KITCHEN GARDEN SEGMENT  on REAL WORLD GARDENER radio show Scientific Name: Rungia klossii Common name: Mushroom plant Family: Acanthaceae Origin: New Guinea   Rungia klossii is an evergreen Perennial growing to 0.6 m x 0.6 m at a medium rate. Soils: Suitable for: light or sandy, medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils.    Habitat: Mushroom plant can grow in semi-shade  but not full sun in an Australian summer. It prefers dry or moist soil if grown in the ground otherwise growing in a pot is very successful. Description:The shiny ..read more

 KITCHEN GARDEN Leaf Celery Scientific Name:Apium graveolens var. secalinum Plant family: Apiaceae Common Name: Parcel   A relatively uncommon or even unkown herb or vegetable. Parcel stems from the idea that it looks like parsley but tastes like celery. Leaf celery is a biennial plant growing to 60cm in height. Biennial simply means that leaf celery grows vegetatively during the first year and fruits (seeds) and dies  at the end of the second year. Leaf celery could be classified as a herb because the leaves are used just as much as the stalks in coo ..read more

 SPICE IT UP Know Your Cardamoms. There are many budding chefs and cooks that use heaps of spices in their recipes going by the success of cooking shows on television. Green and brown cardamom pods Indian, Asian and Mexican cooking particularly calls for a wide selection of these different spices.   Some spices though come in a variety of  grades, colours and uses making it possible for the unsuspecting cook to make a blunder. This may not necessarily result in a vast difference in the final flavour, but it can make your creation not as 'flavoursome' as it should be. Brown Chi ..read more

 TALKING FLOWERS    Tips on Choosing the Freshest Flowers Do you regularly buy a bunch of fresh flowers to brighten up your home? Do you find that no matter which ones you buy, you just can't seem to get them to last past a few days, but friends regularly boast about how their flowers last for over a week? Sometimes I cringe when I see a bunch of flowers outside some supermarkets because I know what signs to look for that tell me whether or not they’re really fresh. But could you tell how fresh a bunch of flowers are when you see them for sale? Some of the top tips are Keep yo ..read more

TALKING FLOWERS Dried Flowers and How To Do Them Did you know that dried flowers are back in fashion? Perhaps, like me you thought that never went out of fashion, but do you dry your own on do you buy dried flower arrangements?   No prizes for guessing that those brightly coloured flowers are actually bleached in vats of bleach first, then because all the pigmentation (chlorophyll) has been removed it is practically falling apart.   The next step, the foliage is plasticised and dyed. Not something you want to display in your home   The process behind these dyed flowers is incre ..read more

 KITCHEN GARDEN Tricks with Horseradish My father was a big fan of this vegetable or perhaps it should be called a herb? He loved it grated on various meats, ‘clears out the sinuses' he always exclaimed. Not too many gardeners are familiar with horseradish and even though it's a perennial vegetable that's easy to grow. Perhaps because gardeners and others aren't too familiar with what you do with this, ahem root vegetable.  Well that's right,  horseradish is actually classified as a root vegetable even though you can use it as a seasoning and in drinks. In drinks I hear you e ..read more

 TALKING FLOWERS Sustainable Floristry Have you ever thought about what happens to the tons of flowers that are sold around Australia for weddings, funerals, special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries?  Hydrangea flowers for sale Perhaps some of the lucky recipients might compost them when they're finished or at least throw in the in the green waste bin, but what of the others? Did you know that approximately 10% of flowers that are sold in Australia are imported from overseas? May not sound like much but do you know if the flowers you buy, are they imported or locally grown ..read more

Root Knot Nematodes:Control So if you have correctly identified that your plants are affected by root knot nematodes, what can be done about it? Remember, they look different to nitrogen fixing nodules on roots of plants. tomato nematode Controlling nematodes 1.Cultural Control by rotating your plants-nematodes only survive 1 year in the soil. 2.Growing plants that help reduce nematode numbers Asparagus, peanut plants, Corn, Garlic, marigolds. 3.Biofumigants such as green manure crops, especially     Mustard plants release isothyocyanates. 4. Neem Oil drench   5. Benefici ..read more

 PLANT DOCTOR Nematodes part 1: the backstory Did you know that there are 1,000,000 species of nematodes that have been identified?  Nematodes live in our environment and although microscopic, unsurprisingly, are related to earthworms  The majority of nematodes aren't plant or crop destructors. However, the few that attack the cell walls of plants can cause serious damage from which the plant/crop usually doesn't recover. Then there's the problem of identifying what's going on with plants that are affected by nematodes. Have you ever had plants that seem to wilt despite you w ..read more

 PLANT DOCTOR     Germinating Native Seed Australian plants have evolved over thousands of years to respond to a variety of climatic extremes, from fires, to droughts to floods as well as being grazed by native animals.   Wattle seeds need boiling water treatment Such a long, long time  for plants to evolve as well as being isolated from the rest of the world has meant that a high diversity of flora abounds, so that it would be unusual to think that everything grows the same way. Australian plants have developed various  adaptations so that the seeds of ..read more