A Bit of Sage, Coriander and Masses of TriColoured Jasmine

SPICE IT UP

Sage

Salvia officinalis
What would you say to a herb that can remove grease from plates?
Not only that, drinking tea made from the leaves of this herb helps treat sore throats and coughs; often by gargling.
All these attributes are for the herb sage.

To get grease off your dinner plates without using harsh chemicals all you need to do is macerate some fresh sage leaves and rub them on the plates, and voila', clean plates.

But did you know that the world's best sage comes from the Dalmation coast growing amongst rocks on the island of Kornati?

Find out more by listening to the podcast.

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

Scientifically known as Salvia officinalis, sage is closely related to rosemary, and they’re often considered “sister herbs.

Sage grows best in sandy, alkaline soil.
It grows up to 75 cm in height and has woody, branching stems.
Its pebble-like patterned, aromatic leaves are grey-green, with a soft surface and fine hair-like filaments growing on either side.
During summer, the violet-blue flowers attract bees.
If you have any questions about sage the herb, why not email us realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675

VEGETABLE HEROES

Coriander or Coriandrum sativum?

Is Coriander really Cilantro or is that just what Americans call it?
Well, it’s just a bit of a technical difference to confuse us poor gardeners.
Cilantro refers to the leaves of the plant and coriander refers to the seeds.
In Australia we call the leaves and the seeds coriander and some people even call it Chinese parsley.
So coriander leaf is nothing else but cilantro.
People either hate it or love Coriander because it does have a pungent citrus flavour to the leaves.
Coriander flowers belong in the Apiaceae or carrot family, where Parsley, dill and carrots belong.
Coriander has been grown for over 3,000 years.

Did you know that about half a litre of coriander seeds were found in the tomb of Tutankhamen?
Because this plant doesn’t grow wild in Egypt, this suggests that coriander was grown in the gardens of ancient Egyptians.
The Chinese once believed it gave you immortality and in the Middle ages it was used as part of a love potions. \

What is Coriander?
Coriander is a very familiar herb that we are used to seeing at the greengrocers and in the supermarket.
It’s called an annual herb because it flowers, sets seed then dies in under a year..

So why should we grow Coriander?

Heaps of Coriander leaves and seeds are used in curries, tagines and many other Asian dishes.
In fact the whole herb, including the roots can be ground up to make Green Curry paste.

Now here’s a big tip:
Always grow coriander from seed, sown in the exact spot you want it to grow as it absolutely HATES being transplanted.
Transplanting coriander stresses it so that it goes straight to seed and then it dies. And you never get any leaves at all!
Coriander gets a has a big taproot as it grows so growing it in a pot won’t work either, it’ll go straight to seed as well.,

 TO GROW IT FROM SEED..
For sub-tropical and arid zones, you have August to September;
And in temperate districts, sow the seeds from September until the end of November,
In cool temperate zones, October to November,
Sow your seeds about 1 cm deep, cover them and keep them moist.
Whether or not you sow them in rows, scatter them amongst your other veggies, or use them to grow as a shade plant for your lettuce, it really doesn’t matter.
Coriander takes a couple of weeks to germinate, so go do it after my program.
Coriander grow fairly big, about 50 cm or 2 feet tall.

Big Tip: Grasshoppers don’t like coriander, so plant it around the spinach to stop the grasshoppers eating holes in the leaves.
You want about 5 cm between the plants if you grow it for the leaves..
Leave a few plants to go to seed, yes, on purpose so you have a continuous supply.
When your plants is big enough, take the leaves off from the base of the plant.
Just make sure the plant is big enough to cope and leave some leaves on it so it can continue to grow.
As soon as that flower stalk appears, your coriander plant stops making more
leaves.

Just remember when coriander plants get stressed, or in hot weather, or once they reach a certain age, they stop making leaves and instead start growing a tall flower stalk. 

So it’s a good idea to-sow some coriander seeds every few weeks during the growing season. 

Coriander flowers arean important food source for beneficial insects.

It’s a good idea to leave in a few plants that have gone to flower because the Coriander flowers are an important food source for beneficial insects, especially little parasitic wasps and predatory flies.

To attract many beneficial insects you want lots and lots of coriander flowers why not sprinkle some coriander and parsley seeds through your other vegetables under your fruit trees and in any other place you can fit them.

Keep watering and feeding your coriander plants well, and wait for the flower to develop and set seeds.

In hot weather this may take as little as 4 - 6 weeks from when you first put the seed in the ground.

Fresh cilantro (coriander) should be stored in the refrigerator in a zip lock bag or wrapped in a slightly damp paper towel. Use as early as possible since it loses flavour and nutrients quickly if kept for longer periods.

Why Is It Good For You?

Coriander contains no cholesterol; but is rich in anti-oxidants and dietary fibre.
The herb is a good source of minerals like potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, and magnesium.
It’s also rich in many vital vitamins like folic-acid, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin- A, beta carotene, vitamin-C that are essential for optimum health. Coriander leaves provides 30% of daily recommended levels of vitamin-C.

Coriander is one of the richest herbal sources for vitamin K; provides about 258% of DRI.

THAT WAS YOUR VEGETABLE HERO FOR TODAY?

DESIGN ELEMENTS

Mass Planting Series
Mass planting for large and small gardens part 1
Would you think that mass planting a garden would be something easy to do?
On the surface it sounds easy; just pick a couple of types of plants that you like and away you go, would that be right?

Mass planting for large gardens: Scampston, England photo M Cannon

The answer is no, because visually you might end up with such a boring garden as to be exasperating.
Have you heard the rule “ the greater amount of texture you use the louder your garden reads visually?”
Let’s find out about this wonderful rule.
I'm talking with Garden Designer, Peter Nixon, Director of www.peternixon.com.au

If you have a large expanse of garden with all the same colour green , the same leaf shape and the same texture, the garden will be homogenous and even boring.

You'll be asking "Where's my beautiful garden?"

Find plants that you like but try and like ones with different leaf shapes, colours and textures when you’re doing planting on a biggish scale.

Peter suggests as an example of texture and leaf contrast, Poa Eskdale with Opuntia Burbank Spineless.

If you want mass planting to hide the fence, try

Viburnum odoratissium "Dense Fence," or Quick Fence.

As Peter says, even if it’s a small garden, don’t put lots of little plants in, but less plants that are bigger works better.

PLANT OF THE WEEK

Tricolour Jasmine

Last week I asked if you liked the colour pink in your garden?
This next plant doesn’t have significant flowers but does have pink in it’s leaves.
Better still, it grows in shade, under trees and in other difficult spots where you might find it hard to get something to grow.

Let’s find out about this plant.
I'm talking with the plant panel were Karen Smith, editor of Hort Journal www.hortjournal.com.au and Jeremy Critchley, The Green Gallery wholesale nursery owner. www.thegreengallery.com.au

Tricolour Jasmine is nothing like the Chinese Star Jasmine because it doesn’t have those perfumed flowers and doesn’t need a whip and a chair to keep it under control.
Ahem, whip and chair borrowed from Peter Nixon Garden Designer that is.
As long as you don’t put it into full sun or afternoon sun, you won’t get burnt leaves.
Another one of those low maintenance plants that horticulturalists say doesn’t really exist. But here it is.

Sage Advice in the Garden

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
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Spice it Up

with Ian Hemphill

Sage.
Salvia officinalis.
Did you know that during the days of the Roman Empire, women made a strong tea of this herb to darken their hair.
If you’ve got a herb garden, you need to plant some because it’s useful in attracting important pollinators mainly bees, to your garden. 
Let’s find out what this important herb is…

Growing sage in the perennial border will add that grey colour to contrast with the purples and pinks In some regions Sage doesn’t last that long, because like Lavender, it detests humidity and hates really cold weather.
So, either treat it like an annual and either sow seeds every year or buy seedlings, or keep it in a pot.In the kitchen, the sage herb is great with flavour of meats and cheeses.
If you have any questions about growing sage or using sage in your cooking, why not drop us a line to. realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675

Vegetable Heroes:

Watermelon: Citrullus LanatusDid you know that there’s an Australian Melon Association?
Watermelons are thought  to have evolved from a Citron, which grew in the Kalahari desert in Africa.
Who would’ve thought that watermelon fruit can be seen in drawings in Egyptian hieroglyphics dating back 5,000 years.
Why? Because the Egyptians believed that by placing the Watermelons in the burial tombs of Kings, it would nourish the occupants in the afterlife.
From Egypt, watermelon spread via trading ships to other countries along the Mediterranean Sea and then to Europe by the Moors people during the13th century.
No surprises that watermelons belongs to the melon family and can be round, soccer ball-size or an elongated, egg shape with smooth, hard, thick, green or yellow skin or rind.
Some watermelons are strongly striped with dark green markings, and others are only faintly mottled dark green.
The colour of the inner cool, sweet and refreshing flesh varies from red to yellow.
Dark brown seeds are arranged around the centre.
What may be surprising to you is that the pale rind just beneath the hard skin, can be cooked and eaten like a vegetable.
In fact you can make rind pickles!



Sowing Watermelon
In temperate and subtropical districts plant out seeds or seedlings from September through to early January.
The same goes for Cool temperate districts, although December and January is better for seedlings rather than starting from seed.
In Arid areas, lucky you, you have from September through to March.
For tropical areas, another one you have to wait for the cooler months, April to July.
Growing Watermelon
Watermelon prefers to grow on new, fertile sandy-loam soils with a high humus content-that is, lots of compost and manures.
Plus they need lots of water and room.
The soil must be well drained.
Don’t try to grow watermelons in heavy soils.
Add Dolomite lime if your soil’s acidic because watermelons alkaline soils.
As with Zucchinis, that I talked about a couple of weeks ago, make a mound full of that good stuff, and plant three watermelon seeds about 5 cm deep.
They may be thinned out later.
Don’t bother with pots, because they germinate so easily.
Another thing, don’t bother with saving seeds from the melon you bought from the supermarket, it’ll be a hybrid and your seed grown plant will be quite different.
If you like saving seed, get an open pollinated variety of seed.
Like Pumpkins, Watermelon needs plenty of room to grow sending out long vines and the fruits are quite heavy.
Watermelons also have very shallow root system and they need lots of moisture.
The soil should never dry out, and mulch helps with that.
Luckily, Watermelons are self pollinating, so you only need one plant unless you are growing seedless melons which require a pollinator.
If you’re planning to grow your melons up a tepee unless you can work out a sling system using soft cloth or pantyhose, it’s probably better to grow them along the ground.
There are a few varieties of watermelon and I’m sure you’ve got your favourites.
The most popular is the Red Tiger –that’s a cylindrical melon with dark green skin and dark red, very sweet flesh. One of the few melons that have very few seeds.
Then there’s Viking- a medium to large, elongated melon.
Allsweet is large and oval-shaped.
My favourite is Sugar Baby, a small, round melon.
So how do you know when it’s ready?
Melons are ready to pick when the part in contact with the ground is turning yellow and the fruit sounds hollow when tapped.
Why Are They Good For You?
Watermelons are a good source of Vitamin A and C, the minerals potassium and iron.
Watermelons also contains high levels of lycopene a powerful antioxidant - lycopene is found only in small select group of fruits and vegetables. Watermelons are 90% water, that’s why they’re so refreshing.
AND THAT WAS OUR VEGETABLE HERO SEGMENT FOR TODAY! 

Design Elements:

landscape designer Christopher Owen
This is the final week of designing with ornamental grasses.
We’ve covered the difference between ornamental grasses and strappy leaved plants, where to start with designing with these types of grasses and how they fit into various styles of gardens.
So today, we’re covering which grasses go best in pots to showcase them and which are best suited in drifts.
Also, Christopher talks about which landscape designers have embraced using grasses that you could follow up.
There are lots of reasons to use grasses, other than lawn grasses in your garden design.
Let’s find out some more of the….

Pennisetum advena Rubrum is one of the choices for featuring grasses in pots.
Either in a tall pot or a low wide pot.
Miscanthus variegata with the white stripe on the outside is another good choice.
Basically grasses that have bold colours in their leaves are best used for features in pots. More anonymous grasses do better in drifts in the garden.
A start at least into what can be done using grasses and there’s so many to choose from-native and non-native.
One of the best landscape architects and designers to look up Piet Oudulf, Wolfgang Oehme , and James van Sweden and Dan Pearson.

Plant of the Week

  Black flowers sound macabre and if you ever visit High Grove house in England, the home of Prince Charles, you might see the black and white garden. This garden has a back drop of weirdly sculptured Yew topiary and you might think, yep, macabre.
But. Black is a rare flower colour and if you’ve got an idea for combining colours, you might have a dramatic result.

 

Black Velvet Petunias have the same requirements as every other petunia and they don’t fade in the sun either.
Some other suggestions to get the most from these unusually coloured flowers is to put them together with dark foliage plants to create a mystery garden.
Or just mass them together in a single bed to make a bold statement.
Then again you could mix them with white-flowered or white-variegated foliage plants as a black and white theme.