I’ve never quite mastered the art of growing berries but I’m hoping this book will make the difference. Allen Gilbert is a well-known and very experienced garden writer who has grown most of the berries described in the book. He is very much a hands-on gardener with books on citrus, tomatoes, nuts, apples and espalier already published. He starts this one by defining berries. Many plants that we think of as berries (strawberries and blackberries for instance) are not technically berries. While plants such as guavas, magosteens and persimmons are berries (botanically speaking). So the first part of the book covers those plants that are generally believed to be berries, namely blueberries, brambleberries, cranberries, currants, elderberries, gooseberries, jostaberries, mulberries, raspberries and strawberries. The second half looks at botanically true berries that are not included in the above list. Cape gooseberries, Chilean guava, feijoas, goji berries, guavas, jaboticabas, kiwi fruit, mangosteens, passionfruit, pawpaws, pepinos, pepperberries, persimmons, pomegranates and tamarillos. It is a great mixture of common and unusual fruits and covers everything from how to propagate, grow and harvest, to pests and diseases and how to deal with them organically, as well as some well-chosen recipes showing how to use the fruit when ripe.

It is full of ideas I am itching to try, like growing strawberries in hay bales and raspberry canes in half-tanks; how to tell when feijoa are ripe, the best time to harvest goji berries and growing your male kiwi fruit in a pot so it doesn’t take over. I actually have the opposite problem, and my male kiwi fruit keep dying but maybe a pot is the answer to that too. The other lovely thing about many of these berries is that they don’t take up too much space. So whatever size your garden you will have room to grow quite a few. A really excellent, inspiring book.

Buy it from your local independent bookshop, borrow it from your library or buy a copy online from the store.

Berry Bounty by Allen Gilbert, Hyland House Publishing, Flexi-cover, full-colour, 224 pages $29.95

Organic Fruit Growing by Annette McFarlane, ABC Books, HarperCollins, Softcover, 223pages, $35

Healing garden at Royal Talbot, Kew (photo Steven Wells)

Another garden room (photo by Steven Wells)

The Healthcare Design Magazine Remodel/Renovation Competition in America invited submissions for recently constructed Emergency Departments and Respite Areas. ‘The Garden Rooms’ at the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre, Melbourne, is a finalist in the ‘Respite Area’ category. The design intent of this garden was to create intimate spaces for patients and their families to foster ‘normalizing’ moments for them during their hospitalization and to provide staff with places of respite too.  Staff, patients and families were informally involved during the design stage. Patients, staff and volunteers helped to plant the garden, with various plants having been propagated by patients in the horticultural therapy program.

It would be wonderful if this inspirational garden won this prestigious award. You can help by voting.
To vote for the garden, use the link below. You’ll need to vote for PART 1 first, which is the Emergency Department Area, and after submitting your selection you will be automatically directed to PART 2 of the voting process: Respite Areas. Comments can also be added.

To vote click here.

The spring garden at Buda, Castlemaine

I have just spent a wonderful weekend at Castlemaine in rural Victoria, talking to and learning from gardeners from all over Victoria. Budafest was held to raise money for the historic home and garden, Buda, but also to connect with and inform gardeners about growing communities. We found out about public gardens and the greening of public spaces, gardening for produce and pleasure, community gardening and heritage gardens. I learnt things like: Average Australian houses are bigger than any other houses in the world (even 10% bigger than American houses); that we are having more 1 in 100 year weather events; that we need to preserve our public spaces and how important they are to our well-being; that landscapes are designed for people so we need to understand how people relate to them and that there is such a thing as Nature Deficit Disorder. All of this and more, just from the talk given by John Raynor from the University of Melbourne.

Aloe vera can be used to treat dry, flyaway hair.

I also discovered the story of the Newstead Community Garden and came to understand what an amazing place Newstead is. A real community in the best way possible. They welcome visitors to their garden so visit their garden blog and call in if you are passing though.

One of the many things I love about gardening is that we are always learning. Every time I give a talk I learn something as well. This time I learnt from Cherry that the sap from aloe vera can be rubbed into your hair as a conditioner and it is especially good for fine, flyaway hair. I know that it is often found in shampoos but it had never occured to me to rub it directly into my hair.

With spring almost here now is the time to head to your local nursery and buy some new plants. Try growing something different, an heirloom tomato, a fruit tree, a scented flower. Plants to feed your spirit as well as your body.

Plant something scented

Sow some seed

Grow a fruit tree

When things get tough, it’s so important to support our local industries. The Victorian nursery industry employs over 11,500 people and generates well over 1.5 billion dollars a year. Staff in garden centres are usually trained professionals so if you have questions they are well qualified to answer them. Garden Centres are celebrating spring by holding parties, so visit your local nursery to see what’s new and interesting and join them in their celebration.

Australian Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranboune

I know this is not about edible or useful plants but I think it’s really exciting. Although Australian designers have entered gardens in previous years, this year is the first time that Australia will have a display garden in Main Avenue. Quite a coup considering there are only eight gardens in this avenue.
The Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show is arguably the world’s most famous garden show. For almost 100 years this event has been showcasing plants and gardens in the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, London. This year it takes place form 24th to 28th of May. Most of us will not be able to be there in person but we can follow the hard work and excitement of the the garden’s construction on their blog. The Australian Garden at Chelsea. This Australian entry is based on the multi-award winning Australian Garden at the Botanic Gardens in Cranbourne, Victoria, the second stage of which will open in 2012. The show garden at Chelsea has been created by renowned designer Jim Fogarty and tells the story of water as it journeys from the outback to the coast. The display garden will contain more than 2000 Australian native plants and works by Australian sculptors. Even the lawn is a native grass. So over the next three weeks, keep an eye on their blog and follow the construction of the garden. This is the culmination of more than a year of work and planning. Lets hope Australia wins another gold, or even best in show! — PW

The great news is that the garden has won a gold medal, one of only a handful. Huge congratulations to everyone involved!  Go to their site to see the finished garden and link to the RHS site to see all the other winners.

Bay trees make wonderful slow-growing hedges or clipped specimen plants. Heronswood, Dromana

Sweet bay (Laurus nobilis ) was seen by the old herbalists as a virtuous tree which “resisteth witchcraft very potently”. The Greeks dedicated it to Apollo, the sun god. The Delphic priestesses, oracles of Apollo, held bay leaves between their lips as they made prophesies. In Greek and Roman cultures victors, heroes, academics and artistic figures were rewarded with a wreath or crown of bay leaves. This gave rise to the terms ‘baccalaureate’ and ‘poet laureate’.
Bays are unusual in the world of herbs in that, given the right conditions, they can grow into large trees, sometimes as high as 20 metres. They are usually slow growing and with careful pruning make excellent lawn specimens, topiary trees, pot plants or hedges. To grow a bay as a standard or topiary specimen, remove any suckers from the base as well as all the lower branches, leaving only about six branches at the top. After this, continue to remove any suckers that appear and prune the branches at the top, into the desired shape, twice during the following and each subsequent summer.
Bays are lovely, evergreen aromatic plants with shiny, dark green elliptical leaves. Male and female flowers grow on different trees but all are greenish yellow and fairly inconspicuous. The flowers on female trees, once fertilised, develop into dark purple berries. Bays grow in most soils as long as the drainage is good, but like lots of sun and protection from harsh winds and especially cold winds. Young trees will not tolerate frosts but become more frost resistant as they grow.
New bay trees can be grown from seed, cuttings, or by detaching suckers. As seeds rarely germinate unless conditions are ideal (which includes constant temperatures around 24°C) and cuttings of semi-ripe shoots taken in summer can take up to 6 months to develop roots, the average herb gardener is probably better off buying an established plant or taking a sucker from an existing tree.
Bay leaves can be used either fresh or dried, but remember that the fresh leaves have a stronger flavour. The leaves are most commonly added whole to soups, stews, casseroles and meat sauces and removed before serving. Leaves are used either on their own or combined with other herbs as part of a bouquet garni. The combination will vary depending on the dish. For example, a bouquet garni for a beef dish could consist of one bay leaf and a sprig each of parsley stems, thyme, sage and sweet marjoram, tied together in a bunch.
Placed in food containers one or two bay leaves will prevent moths and bugs from infesting flours and cereals, and fresh bay leaves put between the pages of a book will help to repel silverfish. In fact the whole tree is disease and pest resistant and will protect other plants in the area from many insect pests.
The bay tree has been credited with numerous medicinal properties over the centuries, but is probably most useful now as an oil that is rubbed into aching limbs and muscles to bring relief. Combine 50 g of crushed leaves (either fresh or dried), 300 ml of olive oil and one tablespoon of white vinegar in a screw topped jar. Leave it in a warm place, shaking regularly for three weeks. Strain and add two or three fresh leaves, leave for another week and then use when needed.
Bay trees are supposed to protect us from devils, witches, thunder, lightning and bush fires so obviously no garden should be without one.

A small bay tree planted with other herbs in an elevated herb garden

If by chance you are female, single, looking for a mate and despairing of more conventional methods of finding one, then you could try the following technique that was once popular in Devon, England. On the evening before Valentine’s Day select five fresh bay leaves and pin them to your pillow, one in each corner and one in the middle. Now lie down with your head on the pillow and say seven times

Sweet guardian angels, let me have
What I most earnestly do crave—
A Valentine enbued with love,
Who will both true and constant prove.

Each time you say the verse you need to count to seven, seven times. If you follow these instructions carefully then your future husband will appear to you in a dream. Unfortunately the instructions don’t tell you how to actually ‘catch’ this husband, or what to do if you don’t like the look of him! — PW