Muddy Boots
Muddy Boots
Question Time 50!
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Recommended Plants
Hibiscus spp. — Hibiscus
Eremophila nivea — Emu Bush
Philotheca myoporoides — Long-leaf Waxflower
Correa backhouseana — Correa
Correa baeuerlenii — Chef’s Cap Correa
Liriope spp. — Lilyturf
Liriope muscari ‘Evergreen Giant’ — Giant Lilyturf
Liriope spp. ‘Alba’ / ‘Monroe’s White’ — White Lilyturf
Pachysandra insignis — Japanese Spurge
Anthemis ‘Susanna Mitchell’ — Anthemis (chamomile-type)
Anthemis ‘E.C. Buxton’ — Anthemis (chamomile-type)
Rosmarinus officinalis (prostratus) — Prostrate Rosemary
Myoporum parvifolium — Creeping Boobialla
Casuarina glauca ‘Cousin It’ — Cousin It / Prostrate Sheoak
Recommended Products
EE – Sea Fertliser
Neutrog Bush Tucker
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Hello, I'm Elizabeth, an obsessive backyard gardener, who might be able to offer you a couple of tips.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Keith, a landscape consultant, and I'm also passionate about gardening.
SPEAKER_01The one thing we both have in common is muddy boots. It's QA time once again, but before we get started, Keith and I have a very important job to do. That is to announce the two winners of our giveaway, the fabulous pruners from Lowy, in conjunction with the Backyard Botanist. I think we need a drum roll here because the response to this giveaway has been enormous.
SPEAKER_00Fabulous.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much to everyone for entering. I wish we had more than two of these brilliant pruners to give away today, but not to worry as we have more fabulous giveaways coming up very soon. So today's lucky winners of the Lowy 5.107 anvil pruners are at Chelsea underscore Barker, whose name is Chelsea, and Jen at Jen Stocks, whose name is Jennifer. Congratulations, Chelsea and Jennifer. You lucky girls, you are both.
SPEAKER_00We are lucky, my word. It's going to change the way you prune.
SPEAKER_01Change the world. You are both going to love the ease of these pruners so much that you'll be constantly searching for jobs to do in the garden. We'll be in contact with you both very shortly to arrange delivery. And for everyone else, make sure to visit backyardbotanist.com.au.au and use the muddy boots in capitals discount code for 10% of all of your plant care needs. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Brilliant.
SPEAKER_01Moving on now to this week's QA episode. We have a jam-packed session, so we better get started. Here comes question number one for Keith. This one is from Jo, who has attached some photos to her question. She says, Thank you for answering all my questions over the months that I've been listening. Every time I tune in, I learn something new. I've tried the trip trick with the echinaceaus seed heads you mentioned in a recent podcast. I'm looking forward to seeing it work. Fingers crossed. I've actually tried that too, so I'm hoping that will work.
SPEAKER_00Good. Work for me.
SPEAKER_01Great. I would love some plant advice for a tricky spot in my mum's garden. Most of the things we have planted have died, except for the Liriope. My mum looks into this onto this bed from her room, and it would be so lovely to have something more to enjoy. Either a variety of greens or some flowers. The area is north facing, but with the wall and the building around it, it's either very hot or very shady. We are in Western Australia. Over to you.
SPEAKER_00Okay, Joe. Look, that's a very trying spot in the garden. So let me suggest a few for you and Mum to have a look at. And this is probably one of the most important things that you've got to make a decision on that. So I'd be looking at maybe some of the hibiscus varieties, either the Australian native form or the exotic varieties. When I say exotic, you know, maybe the New Guinea, New Guinean forms. But then over where you are, you you also have a have a range of plants that will adapt to those to that particular environment really well. And that would be looking at things like Euremu bushes, which are stunning plants. The Eremophlia and the variety there is Nivea. Another variety that you could look at, another another species you could look at is uh Philothica myoporoides, and then Coria bachusiana or Coria bora lenii, which is the chef capped corrier. So these are fabulous little plants. But I would also encourage you to continue using the Lyriopes because you've already had success with those along along close to the edge of the edge of the garden bit. But look for other varieties. Now there is a taller variety called Liv L Lyriope Evergreen Giant, which gets to about 60 centimetres by 60 centimetres. But there's also white forms and pink forms, which are slightly lower. The white form is either elba or there is a variety which is called Munrose White, but there's a beautiful pink form as well. And then in front of that you could edge it with a real nice little ground cover with a plant called Pasesthesia Insignus. So that's a that that's otherwise known as Japanese spurge. But that's a great little thing. Oh yeah. So I hope this sort of helps.
SPEAKER_01It uh sound that sounds great. And the idea of having the little like a number of lyriopes together, clumps of them.
SPEAKER_00Yep. And mix the colours up and all have just, you know, one colour and whatever you like.
SPEAKER_01The next question is from Dan. He says, I've recently moved into a smaller townhouse in the Frankston area in Victoria and have laboured to use the available space to make a smite, nice small garden I can enjoy with my kids as it's one of my favourite hobbies. I've opted for a granitic sand layer around the plants, about three inches thick, as I like the look, and I've heard it's a great weed deterrent. I currently spray my garden once a month with neutrog sea sole and go-go juice, and a few times a year I put some slow release granular fertilizer over the sand. Does all this goodness get through the sand and down into the soil, or should I be using a fork to create holes? And can I put compost on top? I'm not super keen to do either, as I love the look of the sand, but it's more important to keep my beloved plants healthy.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay, Dan, um if you're using a granular fertilizer, you're using um and it's a slow release form, then it it's it is a crystalline form and it is non-organic. So it's releasing the the the the the elements that plants require, that's the NP and the K, but in a chemical form. Um and that's just not not uh not not something that that I I would ever recommend or I would ever tell tell anyone. Using the go-go juice is not a practice that I would recommend because the go-go juice is is actually um providing life form for the microbes and so forth in the soil. And that's okay when when you're you're adding compost from the top, that you would use the go-go juice on top of that to populate that, but you're not doing that in that situation. So that's I I wouldn't I wouldn't um suggest that you keep on on using that way. I would suggest that you either if you if you're down here in in Frankston, you would have access to a product that I am absolutely loving at the moment as a liquid feed, and that is a product called EEC, so capital E, capital E, and then a dash and S E A. And that is a um a fish fertilizer where the the fish that are used have been used to create that emulsion uh from the deep sea, so they contain no heavy metals or any other crap that you're adding to your soil, so you're not adding nasties, you're adding just really good stuff, and that stuff applied over three inches of granitic sand will work its way down to the roots and and be an absolute perfect thing. The other thing you can use, um and particularly if you've got native plants, um, would be um Neutrog's bushtucker, which is available from the big green warehouse, or gigantic, which is also another great fam. Forget the sea sole.
SPEAKER_01I think I said neutrog sea sole. I didn't mean that. I meant sea sole and neutrog's logo juice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's not so so sea sole is not a food, it's a tonic. That's right. So it's like you might as well go out there and throw each plant a vitamin C pill or a vitamin B pill. It's not gonna do an awful lot for you for your plants. Um, all the goodness such as compost, rock dust, and myco gold, should have all been added prior to your putting down the granitic sand. And I know this is um, you know, probably something you don't want to hear, but that's about the best way to do it. And you could still do that if you were at all concerned by using FD Ryan's prepping fork and putting that down into the granitic sand and into the soil, working it back a little bit, applying a little bit of those products that I've already spoken about into those holes, and then just smooth those holes over. And that's it, job done.
SPEAKER_01Okay, that sounds good. Allie has this next question. I've bought an old Victorian farmhouse on half an acre in Millthorpe in New South Wales. There are many trees, but one particular, one in particular is a stand out do it again, Brett, sorry. Allie has this next question. I've bought an old Victorian farmhouse on half an acre in Millthorpe in New South Wales. There are many trees, but one in particular is a standard crabapple tree. It is old with the trunk approximately 30 centimetres wide and the canopy about two metres. Can I transplant this tree? I have to move it to take way make way for an extension. But it is a stunning tree when green. What do you suggest?
SPEAKER_00Well, um, you have got absolutely no option but to give it a go. That's that's it. So I would be cutting the the canopy back by at least a half, and then I would be doing your utmost to get as big a root ball as you can possibly get around that, and you might have to get a few friends around. And the way that I would do it is is is I would go out, I I would cut back your your canopy first, so reduce it by a half, and then get some really sharp spades and go in all the way around where that canopy you've just around that edge of that canopy you've just cut back, go down as much as you can, and then I would suggest with your mates you put a rope at the top of the tree and just below where where the you know where it weaks down and pull it across to one side and see if you can get some hessian and poke it underneath it and push it all the way under half under underneath that tree, and then pull it back the other way and pull that hessian back up, and then with all your mates, lift it and drag it across to your new hole where you where it's all ready to go, so it's all beautifully composted and everything else, stick it in the hole, and then do not feed it except with the compost that's in that hole, then apply your seesaw on a regular basis and hope that you've you've you've set yourself up for success. But you've got no other no other choice but to to give that a a bit of a crack, a crack, and just make sure that you've got as many friends to give you a hand as possible. Because a 30-centimeter tree is a very old tree.
SPEAKER_01And that's where sea salt comes in.
SPEAKER_00That's where you use seesaw. Because it's good for transplanting, it's great for transplanting because it's it will help to stimulate that new root growth that you're getting up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, great. We have a question from Joe now. I live in rural Waikato in New Zealand, where we moved about four years ago. I've established some gardens in what was once a paddock, but is now our backyard, so weeds are a huge problem. My gardens are just mounds of dirt as we can't afford to box them. This works well except for two things. In summer, when it's dry, the rains fall off rather than soak in, and weeds grow up the sides and require a lot of maintenance. I've been growing herbs like oregano, thyme and sage along some edges, and that helps with these problems, but I'd like to add some flowers too. I tried poppies, but they fell over into the pies, and I tried violas, which I regret massively as they self-seed like a carpet everywhere. What would you recommend I plant on the edges of my garden that will help suppress weeds, retain moisture, attract bees, and look nice too?
SPEAKER_00Well, you've got a bit of a job ahead of you there, Jodine, and and I would be suggesting you look at weed suppressing ground covers that you can actually trim off the pathways as as they start to encroach upon the pathways. And my suggestions are as follows. So Anthemus is a ripper weed suppressing ground-hugging plant, uh, and look at a variety called Susanna Mitchell. Then there's another anthemus called E. C. Buxton, which is another ripper, and then maybe look at some some rosemary, some prostratus, which will which will really work well in that sort of a situation. Um, another another great one is an Australian native called Myoporum Parvifolium, and that's got beautiful little white sprays of flowers on it. And another ripper that I love in anyone's garden because it adds just so much life and texture to a to any any garden is Casuarina Glauca Cousinit. It is an absolute ripper. Now, most of these are available from the Plant Company, Babylon Store, and River Road Nursery, all in New Zealand. So have a little look at those. Um your other option for weed suppression may be to order yourself um a length or whatever length you want of um an organic weed matting called weed gunnel. Now that can be shipped across to you without a worry in the world. Or look at maybe um wool grow matting. Now you've got you've got some people over in New Zealand that are actually growing or actually growing, you're actually manufacturing um a woolgrow product over there. So buy it off them rather than have it sending them sending that product over to Australia where it's competing with our woolgrow product over here from Sherry. Yes, that's right. So there you go. Hope that helps.
SPEAKER_01Sounds good. Alicia's question is next. She says, I have a lot of oxalis, which is growing amongst native plants in my garden beds. What is the safest way to get rid of it?
SPEAKER_00Um there are a few options available, and the first couple in couple involves smothering the rotten stink and stuff, either using cardboard, woolgrown matting, or weed gunnel. And the covering needs to needs to be over the soil for as long as it takes to rot the bulbs away. Um, another method that you can use, and I have you have used this method with fabulous success in the past, and that is using an organic herbicide called firehawk, which can be purchased online. And this is an organic contact spray that will kill off the leaves in a matter of of hours. However, what you need to do is remember what that oxalis is coming from, and that is a bulb that has got stored energy that will keep on growing new new leaves up through the surface until you deplete the energy that that bulb contains. And if you purchase fire hawk in an RTU pack, which what's RTU pack ready to use. Ready to use pack, you must shake the living daylights out of it in order to spray. Because we had one person come back to us and said, I bought that product and it didn't work. And we went back and said, Gotta make sure you shake it first, because as I said, I can kill oxalis leaves in an hour using firehawk. Go back and they're all brown and and and rotted away. So just remember that that if you're gonna use firehawk rather than those other methods, then shake the living daylights out of it to you make sure you've got it all sent through it.
SPEAKER_01And you mentioned wool grow a few times. I just wanted to say that's Woolgrow, Woolgrow Australia. In Australia, where you can get that from.
SPEAKER_00Otherwise, get it in New Zealand for whatever it's called over there.
SPEAKER_01Okay, now we have a question from Geraldine. I've noticed that Keith trims his Brussels sprouts back to show the sprouts. At what stage do you do this and does this put the goodness into the sprouts? Um thanks, Geraldine.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it does. I like to remove all the lower leaves right up, right up and you know, except for the top 300 mil, um, when the actual brussels sprouts are about the size of a of a marble, a small marble. Um and what that then does is it is a it allows the roots of of the plant to feed the actual brussels sprouts rather than the leaves and and the head, and that's where you you get really, really better tasting Brussels sprouts from that plant. Um and I would um suggest that you use the Clyde compost all the time around the base of those to ensure that everything's up and going.
SPEAKER_01Fabulous, fabulous. Now it's Natalie's turn. I'm wanting to plant some more fruit trees and to save on space, have been thinking of planting multi-grafted trees. I'm not confident enough to graft them myself, but I was wondering if Keith could suggest where I could purchase them from from and what I should be looking for in a good graft and tree. Are they available bare-rooted or do I need to buy potted trees and is winter the correct time to be planting them? I'm in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. What tips and advice can Keith give me for my first venture into multi-grafted trees?
SPEAKER_00Natalie, I can give you some advice and some observations and some recommendations. So, how about that? So, when when I first moved to the where we're living now, um we had a couple of multi-grafted fruit trees that the previous people had had in the ground for a long period of time. And the thing about that is that that multi-grafted um fruit trees are actually grafted onto a rootstock, and then the actual grafts are put onto that particular rootstock. And if you if you've got, and and and I was lucky enough to see this for myself, but one of those grafts will tend to be more dominant than the other. So with with our tree, we had we had one that had a a trunk like that, and the other had a trunk like that, so quite small. And you've just got to maintain that those particular trees in that in that basis. So cut them back according to the their growth abilities in order to get the best out of them. So it's a great way of doing it if you if if that's what you want to do. My instance here is um uh for one for instance, one of these trees had um two graphs on it, it had Coe's golden drop and green gauge. Now the Co's Golden Drop became the dominant plot part of that, um, and it was the green gauge that we actually preferred the flavour of. So that's why you've got to really look after what you're doing. So in that instance, that the Co's Golden Um drop took over the green gauge. Um, you know, so I no longer have uh multi-grafted trees in my garden anymore. All these trees are available bare-rooted now that you can easily go out from reputable nurseries or contact Shepherd's Nurseries and get them from Phil or from Mitch down there, and if you mention my name, they will look after you. And what I would suggest you do is what I do with all my my fruit trees now, is where you need to have a cross-pollinator, you dig a big hole, you put lots of compost in it, and then you plant the two trees in the one hole. So that you've got your cross-pollinators sitting side by side, and you treat those two trees as one plant. So you prune it accordingly all the way around. And if you do that, you will you will find that those two trees will not outdominant dominate one over the other, they will grow a uniform trunk and a uniform canopy that will give you the best possible fruit that you'll ever have. Um, I can remember seeing years ago at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show a guy who was selling these fruit salad trees, and they had multi, multi varieties on the one plant. And I used to just walk past and shake my head, all these people going there buying these multi-grafted plants because they wouldn't have a clue how to look after and maintain each one of those multi-grafts because one will become more dominant than the other, and then you've just wasted your money. So if you're going to get get trees that need cross pollinators, plant the two in the one hole.
SPEAKER_01Easy. Sounds easy.
SPEAKER_00So just with Shepherd's, Shepherd's Nurseries, they're in they're in, I think it's 920 or 870 or something like that, Stumpy Gully Road in Churong. But if you give Phil Shepherd a ring, um you can call him to see what's available by calling his number, which is 0417-36475, and tell him Keith and Elizabeth. Muddy boots. Elizabeth. Let's see.
SPEAKER_01Um so he will mail out, he will send them out.
SPEAKER_00He can post them or they can go down and and he will have them read it ready for them to pick up.
SPEAKER_01All right. Charlotte has the next question. My son has just moved into a house in Ballarat, Victoria, which has a mix of hydrangeas in the garden. Some of the plants are very short and bushy and still full of flower heads. This is a little bit a little while ago, so probably not so much now, but showing no sign of juicy buds along the stems yet. There are also some of the more common mophead hydrangeas which are budding nicely along the stems. Should my son be doing something to the plants to make sure they're well looked after over winter and ready for flowering the next season? He's a very proud he is very proud of his first flower garden.
SPEAKER_00Yep. And Charlotte sent through some pictures of those, so that was good to get a to get a bit of a look at those. So hydrangeas require plenty of moisture to have healthy large leaves and to produce big flower heads. But they also need lots and lots of food. And compost is a great thing that you can just be throwing, throwing in around over the top. You don't need to dig that in, just throw it around it and just make sure that you you're washing it off any of the stems that that are down tight below. So they need a really good feed in late winter. Um, and the the reason that that there are no real large buds on on those particular parts gets back to the food and the moisture situation that's happened in the past. So prune about a third of the current canes to the nearest buds that you've got there, and remove any of the dead canes to ground level. Um, and I've had a little look at the the the leaves that that you sent the pictures through on, they have these little little um red spots on the actual leaves, which is indicative that they've either got red-spotted spider mite or two-spotted mite, which are basically the same little insect that you you get on there. So uh If you apply some rock dust and maybe get in underneath, if if you see that start to happen again with a little bit of econeme and an eco-oil, give it a bit of a spray. And I'd also probably suggest that you give the plants at this stage of after you've cleaned them all up and done all the pruning, go over and apply a little bit of lime sulphur over them as well, which will just kill any of these sorts of things that might be just sitting there waiting to bloom into life. Great organic foods, and I would suggest that you use a neutron product there called kahuna, which would be fabulous for that. And this product will make the flowers a deep blue colour. So if if that's he's happy, happy with that, but he's after pink or white, then you'll need to add some additives to the actual soil, which you can buy there. You can either get blueing agents or pinking agents or whiting agents or whatever else, which will just um change the colour of those heads. But you know, to mix them up through a garden bit looks absolutely spectacular. And you must be missing the hell out of that after your beautiful garden up the road.
SPEAKER_01I do miss them, and I have got some in a pot ready to go in because they need to go into the ground. Even though I've got a Mediterranean garden, I think we can just add them to it. That's all right. We'll make them fit. It'll be fine. We'll make them fit because I do love them. The next question is from Fiona. My vegetable garden is in a position where the drip line of many of our trees are now reaching the edge of the garden bed. As the trees love the vegetable soil, I would like to replace the vegetable garden with raised beds to stop the tree roots from stealing the goodness from the vegetables and herbs. What would you recommend?
SPEAKER_00Um roots from trees will always seek out the best and easiest source of food and water because that's what they're there for. Um and what better source for food and water can there be from a veggie bed? Because you're putting it all there for them. Um I can remember um a fellow worker, co-worker at the Diggers Club. Um, she had her vegetable beds not far from this huge gum tree, and every time she stuck a fork in them or a or a spade into the ground, she found all these masses of little fibrous root systems that were just there, just sucking it all. Sucking all the goodness out. So raised beds are an absolutely fantastic solution to eliminate root intrusion. So a couple of ways to do this, you can use a wicking bed system or and and and in that sort of situation for any sort of raised beds, have a look at Modbox. Go and have a look at Modbox. You might find that to purchase one of his his raised beds will be more practical than you trying to build one out of timbers that might be susceptible for all sorts of chemicals and crap. But you can have a look at his site because he's got wicking solutions there as well as the others. But the thing about um the the the the raised beds that the Modbox now have is that every one of their raised beds that you put together has two materials apart from the timber that creates the the frame around it, and that is a geofabric, which goes in the bottom and up the sides of the actual of the actual beds, and then around that is a food grade plastic liner. And and when when I built yours out here, the the the geofabric went across the bottom, then up the sides, and it was all tucked in, so any roots can't get up into that bed, and then to protect all the the wood and and everything else, then that liner was put round the edge and it was all stapled in and Bob's your auntie or your uncle nowadays, whatever you like. But that's the best way to do so. Um if you have a look at the mod box and you might get some ideas if if it um helps, but otherwise, if you're gonna build your own, then Bunnings will have a food grade plastic, but don't go to the to the um nursery end of of Bunnings and ask that question. Go to the builder section and ask that question. You need a you need a high density polyethyl plastic that is not gonna leach out toxins and crap, but they also have geofabric there you can buy by the meter, and that will sort you out. So I hope that helps.
SPEAKER_01Fantastic. Tina is next, and she provided some pictures for this information. I live in Christchurch, New Zealand, and we have a vanilla tree in our garden that is probably about 40 years old. We we recently noticed quite a few large dead branches in the tree that have holes in them and wonder if they could be tree borers. Can you advise how we can get rid of these and save the tree?
SPEAKER_00Okay. Now, Tina's called that a vanilla tree.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00Um and that is actually a plant that I love, and I love to use it in gardens as a bit of a background plant because it's got these beautiful little small shiny glossy leaves, but it has these beautiful little small sprays of yellow flowers. And its botanical name is Azara microphylla, micro meaning small and phyla meaning leaf, small leaf. So it's just a beautiful plant. So I would suggest that you well, um first of all, looking at the size of those bora holes, you have a lonicorn beetle living in there, which is a big beetle that was boring all the way through it. So you need to cut all those branches back to the main trunk as close as possible. And if you see that, see that when you've done that, that those bora holes are still continuing on, then the only thing I can suggest you do is get yourself a a length of a plyable, fairly pliable sort of wire, and poke it down as far as you can, down through those holes, and hopefully impale those stinking rotten bugs that are down there. So use a stiff wire down in that. I don't suggest necessarily applying chemicals because it's not a good solution because it'll be translocated through the plant and it'll cause more damage. Um so if you do those, do that thing and and by using the wire sieving and prod the little thing, push it down as far as you can and impale the little mongrel so he becomes blood blood and bone for the plant eventually. Um, and then um I would suggest that you use the method then of turning on the lower buds by finding a node on the branch and using a sharp saw cutting just above the top of that bud, and hopefully that will turn that bud on. You'll get some lower branches all the way down. But that's the best thing that I can suggest for you. Tina?
SPEAKER_01That's good advice. Well, we've come to the end of another QA podcast. Thanks again to everyone for sending in their quest your questions. We have one last thing to do before we go, and that is to announce this month's winner of the fabulous prize from The Plant Runner. This month's winner is Jo, who is trying to brighten up her mum's garden. Congratulations, Jo. We will be in touch with you very soon. Go to theplantrunner.com for all your organic indoor plant care needs.
unknownBye.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for listening to Muddy Boots. For more information on today's podcast, please go to muddyboots.net.au and happy gardening.