pepo news Autumn is well and truly here and what a great summer we have had. It is the first time in years we have had such beautiful summer rains which has made for greener gardens. Not only have we been blessed with good rainfall, but our resident horticulturalist Carolyn was blessed with the birth of a healthy baby boy Aiden. Pepo wishes to congratulate Carolyn and her family on the addition to their family. The Maintenance department has been working hard to keep the gardens healthy. They have spent the last couple of months developing their knowledge on natural predators for pest and disease in your gardens - see our feature article. The design department has been working on some beautiful gardens as well as getting a portfolio together to take to all our favorite Architects. We have enjoyed working with architects in the past and would like to encourage them to work with us from concept stage so the true potential of the home and garden can be reached. In construction James and his team are putting together a great little courtyard in Coogee. A classic stone wall has had the fish bone fern removed and has been restored, a floating seat is being built into a rendered block wall and the washing line has taken the form of an uplit sculpture (when the washing is removed!) We were lucky enough to go to the 6th Collectors Plant Fair at Bilpin last weekend where specialist plant growers from all over Australia come together. We attended a talk by international plantsman Dan Hinkley who resides in America. Dan is a horticulturist and a nurseryman who is known for his passion for plants, collecting, propagating and naming new plant varieties. Look out for our gardens in this month’s Australian Home Beautiful and Australian Handy Magazine and next month’s Good Garden Design. Thank you to all the garden owners who have allowed photographers and journalists into their gardens. I hope you enjoy this seasons Pepo Newsletter, see you soon.
in your garden this autumn we will... Autumn is a great time to assess a garden. It is a time to look for things that are doing well and that may require attention or to transplant plants to a more suitable spot. Plants such as clumping evergreen perennials can be split and transplanted to improve vigour and flowering. Some potted plants such as Cymbidium Orchids can be moved into more open positions over Autumn and Winter. Trees and overgrown shrubs can be thinned to allow more light into the garden and everything including lawns will love a feed to sustain them through the winter. Irrigation can be adjusted to suit the cooler weather. The team will be looking to carry out these and other house keeping duties to ensure that your garden will look good through winter and be ready for spring. Paul Johnston - Maintenance manager
help us help you by... • This is the time for bulb planting. If you would like bulbs in your garden speak to your Pepo gardener next time they are there. • Autumn is a great time to plant in the garden so if you have a space that could do with a few new plants, let us know and we can give you some suggestions. • Over the next month or so we will be sending out a new form where we will be asking you to rate our performance. We welcome your honest responses in order to improve our service to you. Paul Johnston - Maintenance manager
products
1 Barwon Foot Stool, Eco Outdoor. Available from Eco Outdoor, Waterloo www.ecooutdoor.com.au
When mentioning the use of Teak furniture, people become a little hesitant due to the issues associated with it’s environmental and social sustainability. Our friends at Eco Outdoor have put our minds to rest, with a new range of teak products that are made from trees grown as part of the Trees for Trees program http://trees4trees.org/. Here is some news from Samantha from Eco Outdoor: Teak is experiencing a real resurgence, this time with a distinctly modern edge. Teak’s ability to blend both classic styles with modern materials and luxury outdoor fabrics, make it the perfect choice for outdoor furniture design. We’re using new technology to create contoured shapes, we wire brush it to create a beautiful textured surface and pair it with super modern materials like stainless steel and German Rehau weave. Teak is also a great renewable resource as planted trees are harvestable after 30 years making teak plantation timber a great
recipe Rhubarb Compote 1 bunch rhubarb 2 cups raw sugar 1 lemon (zest & juice) 1 cup water This sweet paste (compote) is very versatile. Drizzle it on your porridge, spoon it on top of a bowl of vanilla ice cream or dollop onto some natural yoghurt. It’s really easy, just get a saucepan and drop the diced rhubarb in. Go with a medium heat and add sugar, lemon and water. Let it reduce for about an hour. When it gets a glossy look, it is ready. James Perkin - Construction supervisor
2 Barwon Dining Lifestyle. Available from Eco Outdoor, Waterloo www.ecooutdoor.com.au
environmental story. We’ve teamed up with our partners in Indonesia to invest in the ‘Trees for Trees’ program which ensures that for every plantation tree we use, a new tree is planted in its place. You can see on the ‘Trees for Trees’ dockets on our furniture that every piece can actually be traced back to the village it came from and you can see where the new tree has been planted. This is especially important in Indonesia where much of the plantation teak comes from smaller villages and therefore it’s even more crucial that renewable resources are managed at a local level. For further details please contact Samantha Saill Samantha.saillk@ecooutdoor.com.au 1300 13 14 130 Eve Valensise - Landscape Architect
Good Bugs PEPO DISCOVERS A NATURAL WAY TO TREAT PESTS IN THE GARDEN Recently a garden that was plagued with curl grubs, a pest that would normally be drenched with chemicals, has been treated with nematodes. Nematodes are a group of microscopic free-living and parasitic invertebrates. As gardeners, we are specifically interested in Entomopathogenic nematodes that we can release into our gardens as a natural pest control. These microscopic creatures enter through openings in the larvae’s body and within 14 days have reproduced to the point that the host’s body ruptures freeing up to 100,000 times the number of nematodes that originally infected it! We have also released lady beetles and lace wings to treat scale and powdery mildew. Soon we will be releasing more good bugs to help us in the garden and will keep you posted on the results. If you are interested in biocontrol solutions in your garden please let us know. Nicola Cameron - Director