shrubs have matured, the garden has become more shady?
There’s a few things that you can do, one is to renovate your garden, either by calling in professionals to remove or judiciously prune some branches to let in more light, and the other to grow shade tolerant plants underneath.
But what about veggies? Don’t they need full sun? Let’s find out about growing produce in shady gardens.


You don’t have to convert to permaculture to grow vegetables in the shade.
Anyone can do that. It’s just knowing what can tolerate shade and what doesn’t.
Borrowing a few principles from permaculture makes for a good gardener because you’re embracing new ways to do things.
If you're interested in permaculture workshops to find out more visit www.permaculturenorth.org.au
If you have any questions or tips about what grows in shady produce gardens drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com or by post to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675

Vegetable Heroes

  ZUCCHINI or Cucurbita pepo.
Summer squashes, and winter squashes, are native to the Americas and belong to the cucurbitaceae family of melons and squashes.
In the culinary world, squash, including zucchini, are used as vegetables but did you know that botanically speaking, zucchini is the immature fruit, or swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower.
Archaeologists have traced their origins to Mexico, dating back from 7,000 to 5,500BCE, when they were included in most meals along with maize, beans, and squashes.
Zucchini is the more common name in Italy and probably where the name came from.
Zucca means squash in Italian and Zucchini, is little squash.

We call this veggie Zucchini as they do in North America, and Germany, while courgette is the name you’ll hear in the United Kingdom, Greece, New Zealand, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and South Africa.
Zucchinis are sort of a shrub that is a bushy, non-vining plants with large, dark green, mature leaves that have silver-gray splotches and streaks.
The plants are monoecious, meaning they grow male and female flowers on the same plant. Zucchini grows outwards and spreads but doesn’t send out long runners like pumpkins.
Zucchini fruits can be dark or light green, grey green and a related hybrid, the golden zucchini is a deep yellow or orange colour. They are usually long, sort of cigar like and you eat the whole thing, skin and all.
When to Grow
 In temperate areas, plant out zucchinis from September through to January.
Cool temperate areas, you have been October and January
Arid areas, yes that’s you in Alice Springs and Broken Hill, you have a bigger window, September through to March'
Sub-tropical, August to February, but for tropical areas, now’s too hot. Your Zucchini planting time is April to August. Very different from the rest of Australia!

.Having said all that Zucchinis are great for the beginner gardener because they are quick and easy to grow.

Come to think of it, the last few vegetable heroes are perfect for beginner gardeners-beans, sunflowers and Yacon.

How to Grow

To grow your Zucchinis, prepare your soil with the usual digging in some compost or cow manure. Zucchinis are light feeders so won’t need much more than an occasional feed with some liquid fish fertiliser.
Sow your zucchini seed where you want them to grow.
Mound up the soil and then make a indent up to your first knuckle, or even 7 cm deep, and drop in 3 seeds.
When they shoot up pick the strongest one and discard the others. It will get too crowed otherwise.
TIP: Planting your seeds deeply will make your plant more drought tolerant.
Zucchinis can take up a lot of space so maybe try growing them vertically. That way there’s also improved air circulation so the fungal problems are a lot less.
You could grow them in pot that way. The pot would have to be about 30cm diameter.
The important thing with growing them vertically is have lots of soft ties, like old panty hose cut into strips, so you can tie up the stems as they grow. That way they won’t flop all over the place and probably break their stems.
How to Pollinate Zucchini Flowers.
If you don't get many bees or pollinating insects around your way you might need to pollinate the zucchini flowers yourself.
Get a cotton wool bud and take some pollen from the male flower. Male flowers tend to be on the end of a long narrow stalk.
Female flowers are a lot closer to the main stem and have a swelling behind the petals. Just like female flowers on pumpkins.
Look inside the female flower. There should be a golden formation. Dab the male pollen all over this female part. Hopefully in a few weeks that swelling behind the female flower will grow into a zucchini.
Fully grown zucchini leaves tend to look a motley silvery grey colour which looks like the fungal problem powdery mildew.
Don’t worry, this is the normal Zucchini leaf and unless you’re watering the leaves this shouldn’t happen.
Powdery mildew looks quite different and usually covers the whole leaf. This mildew grows on wet zucchini leaves or on any veggie leaves that are wet.
TIP:WATER THE ROOTS NOT THE LEAVES.
In summer you'll need to keep your zucchini's water levels high. They dehydrate very quickly on hot days so mulch them heavily (but remember to keep the mulch away from the main stem).
There are two main problems that gardeners have when growing zucchinis.
When the fruits are 5cm long, they rot and drop off. This is a pollination problem. You might have to pollinate them yourself. Next year grow a whole lot of flowers nearby like Borage, nasturtiums or marigolds.
The second problem sounds like blossom end rot where fruit almost ready to harvest starts rotting from the top.
If this happens you need to add lime to the soil at the time of planting.
Too late this season. Otherwise it can be caused by irregular watering, that means, too much drying out in between waterings.
If your plants have many days of no water and then a glut of it, blossom end rot can develop, ruining the fruit.
Zucchinis need to be regularly harvested, usually when they’re about 20cm long.
Picking them help the plant to keep on cropping. If you let Zucchinis grow too big-like a metre long, they’re not much good as a vegetable to eat because they become too tough and contain mostly seeds.
The flowers are also edible - they can be used in salads, as garnish, and even fried.
Why is it good  for you?
The zucchini vegetable is low in calories, about 15 calories per 100 g fresh zucchini.
1/2 cup of zucchini also contains 19% of the recommended daily amount of Manganese
As well as Zucchini containing large amounts of folate and potassium, the rind contains the nutrient beta-carotene, so to get the most out of your zucchini, you should also eat the rind.\
If you want some unusual varieties, go online to buy the seeds on Goldfinger Hybrid, (16cm) Costata Romanesco-speckled with light coloured ribbing.
www.newgipps.com.au-
Ring for the website or if you don’t have a computer or like shopping on line there’s also a free call number. 1800 887 732 Both of these I’ll put it on my WEBSITE
Storing Zucchini-Store zucchini fresh and unwashed in a cold dry place, like the fridge, for about 3-5 days.
After that they start to get soft and wrinkly, and nobody wants that. Makes you wonder about the zucchinis that you buy in supermarkets. How has their shelf life been increased? Better to grow you own.

Design Elements

with landscape designer Christopher Owen
Today a new four part series starts on garden design using Ornamental grasses. The first segment is an introduction to the topic and the difference between strappy leaved plants and ornamental grasses is explained. Following on from that will be how to start a garden design with ornamental grasses, then different styles of gardens that ornamental grasses can act as a complement, and lastly, a look at some famous designers and their designs, that use these type of grasses.

Believe me, there’s a lot in them thar grasses.
Let’s start….
PLAY: Grasses Pt 1 _11^th December 2013
Christopher Owen is very passionate about using grasses in his designs because it’s not just the appearance that affects the overall design of a garden, but the texture and sounds that you can also create.
Something to think about.

 

 

Plant of the Week

For millions of years these types of Magnolias grew in gorges and valleys, outlasting many ice ages and the extinction of families of plants and animals.
The tree has evolved with what is now one of the most magnificent flowers you’ll ever see and a scent that is delicate yet powerful. So what is this plant”  , let’s find out…

The fragrance of the flowers outlast the cut flowers and can fill a room with delicious lemony scent.
Interestingly the flowers of the Magnolia have no nectar but only pollen. Bees aren’t the primary pollinators but they certainly go there for a feast of pollen as well as the major pollinators-all kinds of beetles..

Evergreen Magnolias
Magnolia Grandiflora is the 'Evergreen Magnolia'
There are many forms of this Magnolia now and they vary in size from large specimen trees such as Bull Bay Magnolia, Magnolia Exmouth,  to types suited to screening such as the smaller growing Magnolia Teddy Bear.
Magnolia Grandiflora will grow up to 20m or more, an absolutely fantastic specimen tree in park or a very large garden.

 We need to point out that the Michelia group of evergreens, like Michelia figo, the port wine magnolia and Michelia champaca , Himalayan cedar, in 2006 because of a cladistic analysis of the genus Michelia, they were moved to the genus Magnolia, with the name now being Magnolia figo and Magnolia champaca.

 

There’s too much to say about this group so we’re sticking to the large leaved original Magnolias and leave the others for another segment.

Magnolia grandiflora is native to southern USA where it grows is on edges of swamps and lakes on fairly rich soil.
No surprise that this magnolia's common name is Southern Magnolia or Bull Bay Magnolia.

The leaves are mainly oval shaped around,  and quite large, stiff and leathery to about 12–20 cm long and 6–12 cm wide, with smooth margins.

The underneath of the leaves is brown and felty, sometimes described as scurfy with yellow-brown pubescence.

The dinner plate sized, lemon-scented flowers are white, up to 30 cm across and, with 6–12 tepals with a waxy texture, growing from the tips of twigs on mature trees in December to January.

 Flowering is followed by the red seeds

 New cultivars including Magnolia Kay Parris and Magnolia Teddy Bear are now on the market and these have slightly different foliage and flower forms.

Magnolia 'Little gem' was the first of the so called 'dwarf' magnolias, however it will still grow to 10m.

Magnolia 'Little Gem' can be pruned back to a certain extent but sometimes the pruned branch dies back or only one shoot will result.

Some say that this makes it suited for maintaining as a tall hedge, but I disagree.

I think the large leaves on Magnolia Little Gem, make it look ungainly, untidy, and  awkward looking as a hedge.

But it might make a great as feature tree instead.

The cultivar 'Kay Parris' Magnolia has a very long flowering season, tolerates cold a little more than most magnolias.

The leaves are a nice green, extremely glossy, and a deep orange on the underside.

Marginally smaller growing than 'Little Gem' perhaps to only 6-9m, again it makes a nice specimen tree as it has good structure and holds its shape well,

Again, I don’t like big leaved plants as a hedge, but some say that 'Kay Parris' Magnolia could also be a screening plant and it's faster growing tree than 'Little Gem'

 Magnolia 'Teddy Bear' is smaller growing than even 'Kay Paris'.

Teddy Bear Magnolia is different to others in that the dark green leaves are rounded and cup shaped and quite densely held.
Will still grow to 6m, however like both 'Little Gem' and 'Kay Paris' if pruned in winter it can easily be kept more compact.
Large white flowers to almost 20cm.
Evergreen Magnolias are fairly versatile, in general,  evergreen magnolias prefer full sun to part shade.

Humus rich soil. and protect from hot drying winds

In pots in temperate and humid climates, the leaves can develop cotton cushiony scale.