Fix compacted soil, make a garden hoe and find plants for difficult spots in the garden!

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Next on: Tonight 7.30pm, Rpt Sunday 1.30pm on ABC + iview   Coming up   Jerry explores a restored mangrove wetland, Tino meets a gardener just shy of 100, Millie makes a garden hoe from items commonly found in the shed and Jane shows us how to deal with compacted soil in the garden   WATCH MORE     Video preview   Tonight 7.30pm on ABC + iview   Jane shares some tips and tricks for identifying and fixing compacted garden soil   Find out more       Factsheet Highlight   Fact Sheet   Millie makes a homemade garden hoe from everyday items found lying around the shed     Watch more         Gardening Australia Weekly Quiz Q. The potato belongs to which plant family? A) Solanaceae       B) Brassicaceae C) Pottiaceae See next week's newsletter for the answer! Answer to last week's quiz question: Q) To kill weed seeds in horse manure, you can: A) b - Hot compost it before using it.     What to plant this weekend   Tropical Climate Zone Celery Cucumber Pumpkin Squash Subtropical Climate Zone Beetroot Chives Leeks Sweet Corn Arid Climate Zone Capsicum Oregano Parsley Sweet Potato Temperate Climate Zone Broccoli Carrots Lettuce Shallots Cool Climate Zone Beetroot Cucumber Leeks Radish   What to plant this weekend   COOL It’s coriander time!. Planting now will stop this handsome herb from bolting to seed, meaning more foliage for your culinary capers. Liliums are finishing up with their fab flowering, so remove spent flower heads by cutting about halfway down the stem. This allows enough foliage to remain to boost bulbs for next year. It’s time to get cabbages into the ground. Plant in full sun, allow plenty of space and interplant with land cress (Barbarea vulgaris) to act as a foil for the Cabbage White Butterfly. TEMPERATE Give your summer flowering hydrangeas a helpful haircut. Prune the stems that flowered this year back by a third and leave the rest – they’ll flower next year!   A summer sandwich staple and winter warmer, beetroots are a ripper crop in the home garden. Soak the seeds overnight, and plant into rich, friable soil, spacing apart to about 20cm each. For a tough spot in a sunny rockery or hanging basket, fling in a Fan Flower (Scaevola aemula). These native groundcovers are as tough as boots and bear vibrant purple flowers for most of the year. SUBTROPICAL Plant the pea that brings the native bees – the pigeon pea! This tough, versatile legume provide seeds perfect for dahl, and attracts a host of beneficial bugs. While it might sound like a dance, the Achacha is actually a delicious fruit – tangy, sweet and tasty! This small, evergreen tree (Garcinia humilis) is a Bolivian beauty for backyards – give one a go. For year-round colour, consider some awesome Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii varieties). These perennial cottage classics love heat and humidity, flower prolifically and are great performers.   TROPICAL Possibly the ultimate tropical flower, Heliconia’s are wrapping up their months-long floral show, and will benefit from a tidy up, so remove spent stems and old leaves and use as mulch. Short, stocky and dead-set delicious, give a Wax Gourd (Benincasa hispida) a go. This resilient climbing vine produces large “melon-like” fruits that can be eaten in salads, stir-fries and pickles. If your cordylines are losing their colour, it could be time for a feed. A nice whack of organic lawn food will give them a balanced kick of nitrogen and potassium, perfect for bringing back the bling! ARID Sedum Autumn Joy has great all-year appeal. These succulents are successful in the sunniest of spots, have great upright form, and flower clusters that change with the seasons. A tough, attractive living mulch for hot spots is the Creeping Boobialla, Myoporum parvifolium. These great groundcovers establish quickly, flower prolifically and tolerate some foot traffic Delicious and nutritious, Fava Beans can be sown now. A staple in Egyptian and Middle Eastern dishes, these quick and easy to grow beans can be podded and eaten fresh or dried and stored. Catch up on ABC iview   Never miss a gardening moment!   Watch more     Subscribe     Follow Us     The ABC sent this message to garden336.tool@blogger.com these details are included to help provide assurance that this is a genuine email from ABC. Any personal details and data acquired by the ABC from your participation in any ABC Online Services will be used only in accordance with the ABC's Privacy Policy.     © 2020 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC, ABN 52 429 278 345. 700 Harris St Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia.   Unsubscribe from this eNewsletter | Discover other email newsletters | Privacy

Learn how to make your own terracotta watering pot!

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Next on: Tonight 7.30pm, Rpt Sunday 1.30pm on ABC + iview   Coming up   Tino shows how to make one of the simplest tools for keeping your garden watered, Sophie shares her tips for treating tomato russet mite, Josh learns how a native marsupial is regenerating its plant filled habitat and Jerry travels to a nursery to learn all about the Dracaeana plant.   WATCH MORE     Video preview   Tonight 7.30pm on ABC + iview   Tino makes one of the oldest and simplest tools for keeping your garden watered – an unglazed terracotta pot or Olla’   Find out more       Factsheet Highlight   Fact Sheet   Jerry travels to a nursery that specialises in versatile, varied and underrated Dracaeana plants     Watch more         Gardening Australia Weekly Quiz To kill weeds seeds in horse manure, you can: a) Use the manure when it is really fresh  b) Hot compost it before using it      c) Hose it down before putting it in the garden Watch the show tonight for the answer and see next week's newsletter!  Answer to last week's quiz: Answer - c) Anigozanthos     What to plant this weekend   Tropical Climate Zone Capsicum Beetroot Leeks Zucchini Subtropical Climate Zone Amaranth Cabbage (Loose-headed) Lettuce Radish Arid Climate Zone Carrots Chives Cucumber Tomatoes Temperate Climate Zone Coriander Onion Oregano Warrigal Greens Cool Climate Zone Burdock Chilli Chives Turnips   What to plant this weekend   COOL It's time to manage some of those wild and whippy branches on your apple and pear trees. Prune summer growth back to leaf nodes, with cuts on an angle. Who doesn’t love a good leek? These delicious oniony Alliums are easily grown from seedlings - make a shallow trench, lay down the leeks and cover roots with soil – they’ll straighten up in no time. Interesting, attractive and reliable in cool climates, what’s not to love about Grevillea australis – Tasmania’s only native grevillea! Tough foliage, and terrific spring flowers, this is a high-country must-have. TEMPERATE Make sure your water is working well for you. Water plants deeply but less often, water in the morning and put your water where it is needed the most – the soil. Carrot seeds can be slow to grow, so now’s the time to give them a go. Sow seeds direct in soft, fluffy soil, and keep them moist until they have germinated with a hessian or shadecloth cover. A sun-loving stunner, the silver foliage of the Santolina is a show-stopper. A hardy perennial growing to around 60cm, this plant makes an excellent low border around garden beds or paths. SUBTROPICAL Bring some bling to your garden with the showy Brazilian Plume Flower (Justicia carnea). These shade lovers have stunning showy spikes of bright pink flowers, blooming now. Got an empty spot in your vegie patch and want something quick and delicious? Why not whack in some radishes, the original fast food, ready to pick, pickle or plate in just 4 to 6 weeks! Now that Murraya are coming to the end of their flowering, it’s time to give them a tidy-up and tip prune. This will keep them from setting seeds which are easily spread into bushland by birds. TROPICAL The yellowing and dying down of taro foliage means it’s time to harvest the tubers. Lift them from the ground only as you need them – they store heaps better in the soil! Scale up your cooking with the Fish Herb, Houttuynia cordata. This amazing plant is dead easy to grow in the tropics and tastes just like fish sauce, so it’s perfect in Vietnamese and Thai dishes. Love your bananas? Your garden loves them too! Banana skins are a tremendous source of potassium for fruiting and flowering plants, so chop up the peel and add to your soil! Yum yum! ARID Earthy, easy and underrated, sow the seeds for swedes in arid zones. These beaut brassicas need full sun and planted now, they’ll be ready to harvest in winter. Eat them fried, mashed or roasted. Ripening now are fruits of the Billygoat Plum, Terminalia ferdinandiana, a small tree native to the Northern Territory and said to be one of the richest sources of vitamin C in the world. Bring some summer colour to your pots or patch with some vivacious verbenas. Pretty perennials providing bright, long-lasting blooms for much of the year, verbenas are perfect in hanging baskets.   Catch up on ABC iview   Never miss a gardening moment!   Watch more     Subscribe     Follow Us     The ABC sent this message to garden336.tool@blogger.com these details are included to help provide assurance that this is a genuine email from ABC. Any personal details and data acquired by the ABC from your participation in any ABC Online Services will be used only in accordance with the ABC's Privacy Policy.     © 2020 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC, ABN 52 429 278 345. 700 Harris St Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia.   Unsubscribe from this eNewsletter | Discover other email newsletters | Privacy