How Green is Your Home?

SYDNEY GARDEN TALK on 2RRR 88.5 fm Saturdays 12-1pm, Wednesdays 5-6pm
Feature Interview: How green is your home? Go to http://www.greenstyle.org.au/
Vegetable Hero: Savory herb- winter and summer. Savory is an annual or perennial herb, Satureja hortenis, for Summer Savory, or Saturejo montana being for Winter Savory.
All Savory’s belong to the mint or Lamiaceae family. They have dark-green,narrow leaves for winter savory and light green narrow leaves for summer savory. The savories can be used fresh or dried and crushed. The history of savory goes back about 2000 years and they are one of the oldest culinary herbs.
What does Summer Savory like. Well, it’s no different than growing Thyme, it likes full sun with well-draining soil.
Savory prefers to be planted in soil that's slightly alkaline. Give it a side-dressing of compost or worm castings whenever possible. Summer savory is bushy and low-growing so it makes an excellent edging plant for a kitchen garden, herb bed, or vegetable garden.
Summer savory likes regular water. I have some growing in a strawberry pot so that it cascades out of one of the holes. It seems to like that spot better than the strawberries. As far as the soil in my container goes, well it’s just potting mix with soil wetter crystals added to it. So you see it's well-suited to container gardening, as well.
Tips for the Chef:Summer savory, Satureja hortensis, is a nice herb to use when you are cutting back on salt-it's flavor is mild, a little bit similar to thyme, but with it's own unique flavor. To me, it has a slightly peppery flavour, but a piney fragrance when you crush it in your hand. You can mince summer savory and combine with bread crumbs for coating fish or vegetables such as squash before sauteeing. Use it in potato dishes, tomato sauces, meatballs or vegetable juices. It's also great in egg dishes such as omelets and frittatas.
Mince fresh summer savory leaves and combine with garlic, bay and lemon for a good marinade for fish.
Design Elements: Planting out your garden with cacti and succulents.
For a hot or suuny spot that is weel drained, ie, doesn't hold much water, try cacti and succulents.
Make a dry river bed using pebbles, and plant out blue shaded succulents to give the impression of a water feature.
For dry sloping sites, terrace your garden and plant out with larger succulents such as Agave attenutata, Kalanchoe spp.
 Group your succulents according to colour size and leaf shape to give it some form. Uses splashes of colour such as Aeonium Zwartkopf (very black foliage) and Sedums that have different flower colours ranging from pinks yellows to dark reds.
Plant out succulents amongs steps, sleepers or stoney rockeries.
For sunny side passageways, add gravel, stepping stones and succulents.
Plant of the Week: Camellia Sasanqua. Let’s start with the main difference between Camellia japonica and Camellia Sasanqua.
The leaves are dark green on both, but Sasanqua Camellias have a noticeably smaller leaf to that of Japonicas. For me that’s an easy way to pick between the two.
Sasanqua flowers are also smaller, from the very tiny Baby Bear, palest of pink flowers to the larger, but more blowsy white edged with pink, C. Sasanqua “Something Special, or Wahroongah.
The growth habit is much faster, sometimes, twice as fast. There are some Camellia japonicas which take 10 years to get to over two metres…like the red Emperor of Russioa.
That’s why the Camellia Society of Australia, is always showing its members how to graft Camellia japonica onto a stock plant of Camellia Sasanqua.
#I’ve got one going…the handsomely named. C japonica Dona Herzilia de Freitas Magales, that I grafted onto a sasanqua stock last June. One of the three has survived and is being carefully nurtured for planting out in autumn.
Sasanquas, the Sun lover. Sasanqua Camellias are among the easiest of garden plants to grow. They flower heavily in very early Autumn and early Winter with a not too much care.
The glossy dark green leaves of all cultivar varieties always look good in garden design. Cultivars growing to various heights and widths are available for selection. There is also a wide range of flower colours and forms. Flower colours range through a selection of whites, pinks and reds. A carpet of petals covers the ground below the bush when it is in flower.
What's On:
Open Garden 20th and 21st March-19 Fourth Ave, Eastwood.
Saturday 27 March, West Ryde Easter Parade and Market. Time: 10am - 3pm
Venue: West Ryde MarketplaceCommunity parade and market stalls. For more information email easterparade@rydetoyota.com.au or call 9858 1788.