Nightjars and Betel Leaves

WILDLIFE IN FOCUS

Tawny Frogmouth-photo David Little

Tawny Frogmouths can blend into a tree trunk so you wouldn’t know they were there, and they’re often mistaken for Southern Boobooks, but are not owls.
They’re also members of the nightjar family, and are more closely related to kookaburras and kingfishers than they are to owls. What's a nightjar then? Let's find out....I'm talking with ecologist Sue Stevens


Just in case you’re wondering what the difference is between an owl and a nightjar: owls will eat animals and birds up to their own size and sometimes larger, while frogmouths are almost exclusively insectivorous; owl eyes face fully forward whilst frogmouths' eyes face mostly to the side; owls have large, powerful feet, while frogmouths have small, weak feet; owls have either a full or partial facial disk, while frogmouths do not; owls have large asymmetrical ears, while frogmouths do not; and owls have twelve tail feathers whilst frogmouths have ten.If you have any questions or photos of Tawny frogmouths, drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.

VEGETABLE HEROES

Betel leaf or Piper sarmentosum
COMMON NAMES: betel pepper, wild pepper, kadok, la lot.

Betel leaf is a native plant to Vietnam and Thailand, and  is related to black pepper
If you’ve ever eaten Thai food chances are that you’ve already eaten Betel leaves or at least had food served on a platter of Betel leaves.

Don’t confuse Betel leaf to a different plant to the Betel pepper Piper betle, which is chewed with betel nut.
Traditionally, Betel leaf plant was used to treat fever, as an expectorant, toothache, for coughs, asthma and pleurisy.
Some say it has a somewhat pungent odour and taste, others find it mild with a hint of black pepper.

Betel leaf is an evergreen, perennial creeper that doesn’t grow particularly tall. Only to about 1 metre.
Betel leaf has shiny heart-shaped leaves that have a waxy, glossy surface.

The flowers are small –on white flower spikes.







After flowering little dry rounded fruits with little bulges show up –almost like a little like a green/brown mulberry when ripe and can be eaten;
The fruit is sweet  and jelly-like pulp.



So what’s betel leaf got going for it?
As a food, it makes a great 'wrap' for prawns and can be shredded to add to salads and quick stir-fry's.
More on its uses later.

You can grow Betel leaf in most parts of Australia at any time of the year.
Find a spot in fairly good, well-drained soil with partial shade.
Under a tree somewhere is good and keep it moist but don’t overdo it because it doesn’t cope with waterlogging.
Frost will damage the leaves but not kill the plant once it is well established.
Betel leaf makes a good groundcover under trees in subtropical and tropical areas.
In warmer climates Betel leaf grows really well in the right position and because of its habit of suckering can be difficult to remove.
You can grow it successfully in colder areas but not in the ground.
Put your plant in a hanging basket or large pot and move it to a warm, sheltered position in winter.

Although I have heard that the characteristic growth of the plant is to grow on the ground and spread out like a ground cover.
As it spreads it sends down roots from sections.
So growing it like a hanging basket might not be the best advice.
You could try keeping it in a large shallow container so it sends down multiple roots.
If you’re wondering where to buy it and don’t seem to have any luck try an Asian veg. shops.
It’s easy to propagate from cuttings at the hot times of the year.
Growers take the top 20cm of the vine and sell it as a bunch to local markets.
You can buy a bunch of Betel leaves, take of the bottom two-thirds of leaves leaving the top few, and recut the bottom.
Put these cuttings in a glass with water and they will be producing roots in no time.
Another method is to take cuttings again about 25 cm long, strip the leaves off the bottom half of the stems and bury to half their length in potting mix.
Cover with plastic or place these cuttings in a greenhouse and keep moist.
Remember Betel leaf plant likes a wet shaded position protected from frost and midday sun; best under big trees.

Cooking with Betel Leaves

 The leaves are large enough to wrap a filling.
Betel leaves are often used ‘open’ topped with something delicious Include them in a stir fry
The spicy leaves are popular in south east Asian cooking, being used raw and cooked. To eat raw in a salad or use as a wrapping the younger more tender leaves are the best to use.
Used in omelettes in Vietnamese cooking  and to wrap mince.
In Thailand, these wraps are a favourite snack, 'mieng kum', using an assortment of fillings, like peanuts, shrimps, shallots with lime and raw ginger.
Use as a herb in rice, salads.... They look great as a garnish too .If you soak the leaves in cold water with a little sugar for 2 hours before use this changes the flavour just slightly.
As the leaves are a very attractive heart shape, they’re often used as a base to line platters, with foods arranged on top.
The white flower spikes develop into a small fruit that can be eaten.
Fresh leaves are prone to dryness and fungal rots. Store like lettuce: in the fridge for a few days (3-5) in a sealed plastic bag. Use as soon as possible after purchase.

WHY ARE THEY GOOD FOR YOU?

Good source of protein, potassium, nitrogen and minerals.
The plant has many traditional medicinal uses. Malaysians use the leaves for headaches, arthritis and joint pain. In Thailand and China the roots are crushed and blended with salt to relieve toothache.
In Indonesia it’s used as a natural antibiotic, and drunk as a tea daily to benefit health. This tea is also used to keep the body free of unpleasant smells of perspiration.
AND THAT WAS OUR VEGETABLE HERO SEGMENT

DESIGN ELEMENTS

with guest landscape designer Phil Withers

My Island Home photo M Cannon

Not that long ago I went to the Australian Garden Show to see what was going on the in garden design world.

Sure enough there were some fresh new ideas from around the country.

 

Today is one of three designers that I managed to interview from the show who had on display is concept garden-My Island Home.

So what is concept gardening? Or is it garden conceptualism?

In either case this is design in which a single idea, or concept, is used to underpin everything.

But perhaps the most celebrated conceptualist landscape is the Diana memorial fountain in Hyde Park, England designed by Kathryn Gustafson and Neil Porter. The central concept of this piece was the late Princess of Wales herself; the moods and undulations of the ring-shaped watercourse reflecting the Diana's own life.

 

Let’s find out what Phil had in mind.

 

Coral Reef Garden photo M Cannon

The coral reel garden is made up of succulents arranged in such a pleasing way that it makes you want to rush out and buy up some of these plants to recreate your own coral reel garden.

Who can resist?

Some of these plants include

Echeveria colorata ‘Mexican Giant’ – large 30cm rosettes, whitish leaves
Echeveria ‘Zorro’ – pinky red leaves with curled edges
Echeveria ‘Tuttifrutti’ – rosettes with a frilled red edge.
Echeveria ‘Afterglow’ – rosette of powdery pinkish-purple with dark pink edge
Echeveria ‘Golden Glow’ - large yellowish rosettes
Echeveria ‘Mauna Loa’ – large frilled edge rosettes colours turn to deep red in sun
Echeveria ‘Violet Queen’ – grey rosette with pinkish tones
Agave parryii (compact form)
Haworthia attenuata – striped stiff green leaves in a small rosette
Aeonium ‘Sunburst’
Euphorbia trigona – angled stems, narrow upright form
Crassula ‘Living Coral’
Sedum rubrotinctum – red jelly beans
Sedum pachyphyllum – jelly beans
Sedum ‘Gold Mound’ – fine golden foliage in mounds
Crassula ovata – spoon-shaped greeny blue foliage
Senecio mandraliscae - blue chalksticks
Senecio serpens – chalksticks
Aeonium ‘Velour’ – loose rosettes with velvety leaves turn dark maroon in cool weather
Kalanchoe thyrsiflora – flap jacks – bluey-green paddle-shaped leaves with red edges
Rhipsalis spp

 PLANT OF THE WEEK

Native Frangipani-Hymenosporum flavum

An absolutely stunning tree, and one of our own!

The Native Frangipani is native to most of the East Coast of Australia, from Sydney to Cape York, and also PNG.  Used as a street tree in Perth so what’s so good about it?

Native Frangipani can grow to 15metres in it’s native habitat, but on poorer soils, I’m going for about 5 metres max.

 

I think it does better in clay soils even though it’ll grow on other soil types. I have a friend who is growing one on clay soil as far south as Adelaide….Certainly a bigger tree than mine will ever be, but it’s probably about 70 years old.

It’s a fairly open tree so you could grow quite a few things under it.

There is a dwarf cultivar around called “Dwarf Gold Nugget” but I don’t know how available it is.

I have seen it as being available from a native nursery in Sydney. It grows to 1metre by 1 metre.

Sounds like it could make a good fragrant hedge.

In spring, and especially now, the tree is flowering with the mixture of yellows and whites, and quite perfumed. But not overpowering. The effect of masses of cream and yellow flowers is very lovely and it lasts for about six weeks.

The flowers start off white then as they get older turn a deep sulphur yellow.

It is a little bit drought hardy, that is, it won’t cope without water for long periods. You’ll know it’s been too long when it starts dropping its leaves.

This is a plant for sunny position, but smaller branches are easily broken by strong winds.

So maybe a sheltered position.

If you want a bushier plant you need to pinch of the tip when it’s still small otherwise it’ll be quite an open tree.

You can fertilise with a native fertiliser when it’s still small, but after that, just a mulch of some kind.

If your soil is a bit on the sandy side, watch for borers in the trunk. A telltale sign is a branch dying off here and there. If that happens do a closer inspection for any sawdust type of material, that’s called frass. Scraping that away will reveal the hole that the borer has made.

Butterflies like the blue triangle, like this tree, so do honeyeaters.

I think it easily fits into most peoples gardens and can take quite a bit of neglect.

Depending on where this tree grows, it usually grows to around 10m in warm/tropical areas of the country, smaller in cooler areas.

Foliage is beautiful, glossy deep green up to 15cm long, and flowers are formed in spring. The whole canopy of the tree is covered in sweetly fragrant and yellowy cream flowers which age to a deep orange

Fruit Flies Need Not Apply

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

PLANT DOCTOR

with Steve Falcioni, General Manager of  www.ecoorganicgarden.com.au
This next topic in Plant Doctor has some of us squirming when we remember cutting open a fruit or vegetable to find wrigglers inside and the flesh actually quite smelly and rotten.
Sometimes you have a tell tale spot the size of a pin head on the outside of the fruit-usually on oranges, and sometimes when you touch the fruit, some of it’s firm but one half is quite soft and squishy.
At this point you’re dreading to cut it open and it gets to that point when you start dreading even cutting open alright looking fruit.
Let’s find out what can be done about this problem.


Fruit fly looks like a wasp with a pointy tail.
The female mates and lays eggs into any fruits-Lilly Pilly fruits, chillies, citrus anything at all.
The maggots wriggle out then drop to the ground to pupate.
Being a native insect the fruit fly can live in the bush then come into your garden when the season is right.

Pheremone lures are a good way of detecting whether or not you have the problem
However, the female only has to mate once or twice to then lay thousands of eggs, so to you need either exclusion netting or splash baits for the female fruit fly.
Exclusion netting is great if you have small trees that are manageable.


Remember, home made traps will attract a wide range of insects both good and bad and it's not what you really want.
If you have any questions or photos of fruit fly, drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.

VEGETABLE HEROES

This segment won’t be complete without mentioning them at least once every year, because there’s always so much to be said about them.
There’s books written about them, they are prone to all sorts of pests and diseases, but every year, we plant them hoping for that ultimate crop.
What are they ?

They’re tomatoes, or Lycopersicon esculentum.

Being in the Solanaceae family, they’re related to eggplants,capsicums, chillies and potatoes. Tomatoes are botanically a fruit, or to be even more accurate a berry, because they are pulpy and have edible seeds.
Other botanical fruits classified as vegetables include squash, cucumbers, green beans, corn kernels, eggplants, and peppers.
In Australia, tomatoes are one of the most popular vegetables, with potatoes being no.1
Why? Because we just lover our summer tomatoes that taste better than the store bought ones, and once you get the conditions right, they’re relatively easy to grow.

The tomato is native to South and Central America, and the first tomato was thought to bear a yellow fruit and grown by the Aztecs.

It’s thought that people were growing crops of tomatoes at least around 500 BC
In the mid 1500’s, tomatoes were only grown amongst flowers in Italy.
They certainly weren’t eaten.
As late as the 18^th century, physicians thought tomatoes caused appendicitis, and stomach cancer from tomato skins sticking to the lining of your stomach.
Europeans then refused to eat tomatoes because they were thought to be poisonous, and no-one was volunteering to be the first.

Why do a lot of store bought tomatoes have little taste?

The answer is because it’s a result of breeding tomatoes which ripen uniformly red. This change occurred after discovery of a variety in the mid 20th century which ripened evenly, so was  then cross-bred  with just about every tomato variety, to produce attractive red fruit without the typical green ring surrounding the stem on uncross-bred varieties.
Before the introduction of this trait, tomatoes were able to produce more sugar during the process of ripening and were sweeter and tastier.

There’s a tomato for every type of climatic condition and generally they’re a warm season fruit even though we call them vegetables.
When to Sow
In temperate climates you can plant them until December, hopefully some of you started them in early September to get the jump on fruit flies.  
In sub-tropical and tropical areas, this week it’s your turn to win, and yes, you can plant tomatoes all year round.
In cool temperate districts you have from October until December.
Arid areas from August until March, so nearly all year.
Where to Grow
Tomatoes prefer full sun but if you live in very hot climates, you’ll get sun scald on your tomatoes, so afternoon shade of some sort is essential.
Growing tomatoes has to be in full sun at least 6 hours.
Tomato seeds can be planted into the ground as soon as the soil temperature reaches 20⁰C.

For cool districts I recommend that you start your tomatoes off in punnets of some kind and place this in a plastic bag or mini-greenhouse.
Before your transplant your seedlings from the seed tray, and this applies to all seedlings, you need to harden them off.
That means taking them out of a protected environment and putting them into 50% shade for a few days.

TIP:When you plant your seedling, this is about the only plant I know that you pile the soil higher than it was in the pot-that way, it grows extra roots to support the plant.
At the same time, put in a tomato stake of some kind and sprinkle some Dolomite around the plant.

ANOTHER  good tip is to put some hydrated or fluffed up water crystals in the bottom of the planting hole, especially if in your district it’s very hot during the day, that it’s sometimes hard to keep the water up to them.

They actually need lots of water to prevent a problem called “blossom end” rot, when they get a black bottom. Which also means a lack of Calcium. But you put on the Dolomite didn’t you?.

Don’t crowd your tomato plants because they need good air circulation around them so that fungal diseases don’t take hold.

When your tomato plant has four trusses (or branches of flowers) nip out top of the plant. By this stage you should have plenty of fruits forming that need to grow and ripen.
You need to do this mainly because you want the plant to put all its energy into these potentially succulent fruits. And…you don’t want it growing taller than you tomato stake and flopping all over the place.
Keep the soil moist by regular watering and using a mulch of some kind.
Once the flowers have formed, you need to feed weekly with tomato fertiliser or a general fertiliser but add a side dressing of sulphate of potash.

Irregular watering or drying out of the soil or compost in very hot weather can result in the fruits splitting. The inside grows faster than the skin, splits and unless eaten quickly, disease very quickly enters the damaged area and the tomato disposed of.

Tomato feed is very high in potash. Be careful not to overfeed as this can lock up other elements in the soil / compost that the plants require.
HINT: tomato plants will only set fruit if the temperatures don’t drop below 21⁰C.
Did you know that a tomato picked at first sign of colour and ripened at room temperature will be just as tasty as one left to fully mature on the vine?

VERY IMPORTANT: Prune off the lower leaves to allow more light, improve air-circulation and prevent the build-up of diseases.
For some listeners, fruit fly will be a problem. There are pheromone lures and preventative organic sprays and splash baits that contain Spinosad.
 I intend to trail fruit fly exclusion bags. As soon as the fruits appear, on they go.
WHY ARE THEY GOOD FOR YOU?
First the good news, there have been studies done which show that eating tomatoes lowers the risk of some cancers. Possibly because of the chemical lycopene that is found in tomatoes and makes them red.
Cooked tomatoes are even better because the cell walls get broken down releasing something called carotinoids.
Eating tomatoes with a small amount of fat, like some olive oil in a salad, allows the lycopene part to absorb better.
Tomatoes are highly nutritious and sweet  because of natural sugars – sucrose and fructose.
If you ate only one tomato a day, you would get 40% of you daily requirements of Vitamin C and 20% of Vitamin A.
Now the bad news….there is anecdotal evidence that something called glykoalkaloids contribute to arthritis symptoms.

AND THAT WAS OUR VEGETABLE HERO SEGMENT

DESIGN ELEMENTS

with landscape designer Jason Cornish
A good looking and beautifully trimmed hedge is a sight to behold, giving structure to the garden and setting off all the other plants.
A bad looking hedge is an eyesore, and draws your attention away from all the good looking plants you have in the garden.

But what can you do about those bad hedges, especially if they have no leaves down the bottom part of the hedge?
Let’s find out what this is all about.

Unlike Europe where you see them growing in a lot of the elegant gardens like Hidcote in the Cotswolds, where they  use Hornbeams and Linden trees, here in Australia, the climate is against us to those kind of hedges on stilts.
Plus we’re probably not that keen to do all that work to get them trained that way, and think of the tall ladders you might need to prune them?
Still, doing it the cheats way might give you a satisfactory look if you are wanting to grow something at the base of the hedge for a different look.

PLANT OF THE WEEK

 with Karen Smith editor of Hort Journal
Grevilleas with large showy flowers are full of nectar and attract larger nectar feeding birds like lorikeets and honeyeaters and miner birds.
If you want to attract smaller birds into your garden, you’ll want grevillea flowers the size of this next plant, that cover the bush.
The smaller birds then can come into your garden without being bullied or frightened away by the larger more aggressive nectar feeders.

Let’s find out some more about this plant.

Grevillea rhyolitica is found in moist areas in forest and woodland in a the Deua National Park and surrounding areas in south-eastern New South Wales between 100 and 600 metres elevation.
No surprises then that the two cultivars are named Grevillea Deua Gold and Grevillea Deua Flame.

The leaves on some Grevilleas can be a bit prickly or rough to feel, but unless you’re brushing past them as you walk in the garden, it suits smaller birds as a means of shelter.
The other great thing about this Grevillea is that it might appeal to gardeners that aren’t normally attracted to Grevilleas.

On this plant, the leaves look like a general leaf shape-light green, elliptic and on the smaller side. 
It doesn’t have serrated leaves and its flower are a bit more ornamental, so it’s a little bit different an could even be used in cottage type gardens.
Being a member of the Proteaceae family, grevilleas are phosphorous sensitive.
That means don't use chook poo, or any other manures to fertilise these plants.

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.