Herbalicious & Spicy Special

• Vanilla Beans – Deep in the jungle
• Saffron Crocus – Exploring herbal gold
• Edible Chrysanthemum - Fragrant greens
• Build a herb spiral
• Herbs to ‘dye’  for – Henna and Indigo – a chat over the back fence.
• Raspberry & Strawberry Revelations – I am such  a gardening tragic.
• Veggie Patch Report – Spring planting 2009, planning starts now!!

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Saffron comes from the Stigmas of the Crocus Sativa

Chrysanthemum Coronarium – A herb or an edible green when young.

Vanilla pods on the vine

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Visit the Home of Annie and her Henna Art at : http://www.goddesscafe.com.au/

Here is the address for the interesting blog article about growing indigo in cooler climates :  http://www.sheeptoshawl.com/indigo.html

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This Months Gifts :

The gift for episode 11 is an article about making your own herbal tea blends written by Philip Moore.

Many thanks to Renaissance herbs for the use of the tea article.  Renaissance herbs are available at all good nursery outlets.  They are in the mustard coloured pots.

Also available is a schematic for building a herb spiral.

For access to this and other articles that are a part of the ‘Dig It Down Under’ episodes please sign up for the newsletter.  It’s free and your privacy is respected.  Please scroll down to the bottom right hand corner to sign up.

© Vanilla Image from Mary Lane. Image from BigStockPhoto.com  Thank You

©Crocus image from Elina Gareeva. Image from BigStockPhoto.com  Thank You

• Fantasy Gardening : Tree Shaping with Becky from Pooktre.
• Growing Tomatoes – Bumper Bonza Special.
• Over the back fence : One listeners ‘No Dig’ Story – ‘No Dig’ Success on a terrible site.
• TV garden gems to watch out for.
• Veg Patch Report.

Pooktre : Glorious Living Designs

You can buy these for your garden.  There is a book coming out on how to grow your own.

Me thinks I need to try this!

For more information on tree shaping the Web Site is :  http://www.pooktre.com/

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Landline – ABC TV Show – Link to transcripts for April 2009

http://www.abc.net.au/landline/archives/landline_200904.htm

Around the world in 80 gardens can currently be views on the ABC’s iView internet service.    You’ll need broadband internet.  You’ll be taken to a test page and then to a page with a choice of shows. Choose  ‘ABC Catchup’  or if you follow the link below you’re already there, just choose Around the world in 80 gardens. There are two episodes on offer at the moment.

ABC TV iView Service

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Links to Tomato Diseases and Pests Information :

Tomato Diseases

Tomato Pests

Il Tomatina Tomato Festival  : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Tomatina

Gordon Graham’s World Largest Tomato : http://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/gordon_graham.htm

Tomato Tree growing in Walt Disney’s Experimental Greenhouse in Lake Buena Vista USA

http://www.wdwnews.com/ViewImage.aspx?ImageID=101932

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Links to other pages of this site mentioned in Episode 10:

Cranbourne Royal Botanic Gardens Pictures:  http://digitdownunder.com/walkabout/?p=146

My dream orchard for the pie maker in the family:  Check out the What’s Up Page from the 15th of May

In the meantime the web site for the Heritage Fruit Trees is : http://www.yalcafruittrees.com.au/

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The current gift for those on or joining the mailing list is:

A follow up article for the Bumper Tomato special featuring a sketch of Riley’s special trellis set up, a list of the top tomatoes for fresh eating and cooking and how to tell the difference.  PLUS   Instructions for setting up Riley’s own seedling protection system.  Thwart the birds and cats, keep your mulch in place and it’s all hidden from the eye.

• ‘No Dig’ Garden Special – The Ultimate Guide
• Nobelius – Nurseryman to a nation & Puffing Billy; the Garden connection.
• Reviews : Alfred Nicholas Memorial Garden, Pirianda Gardens & The Melbourne International Flower and Garden show
• What’s up in the Dig It Garden
• Vegetable Garden Report
• This months gift for mailing list subscribers : How to put together the Dig It Down Under worm farm using common garden bits and pieces.

Carl Axel Nobelius
(1851 – 1921)
and the Nobelius Nursey

Nobelius Nursery originally used the business name of Gembrook Nurseries, chosen because it was in the parish of Gembrook.
All photos reproduced courtesy the “Emerald Museum Collection”.

Nobelius Heritage Museum is located at Nobelius Heritage Park, Crichton Road. Emerald VIC 3782

Opening hours Wednesday 10am to 12pm, Sundays 1.30pm to 4pm

Closed July and August and on days of total fire ban.

You can purchase Jo Jenkinson’s book at the Museum.

Puffing Billy also known as Gemmy was a hard working train in the days when it was transporting logs, fruit, passengers and Nobelius nursery produce to Ferntree Gully where it was then taken to Melbourne city for export to other Australian states and to many parts of the world.

Reproduced with the permission of Puffing Billy Railway.

Website:  www.puffingbilly.com.au

No Dig Gardening Sources:

Esther Deans’ Gardening Book – Growing without Digging – Harper and Row

No Dig Gardening by Allen Gilbert – ABC Books

Step one of my no dig garden http://digitdownunder.com/vegetable-gardening/?cat=4

Links mentioned in the podcast:

Stawberry Wall http://digitdownunder.com/whatsup/?p=193

Pirianda Garden  http://digitdownunder.com/walkabout/?cat=22

Alfred Nicholas Memorial Garden http://digitdownunder.com/walkabout/?cat=15

Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show  http://digitdownunder.com/walkabout/?p=108

Daffodil Catalogue : J H Hancock  http://www.daffodilbulbs.com.au/

Rock Dust http://digitdownunder.com/whatsup/?p=174

The Bloke picks my Godzilla Zucchini by mistake  http://digitdownunder.com/whatsup/?p=158

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-53b889babf8e6c870bd85ce6d808c950}

• Lovely Lilies : Cuban Lily, Belladonna Lily and Vallota
• My Tasmanian Trip and the Designing of Tassy Gals Vege Patch
• Autumns Bounty : seeds and leaves
• What’s Up in the Dig It Garden : Vegies and flowers

Gardening podcast with a twist : http://www.rockgardentour.com/

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Cuban Lily – These flower in spring and are dormant now so it ’s a good time to plant a couple!

Available at :  http://www.gardenexpress.com.au/search.php?mode=search&page=1

Vallota or Scarborough Lily

A total champion in my garden.

It gets no direct sun, fertilizer or water (apart from meager rains).  No kidding!

Belladonna Lilies

These are common but aren’t they beautiful?  These need the sun, no question.

Cerinthe

My first year of growing these.  The bluish foliage around the flower bell is to die for.

David Austin rose William Shakespeare – Unfortunately, this photo does nothing to capture the true vibrant color.

Green gage plum trees are in the latest catalogue of the Diggers Seed Club:

http://diggers.com.au/

You can follow Tassy Gal’s Veg Patch in the big cage here.

http://digitdownunder.com/vegetable-gardening/?cat=9

If you want to get full details of the whole plan and process for Tassy Gal’s Patch, simply sign up for the new newsletter.

More information on wettable sulphur:

http://www.thewaterwisegarden.com/sulphur.htm

Geraniums

For more information and pictures. Please see:
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Geranium
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plantprofile_geranium.shtml

Geranium Maderense

Vegetable Garden Harvest:

One zucchini and a big bunch of beans will go into 2 stirfrys for two people.

These are only babies and they are about 30cm long.

At this stage they have little or no pith.

They are pretty much solid zucchini.

The poor desicated rose is the variety Arizona.  This was after a windy day of 44 deg celsius.

In this Episode:
*Geraniums – showy, sassy and drought tolerant. The low down on pelargoniums and geraniums, the first of a two part series.
*Growing raspberries : Fuzzy Fruit. Fresh fruit, pie, jam..where will it end!!!
*Garden Technique : Air layering. When you want to propogate those beloved shrubs and when cuttings just wont cut it.
*The latest on the Dig It Down Under Garden. Flower beds, vegie patch and more…

Here are some pictures of the Pelargoniums in the dig it down under garden:

These Regals have pansy type flowers:

These zonals have interesting foliage and ‘birds foot’ type flowers:

These have scented or interesting folliage:

Trailing Variety: This is a vigorous plant, even in poor soil. I trained in over an arch that was a couple of metres high and it still got out of hand.

Rasberries: I purchased my canes in winter from http://www.kinglake-raspberries.com.au/ This is a great resource site for all things raspberry!!!

Variety : Williamette

Now is the time to start preparing your soil for your raspberry patch. If you work full time then a little time every week to prepare the soil will make the whole process easy and seamless. Come winter, you just order the canes and pop them in!

There is a great article on air layering called AIR LAYERING FOR DIFFICULT-TO-ROOT PLANTS by Everett E. Janne. For some reason I cannot link to it directly but if you would like to cut and paste the title into google search, it should come up first on the list. Appologies for the inconvenience.

In the flower garden I have planted some Cerinthe plants. It’s the first time I’ve grown these and I have never seen them in real life. Here is a link to some information: http://theseedsite.co.uk/profile408.html

The vegie patch is powering along and you can see some pictures on the new vegie patch page on the web site at: http://digitdownunder.com/vegpatch.html

A gardening podcast that I highly recommend is at coopette.com. I’ve been listening for about a year now and even though it’s based in Brittan, a lot still applies to the land down under.

In this episode:
* Voodoo Lilly – How do you do the Voodoo that you do
* Who put the MMMM in Echium
* The old girls book of worm farm facts
* Diggers Garden Club Spring Festival
* The Berwick Food Bowl – One listeners story
* Coriander – Condiment or Cad? & Rocket Herb.
* Vegie Patch Report – The first feed and Magpie alert
* My first garden essay – How to hide your exercise in the garden.

The Voodoo Lilly – Picture taken at Herronswood, Home of the Diggers Seed Club.

Echium Wildpretti – Picture taken at Herronswood, Home of the Diggers Seed Club.

The D Bed of the vegie patch planted with Potatoes at the rear, Zucchini next in & leeks in the foreground. The lettuce that is being harvested is to the left of the stump.

In this episode:
* Sweet Hokowase Japanese Strawberrys
* Mint Bush – Drought tolerant and beautiful.
* Oxalis – Weeds of our lives
* Apple Blossom Time – Takes my breath away
* Lettuce Pray – The first seedlings hit the dirt & the Vegie Patch Report.

Strawberries – History of Cultivation
http://www.nal.usda.gov/pgdic/Strawberry/book/bokeight.htm

Here is a picture of the protective Strawberry Cone. Just dangle the fruit inside it, with the stalk still connected to the main bush.

Mint Bush
http://www.rainyside.com/features/plant_gallery/herbs/Prostanthera_rotundifolia.html

Oxalis

Here is a picture of a particular weedy variety of oxalis. There is a larger leaf variety that’s a bit of a problem too. There are some ornamental oxalis that aren’t invasive and they must not die!

The apple blossom knocked me off my feet this year. Photo’s never do justice to the real thing.

Would love to hear from you. Please click on the ‘feedback’ link below. You can find a copy of the comments policy at : http://www.digitdownunder.com/commentspolicy.html

In this episode:
* Whats good eating in the vegie patch now
* Diggers Seed Club Catalogue – What’s hot in heirloom vegies.
* My personal potato famine.
* Come with me on my trip to Herronswood – beautiful garden by the bay.
* The seeds of content – I boost my seed stash with new varieties.
* What I’m planting in the patch this year.
* My vegie patch renovation.

Diggers Seed Club

http://www.diggers.com.au/

Herronswood:

http://www.diggers.com.au/gardenHerons.shtm

Here’s a picture of the parterre garden with the decorative purple mustard and artichoke foliage.

Here’s a picture of the front garden on the way up to the shop.

Here’s a link to the caged potato method that I was going to use this year

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2336819.htm

Instead, I decided to put them along side an edge of the garden bed where I could pull the bricks away and harvest them. I plan to lay the stalks down and then parallel to the edge of the bed and put straw on them. The variety is Dutch Cream. Here they are before being covered with about 6 inches (15cm) of soil.

Here’s the garlic, planted ready to be covered with up to 2 inches (5 cm) of soil.

List of planting in this years vegie patch:

Potato, tomatoes, beans, cucumber, rock melon, basil, parsley, leeks, lettuce, spinach, strawberries, raspberries, celery, chillies, zucchini, pepino & cucumber.

Here are some sketches of the different vegie patches and some proposed plantings.

The main vegie patch with the D Bed and the J Bed attached:

Here is the sketch for the bed near the circle:

Here is the Sketch for the bed near the Apricot tree:

Here is a link to some pictures of the main bed as it stands now, post renovation.

http://www.digitdownunder.com/digitmygarden.html

Would love to hear from you. Please click on the ‘feedback’ link below. You can find a copy of the comments policy at : http://www.digitdownunder.com/commentspolicy.html

In this episode:
* From mud pies to dirt queen – My journey from clay to loam.
* There’s a disco in my nursery – My new grow lights
* PH stands for Phun.
*Interview with Kerry Dawborn from the community harvest project.
*Tribute to Kevin Heinze, passionate gardener and tv presenter of “Sow What”.
*Setting up the vegie patches for spring planting.

Grow Lights:

Here is some general information I found while surfing the web. I didn’t buy my lights from this site. If you’re looking to buy from this site, I don’t know where these sellers are based. They maybe overseas sellers. http://www.homegrownlights.com/WhyLED.html

I purchased my grow lights on ebay from a person based in Australia.
Here is a page with information about how NASA is using LED lights to grow food in space for astronauts. There’s a brief history of grow lights here as well.

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/light_farming_010926.html

My personal plant disco:

The four phases of soil in my garden.

This is the natural clay. This was the starting point in the main vegie patch 17 years ago.

This is the soil in the small veg patch near the apricot tree. It is still heavy but it’s on the way. It has had a couple of loads of compost over the last couple of years and small amounts of mulch. I never used to grow much here until I realized that it’s a natural plant haven in high summer. I need to add quite a bit to it this year to get it ready for spring planting. I’m looking to plant parsley, lettuce, greens, leeks, basil and cucumber to ramble over the lawn.

This is the soil in the small vegie bed near the circle. The soil in this plot has had some tending over the years. Daffodils were planted there, until they became so crowded, that I moved them out. This photo shows the soil to be more developed again, but as you can see bits of tree roots holding it together. These broken roots will break down much like internal mulch. There are tree roots invading the soil all over the block. If they are regularly broken up, in the various patches, there’s no problems. This bed will have tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers.

This is the soil in the original patch which is now beautiful and crumbly and deep. In the early years, I brought in 120 bales of spoiled hay to this site, not to mention yearly additions of compost and anything else I could get my hands on. There are three sections in this area. The main section will get its first rest in 17 years. I’ll sow a nutritious green crop and slash and leave it to mulch. The other smaller sections need compost and will grow beans, red onions, garlic and button squash.

More information about soil ph at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_pH

‘No dig garden method’ fact sheet from the Gardening Australia show:

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s867068.htm

Kevin Heinze passes away at 81 years of age.

Story from the Australian news paper

You can find the Community Harvest Project at:

http://www.communityharvestproject.org.au/

Here is a link with some information on the use of grey water in the garden. It is interesting to note that the use of grey water to grow vegetables is not advised.

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/BHCV2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Grey_water_-_recycling_water_at_home?OpenDocument

Would love to hear from you. Please click on the ‘feedback’ link below. You can find a copy of the comments policy at : http://www.digitdownunder.com/commentspolicy.html