Community Gardens are Go!

Sydney Garden Talk Saturday 12noon-1pm 2RRR 88.5 Fm

Feature interview: Talking with Mandy Stubbs, coordinator for Permaculture North, Lane Cove and team leader for Lane Cove's first community garden on the grounds of Chatswood South Uniting Church, cnr of Mowbray road and Pacific Highway, Lane Cove.. Go to http://www.permapatch.org.au/
Open day on Sunday 31st Jan 2-5pm. Learn about no dig gardening.
Vegetable Hero:

Celery (Apium graveolens) belongs to the Apiaceae family and is related to parsley, parsnips and carrots. The edible parts of the plant are the fleshy leaf stalks. So why are we eating it exactly? Celery has many health benefits. It is high in Vitamin C and when celery juice is combined with a little lemon juice it can be used as a remedy for the common cold.

In fact, drinking celery juice before meals helps suppress appetite, but eating Celery takes up more calories than it has, supposedly,

Celery likes rich soil. Give it good drainage and soil pH 5.8-6.7, with constant moisture.

Celery has a very shallow root system, and needs frequent watering because the roots are concentrated in the top few centimetres of soil and so they will dry out quickly.
Every couple of weeks give plants a liquid seaweed feed, and even some fish fertiliser, worm castings or more compost/compost tea.

Harvest celery after 10-12 weeks. You can pick off a stem one at a time so can keep harvesting for quite a few weeks.

Design Elements: Courtyard Gardens-Functionality of the desgin.
Install irrigation right from the start.
Choose several focal points standing from your living space. Place a plant, water feature or statuary at the focal points to lead your eye. It could be a plant in a tall elegant pot or bubbling urn shaped fountain.

Decide on a style- go with plants that fit that style.

Decide on what you're going to use the space for and where shady places need to be created, what views need to be masked.
Plant of the Week:Mandevilla-Mandevilla sanderi

Mandevilla is known by a host of plant names. In South American countries, people know it as mandevilla, sometimes as the Chilean jasmine, Bolivian and Brazilian rose. Mandevilla is a native plant of Argentina, not Chile as originally believed. In Mexico and Central America, the plant is routinely known as the Mexican love vine.

Evergreen throughout the year, mandevillas features light-green elliptical leaves and spike-like clusters of funnel-shaped blossoms at the tips of branches (shoots). Prefers full sun or part shade.
Happy in a pot or raised garden bed.
During the summer, mandevilla will enjoy some morning sun, but it must be shaded from noon on to prevent the fun from burning the foliage. Continue bi-weekly feedings with a liquid fertiliser through the summer, and keep the soil lightly moist. The only exception to the rule is the “My Fair Lady” mandevilla. Allow the soil to dry between waterings.
Also, it's quite O.K to use a complete release fertiliser like Garden Gold as well.
Next April-Most mandevillas drop their flowers in early april, some a bit longer.
Prune the plant after the flowers drop. Go to the hard wood on the branch (shoot), and prune to within two inches of this hardwood. Repeat this to each and every branch that has flowered.
Having pruned, you now must cut back on how often you water the plant. For the month of April, let the soil go dry for three or four days, then apply tepid water.
What's On:
Wednesday 3 February. Willoughby Council is holding a workshop: All you need to know about installing a rainwater tank. This workshop will introduce you to both the practical and regulatory issues associated with installing a rainwater tank at your home. The workshop will cover government rebates, health considerations, greywater reuse and tank sizing to ensure maximum benefit.
Contact: Please contact: Assistant Sustainability Education Co-ordinator on 9777 7674 or email email@willougby.nsw.gov.au RSVP by Wed 27
Saturday 6 Feb, Mt Tomah Botanic Garden. Orchid Penjing Botanic Sculpture workshop. Penjing is the ancient Chinese art of creating miniature trees and landscapes. Join Tony Lennon in creating your own Penjing work from carved sandstone and orchids. 10a,-3pm, Waratah Education centre. $95 includes materials. Bookings essential on 4567 2154.
Saturday 13 Feb. Growing Friends plant sale at the Royal Botanic Gardens from 9am – 1pm. Free entry.

Community Gardening

Sydney Garden Talk Saturdays 12noon-1pm 2RRR 88.5 FM

PLANT GIVEAWAY-Begonia fuchsioides "Red Cascade." Gorgeous plant to suit full, sun or semi shade. Drought hardy, with bright red fuchsia style flowers. Suit pots, hanging baskets or front of garden beds. Grows to 50 cm.

All you have to do is write in with a gardening question. sydneygardentalk@gmail.com

Today's show featured Mark Hall, president of Macquarie University Community Garden Club corner of Culloden and Talavera roads, Marsfield. A 3,000 square metre site of 60 members. Winner of the Royal Easter Show flower and garden section, and 3rd prize of vegetable garden section in the Ryde Spring garden competition for 2009.

Start a community garden by applying for some land. Get members by leaflet dropping, newspaper announcements, notices on community boards.

Then digging, weeding and improving the soil with the addition of compost. Each member pays an annual fee of $20, plus a dollar fifty for every square metre of allotment.
Anybody can join, ring Mark on 0408 869 863  or emaill: markhall1@bigpond.com for an application.
Fantastic fruit: Peaches and growing Peach trees, (Prunus persica.)
Peach trees are vigorous growing, but small tree with a spreading canopy, usually 2-3m in cultivation. Of course you can get the dwarf cultivars known as Nectazie, with yellow flesh and Pixzie, a white fleshed peach. Easily grown in a pot of 30cm -40 cm, grows to about 1.5m but with full sized fruit.
Peach trees like deep, well-drained soils, loamy to moderately sandy soils are best. Most varieties naturally form a vaseshaped tree which is the simplest way to grow stone fruit. Remove any dead, whippy or crossing branches. Prune to shape in late summer or autumn after harvesting.
apply lots of nitrogenous fertiliser like Dynamic Lifter, Blood and Bone.

Garden Design Elements: South facing balconies. Choose, ferns  (Dryopteris erythrosa) or Gold dust Plant, (Aucuba japonica "Crotonifolia.") . For Morning sun and afternoon shade, Begonia "White Cane," Fatsia japonica (2 metres), Plectranthus "Mona Lavender."
Morning shade, afternoon sun-Bromeliads such as Aechmea blanchetiana, or any Neoregelias.

Plant of the Week: Eleaocarpus reticulatus or Blueberry Ash tree. Aa small tree, that grows between 3-15m tall and 3-5m wide. It has a dense crown of foliage, and an approximately conical form. It needs little maintenance, surviving well in low nutrient and dry soils (although it performs best when well watered). This species grows in a range of light intensities, from shade through to full sun.

E. reticulatus is naturally found in a wide range of environments, from moist gullies through to rocky ridge outcrops and sandy coastal scrubs. An Australian native that naturally grows along the east coast from Fraser Island, Queensland down to Flinders Island, Tasmania. The warmer temperate conditions along the coast suit this species, and it is not found at cooler high altitudes or in areas with frosts.