Question Time 51!

This month’s Q&A brought to you by The Plant Runner
Moving plants, battling persistent weeds, setting up productive veggie beds, or wondering if you're doing things the right way? In this practical Q&A episode, Keith tackles a wide range of real-world gardening challenges submitted by listeners from around Australia. Packed with straightforward advice, seasonal tips, and problem-solving solutions, this episode is ideal for gardeners looking to avoid common mistakes and get better results from their gardens.

Plants recommended in this episode

• Raphanus sativus — Radish (particularly French Breakfast radish)
• Pisum sativum — Sweet pea
• Pisum sativum var. macrocarpon — Snow pea
• Pisum sativum var. macrocarpon — Sugar snap pea

Products & Tools recommended in this episode

• Clyde's Compost
• Manutec pH Test Kit
• F.D Ryan's Broadfork
• Dicamba Herbicide
• HDPE or LDPE Food-Grade Plastic Liner (for raised garden beds)
• Neutrog Gogo Juice
• Wormly Worm Farms

Where you can find all things Muddy Boots!

Website: https://www.muddyboots.net.au/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/muddybootspodcast/ 
Facebook: Muddy Boots Podcast | Facebook 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hello, I'm Elizabeth, an obsessive backyard gardener, who might be able to offer you a couple of tips.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

And I'm Keith, a landscape consultant, and I'm also passionate about gardening.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

The one thing we both have in common is muddy boots. It is time for another QA episode where we answer your questions, share practical advice, and help you get the best from your garden wherever you are in Australia. Keith is itching to get into question number one, aren't you? So let's go. Let's go. Erin is first up. She says, I've been enjoying growing a cut flower garden, including ranunculus, dahlias, and zinnias at our home in Sydney over the last few years. Our family is moving to Brisbane in January next year, and I wonder if you have any tips for moving a garden over summer. For plants like dahlias, should I plant them in pots and transport them that way, or can the tuba survive a whole year out of the ground?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

No, a tuba needs to do what a tuber needs to do, and these these all need to grow. So you can move any of your bulbs when they're dormant, that's not a problem at all. But you need to determine when they're going to be having flowers or or leaves of whatever sort, um, and and make that determination. So if you've got dahlias, then I'd suggest that um they're gonna be growing pretty vigorously during the period you're on your move. So I'd be potting those up into a quality potting mix. Um and any any that you you can dig up that are going to be dormant, so they've already done their their spring flowering or whatever else, you can actually dig up and just put into some dry sand and move them that way. So that's probably one of the best things. But you know, I I would be very hesitant about lifting up any bulbs um until they're totally dormant.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Okay. That's it. Good luck, Aaron, with that. Question number two is from Jamie. I'm currently rearranging our veggie patch to add more beds with better sunlight conditions. I need to transplant a heritage raspberry, a yellow raspberry, and a boysenbury. Can you please tell me how and when I should how and when I should do the transplant and also how I should prep the soil for the new location?

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yeah, okay, so the the best time to to lift and transplant all cane berries is when they're dormant. Um, you know, and and that'll that'll be probably in in a in a maybe a couple of weeks' time. Uh I would say that they'll be totally dormant. And the beauty about about the heritage variety is that you can cut those right back to nothing, basically, and lift them out of the ground. Um because you can actually buy them, you know, at this time of the year as as bare-rooted uh bare-rooted plants. So the best thing you can do for canes and and cane berries is have a really, really good quality composted soil. So if you can get hold of hold of uh a quality compost like Clyde Comp, if you're here in Victoria, uh and they're available at lots and lots of the budding sites, so you can actually get online now and have a look at his website and he can that and you will see exactly on his website where they are available from. And then, of course, if if um if there's the added possibility that you could get your hands on some ligni humate, that will be absolutely beneficial for cane berries. You know, that's just the but just the most perfect thing to do. And then the other thing that I would be doing is is going around somewhere and trying to find some some pine trees that have dropped lots of little pine needles and use those uh as a as a bit of a mulch and let the new canes come up and grow up through those because they like quite an acidic, well hu well um humist soil. So there you go.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Good advice, that one.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

And always make sure that you do your pH test. So you need it around about the six mark.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Where do you get the pH test from, Keith? Yeah. Where do you get it from?

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Uh Manutech make a good one from uh from the big green warehouse.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Okay. David has the next question. David says, Can you please give me some advice on dealing with weedy buttercup? I've cardboarded and mulched for over two years, but it still keeps coming back, even when I dig it out, removing all runners, etc. Frustrating.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Yeah. Um it's classified as a noxious weed, um, and because it's it's stolen stoleniferous, even leaving in the tiniest little little piece in there will um will will that little tiny piece will be hit with hormones and that will become a totally whole new plant. So it it and it it actually thrives in damp uh compacted soil. So that's another thing that you might need to think about addressing. Can you put a drain across the top? Can you aerate the soil? Can you can you get more you know more water flow through it, through that particular soil? A broad fork is a great thing to be doing that, an FD rind broad fork. Um the only other way that that you can get rid of it, apart from using heavy chemicals such as um uh Roundup or Garlon 600, which are really nasty things, or black tree and blackberry killers, is to maybe solarize it with with a cover of black plastic over the top of it and let the sun hit that and bake whatever's down below the ground. But you need to leave that probably for at least six, six, maybe eight, twelve weeks in order to solarize that soil. And then what you're left with is a soil that that might be free of that weed, but you've got a soil that needs to be totally rejuvenated. So, you know, you look, there's no easy fix at all. Um you might uh you might have to bite the bullet and use a use a product called Dicamba, um, which is a which is a selective herbicide. That's not a bad product, it's not it's not really heavy on the the nasties like like uh Black Tree and Blackberry Killer or Gar on 600. But look, I'm sorry, no easy fix.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Bad news. Sorry, mate. We now have a question from Jai. I'm a cert three horticulture student at TAFE in Brisbane, but unfortunately the funding is poor and the horticulture diploma and landscape design courses have all been cut, both of which I plan to do after my cert three. Does Keith have any recommendations for any other reputable education sources for both of these fields? I understand that you guys are based in Melbourne, so may not be able to help as I'm in Brisbane, but it's worth a shot. I also wanted to mention that I've been listening to the podcast for a few years and am now listening through all the episodes again while I study the cert three in horticulture. It has been such a great help, and I definitely recommend it to anyone studying horticulture. That's lovely of you to say, Jai. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

It's fantastic. And and we we already get uh got our get ourselves muddy boots certified so that you can actually uh take all your notes and and get all your schooling from us because we're probably just as good. Anyway, um Jai and I have already had a conversation, so I've I've actually emailed Jai and and and put through some some ideas that I've had. But I've got to say that because of the tyranny of distance, that I don't know what courses are available up there and what courses are free or anything else. Um and I don't know of any design courses in Queensland, but we do have a couple of fabulous ones down here in Melbourne, and some of those they're going to cost to do it, but some of those are really, really good courses, and it's just a matter of of getting online, having a look what's available, and just seeing what what you can possibly manage and get out of.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Um getting on a plane and coming down here.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Come on, yeah, that's my your best bit. Move down here with us. I'm sorry I can't help you any any out any more than that, Jy.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Um now we have uh a question from Betty. I'm volunteering at my daughter's kindergarten this coming Friday, which I think is local to you both on the Mornington Peninsula. I'm hoping to get the kids to all make Keith's famous paper pots from newspaper and then plant a radish seed in each. That sounds like a great idea. My question is, will this work in our area at this time of the year?

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Goodness, you're in you you're not far from us, Betty. Of course it's going to work. Absolutely. And uh if anyone hasn't seen the paper pots, um I suggest you get on on the Instagram, my Instagram and have a look. Because there's only about 2.7 million hits on that, which is not bad, is it? No, he's a superstar. Which is good. But yeah, look, it it it's a it's a great way that that you can you can show children and and engage with children and and do it in a quick way. And Betty is absolutely spot on to go with radishes, um, because radishes uh will are really quick, um, you get really quick results out of them. You can plant the seed and harvest that particular radish inside seven weeks and eat them. And if you go for a French breakfast radish, um, which you can get get on from any of the seed companies, that is the sweetest, nicest radish that's not going to blow your head off.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Well, we need if we want that one, the kids don't want to blow their heads off, so yeah, they'll that'll put them off.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

But the other thing they can do at this time of the year is actually grow grow some peas. So you could do uh sweet peas, you could do snow peas, you could do sugar snap peas. So they're also great. And and kids can actually see what's happening. You know, once once that that seed is germinated and and those first two leaves come out, and you explain to the children, these are just the sea the leaves for the sun, the little solar panels before they start producing that their true leaves. It's a great process, it really is.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

And a great idea.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

There you go, Betty. Um well done to you, Betty.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Yeah, fantastic idea. Julia's next. She has two questions. So here comes question number one. I recently heard that corn gluten meal is good for excuse my voice, is corn gluten meal is good for stopping weeds from emerging. I have some new raised garden beds which I have stones or gravel between the beds and would like to stop any weeds from growing without using chemicals. Do you know if corn gluten meal is effective to stop weeds and where I might be able to purchase it? I have tried two ag joints in my town, but with no lock, no luck. I live in Horsham in Western Victoria.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Yeah, um this this is this is really quite unusual. Um and and I've got to quantify what I'm about to say by saying that corn is gluten-free. So there's got to be an an additive to it, because it is the gluten part of of that that actually will do what you what you want it to do. So this is used a lot in certain certain states of America. So corn is one of the biggest industries in America, and they use corn for all sorts of things. Um and it's used as a natural herbicide on lawns more than anything else. Um but it it it it does not stop seeds from germinating. That's the key. So it's not a pre-emergent um component. Um what what happens is when a seed germinates, it produces a radical, and from that radical other root systems develop from it. So what happens is is that once that radical forms, it it makes more true roots, which then uptake moisture and nutrients. So adding cornmeal um in inhibits root growth and it starves the seed of the access to food and and water by way of proteins. So and and this is what I got I'm I'm I've got to get back to and say that you've got to get a cornmeal that has gluten and not gluten-free, which most of them do.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Well, she's mentioned corn gluten meal.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Yeah, so so it's had it it's obviously had something added to it to to give it the gluten because corn doesn't normally have have uh gluten in it.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

But is it available?

SPEAKER_00 11:13

So it's is it available? Yeah, well, if you yeah, you can. Um you can actually get on on online and and go to Amazon and uh have a look at look at some cornmeals. Um I just thought I I would give this a try myself. Um and I've I got some of um Bob's red mill, um, cornmeal, and you can get get one that's got it's gluten.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Or gluten meal.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Gluten meal, yeah. Um you can get one that's got the gluten and one that hasn't got the gluten. So you've just got to make sure you get the right one. But there look, it is a big thing in America, so I can't see why you can't get hold of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

You've tried it?

SPEAKER_00 11:49

I haven't, I I've tried it. I don't know the results yet. I don't know what the results are like yet.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Okay, okay. Oh good to know. Okay, now for Julie's second question. During your podcast, could you mention plant names that the general public would know? As sometimes I've noticed that you only provide the botanical name. I'd also like to request that you have a list of products you recommend on your Facebook and Instagram pages so we can check there instead of having to write them down during the podcast, which I can't always do because I'm driving. Do you want me to answer this because I've got an answer?

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Yeah, but we're we we've just got to welcome back to the family.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

I know, I was about to say. We have welcomed back Georgina, who used to write our notes and she's come back to the family to write more. Write them again. So she's our note-taker. She's our wonderful note taker. So you can now find a list of the common and botanical plant names mentioned in each podcast on whichever podcast platform you use. You'll also find links to the products mentioned there as well. So just search for the relevant Muddy Boots podcast and you'll find the lists in the notes.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

And one thing I just want to add to that is that the reason that I use botanical names and not common names is because common names can refer to three, four, five, six different plants. So I try to be very specific, uh, and and that's why I use the use the botanical names. And now we've got the lovely Georgina on board who is going to be compiling all this so that you people can see what the the true name is, and if you want to use the common name, that's all up to you, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

So thank you, Georgina.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

And thank you, Julie, for those questions. Kimberly's question is next. I made I made an epic mistake as a new gardener and planted a grafted passion food in my suburban garden. The roots have spread far and wide, and the rootstock even made its way halfway up the neighbour's liquid amber tree. I've tried removing all the suckers, digging up as many of the roots on my side of the fence as I can, but I'm very much losing the battle. Unfortunately, the suckers are mostly in my veggie patch, so I'm hesitant to use Roundup. Do you have any suggestions to rid our garden of passion fruit rootstock other than moving suburbs and starting afresh?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Well, Kimberly, what a lesson to learn. So the best the best thing for you to do is to move interstate with no forwarding address. And if you can desire if you can decide to stay, then I can only suggest that you use the glycophate, because that's going to be the the only thing that that's going to kill that particular thing. Um this herb this herbicide is actually translocated through the actual plant down to the roots, and that's where it kills. And I've got to say that when when we first moved into our current home, in the backyard was was uh an old passion fruit vine that was at towards its end of its life, which is about five to seven years, but it was a grafted form, just what Kimberly's got. So therefore, that graft took off, and I found that in every single corner of our quarter acre block of land coming up through plants and everything else, it is the most invasive damn thing that you'll ever come across. So there's only really one way, one only one way to get it. This stuff will travel underground. Um, in fact, Kimberly, you might go outside one day and see it at the bus stop growing up through the bus shelter. It is such a mongrel of a thing. So um I I I don't you know I wouldn't want to see you having to smother your whole backyard with weed gunnel or cardboard boxes. So I think you've got to bite the bullet and just gently get out there with a with with neat um roundup, uh small paintbrush, and paint it on every single piece you see. That's the only way you're gonna get rid of it.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Okay, okay, that's interesting. Uh good luck, Kimberly. Now for a question from Caroline. Can you tell me if and how I should get rid of wandering dew? We live on the south coast of New South Wales, and this weed is in three sections of our garden. I can pull it out, but it keeps coming back. Another one of these invasive things. Don't like them. Invasive things.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

They're horrible. You know that and and I've just I've just had another one um yesterday come from um someone we've actually had on the show a while ago, um, and that was um Ashley from Pennsylvania. Oh, yeah. So she sent me a video through showing me a hedge that she's got there, and underneath it is is ivy, English ivy, which is another mongrel to get rid of. So this is the same sort of situation. Um paintbrush, yeah? Paintbrush again and get out there and paint it with with Roundup. Um the thing about wa uh this particular um wandering dew, which is Tratter's Cantia, um is that it has a waxy s substance on the actual leaves, so therefore it makes it water repellent. So this is why you've actually got to get down there and literally paint it onto onto it all. If you pull it up, you're leaving little tiny segments that then become new plants here and there and everywhere. So it's the same sort of treatment. You've got to get in there with um with with with Roundup. If you hate Roundup, then I'm afraid you're left with um tree and blackberry killer or garland 600, which is about $175 a litre to purchase garland, and that would be the only thing you'd be using it for. So I think that the best thing you can do is is get out there with a paintbrush, with with the neat product, and just paint it.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

This is good advice. I'm gonna hang on to that as well. Now for a question from Caroline. I've just had Caroline's. Now for a question from Sophie. Sophie! Sophie, after being completely inspired by Keith's recent garden stir-fry haul from Instagram, I'd like to try and make more of a go of our own productive section of the garden. We've been in our home for two years, and the previous owners put in some above-ground vegetable boxes. However, from what I can see, they have been constructed with treated pine and also painted to match the fence and surrounding features of the house. They are in dire need of a top-up, and I plan to order some Clyde Compast as our home compost bin cannot keep up supply for all boxes. However, my concern is that the chemicals from the wood and paint will leach into our organic vegetables, and I would love to know your thoughts on this. Do we knock them down and start again, or can we line the boxes with something? I look forward to hearing your tips and we'll hold off on a compost order until we solve the issue.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Well well, Sophie, you you sent me some photographs and um and I had a look at those and I saw that they those beds are made from treated pine. And the thing about treated pine is that today, because they're used in playgrounds and all the rest of it, the toxicity is nothing like what it used to be. It used to have stricttening and all these other things in it to sort of preserve the timbers because treated pine is a pine, it's a softwood, and it will decay and rot very, very quickly. So um my suggestion is that you don't worry about what it's made from, but you get out there and you go go down to the big green warehouse and you get yourself some food grade plastic. Um and and this is classified as H D P E or L D P E. So that's that's what you've got to you've got to look for, is is a is um a plastic that has those initials on them. And this is this can then be specifically used in raised beds, but because they're not going to leach out any toxins or anything else or allow any toxins to get from the wood into your into your uh your raised beds. Um so I would suggest you go down and have a look at them. Don't go down to the garden section because it's not going to be down there, it's gonna be in the building section. So if you can find someone in the budding store in the builder's department that's got a bit of knowledge about their products, then go and speak with them and just see if you can find out that that that uh that qual that that style of plastic. So they're good. Um another way to do another thing to do is once you've got that is is go and purchase a little um battery-operated azito stapler and staple it all the way around and then fill it fill it all up. Um go for a um a good quality um soil mixer. So if you go to Clyde Compost, because we know you're local, um, you can get his landscape mix to put in say the bottom um two-thirds and then fill it up with with um Clyde Compost on the top. Apply some go-go juice, which will help to inoculate and invigorate the the compost and fill it full of great big beautiful um microbes that will turn turn your soil into a wonderful living matter. And then I noticed on your photograph, and I just want to share this as you look at you look at the opportunities, behind behind her vegetable beds, she had some some wall space there that you could actually put some uprights and some what some um reinforcing mesh like we've done here, and then use the back of your beds to grow climbers up your uh.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

I thought you were saying a spalian apple tree or something.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

No, well, you could do an Aspalian apple tree in there as well, but you know, you you utilize your space in the best possible way to get them to maximise what you've got. Yeah. So um I think that'd be great to put you know, concrete reinforcing mesh and put climbers of any sort up there all year round.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Yep, fantastic. Go for it, Sophie. Send us some photos when you've done it, please. Uh, last question for this week's QA podcast is from Tim. He says, I'm a keen raised wicking bed gardener, but wonder if having earthworms in a closed bed environment is beneficial. I've often seen that pot plants, for example, will not be as vigorous if there are earthworms in the potting mix. Thanks for any advice you can offer. By the way, I love my new Scots Moon gardening calendar. Good.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Um you'll never ever have earthworms in a wicking bed because earthworms are earthworms. They live in the earth. So, what what an earthworm is, is a little nocturnal critter that has beautiful long deep burrows that allow air and and moisture to percolate down through it. So they're opening up the soil profile. And at night time they'll they will come up that as a burrow, use it as a burrow or or as a you know as a climbing mechanism to get to the surface where they will pull out a leaf that's been attacked by microbes and they'll pull it down and they'll they'll consume that. So earthworms live in the earth, and what you're looking at is um compost worms. So and and a compost worm is a worm that will work through the compost layer of your bed. So if you've got soil and everything else in your wicking beds, then they're going to be in the top layer where that where all the compost is. And that that it's a it's a it's a management thing to do. I mean, all my raised beds, which are not wicking beds, they are teeming with with um worm life in them because I'm continually adding lots and lots of compost in order for them to to live in and to supply the food for my plants. My suggestion to do for you guys, or for you in particular, Tim, is to invest yourself in a wormly worm farm. So put one of those into your your wicking bed and keep on topping it up. Um and and that will that will give you a little concentration of of uh of of your your compost worms. But earthworms are never going to work in in that bed. And understand that in your situation you're you're gonna be concentrating your your compost worms into that little wormly worm farm, but they're gonna they're also going to get out of that worm farm and go and work through the compost lawyer layer that you've got in there as well. So that's another another great thing to be doing. That's what I'd be suggesting.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Wormly worm farm. Well, that brings us to the end of another QA podcast. Thank you again for all your fabulous questions. We hope Keith's responses and solutions will make your gardening journeys a whole lot easier.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Hope so.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Hope he's giving you the right answers. Um, we have one more thing to do, though, before we go. So that is to announce this month's winner of the fabulous prize from the Plant Runner. And this month's winner is Kimberly, who is battling with a spreading passion fruit. Congratulations, Kimberly. We will be in touch with you very shortly. Don't forget to the plant go to theplantrunner.com for all your organic indoor plant care needs and happy gardening. Thank you for listening to Muddy Boots. For more information on today's podcast, please go to muddyboots.net.au and happy gardening.