Penny Woodward » Diggers

Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show

Penny — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 07:43:14 +0000

By Penny Woodward

Diggers' pumpkins, gourds and chillis

We are so lucky to have such a good garden show in Melbourne, and an unsurpassed site in the Carlton Gardens and the Exhibition Building. I was there for four of the five days and don’t think I have seen so many people in previous years. There were some wonderful display gardens, fabulous floral displays and interesting gardening related commercial stands.

I was so busy helping out on the Organic Gardener Magazine stand that I didn’t have much time to take photographs but some of my favourites follow. It was great to see more plants, and less hard surfaces. But I was sorry that there were less edible and useful plants incorporated in the designs, and not many commercial stands that were truly organic. The exceptions were Eco Organic Garden with their BFA certified products for pest and disease control and plant health and soil improving products. To see more about them go to the Eco Organic Garden website , the other was the Diggers site with their fabulous array of pumpkins and gourds, as well as chillis and garlic. See some of the photos above and below and to purchase seed or garlic go to the Diggers website

The gardens range from the small but fascinating and always inspiring student gardens in the Avenue of Achievable Gardens, to the bigger bells and whistles gardens that take months to plan, pull together and construct. Also, a new one for this year was that constructed by Swinburne students to publicise the Victorian School Garden Award. Anyway I think the pictures speak for themselves. These are my favourites, and mostly I didn’t agree with the judges as to which were the best.

The Victorian School Gardens Awards garden

Teak wood horse from recycled teak wood pieces

Plant people in the Tree and Shrub Growers display garden.

A triptych in the Tree and Shrub Growers and Yates display garden

Another garden view in the Tree and Shrub Growers display garden.

The delightful and very different succulent garden

Cubeism by Phillip Withers, Semken Landscaping and Gardenworld

Student garden, First place winner

Student garden with a lovely combination of edible and ornamental plants

A gentle and imaginative student entry

Student garden second place winner

Diggers' pumpkins

Connections garden, celebrating Neighbour Day

A place for people to come together

All About Tomatoes

Penny — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 08:33:03 +0000

All about tomatoes and potatoes, peppers and other relatives, is another excellent book from Diggers and Clive Blazey. Although this small book does have all you need to know for your tomatoes to grow and thrive, it also looks at the history of tomatoes, talks about open-pollinated versus hybrid seed and why we all need to grow and save the free, open-pollinated, non hybridised types. Diggers has done years of research into tomatoes and their yields, colour, texture and flavour. Clive has listed the 60 that they think are the best. With mouth watering beautiful colour photos it’s hard to resist planting them straight away. But there are nearly 5500 heirloom varieties available around the world so maybe you need to try some of those too. The majority of the book is about tomatoes, but there are 8 pages at the back that cover some tomato relatives like potatoes, capsicums, eggplants, pepino and several more. Borrow it from your library, buy it from an independent bookshop or online from Diggers

All About Tomatoes by Clive Blazey, The Diggers Club, Dromana, Australia. Hardcover, 80pages, $24.95

Heirloom vegetables and heritage fruit

Penny — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:08:01 +0000

Last weekend saw a celebration of old cultivars and varieties of both fruit and vegetables. At Diggers Heronswood, Dromana it has been the Harvest Festival Weekend with a really beautiful array of pumpkins and squashes, garlic for sale and tomatoes to taste. Nearly all of these are heirloom or open pollinated varieties that are so important both for our gardening history and our future. Heirloom and heritage varieties are an integral part of organic gardening, many are the result of selective breeding over numerous generations so that they show special characteristics.

Turk's Turban, Delicata, Potimarron, Australian Butter, Buttercup and Bohemian are just a few of the heirloom varieties of pumpkins available to grow.

Heirloom varieties of squash, gourds and small pumpkins

At Petty’s Orchard they held the Heritage Apple Day with over 100 varieties of apples to try. From the beautiful sweet dessert apples like Cox’s Orange Pippen to the more tart but sublime when cooked Edward VII (a late season English cooking apple first recorded in 1902) , and even cider apples like Dabinett, an old Somerset cider apple producing bittersweet cider.

Such a rich panoply of tastes and textures, colours and scents. So much to loose if we don’t make an effort to preserve our heritage of varieties. So what can we all do? It’s pretty simple really, support the organizations and companies that sell these precious seed and grow unusual varieties of vegetables and fruit. Grow these vegetables and harvest and store our own seed, that way we help to preserve genetic diversity for future generations. Volunteer for the organizations that keep these fruit going, like the Heritage Fruits Society — PW

Scarlet Stymared

Sweet Coppin