Category: Landscape and gardens

Ideas and insights into garden and landscape design that support wellbeing, biodiversity and growing food at home, while strengthening our connection with nature.

Late bloomers

If you have been wondering what has happened to your tomato crop this year, you are not alone! I have heard many anecdotes that the tomato harvest has been poor both here in Tasmania and on the mainland. Our story is no different. However, we have had a little glimmer of hope this week

Tomato, tomato? Wherefore art thou?

You can see a lot of leafy growth here. Perhaps I have overdone the nitrogenous fertiliser. I pruned these plants quite hard last weekend to open them up. But where are the tomatoes? There are flowers, but I would hardly describe these plants as floriferous. I really should have applied some potash to help out here. You have to get done on your hands and knees to see any fruit.

There they are! Those ripe tomatoes will not hide from me any longer

We grow cool climate tomato varieties as most of you probably do here in Tasmania. The first plant this season to produce ripe fruit is a variety called ‘Stupice’. My neighbours gave me a plant a couple of years ago, telling me that it is a reliable cropper for them. One of the best gardening tips I can give to you is that if you want to know what you can grow in your garden, find out what is growing well in your neighbours’ gardens. Of course, there will always be some differences between gardens, e.g. building overshadowing a patch. However, this is a pretty good rule of thumb. So, I am not surprised that this potato-leafed tomato was the first to ripen this year.

Stupice: You little beauty! And the Thai Basil flower in the background is pretty good too

That said, as of Sunday, 21 February April, our tomato harvest stood at 2 tomatoes weighing a total of 52 grams.

I am optimistic we will harvest more tomatoes. Not sure how many though!

The season’s weather has been all over the shop, excuse the vernacular. There has been a lot of rainfall recently but in huge downpours rather than gentle showers. In the last fortnight, we have had two rainfall events, one equalling 84 mls in less than 12 hours, and the other 54 mls in a similar time period. Daily temperatures have been uneven also.

According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, daytime temperatures over 32 degrees C and/or night-time temperatures below 12 degrees C will diminish pollination in tomatoes. High humidity creates sticky pollen which does not transfer well. We have had wonderful warm weather this weekend. However, it does not look like these conditions will last long, looking at the Bureau of Meteorology’s MetEye local forecast app. MetEye provides detailed 7-day wind, wave, rain, and weather forecast maps for boating and farming for all locations across Australia. This is a wonderful tool. If you don’t already use it, get onto it.

Anyway, summer in Liffey appears to have been a sporadic event this year.

Where is summer?

I am not going to wipe off the 2020 harvest yet! Last year, we picked tomatoes up until mid-April. And there are tomatoes on our plants. However, those bottles we have washed and ready for sauces will have to wait a lot longer by the looks of it.

How is your tomato crop going this season? Share your stories with us on Facebook.

If you want to know why your tomato plants performed differently this year, come along to the Tasmanian Garlic and Tomato Festival in Selbourne on Sunday 21 March 2021. Annette and Nevil Reed from Tasmanian Natural Garlic and Tomatoes will be conducting tours of their farm, talking about how this season went along the way. Nevil will also be one of our guest speakers at the Q&A Panel, along with Tino Carnevale from ABC TV’s Gardening Australia and Rees Campbell, author of Eat Wild Tasmanian.

I hope to see you there.

A bientôt!

#gardening #tomatoes #tasmania #tasmaniangarlicandtomatofestival #localproduce

24/02/2021
‘Currant’ flavour of the month

Sometimes the best plants are those that you do not have to grow yourself!

Living on a bush block in northern Tasmanian, we are lucky to be surrounded by native plants, including some edible species. Take the Prickly Currant Bush (Coprosma quadrifida) for example. This plant is one of several edible coprosma species in Tasmania. Luckily for us, it is growing abundantly where we live and is currently fruiting. So, I decided to set out on a little harvesting expedition yesterday.

Whilst out harvesting, I only wanted to find the female Prickly Currant Bushes. This species is dioecious. Put simply, that means that these bushes either have only female flowers or only male flowers, i.e. different sexes. Given I wanted to find fruit, I needed to find female plants. And I want to know where they are for next year too. The block we live on is 70 acres so you can get lost if you don’t know where you are going. So, I decided to take along a GPS to record the locations of the female plants, i.e. those I picked the currants from.

Here I am recording this female plant as a Waypoint on a GPS so I can find it next time

I was fairly prepared for this task, or so I thought. I had a sunhat on, a big pot strapped around my waist for fruit to fall into (not attractive, but very practical), and gloves to protect me as I picked the fruit. It’s not called the Prickly Currant Bush for nothing!

Readers: There was one thing that I forgot to consider. Can you think what that was? (Answer below this image).

Harvesting the currants. Gloves are a must! And long sleeves too as I have now learnt. It is not called Prickly Currant Bush by some for no reason!

Yes, a long-sleeved shirt!

I ended up with a few scratches on my arms. Nothing major. However, I also saw lots of little spiders and other insects. Next time, I will wear long sleeves. It also pays to pay attention to where you are walking. Snakes are out and about at the moment, so if you want to go out harvesting these currants, make sure you are safe. If you have gators, wear them.

Cleaning the currants – first stage

Back at the house, I then had to clean the currants. The first layer of inedible debris came off quite easily by allowing it to float to the top of a container in which the currants were soaked in water. Obviously this matter was lighter than the currants. Yep, a free science lesson as I am that way inclined today! In the end I resorted to sorting other flotsam and jetsam by hand as it did not want to separate out easily in the water. For example, immature/unripe fruit. That took a little time, but the final result was worth it.

All 759 grams of currants!

All that work and only 759 grams harvested! We will just have to savour the flavour 🙂

This small harvest may not seem like a big deal. However, I am stoked that we were able to find so many currants so close to home. I only ventured 200 metres from the house. There are many more plants around, so I think I will go out next weekend too. However, I will remember to leave some fruit on each plant for the wildlife to enjoy.

Native currants ready to eat!

Now what to do with these currants? Rees Campbell, local author aka The Feisty Tasmanian, has a recipe for Bush Berry Pie on page 131 of Eat Wild Tasmanian. I might adapt that recipe to make it plant-based, i.e. sans eggs or cream. I am not sure how that will work! Otherwise, we will just eat them fresh by the handful. Ludovic made a sauce using these currants last year. However, that takes a bit more work removing the seeds from these small fruit (5-10mm diameter). We need a more heavy duty strainer to be able to tackle this task.

Did you know that there are over 150 edible native plants growing on this island? !f you want to know which species are edible and how to use them, then I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Rees’ book. Also, come along to the Tasmanian Garlic and Tomato Festival in Selbourne on Sunday 21 March 2021. Rees will be conducting two workshops and a cooking demonstration where she will describe some of the more useful plants, how to grow, harvest and cook with them.

Rees Campbell seen here with her book ‘Eat Wild Tasmanian’ (Image: www.feistytasmanian.com)

I got involved in the Tasmanian Garlic and Tomato Festival as I just love garlic and tomato and cannot imagine life without them. Anyway, more on that in my next blog. I am going to take some time out for ‘afternoon tea’ and enjoy some of these beautiful currants.

A bientôt!

#gardening #bushtucker #nativeplants #tasmania #localproduce #feistytasmanian #tasmaniangarlicandtomatofestival #discovertasmania

21/02/2021
Looking forward to 2021

It would be an understatement to say that many people are glad to see the back of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused so much disruption to our lives. Living in Tasmania however, we have mostly been able to escape the worst impacts of this virus (fingers crossed). This means we were fortunate enough to be able to travel around this beautiful state over the festive season, whilst other people around the globe had to stay mostly indoors. A healthy dose of nature is always restorative, especially camping in the beautiful Southwest National Park (aka “The end of the earth”).

Bonne année is French for “Happy New Year” 🙂

Last week, we stayed in Cockle Creek, Australia’s southernmost point accessible by road and the start (or end) of the multi-day South Coast Track. This area is the homeland of the Lyluequonny Aboriginal people, and the location of a French expedition in 1792 and 1793 led by Bruni D’Entrecasteaux, hence the name Recherche Bay. British settlement and whaling, timber and coal industries soon followed the French. These days the area is visited by keen campers and kayakers as well as enthusiastic hikers. Well worth a visit! We came back relaxed and ready to take on the new year.

Why is nature so restorative and how can it be incorporated into building and landscape design? If you would like to know more, read my article published in the March 2020 edition of Hort Journal Australia (see below). For that article, I interviewed two well-known proponents of biophilic design, Dr Dominique Hes and Dr Jana Soderland, just before the COVID-19 pandemic took off.

Whilst contemplative about the future, we are also excited to see what opportunities this year may bring. Re-reading my article makes me think about how plants may potentially be used both indoors and outdoors to facilitate physical distancing, as well as providing all the other great benefits they already do.

Anyway, food for thought. You will be hearing more from us on these and other topics in the near future.

In the meantime, stay safe everyone.

A bientôt!

#buildingdesign #landscapedesign #horticulture #interiorplantscapes #indoorplants #biophilia #biophilicdesign #tasmania #australia #staysafeeveryone #happynewyear2021

29/01/2021
A woody meadow?

I always listened to my teachers at school. However, I would be lying if I said that I followed their words exactly. Take for example, one of our latest garden designs in the northern suburbs of Melbourne where I put a slightly different twist on a ‘woody meadow’.

The ‘woody meadow’ is a local Australian take on the prairie meadow of the New Perennial movement. Think Piet Oudolf. No annuals here please! Instead, the woody meadow is a low-input naturalistic planting design suitable for use in public landscapes, based around Australian plants.

Two of my former teachers at the University of Melbourne were actively involved in designing the first so-called ‘woody meadows’ in this country; John Rayner and Dr Claire Farrell. Claire Farrell supervised me as I completed my final research project, despite me not having enough credit points left to complete the compulsory statistics subject beforehand (but that is another story!). John Rayner, the Associate Professor and Director of Urban Horticulture within the University of Melbourne’s Green Infrastructure Research Group, was lucky enough to have me as his student in my first ever semester! (Poor John!) I interviewed John on this project for Greenlife Industry Australia. Click here to read my article. John also generously shared his team’s Woody Meadow plant list with me.

Let’s just say I was paying homage to my teachers in selecting low-maintenance native plants that suited the local climate and context of our client’s garden, more specifically the ‘Front’ section in the plan below. Ostensibly, I had Base, Bump and Emergent layers, although on a greatly reduced scale when compared to the mass plantings my teachers worked on. I wouldn’t go as far as calling this a ‘woody meadow’. However, I was certainly inspired by the work of my teachers. I hope you will be too.

NB. No garden is ever no maintenance. If any gardener tries to sell you a design as such, don’t believe them!

Our take on a woody meadow

Front garden

A variety of native small trees, shrubs and ground covers have been selected to provide flowering interest throughout the year, including winter. These varieties are planted densely so that visitors must use the granitic sand path to access the house, thereby reducing compaction of garden beds.

Plant selection: Anigozanthos ‘Bush Gold’, Anigozanthos flavidus ‘Landscape Lilac’, Astartea fascicularis, Banksia spinulosa ‘Stumpy Gold’, Callistemon pallidus ‘Candelabra’, Callistemon ‘Purple Splendour’, Grevillea ‘Evelyn’s Coronet’, Grevillea lanigera ‘Prostrate’, Hibiscus ‘Aussie Pearl’, Melaleuca thymifolia ‘Pink Lace’, Philotheca myoporoides ‘Winter Rouge’, Prostanthera sieberi ‘Minty’, Westringia glabra ‘Deep Purple’, Xanthosia rotundifolia

Grevillea ‘Evelyn’s Coronet’ (Image: Australian Plant Society NSW)

‘Perfumed Pocket’

The plants in this bed will release a perfumed scent when passers-by brush past them.

Plant selection: Callistemon pallidus ‘Candelabra’, Philotheca myoporoides ‘Winter Rouge’, Prostanthera sieberi ‘Minty’, Xanthosia rotundifolia.

Xanthosia rotundifolia. Common name Southern Cross (Image: Burnley Plant Guide Online)

‘Secret’ garden

A ‘secret’ fern garden has been included in front of the master bedroom for its occupants to enjoy.

Plant selection: Asplenium flabellifolium, Asplenium nidus ‘Crissie’, Calochlaena dubia

Calochlaena dubia at Maroochy Regional Bushland Botanic Gardens (Image: Casliber CC BY-SA 3.0)

Click here to view more details of this design.

A bientôt!

#woodymeadow #prairie #perennials #newperennials #nativeplants #garden #gardening #landscapedesign #melbourne

05/07/2020
Getting garlicky

Garlic is one of our kitchen mainstays. Last year we grew eight varieties of garlic to see what suited the growing conditions here in northern Tasmania best, not to mention our palate! This year we decided to narrow down our planting selection. We have selected three varieties that will satisfy our taste buds over a longer period of time and planted them out at the start of May.

Tasmanian Purple

The Tasmanian Purple is a hardnecked garlic belonging to the Turban Group. It is a big garlic! You can expect each bulb when fully grown to produce around 8-10 chunky cloves in cooler climates.

Total we planted: 60 cloves.

Expected harvest date: Early season, early December

Tasmanian Purple: This garlic variety is the biggest of the bunch (well at least what we have grown!)

Rojo de Castro

My personal favourite! This is a Hardneck garlic in the Creole Group. It just oozes flavour. Some people describe the taste as ‘nutty’. I love adding this to a dish where garlic is the hero.

Total we planted: 42 cloves.

Expected harvest date: Mid season, early to late January

Rojo de Castro: This garlic variety is full of flavour

Lokalen

Despite having a name suggesting a character from Vikings, this Softneck garlic from the Silverskin Group is really more of a quiet achiever. Well, at least in my opinion. It grows decent sized cloves and quite a few of them. They are a bit easier to get a knife through them without cutting your fingers!

Total we planted: 44 cloves.

Expected harvest date: Late season, early February

Lokalen: This garlic variety closes off the harvest season

Note that the expected harvest time for each garlic is based on Tasmania’s cool climate. If you are not fortunate enough to live on the Apple Isle, then check out your local growing conditions to see when you can expect to harvest these beautiful garlic varieties.

The Australian Garlic website is a good … no make that excellent place to start. It has some great information on planting and harvest times, as well as the number of cloves you can expect to yield for each bulb.

Sun

Full sun is the key here. Just because a plant will grow over winter doesn’t mean it doesn’t need sun. The shoot is sending down energy to help that clove turn into the bulb. So feed it!

Soil

Garlic needs moist not damp soils, otherwise the bulbs may rot. We enriched these clay soils with a lot of mushroom compost and sheep poo before planting our bulbs. What we have ended up with is slightly raised beds, given they are planted on a slope.

Spacing considerations

Allow at least 30 cm between rows. Some gardeners prefer to allow a little more room between rows, i.e. up to 40 cm, depending on the variety. Space each garlic clove at least 10 cm apart in each row. And yes, a little further apart if you know the variety you are growing is a larger plant. For example, I gave a little more room to grow to the Tasmanian Purple than the Rojo de Castro.

NB. When I am talking about garlic here I am referring to cultivars of Allium sativum, and not Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum (Elephant Garlic). Elephant Garlic is more closely related to leeks. It needs more room, not surprising really given its common name.

Ludovic is experimenting with a less linear spacing pattern in the bed at the front of this image

Planting instructions

A good rule of thumb when planting a garlic bulb is the … rule of thumb! By that I mean you should plant a garlic clove to the depth of approximately an adult-sized thumb. Now I know not all thumbs are the same length, and not all garlic cloves are the same size either. For the more metric-minded, garlic should be planted to a depth of around 5 cm.

When sowing garlic cloves remember the rule of thumb!

Right way up!

Remember to place each garlic clove into its hole with the ‘pointy’ end sticking up. The pseudostem and leaves will develop from this part. They will want the sun so they will need to grow above ground, not further down into the soil. The ‘flattened base’, or base plate, of the clove is where the roots will grow from.

Pointy end up, flattened base down

Remember to water in after planting. I plan to mulch these beds once the garlic has sprouted. Until then I will need to make sure I keep on top of any weeds that may pop up.

Really there’s not a lot more that needs to be done now until harvest time. Stay tuned for news as we get close to that date.

A bientôt!

#growyourown #garlic #tasmania #gardening #gardeninspiration #food #tasty

19/05/2020
Bush Bliss

We recently completed the construction of two garden beds on a bush block surrounded by beautiful forest here in northern Tasmania. We have already shown you some photos from the initial stages of this project. However, as you will see below, much has happened since that time!

In this part of the world, if you want to eat what you grow then you need to protect your garden from other forest inhabitants. Possums, quolls, wallabies, pademelons and even feral deer live locally. That is why we built an enclosure to secure the garden beds.

The earlier photos we shared with you showed the excavation required to level this site to make sure we could build the garden beds properly. The photos below show what we did after that work was completed. For a start, all the posts were concreted into the ground. Yes, these beds are not going anywhere soon!

All the sleepers are treated with ACQ (Alkaline Copper Quaternary). ACQ is a water-borne form of timber treatment that was developed as a safer alternative to the widely used CCA (Copper Chrome Arsenate) preservative. ACQ is also designed to be used as an insecticide and fungicide, protecting timber against fungi, borers and termites. This is an arsenic free treatment and can therefore be used safely in playgrounds and food-growing gardens.

The junction of the sleepers: H steel beam (left) and two C sections welded together (right)

A layer of gravel was added to the bottom of the beds for drainage, then a transition layer of geofabric textile put in to keep the the timber in better condition longer and to avoid weeds to come through. This fabric also helps to stop the soil from moving down into the gravel layer. Finally the beds were filled with a 50:50 mix of top soil and compost.

We used agricultural polypipes (agipipe) to link the steel posts of the garden enclosure. The small curve of these pipes helped to soften the project in the landscape. 20mm bird netting was fixed to the enclosure to complete the protection, with a layer of mesh along the bottom to stop smaller pests getting in. Two people are required to complete this task. Don’t try to do it alone!

A smaller bed was added at one end of the enclosure. This bed was not as deep as the others (only one 200mm sleeper high) and will be used for growing beans, radish and similar smaller crops.

That’s it! The first phase of the master plan is done. However, this site has loads more potential. See the original drawing below that we presented to the client to help them see what else they can achieve on their block.

BJ enjoying her new garden beds.

#Tasmania #veggiegarden #growingvegetables #gardenbed #gardendesign #landscapedesign

21/04/2020
Does your room have a view?

Firstly, we would like to apologise for our online absence in recent months. Such a busy time! Ludovic spent Christmas in France with his family, fortunately returning home before the coronavirus craziness hit full steam. We then went to the mainland for a working holiday for five weeks. I presented at Greenlife Industry Australia’s Healthy Plants, Healthy People conference in Perth in early March, after which we road-tripped our way across southern Australia.

NB. For those of you who are not Australian, the mainland is that part of our country that you think of as Australia. Many of you leave out our lovely Apple Island from your maps of Australia. Don’t worry, we will forgive you … eventually!

Tasmania: AKA ‘Apple Isle’ as it produced large volumes of that fruit

We have been in self-isolation since arriving back in Tasmania a week and a half ago. I have had a lot of time for contemplation about .. well life in general, haven’t we all?

View from my window

I have also spent a lot more time than usual on Facebook. One group in particular has caught my attention: View from my window. This group has been created to connect people from all around the World during these tough times. People are encouraged to share pictures of the view from their window as they are experiencing lock-down, whether it be the rooftop of their town, overview of a park, nearby buildings, the ocean, a tiny street or even the sky. With 400,000 members (and counting), this group has obviously struck a chord with people seeking a human connection, but I also think these people are missing their nature fix. It is NOT a photographic competition. Some of the views shared make you wonder how people can live in such confined spaces with next to no greenery. Humans are truly resilient creatures!

I was inspired to share a photo of the view from my window with this group. This is essentially the space I use as a home office. I have been working from home for the most part of two years, so I am pretty accustomed to this view. However, I never take it for granted. Why?

View from my ‘home office’

Provoking a biophilic response

For a recent article on biophilic design for Hort Journal Australia, I interviewed Dr Dominique Hes from the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne School of Design who said: “We evolved in nature, so our brains are more relaxed when we are connected to nature and that is all connected to well-being. It is like the difference between how you are after a good night’s sleep compared to having an okay but not great night.”

That is what some experts call a ‘biophilic response’. I know that I am very privileged to have this view as it helps to relax and re-centre me during difficult times. That is why I don’t take it for granted.

(NB. To read my article on biophilic design, click on this link and skip to page 40)

Getting your nature fix during lock-down

One of the most common design considerations associated with biophilia is the desire to establish a strong visual connection with nature. Whilst real nature is preferred over simulated nature, biophilic design experts claim simulated nature is better than no nature. “If you cannot keep live plants, then have nice pictures or have fake plants,” Dr Hes told me. We both agreed though that real plants help to improve indoor air quality, an attribute that fake plants do not share.

So how can you add a little nature to your home?

1) Grow an indoor plant

Nurseries and garden centres are still open, although you will have to conform to physical distancing requirements in-store if you choose to visit them. And many are offering home delivery services too. You may even want to shop online and not have to leave your home.

My tip: Now is definitely the time to support your local independent nursery (and other small community owned and operated businesses too). Find a nursery that is Plant Life Balance accredited as they are super-informed on the benefits of indoor plants and can help you choose the right ones for your particular interior. Click here to find an accredited nursery near you.

The very hardy Zanzibar Gem makes an ideal indoor plant (Image: Ambius Australia)

2) Go botanical

If you don’t have enough light in your room to grow an indoor plant, don’t worry (too much!). Consider incorporating a botanical theme into the room where you spend the most time. Choose a new wallpaper, furniture coverings, prints, whatever. Get your plant fix!

My tip: I still can’t come at fake plants … maybe you could put in some dried flowers? They are not made of plastic and they can decompose in your compost later on (or someone else’s compost if you don’t have one).

This botanically-inspired wallpaper brings some nature indoors (Image: Plant Life Balance)

3) Grow a vegetable garden

Last but definitely not least! I have also been chatting with industry experts who say that the sale of vegetable seeds and seedlings has skyrocketed over the past few weeks. Not surprisingly, people hunkered down in their homes are looking for a project to keep them busy and gets them outdoors. Growing your own vegetables also helps to feed your family in an uncertain time.

My tip: Not surprisingly my advice to you once again is to visit your local nursery and ask for their help. Right now they need your support. And they have loads of experience to share with you.

We recently constructed some raised garden beds in a pest-proof enclosure for a couple living nearby (see illustration below). Stay tuned for more pics of this project coming soon.

Enclosed garden beds perfect for growing vegies in the country

If you have any questions about any of these topics, please reach out to me at gabrielle@inwardoutstudio.com or hop on over to our Facebook page and leave us a message.

A bientôt!

#biophilia #biophilicdesign #indoorplants #plants #coronavirus #staysafe #keepcalmandcarryongardening

10/04/2020
Breaking ground!

This week, we finally broke ground on a project that we have been working on over the last couple of months! Excavation works started so that our client can realise the enclosed raised garden beds and compost bays that you can see in Ludovic’s plan below.

3D render of the raised garden beds and enclosure designed by Ludovic, with compost bays below.

Looking at the plans you may be forgiven for thinking that this is more like a prison potager than a productive garden for a free-spirited local who loves her cooking. However, with plenty of possums, quolls, wallabies, pademelons and even deer residing in the neighbourhood, these tough measures are necessary to ensure our client gets to eat her produce!

The garden on our first site visit

Excavation to level out the garden for the raised garden bed enclosure. The compost bays will be built below.

You may be wondering “Why the raised beds?”. Our client loves her new home and wants to stay there. She is thinking long-term. As she ages, she would like to keep gardening so wanted an option that was a little easier on the back and the knees. And there is another important reason why we designed this garden to be raised. Take one look at the next photo and you may be able to guess what that reason is!

Clay sub-soils on site are not exactly free-draining and would require extensive remediation. Putting any plant in this environment would see its roots drowned. Raised garden beds are one way of overcoming this problem.

This excavation was definitely not a whole-scale clearing of the site, although it may look like that from the photos above. The rocks in the foreground have been retained and re-positioned along the western edge of the yard. Our client’s beloved Mountain Pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata) was carefully lifted by the excavator and temporarily planted in a ‘safe site’ to the top of the yard until the garden is finished. The Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) below takes pride of place in front of the kitchen window. Its leaves turn a beautiful red colour in autumn.

This Japanese Maple is one of our client’s favourite plants in the garden. So it is definitely staying!

Well it has been a big week in this particular garden. So it is time for us to take a little break over the weekend. Stay tuned over the coming weeks as Ludovic commences construction of the raised garden beds and compost bays.

A bientôt!

29/11/2019
Growing garlic … What to do, when?

If you are anything like me, you may have been planning to get out into the garden this Saturday afternoon. However, all this wind is not exactly making for a pleasant afternoon outdoors. I have headed back indoors and am undertaking a little online plant research instead.

Yummy garlic!

One of my most pressing tasks is planning the harvest and storage of over one hundred garlic bulbs we currently have growing in our garden. We have planted eight varieties including the hard-necked Dunganski, Rojo de Castro and Tasmanian Purple, and the soft-necked Lokalen and Messidrome. Most we sourced from Tasmanian Natural Garlic & Tomatoes. We did ‘score’ the Tasmanian Purple from the wonderful Jenny Edlington at the Liffey Valley Market in 2018, and saved the best cloves for replanting this winter.

Dunganski is a member of the Standard Purple Strip Group. It has a lovely nutty flavor when cooked and is apparently very nice baked whole. Late planting and harvest.

So I am taking this quiet moment indoors to figure out when I need to harvest each of those garlic varieties. I am also making note of when I will need to plant those bulbs that I will save from the upcoming harvest. To do this I have turned to the Australian Garlic website. This site is jam-packed with fantastic tips on growing location and requirements, planting and harvest, storage and flavour for around thirty commonly grown varieties of garlic here in this country. A detailed garlic glossary is provided to help you better understand the ‘expert’ lingo. If you are growing garlic, check it out now! Don’t say I didn’t tell you 😉

And another tip … Mark Sunday 15 March 2020 on your calendar now. The annual Tasmanian Garlic and Tomato Festival will be held in Selbourne, approximately 30 minutes drive from Launceston. Tino Carnevale from ABC’s Gardening Australia will be there, as well as many local garlic and tomato growers. If you want expert advice on growing garlic in Tasmania, you really need to be there. In the words of the Festival organisers:

“It’s a day steeped in everything tomatoey and garlicky. With tastings, produce, guest speakers, competitions and more, it’s a great day out for the whole family in the glorious Tasmanian countryside”

What’s not to like about that?!

A bientôt!

#garlic #tasmania #growing #harvest #localproduce

16/11/2019
Proliferating plants

I have been stuck indoors for way too long over the Tasmanian winter. With writing and other deadlines keeping me tied to the computer, I have been itching to get out and continue with a little propagation experiment I started this time last year.

A golden oldie! Written by NA Wakefield and printed by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria way back in 1975.

Living in a cool temperate rainforest, it is not hard to be inspired by your surrounds. I have been wanting to propagate ferns growing on the block where we live to experiment with in green wall plantings and other crazy ideas, e.g. kokedamas. Finding a copy of ‘Ferns of Victoria and Tasmania’ on my dad’s bookshelf, I got to reading and learnt that there are some fern species that are relatively easy to propagate, i.e. you don’t have to go to the trouble of collecting and germinating spores to grow them.

One such plant is Polystichum proliferum, commonly known as the Mother Shield Fern. According to the University of Tasmania’s ‘Key to Tasmanian Vascular Plants‘, P. proliferum is the only member of this genus in Tasmania and is often confused with immature plants of Dicksonia antarctica (Man Fern or Soft Tree Fern). D. antarctica does not possess the obvious dark brown scales on the underside of its leaves. This common and widespread ground fern can be found in wet forests in Tasmania, as well as eastern New South Wales and Victoria.

One of the most interesting features of P. proliferum is its ability to reproduce via bulbils, small plantlets growing from upper parts of its fronds. You carefully layer bulbil-bearing fronds onto the ground and fix them with pegs until rooted or removed and then place them in pots.

You can see the bulbil growing here on this Polystichum proliferum frond. It is a lighter green colour compared to the dark green frond supporting it.

Today, I finally got around to giving this propagation technique a go myself, well actually it is the second time I have attempted this, but more on that later.

Setting off into the forest to find me some ferns!

I did it slightly differently to what was recommended above. Rather than pinning down the fronds directly onto the ground, I used a fencing pin to hold each bulbil-bearing frond onto a pot containing a blend of orchid/bromeliad potting mix.

Pinning the frond down with a pin. Make sure that the bulbil is located centrally in the pot and has contact with the potting mix without the frond being under too much tension.

I then watered each plantlet in with a little Seasol, ostensibly to help the bulbils kick start the development of their roots, and left them in situ, i.e. still attached to their mother plant in the bush sans protection from the wildlife (fingers crossed!).

Grow, baby, grow! A dash of Seasol for good measure. Note that I have propped up this pot so that it hopefully stays in place and is not knocked over by the resident wombat.

This is not the first time that I have attempted to propagate P. proliferum from a bulbil. This time last year, I used a slightly different technique removing a segment of frond to which a bulbil was attached, then dipping it in rooting gel, before placing it in a pot filled with standard potting mix. You could place similar frond segments into moist sand in a punnet or tray and keep moist until roots have formed, when they can be potted on or planted out. I just decided to see if my way would work and save time. The result? Check out the little baby in the image below!

This is the Polystichum proliferum that I cut from its mother tree last year, potted up and then housed on our balcony. Despite its exposed location, this fern seems to be doing quite well. Notice the new fronds growing (lighter green in the middle). You can also see the original frond on which this plant was first growing as a bulbil (brown dying fronds). I probably should remove those fronds now as it looks like they have been exhausted of all nutrients now.

Where to from here?

My next experiment? Propagating the Microsorum pustulatum (Kangaroo Fern) that grows on the trees (epiphytically) and rocks (lithophytically) along the creek on this block. These ferns can be propagated by layering the growing points of their rhizomes and then removing carefully the portions that have formed fresh roots. I thought I would give propagating this fern a go last year. However, I made one fatal mistake.

After potting up the M. pustulatum rhizome sections I collected (more accurately, my dad collected), I left those pots outside in plain view of the local wildlife. Not surprisingly, they (most likely Bennett’s Wallabies) decided that there is such a thing as a free lunch and nibbled those ferns before they could grow on. I have vowed not to make the same mistake this time!

So here’s hoping my new little P. proliferum babies will proliferate in peace until the time comes when they can be potted on.

Heading back up the hill … job done … for now.

A bientôt!

PS. Special thanks to my little helper Celeste for taking all these photos xxx

28/09/2019
Are your designs stuck in a time warp?

How do you visualise an interior plantscape design for a client? Are you still working in 2D or are you entering the brave new world that is 3D?

The world of landscape design really has changed since Humphry Repton created a storm in 18th century England with his ‘Red Books’. These thickly bound books were designed to help Repton’s clients visualise his designs with explanatory text and watercolours with a system of overlays to show ‘before’ and ‘after’ views.

Red Book for Vinters, Kent, 1797 (Image: Yale Centre for British Art)

Historically, when we wanted to present landscape plans, be they interiors or exteriors, we communicated two-dimensionally. We drew our plans by hand on paper with the help of a few tools, e.g. mechanical pencil, circle template, set square, compass and so on. However, over the last couple of decades, the development of computer-aided design (CAD) programs has enabled us to produce these plans more quickly and accurately. Note the popularity of AutoCAD and Vectorworks.

3D software

More recently, these plans are starting to jump off the page, so to speak. Larger developers are seeking three-dimensional representations of interiors and exteriors in which their prospective clients can visualise themselves living and/or working in (architectural visualisations). To realise their design in 3D, architects and designers now use software such as Sketchup, Rhino, 3ds Max and Blender. Nowadays building information modelling (BIM) programs are increasing in popularity because they allow designers to design and draw the 3D at the same time, e.g. Revit and ArchiCAD.

These BIM programs are designed mainly for architectural visualisation, so they are not necessarily great for modelling plants. Interior plantscapers using this software to realise their designs need to create their own objects (i.e. plants) or purchase them elsewhere online to incorporate into their design. Sketchup does have a ‘warehouse’ where modellers upload their already-made objects for use by other modellers. However, you may not find the species you are looking for.

You can purchase 3D indoor plants to import into these programs via online platforms including Sketchfab, CG Trader, Turbo Squid, Free 3D plus more. Remember though, you get what you pay for or don’t pay for! It takes time to build these objects. An experienced modeller needs at least half a day to make one object or asset. Ask my partner Ludovic who modelled the plants shown below in 3D in Blender, before rendering them to provide those two-dimensional representations. But we’ll get to renders in a moment!

NB. Click here to view these plants in 3D.

Rendering

To create a two-dimensional picture from the objects modelled in this 3D software, you must make a render using a render engine. Ray-Tracing and Real-time are two different types of render engines. Ray-Tracing render engines include the V-Ray plug-in used in Sketchup, Rhino and Blender. Blender also has its own render engine called Cycle. Real-time render engines include Lumion (used mostly by architects), and Unity and Unreal (used mostly by game developers given their complexity).

Both Ray-Tracing and Real-time render engines allow the user to produce high-quality photo-realistic images and videos for marketing and other purposes. Most of the 2D pictures you see of luxury developments and the like on real estate advertising are produced using Ray-Tracing engines as these calculate light more accurately as they are physically based. Ray-Tracing engines take twenty to thirty minutes to calculate one picture (render), whereas Real-time render engines can produce a similar, but potentially less-realistic picture, in as little as one second. So Real-time engines are mostly used for virtual reality and animation purposes.

If you want to create a virtual reality scenario in which you can fully immerse your client in your design, make sure that your designer is using a Real-time rendering engine. If you just want photo-realistic static images, then go with Ray-Tracing.

3D green walls ready to include in your design (Image: MaxTree)

Hartsfield-Jackson terminal renovation render (Image: HOK)

Augmented reality?

Not quite ready to fully launch into virtual reality? Some designers are using augmented reality to help prospective clients imagine how their interiors would benefit from the addition of indoor plants. Plant Life Balance has produced one such app. Using the Plant Life Balance app, the user takes a photograph of the room they want to style with indoor plants. They can drag and drop plants from the app into that photograph giving them a sense of the look and feel those plants will provide in their space.

While this app targets the household consumer, interior plantscapers may potentially be able to use it to communicate to prospective clients how their plant selection will look once in situ. Or you could go one step further and develop your own app to develop and showcase potential designs.

Plant Life Balance app (Image: Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited)

Remember!

Whatever dimension or reality you choose to work in, remember that all the programs, plug-ins and ‘what-not’ mentioned above are only tools that can potentially serve your needs. Before launching into the development of any 3D models, make sure you have your communication campaign mapped out and really know your target audience. Who are they and just how interactive do they like their design to be? Find the tools that show off your designs within your budget and most importantly meet your clients’ needs.

NB. This story was originally published in the Interior Plantscape Association’s August 2019 e-newsletter.

05/08/2019
Digital plants

Today, we are happy to show you another part of what we can do at Inwardout Studio … ‘digital’ plants!

If you are an architect, interior designer or horticulturist seeking different ways to visualise your concepts, you may want to check out our new collection of ‘digital’ plants. We have started to build these 3D models for use in our visualisation.

You can view our collection online on Sketchfab or check out a few examples below.

Kokedama and Lemon Button Fern

https://cc553bc7-bdf6-4be5-91fe-23e4cbc251ef.usrfiles.com/html/2b2e4b_d767b483cae16e027c4ea8ac7906fbf4.html

Kokedama dreaming!

Kokedama with Epipremnum ‘Aureum’

https://cc553bc7-bdf6-4be5-91fe-23e4cbc251ef.usrfiles.com/html/2b2e4b_d767b483cae16e027c4ea8ac7906fbf4.html

Kokedama with Epipremnum ‘Aureum’

And of course, last but not least: Terry the Taro!

https://cc553bc7-bdf6-4be5-91fe-23e4cbc251ef.usrfiles.com/html/2b2e4b_d767b483cae16e027c4ea8ac7906fbf4.html

Feel free to contact us anytime if you have any special requests for new plants to add to our collection.

And keep looking on our Sketchfab page, as we will add one new plant there every week.

14/06/2019
Poly tunnels on a budget

Last week, on a beautiful Saturday morning, I drove 20 minutes north-west of Launceston to attend a workshop on Poly Tunnels. It took place at Tasmanian Natural Garlic & Tomatoes, Nevil Reed’s farm in Selbourne. Nevil grows hundreds of varieties of tomato in his poly tunnels.

Nevil has been researching, designing and building poly tunnels for the last nine years. His tunnels are all low cost, durable designs, aimed at mitigating against a variety of weather extremes.

The main reasons why you would like to build a poly tunnel is that you can extend your growing season, have better fruit earlier and longer, and also be able to grow more varieties of plants. On the other hand, because of the closed environment you will create, a little problem in your garden can become a big problem inside the poly tunnel. So you will have to monitor what happens a lot more and react a lot quicker.

There are a lot of different possibilities when it comes to choosing the kind of construction that you want. Like anything, cost is the big issue and also the durability of your construction. Do you want post and concrete in your garden? In any case you will have to brace your structure.

First thing to consider is the plastic. It needs to be UV stabilized and light enough to work with. For the thickness, choose 180UM instead of the 150UM. You do not want clear plastic. The more the light is diffuse, the better (70% to 80% is fine).

You also have to choose between poly or steel for the arches. The advantage of the poly is this is easy to bend and work with. If you choose to go for a tunnel with post, the steel will be the way to go. In a more lighter version using the poly, Nevil recommends using steel at both ends and tightening all the hoops at the ridge for better stability.

The temperature inside a poly tunnel can be very high. Being able to control the air flow when needed is crucial. The side of the tunnel needs to be open almost every morning. The higher your tunnel, the easier it is to control the temperature inside the poly tunnel.

If you feel uncomfortable inside the poly tunnel, most likely your plants will too!

There is a lot more to say on this topic. If you have any questions or are interested in attending a similar workshop, please contact Nevil directly.

20/05/2019
Heading into the great outdoors for some indoor inspiration

When looking for new plants to use indoors, why not investigate your own ‘back yard’ for inspiration?

Australia is home to thousands of plant species. Yet perhaps relatively few of them end up in our interior plantscapes. Some of the more well-known native plants in use indoors include Ficus benjamina (Weeping Fig), Schefflera actinophylla (Umbrella Tree), Asplenium spp. (Spleenworts), and Blechnum spp. (Water Ferns). Brachychiton rupestris (Bottle Tree) even gets a guernsey. What other beauties could we cultivate indoors?

Here in northern Tasmania, I am fortunate enough to live in a cool temperate rainforest. It is indeed a beautiful place to be, especially if you love plants! I love nothing better than to unwind by walking out our door and heading into one of the shady gullies that run through our block.

Our backyard … well parts of it! (Image: Ludovic Vilbert, Inwardout Studio)

A couple of plants have caught my eye and I am very keen to try them out in an indoor design, especially given their relative ease of propagation.

Microsorum pustulatum (Kangaroo Fern)

The deeply lobed leaf of Microsorum pustulatum resembles a kangaroo paw hence its common name (Image: Ludovic Vilbert, Inwardout Studio)

Microsorum pustulatum (syn. Microsorum diversifolium) is a native fern found from Queensland to Tasmania. It is commonly found as an epiphyte in rainforest, wet sclerophyll forest and in more open places in the sub-alpine zone. However, it can also grow on the ground, rocks and logs.

M. pustulatum possesses fleshy, creeping rhizomes which form large clumps. Whilst it can be propagated sexually via spores, it can also be reproduced asexually dividing and layering the growing points of its rhizomes.

This so-called Kangaroo Fern can be used in ferneries, especially on a section of tree trunk fern, or placed in a hanging basket or pot. I am keen to trial this plant in a green wall design as I reckon its epiphytic growth habit will suit that environment well.

Here Microsum pustulatum is seen growing as a lithophytic plant on a rock (Image: Ludovic Vilbert, Inwardout Studio)

Polystichum proliferum (Mother Shield Fern)

Polystichum proliferum (Image: Ludovic Vilbert, Inwardout Studio)

Polystichum proliferum is a very common and widespread ground fern in wet forests in Tasmania. The plants are large clumps, with large, dark-green divided leaves.

Like M. pustulatum, P. proliferum can be propagated sexually from spores. However, P. proliferum often produces bulbils, plantlets growing from the upper parts of the fronds, as does Asplenium bulbiferum. As the weight of the bulbil increases, the frond sags until the bulbil can take root in the soil underneath. Growers of this species can carefully layer the frond on the ground and fix with a peg until rooted or they can remover the bulbil and place it in a pot.

The architectural foliage of this Mother Shield Fern sees it used as an accent plant in bush gardens. I also want to trial it out in a green wall design or as a beautiful potted plant specimen.

A bulbil growing from the tip of a Polystichum proliferum frond (Image: Ludovic Vilbert, Inwardout Studio)

NB. Before you collect any native plants from public and/or private land, make sure you check out whether they are listed as a threatened species. There are State and Federal laws protecting endangered plants. And that is a good thing!

19/05/2019
Bringing the outdoors in…

Tired of the same old plant palette being presented for interior plantscapes, I recently went looking for ‘new’ indoor plants. What I found in my research were some species commonly used outdoors that can be considered for temporary use indoors. Here in Tasmania, we are accustomed to bringing in some plants to overwinter indoors given our climatic conditions. However, we don’t necessarily think of these species as being “indoor plants”. Well, let that attitude change!

Check out the Anthurium schlechtendalii pictured below. Whilst anthuriums are already well-known and commonly used indoors, it is usually for the ‘floral’ effect provided by their spathes and spadices, which are similar to the popular Peace Lilies (Spathiphyllum spp.). However, it is the foliage of A. schlechtendalii (Pheasant’s Tail) that really catches the viewer’s eye. Its leaves possess prominent midribs and lateral veins making it a striking addition to an interior plantscape . And its long, slender brown spadix is also quite attractive. Growing to 1.5m wide, this epiphyte is suitable for indoors use and even on a patio. A. schlechtendalii can be used for temporary and even permanent installation indoors as a potted plant.

So if you are seeking to ‘freshen up’ your indoor garden with a temporary new look, check out some other plant suggestions from the Interior Plantscape Association members I interviewed. Click here to read my full Hort Journal article on pages 34-35.

A bientôt!

Anthurium schlechtendalii (Image: Big Leaf Wholesale Nurseries)

13/11/2018
Too much light?

Believe it or not, there can be such a thing as too much light for indoor plants. Interior plantscapers are accustomed to receiving requests for plants that can grow in low light situations. Also as challenging are those designs specifying plants capable of growing in high light levels indoors. So I recently wrote an article for Hort Journal on this very topic.

Those of you seeking inspiration to help green your homes with indoor plants may also find this article informative. Click here to read the article. Skip to pages 32-33 to get to the good stuff.

If you need more detailed design advice, please contact us here at Inwardout Studio.

A bientôt!

Sansevieria ‘Hahnii’, S. ‘Superba’ and S. trifasciata on a brightly lit window sill (Image: Green Design)

12/11/2018
I won’t give up my day job just yet!

Growing medicinal cannabis … what do we here at Inwardout Studio have to do with that, you may be asking? Are we seeking an alternative income perhaps?

No! Rest assured. Medicinal #cannabis is just the topic of my most recent article for the Nursery and Garden Industry Australia (NGIA).

I put together this information piece for NGIA to inform #growers of recent changes to #legislation opening up #export opportunities for medicinal cannabis. Want to know more? Click here to read the full article.

Cannabis in production in Colorado, USA (Image: Chris Beytes, GrowerTalks magazine)

And don’t worry. I am sticking to what I know best! So stay tuned for more horticultural musings from ‘moi’!

Until then, ‘a bientôt’!

03/08/2018
What’s in a name?

Fancy calling a plant “Super Bum” right?. Well that is what I thought when I first saw the botanical name of the Staghorn Fern in print.

Platycerium superbum. How would you say it? Which syllable would you emphasise?

Well let me tell you that when I first read this name several years ago now, I was reluctant to even say the name aloud as I was unsure as to how to pronounce it. My brain told me that it should be said as Platycerium “super-bum“. Now that sounded more like a plant you’d find growing in Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton’s Treehouse book series for kids.

I know now (fortunately for my career) that the correct (i.e. least embarrassing) way to pronounce the botanical name of the Staghorn Fern is Platycerium “superb-um“. The specific ephiphet “superbum” means “superb”. Figures really, doesn’t it!

Platycerium superbum in its natural rainforest environment (Image: The University of Melbourne)

The architectural foliage of this epiphytic fern certainly is superb!

Growing to 1.5-2 m x 1 m, this evergreen plant provides year-round foliage interest in the garden. The Staghorn Fern prefers full shade to semishade, not surprising given its real home is in the rainforests of New South Wales and Queensland. It can grow in temperate, subtropical and tropical climates, tolerating cold to 0 ℃.

Here in Tasmania and other parts of southern Australia, the Staghorn Fern will need a frost free, humid site. Try it indoors. This plant can survive without attention for some time as the pocket of fronds collects water. Be careful not to over-water or you may cause the plant to decay. Organic matter such as leaf-mould and well-rotted manures can be used to supplement nutrients. Many people choose to grow this fern on a board.

One of the best things about this ‘awkward’ name is that I can remember it very easily. Other plant names just don’t roll off the tongue so easily. Crepidiastrixeris denticulatoplatyphylla or Ornithogalum adseptentrionesvergentulum anyone?

And fortunately as there are several other ‘superb’ plants, including Ensete superbum (an Indian banana), Eryngium alpinum ‘Superbum’ (Alpine Seaholly) and Leucanthemum x superbum (Shasta Daisy). So no tricking me up on that specific epithet now!

The simple white daisies of Leucanthemum x superbum are borne on stout, leafy stems (Image: The University of Melbourne)

What plant names have taken you aback? Share your mispronunciations or similar with us on Facebook. Don’t worry, we will laugh with you, not at you 😉

A bientôt!

17/07/2018
All hail ‘l’ail’!

Good news from our little ‘prison farm’. The garlic has sprouted!

“Let me out!”. “Not until December, although with good behaviour, we may consider your release in November.” (Sounds like someone has started talking to the plants!)

We were a little delayed in actually planting our Allium sativum bulbs. They only went into the ground on 1 June 2018. With the cooler temperatures here in Liffey, we probably could have planted them in later April, early May. More time to store that precious sunlight energy before harvesting the cloves in November or December.

Fingers crossed we will have enough garlic to harvest to get us through one year of consumption. We put fifty bulbs in. So if each bulb grew into a clove containing ten bulbs, then we could potentially produce 500 bulbs of garlic!

The garlic is sprouting next to its close cousin, the leek (Allium ampeloprasum). Both the leek and the silverbeet (Beta vulgaris ‘Fordhook)’ have survived throughout summer and are still with us in these cool temperatures.

Now you are probably wondering why the ‘high security’? What did these poor little buggers do to deserve such harsh treatment. Well it is for their own protection of course (isn’t that what they always say in the movies?). We have quite a few native and introduced animals seeking a free lunch here. Usually we just see wallabies, echidnas and wombats, although there are possums and rats about. Not to mention the deer. Oh dear!

Last Monday we spotted seven juvenile deer prancing on the lawn at the bottom of the hill below the house. With their hard hooves, I want them well away from our lightly-tilled soil. And with their voracious appetites, I am not game to see whether or not they like garlic. I do!

Bambi and co … not so cute in the vegie plot!

I clearly prefer garlic to Bambi. That won’t change anytime soon I am afraid. So the garlic will have to stay caged up until its release later this year. I can’t wait. I love the stuff. I just hope we will have enough to get us through the next year. Although between myself and the Frenchman, we do use more than just a little bit in our cooking.

Anyway, there is still a little time until harvest. So I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Fingers crossed we have a bountiful supply. If not, there is always the local farmers’ market.

Jusqu’à la prochaine fois!

PS. L’ail is French for ‘the garlic’. In the proper sense of translation, not as in ‘Yoplait is French for yogurt’.

09/07/2018
Going indoors with ‘her indoors’ at the Melbourne garden show

“Winter is coming!” That is a cry most Game of Thrones fans would be most familiar with. But what does that have to do with indoor plants?

Well winter has actually well and truly arrived here in northern Tasmania. This morning when I woke up, I saw the nearby Norfolk Plains covered in fog, and frost coating the grass down slope of our home. Let’s just say it was a wee bit chilly.

So with the cooler weather, I am now spending more time indoors. And so are many of you, except you lucky people in the Northern Hemisphere! Oh to be in France at the moment!

Anyway, back to reality. And the point. Ahem.

If you are cooped up indoors, you may be spending less time gardening outdoors. So why not garden indoors?!

To provide you with a little indoor planting inspiration, check out my latest article for Hort Journal Australia. My article starts on page 26.

In the article, I detail my trip to the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, where several interior installations caught my eye, including the Flamingo Hotel pictured below.

This display certainly inspired me. I hope it inspires you too!

A bientôt!

Alice Crowe was kept busy with the crowds visiting the Flamingo Hotel display

26/06/2018