WInter Garden by The Diggers Club

WINTER GARDEN 2013 Trees, citrus, roses, berries and potatoes

Melbourne Botanic Garden

Barbarians at the front gate Recently our ever hopeful real estate agent sent us this picture of a house (our former home) where we had created a garden, educated our children and restored an important historic house.

In the back we had established a fish pond and above, leaning over the pond, was a magnificent evergreen Podocarpus gracilior. This had lush green leaves, reminiscent of the new spring growth from a box hedge except that it has a beautiful green texture all through summer when everything else is brown and burnt. Both these trees were drought tolerant and so rare they were unknown by 95% of nurserymen but perfectly suited this site, its historic location and created a sense of peaceful contemplation. Between the back of this terrace and its front we had built a conservatory to trap the winter sun and grow sub-tropical fruits and palms, providing privacy between the historic terrace at the front and the modern flat we built at the back enabling our children to lead uninterrupted lives. 2 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

ABN:

03 5984 7900 03 5987 2398

www.diggers.com.au info@diggers.com.au PO Box 300 Dromana, 3936, VIC 95 112 026 383

Garden shops and cafés Heronswood 105 Latrobe Pde, Dromana, 3936, VIC Shop: 03 5984 7321 Fork to Fork restaurant: 03 5984 7318 Lunch bookings recommended Melway 159 C9, 60 minutes from CBD

St Erth Simmons Reef Rd, Blackwood, 3458, VIC Shop: 03 5368 6514 Fork to Fork café: 03 5368 6520 (Thu-Mon)

Devastated is the first emotion we felt on seeing the glossy brochure that we were meant to be thrilled by. Paving and stones and pots have replaced a garden we had nurtured for 22 years. In the front garden we had planted a beautiful umbrella shaped Albizia julibrissin which has delicate fern like leaves, puffs of pink summery flowers that the birds love and dense shade to shelter us from the blasts of hot northerlies.

Phone: Fax: Web: E-mail: Mail:

Melway 909 E11, 75 mins from CBD

When we sold this property we spent lots of time educating the new owners about the rarity and significance of the trees and garden that we were leaving behind. The site is now a much hotter, there is no shade and no plants to re-cycle carbon back to the soil. That’s of course why our cities are 3-4 degrees hotter than the countryside. Just go into our botanic gardens on a hot day and see the temperature difference between paving and bitumen and the refreshing coolness of our well planned gardens. Of course every new owner has the right to destroy the previous garden, after all, that’s what private property rights support. But after 20 years of debate about climate change, the imposition of a carbon price and rising electricity prices one wonders how stupid and pig headed our estate agents and their rich clients are. Destroying all our hard work and patient nurturing is barbaric! I wonder how many Diggers members have been so similarly shattered by such thoughtless stupidity? Please let us know.

Cover: Exceptionally rare and only flowering every 7 years, Titan Arum at the Melbourne Botanic Garden, photo courtesy of Jorge de Araujo.

Adelaide Botanic Gardens North Terrace, Adelaide, 5000, SA Shop: 08 8232 8671 Both Heronswood and St Erth gardens are organically certified – an Australian first.

Catalogue symbols A guide to the plant and growing symbols used throughout this catalogue. Fruiting time

Flowering time

Mature height

Mature width

Full sun

Shade only

Sun or part shade

May be invasive

Drought tolerant once established (rainfall below 500mm) Seasonal watering as necessary Thirsty plant, keep perpetually moist (rainfall above 850mm) Deciduous

Evergreen

Semi-deciduous/Herbaceous Heat rating (garlic) Pot sizes TT Tree tube (50mm)

Protected under Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR)

ST Super tube (75mm)

Hardy annual

OP Olive pot (91mm)

Tender annual

Sow direct in soil

Sow in punnets

Distance between seeds when sowing Your Heat and Cold Zones can be found in the address area on the back of this catalogue and on our website. For more details on seed sowing please refer to your Garden Annual.

Diggers garden exclusives New roses — Englishman Chris Warner has recently developed a new series of disease resistant, repeat flowering roses, using a unique desert dwelling species. Rosa persica, native to the dry, baked hillsides of Iran, gives sumptuous poppy-like flowers. These new hybrids thrive in our dry summer heat, continually blooming well into autumn. Rose Blue For You The best blue rose available, producing a unique succession of semi-double lilac mauve flowers, which fade to a soft slate blue. Golden stamens radiate from a white centre. Blue for You is a compact floribunda rose, bound to take the world by storm. With a fragrance as sweet as violets, this is one rose you can’t be without. HZ 1-13 CZ 7-10 BR

Rose Blue For You

Nov-Apr

90cm

70cm

Club members only $21.95

Repeat flowering

Fragrant

Code RBFY

Members free offer Spend over $99 and select two of these plants for free see the Order Form on page 29 for details. Hurry, offer only available while stocks last! 5 bare root plants

5 acorns per packet

Oak Tree Seeds

Strawberry Everberry™

1 potted plant

Rose Eyes For You

Grow your own majestic oaks from seed and Exclusive Diggers release that fruits continually Exquisite flowers are produced repeatedly with a create your own Sherwood Forest. If you don't during the warmer months, finishing with a bumper finale in autumn of vibrant elongated hips which have room, do some guerilla planting! autumn crop of large sweetly fragrant berries. develop to colour the winter garden.

Tiger Lily Pearl Stacey

Lilium spp. — As charming as her sisters, with pendulous flowers in a soft deep pink aging to peach. A vigorous low maintenance lily, this new selection is truly worthy of our attention, with strong upright stems to over 1 metre that can produce 12-20 blooms per stem from late spring to summer. HZ 1-7 CZ 7-11 Dec-Jan

1.2m

Retail $11.95

Trumpet Lilies Members save over 30% Create a wonderful early summer display with the best trumpets available for 2013. Includes new African Morning, Maloo and Pink Perfection. Substitutes may apply.

20cm

Club $9.95

Code BLIPS Pink Perfection

Tiger Lily Pearl Stacey

Maloo

Retail $38.85 Club $26.95 BCOLITR

African Morning Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 3

Letters and pictures from Diggers Club members Animals v. Vegetables Dear Clive, Diggers is awesome! However, meat is good for you. We have been eating it for thousands of years. To say that the production of healthy animals is bad for the environment is silly. It is very difficult to be vegetarian and be healthy. Hard to absorb the nutrients from chickpeas etc. The amount of fuel/fertilisers/chemicals in the production of your average chickpea crop is horrifying. Growing a healthy animal would have to be better for the planet even if they do fart. Carbon is the least of our problems if at all. Being an extremely health conscious individual I am far more concerned with heavy metals, solvents, chemicals being spewed into our atmosphere. Large scale lettuce production-dripper system is put down each crop and ripped up and dumped/ burnt. I hope this plastic manufacture etc. is calculated into carbon impact of lettuce growing. We should be helping farmers/manufacturers find less toxic ways of doing things than be too concerned with carbon! Regards, Evan R The problem with meat production is the amount of water, fertilisers and chemicals needed for the lot fed beef. If we utilised our grass lands only for meat production and didn’t grow crops to feed animals, our soils wouldn’t suffer and natural rainfall would be sensibly utilised. We can grow a years supply of vegetables in 10 square metres – in Havana, Cuba the figure is just 5 square meters. For beef production we need at least a hectare (10,000 square meters). Dwell on that figure for a while considering the impact on soils, water and carbon. CRB “This sweet potato was grown in my garden in Loganholme (south of Brisbane) from a self set plant. Its weight was over 3kgs and as tender sweet as I have eaten.” Sheryl H

Why are there so many rude and ignorant gardening people? Mr. Clive Blazey, Sir, enclosed some pea seeds, explanation — My great grandparents came from England to Palmers Oakey on the Turon River during the gold rush days in the early 1800s and brought these seeds (the original ones) with them. Palmers Oakey is between Bathurst and Mudgee near Sofala. They are edible climbers and seeing none of us know the name of them we family and relatives call them Franks Peas after my great grandparents surname ‘Franks’. I sent some to Graham Ross 12 months ago and didn’t get any response. I wrote to him 3 times and told him what I thought of him in no uncertain terms, he’s rude, ignorant, bad mannered and totally ignored me, never even said thank you. I asked if he could tell me what the name of them are. They have a maroon and pink flower, not a white flower like most peas. These seeds have been handed down through our relatives for many years now, the pod swells fairly large before the pea inside matures. Do you know what the name of them is? Hopefully you are better mannered than Graham. You may like him and think he’s great. I have a much different opinion of him. Seems monied people who can afford many overseas trips think they are above we poor “common” people. I’m on the eve of 86 and have gardened since I could walk. I’ve crossed a butternut and Jap pumpkin and for 2 years have grown them and called them a “Japnut”. Some grow round and are yellow, others striped. Some grow the shape of the butternut and are striped and much bigger than the ordinary butternut. I have sent photos into Gardening Australia and they were never printed and no response from them either. Why oh why are there so many rude ignorant people in this gardening business? It beats me. Don Burke when on radio said citrus won’t grow in Lithgow. Well I’m only 43 k’s from Lithgow and I was told I wouldn’t grow citrus here because of black frosts and many mornings below zero and I’ve proved them wrong. I’ve got fruiting cumquat, oranges, grapefruit, lemons and mandarins as well as stone fruits. I grow everything in mushroom compost and have good success and if they don’t believe me I’ve invited them to come and see for themselves but no one ever does, they hate to be proved wrong especially by a woman, they think they know everything, well they don’t!! Sincerely, May B

4 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Send your letters and pictures to: The Editor, Dear Diggers PO Box 300, Dromana, VIC, 3936 Or via email to: editor@diggers.com.au All letters are reprinted as written. The views expressed here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of The Diggers Club.

Lines for an unsuccessful gardener A 1952 poem by Sir John D.G. Medley.

When my latest breath is drawn, Take no time to weep. Lay me, bare as I was born, On my compost heap. Babble not of dust to dust, Make no holy fuss, Let my epitaph be just, “Human to humus”. I shall pay the debts I owe, Which have dogged my toil, By the finer flowers I grow, When I’m simply soil. Droughts and debts have made me old, Thrips and worms and wigs, How much better to be mould, Than the man who digs. Quiet mould in quiet bed, Troubles all exhausted, I’ll be done with daily dread And perfectly composted. Pay you, as you go your ways, Weilding spade or hoe, Spare me just one word of praise, Busy there below. Dear Members, the paper used for printing your Winter Garden 2013 magazine, in addition to being FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified, is now also certified Carbon Neutral. The paper is purchased certified Carbon Neutral via the Carbon Reduction Institute Pty Ltd (www.noco2.com.au) where a complete life cycle assessment has been undertaken. The environmental impact of this paper has been measured ‘from cradle to grave’ and a rigorous assessment of the carbon footprint. Enjoy, Diggers.

Diggers garden exclusives

Time to plant bare root strawberries!

Grape Autumn Royal

Winter is the best time to buy strawberry runners and our selection includes the best varieties, such as the huge, sweet fruited Chandler. See page 39 for details.

Grape Autumn Royal

Vitis vinifera — Although one of the last to ripen Autumn Royal is worth the wait: these large 20cm 20cm Retail: x10 $19.90 seedless black grapes hang in heavy bunches, Club only: x10 $16.40 x20 $29.90 x50 $59.00 each grape bursting with flavour. The grapes are elongated, with firm blue black skin rewarding with a crunchy bite. The sweet yellow flesh is seedless, and these superb grapes are best Wasabi Daruma enjoyed fresh from the vine. Late to ripen. Wasabia japonica ‘Daruma’ — The variety HZ 2-8 CZ 9b-12 For VIC/NSW/QLD only. Daruma will tolerate warmer conditions than most 4m Apr-May 4m BR Wasabi, which prefers a cool and shaded position Retail $19.95 Club $17.95 Code WGRAR in moist soils. Vibrant green paste made from the grated rhizomes of Wasabi is one of the most Club only x3 vines $49.95 Code WGRAR3 intensely flavoured condiments of Asia. The initial heat is felt immediately in your nasal passages, which quickly reduces in intensity. Unfortunately, most Wasabi available in Australia is made from horseradish and food colouring, lacking the wonderful intensity of the this amazing plant. Why not try your own? HZ 1-5 CZ 5-9b ST

All year

40cm

Retail $24.95 Club $15.95 Code WWASD

Limequat Taveres

Fortunella crassifolia x Citrus aurantifolia — A hybrid between the Kumquat and the Mexican Limequat Taveres Members Only! Lime. More cold tolerant than the classic Tahitian Lime, a great alternative for the cooler southern states. Edible skin conceals a mouth puckering Avocado Sharwil Elegant, narrow pear shaped fruit, with ample blast of tart lime juice within. HZ 3-7 CZ 9a-11 flesh around a small seed. This ‘B’ type avocado OP 2m All year 2.5m is an essential pollinator in northern districts. A popular variety, giving high yields of petite fruit, Club members only $29.95 Code WCITLT with creamy flesh and a nutty flavour, ripening during late autumn and winter. Sensitive to frost. OP/Grafted

Apr-Aug

Wasabi Daruma

Retail $39.95 Club $29.95 Code WAVS

Antioxidant Potatoes ~ 24 tubers ~ Recent studies into the health benefits of pigmented potatoes show they can reduce inflammation and DNA damage as well help improve healthy cell function. So give your body a healthy potato boost with our selection of purple Sapphire, red Cranberry and golden yellow Nicola. 3 individual packs, substitutes may apply. Not for WA/QLD/NT/TAS.

Members save over 25% Avocado Sharwil

Retail $29.85 Club $21.95 Code TCOAN Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 5

Series: Understanding the lives of plants

2. Soil is the foundation of garden health Bill Bampton explains why garden problems begin ‘down under’ When things go wrong in the garden the symptoms from above, the yellowing leaf, the stunted fruit or the insect infestation are what grabs our attention.

Bill Bampton Head gardener Heronswood

Yet the majority of our successes and failures in the garden have underlying causes that lie hidden in the soil. I encourage you to use your spade as a diagnostic tool. As gardeners, getting to know our soil is fundamental. Most plants when plucked from soil do not survive long. We are all aware that the mineral and organic elements of soil provide plants with essential nutrients, yet this is only a fraction of what plants need from soil. Plants function with distinct tops and bottoms, soil gives roots anchorage. The soil provides the water and oxygen roots need to respire. Soil acts as insulation against temperature extremes. For our plants to prosper, we need to insure all these needs are met. Soils consist of mineral particles and organic matter, with the pores between filled with either water or air. The variety of soils reflects the distinct parent material, vegetation and climate in which they were formed.

Soil texture We categorise soils according to their texture. Soil texture is based on the particle size of the mineral elements. Moisten some of your soil and rub it in the palm of your hand. A sandy soil has larger particles and will feel gritty. If you attempt to roll it into a sausage it will crumble and have no plasticity. A clay soil has very fine particles, will feel sticky or slippery and will form a sausage when rolled.

Between the extremes of sand and clay lie loams that possess a balance of clay and sand particle and silts composed of fine, silky particles. Sandy or light soils are easily dug (lifting potatoes is a joy) and they are free draining. Conversely, they retain little water, are leached of nutrients and easily eroded by wind or rain. Clays have the advantage of retaining water for long periods, likewise storing high amounts of nutrients that are available to plants. However, as any gardener with a bad back will tell you, they are hard to dig, prone to water logging in winter and rock hard in summer. The texture of our soil is difficult to alter without large inputs. It is possible to improve a sand by adding ¼ volume clay to the top soil but to improve a clay to loam would require adding more than 60% sand.

Soil structure The aspect of the soil we can best tackle is the structure. Soil structure is the way the individual mineral and organic particles of the soil group together. Humus is key to the formation of soil structure. Humus is that part of soil organic matter that has decomposed as far as possible and become stable; it is the ultimate carbon sink. It is a dark sticky substance that gives good topsoil its rich colour and earthy smell. It acts as glue grouping soil particles into crumb. The colloidal chemistry of humus means it makes nutrients available to plant roots and improves water retention. As well as humus, mycorrhizal fungi are the living elements of the soil essential in forming pores between particles that allow the roots to receive water and oxygen; here the earth worm is the hero.

Soil Type

Advantages

Problems

Improvements

Sand

• Free draining. • Resist compaction. • Easily dug.

• Poor water and nutrient holding. • Easily eroded. • Low humus levels.

• Addition of organic matter. • Addition of clay or clay like bentonite • Mulching.

Clays

• Often high in nutrients. • Able to store water and nutrients.

• Compact easily. • Poor drainage. • Hard to dig.

• Addition of organic matter. • Gypsum (if sodic). • Avoid digging when wet. • Avoid compaction through traffic. Use boards on vegetable beds.

Silt

• Often high in nutrients.

• Compact easily.

• Addition of organic matter.

Loam

• Shares the advantages of both sand and clay.

• Possible compaction.

• Add compost as mulch. • Avoid traffic compaction.

6 • Diggers Autumn Winter Garden Garden2013 2013

“Be wary of buying in top soil.”

A good garden soil can be almost half pore space. From the plants perspective, a well structured soil has a crumb that is stable and doesn’t breakdown in rain. It is loose enough to allow roots to grow and water, nutrients and oxygen to penetrate; if we squeeze a hand full of well structured soil it should noticeably reduce in volume.

The soil profile Digging deep into the soil we often see a distinct banding of different coloured and textured material — the soil profile. The topsoil tends to be darker, it is where the majority of organic matter and life is found. Most root activity occurs in the top 15 cm of the soil. The subsoil is less fertile and usually paler. There are few roots here, mainly from larger or more drought tolerant plants. The parent material is the mineral element of the soil – weathered rock below which lies the parent rock itself.

It has fine aggregates, good tilth rather than large clods. A poorly structured soil collapses in rain and forms crusts, it is grouped in large clumps or sheets, it is hard to dig. It is inclined to water logging in winter and erodes easily. Some of the poorest structured soils are the silts often bought in as top soil, they appear rich and fluffy when first applied but quickly compact to form a hardpan. Be very wary of buying in top soil. Unless carefully formulated it is often best, especially in environmental terms, to work with the existing soil and improve it or select plants adapted to it.

Hydroponics and soilless growing media While good garden soil is perfect for growing plants in the ground, it is usually inadequate for growing plants in containers. When plants are grown in pots both their drainage and aeration are compromised by the confines of the container. To achieve good aeration and drainage most growing media are soilless and based on sands or other inorganic elements of fairly coarse particle size combined with organic matter, pine bark or peat, to increase water and nutrient holding capacity. The high organic content of potting mixes also helps to keep them light. The qualities of good drainage, aeration and high organic matter also have a downside. Growing medias drain so well they dry out easily and leach nutrients, and the high organic matter encourages fungi that produce waxy substances that repel water, making the mix hydrophobic.

Our vegetable parterre is on a sandy loam. Every new display (3 times a year) we take the opportunity to fork in blood and bone and bentonite clay. We dress the soil with organic pig manure and our compost. When working on the beds we walk on boards, as shown above, to prevent compaction and preserve air pockets and the structure of the soil.

“... pot plants will dry out far more quickly than plants in the ground.”

To compensate, various water holding gels and wetting agents can be used. As home gardeners we need to be aware that our pot plants will dry out far more quickly than plants in the ground. The extreme end of soilless gardening is hydroponics, where all nutrients are provided in solution and the media becomes an inert free draining substance like Rockwool. From an organic perspective it is very hard to replicate the full suite of nutrients provided by a living soil. This article won’t give you all the answers about soil structure what I hope it does is encourage you to ask questions about your own soil and to ask those questions with a spade in your hand. Go out and have a dig around your garden, have a feel of your earth. Diggers DiggersAutumn Winter Garden 2013 • 7

Series: Understanding the lives of plants

3. The art of composting Bill explains the composting process at Heronswood — such sweet things out of such corruptions! Composting is an essential component of organic gardening. It recycles our waste, improves soil structure, fertilises and inoculates our soil with beneficial organisms.

Bill Bampton Head gardener Heronswood

Composting is a natural process, yet successful composting often eludes the home gardener. We have all experienced the smelly heap or the dry heap that keeps growing but never seems to produce a usable end result. At Heronswood (and St Erth) we have fairly constant success by using a simple aerobic method and following some basic rules, just like baking a cake or, more appropriately, brewing beer.

The site In a suburban situation the position of a compost heap would be limited. It would ideally have some shading in summer. It should have easy access both in terms of depositing waste and removing compost. We have two composting areas – one near our kitchen garden, the other in the ornamental garden – so we can make our compost near where it is to be used. Both our compost areas are in part shade and rest on soil or mulch.

Compost materials The first phase of the composting process is gathering the compost material. For us and most gardeners the decision of what to compost is made for us by the garden waste we have at hand. At Heronswood we use prunings, weeds, spent organic potting mix, vegetable kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, lawn clippings and chook poo from cleaning the hen house.

Comfrey is a traditional compost activator

Materials we avoid composting are: • Any plant material that has a serious persistent disease, especially if from the Solanaceae (tomatoes, potatoes). • Bulbous weed material like Oxalis that will not be easily killed by the composting process (we are experimenting with drowning the bulbs in a barrel before composting). • Avoid too many weed seeds or perennial weeds like Kikuyu or Tradescantia if you are not confident of reaching temperatures of 55oC or more. • Avoid meats and other obvious rodent food in an open heap. It is vital to see the gathering and sorting of the waste material as a separate step to the actual making of the compost. We have at least three bays working. One with the raw material, another in which the compost pile is made and a third into which the compost is turned and left to mature. Confusing a working compost heap with a pile of random dumped garden waste is one of the primary causes of failure in compost making. For good, quick composting you need to ensure that material is added according to its carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) ratio. The ideal C:N ratio lies between 20:1 and 40:1.

Grass clippings help balance moisture levels 8 • Diggers Autumn Garden2013 Winter Garden 2013

As you can see compost requires far more carbon than nitrogen. Too much carbon will slow compost, while higher nitrogen heaps will lose nitrogen to the air in the form of smelly ammonias. You also need to balance the moisture content by adding wet material, like grass clippings, with dried wood prunings.

“Clay breaks your back and sand breaks your heart ...”

The Carbon:Nitrogen ratio of ingredients Compost Material

C:N Ratio

Cardboard Straw Leaves Lawn clippings Kitchen waste Poultry manure with saw dust Weeds

500:1 40-150:1 30-80:1 18-21:1 15:1 9-11:1 18-20:1

The chipper makes light work of woody waste

Once chipped it’s ready to be added to the heap

Organic material with a Carbon:Nitrogen ratio greater than 20:1 will use up nitrogen in composting.

Making the compost heap – Size matters!

Turning the heap ensures even heating

A cubic metre seems to be the accepted minimum size for a heap. The mass of the heap and its surface to volume ratio limits heat loss. If a heap were to get much bigger than this oxygen supply to the centre would be compromised. We keep our heaps contained in bays that help maintain the heaps proportion and insulate the sides. Just as the size of the heap matters so too does the size of the particles we put in the heap. At Heronswood our chipper transforms woody waste that has lain inert for weeks into a steaming pile. Any way you can mechanically reduce the size of the particles being composted will speed up the process. Once chipped the material is combined with grass clippings, soft weeds and vegetable cuttings in layers. Depending on the material we have at hand, if there is a lot of woody material, we sometimes add blood and bone as we go to increase the nitrogen level. By making sure we have a good ratio of compost materials we avoid pH problems, we don’t add lime.

The breakdown process Soon after being made the temperature in the heap rises as thermophillic, heat loving bacteria begin the breakdown process. Temperature in our heap reaches 55-60oC. It needs to remain this hot for a week to ensure all weed seeds and pathogens are killed. To keep the temperature up we turn the heap several times. In turning the heap we try to invert the mix to ensure even heating, this is helped by turning the heap into a second bay. To ensure it is well aerated, we are careful not to compact the heap when we are forking it.

Good compost is dark and earthy

Adding compost to our berry patch

Keeping the heap moist is a challenge, especially in dry summers. We add water as needed when we turn the heap. Covering the heap is important to insulate it, thus maintaining moisture and temperature levels. After two weeks the temperature drops and a new group of organisms, mainly fungi, now colonise the heap. It is in this phase that humus begins to develop. Once the heap reaches a stable ambient temperature it is left to mature and earthworms begin to colonise the heap. The whole process takes several months. Timing varies depending if it’s in the cool of winter or the heat of summer. Ideally, the final product is dark and smells earthy, with an even consistency and is weed and disease free. Occasionally, seeds like amaranth, or marigolds slip through. We apply the compost as mulch to our garden beds, letting the humic goodness percolate into the soil. Further reading: Tim Marshall, Composting: The Ultimate Organic Guide Diggers DiggersAutumn Winter Garden 2013 • 9

Why supermarket tomatoes come last in every taste test! Clive Blazey asks why Tommy Toe and 17 heirloom tomatoes beat supermarket hybrids Since we did our famous tomato taste test twenty years ago at Heronswood with top chefs (including Stephanie Alexander), garden writers and seed merchants, we have found two explanations for the complete dominance of heirloom garden varieties over supermarket hybrids. Clive Blazey Diggers Founder & Executive Chairman

1. According to US food authorities the modern tomato has the highest dissatisfaction rating of any supermarket item. With these same supermarket hybrids offered in Australia we can be sure it applies in Australia too. Breeding for shelf life always supersedes flavour. 2. Considering that modern plant breeders have integrated a slow ripening gene into the supermarket hybrids, the fruit can never develop sugars and ripen but the fruit still looks red, shiny and impressive – like an ageless celebrity film star.

We decided it was time to repeat the taste test so we invited South Australian garden experts to join ten cooks and gardeners to a taste test in the Adelaide Botanic Garden in February 2013.

The Results – Italian Chefs We had three Italian chef/food experts who rated Italian red heirloom Periforme the best, in preference to highly coloured heirlooms.

The Results – Garden Gurus Adelaide radio garden hosts Michael Keelan, Jon Lamb and Malcolm Campbell joined with Sophie Thomson (Gardening Australia) and myself to score our favourites and we all had different winners. Malcolm rated Hungarian Heart (96%,) Jon favoured Black Cherry (83%) and Wild Sweetie (83%) equally. Michael chose de-hybridised Rebel Yellow (80%), Sophie preferred Lemon Drop (85%) and on the day I thought Green Grape (86%) best. Most of us rated the supermarket hybrid worst at 35.8% compared with our average of 68.4% for heirlooms. Whilst Tommy Toe was equal second, it certainly was not as good on the day as 20 years ago when it won.

Commercial Varieties – F1 Hybrids The supermarket hybrid was picked up on the day and our commercial strains were chosen from the offerings at the Adelaide Market. Only one commercial variety beat the heirlooms so in fact the top 18 places were filled by heirlooms and the bottom 6 places by commercial red varieties – 60% lower than heirlooms.

Tomato taste test, Adelaide Botanic Garden, February 2013 10 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Adelaide Botanic Garden Tomato Taste Test February 2013 Ranking Overall score Variety =1 =1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

77.40% 77.30% 74.50% 74.00% 73.00% 72.30% 72.07% 70.70% 68.80% 67.40% 66.80% 66.50% 66.30% 65.90% 65.50% 65.20% 64.40% 64.00% 63.07% 61.00% 60.70% 60.20% 57.30% 54.36% 54.07% 54.00% 54.42% 42.46%

Hungarian Heart Jaune Flamme Tommy Toe Black Cherry Wild Sweetie Wapsipinicon Peach Lemon Drop Ananas Noir Black Russian Periforme/Granny’s Throwing Purple Smudge Green Zebra Rose de Berne Green Grape Black Krim Violet Jasper Grosse Lisse Tigerella Brown Berry Tondo Piccolo Brido (Franchi) Redunda (Franchi) Beams Yellow Pear Roma Virus Free Swanson Marglobe Malinche (Monsanto) Nepoline Supermarket F1

Key HL = Heirloom, open pollinated, true-to-type and publicly owned – all Diggers introductions. HL/ST = Heirloom, standard comparative garden variety. OP/C = Open pollinated commercial variety. F1 = F1 hybrid, commercial variety, can’t be resown, not true-to-type. Corporate ownership.

Notes • Results of 15 professional tasters (5 gardeners, 3 chefs, 7 media/botanic gardens staff ). • Principe Borghese excluded – not correct variety. • Hungarian Heart was only trialled by 10, not 14/15 tasters. • Dehybridised Rebel Yellow rated 70.40 but only 5 tried the fruit. • Purple Russian withdrawn to reduce number tasted and ensure full participation. Statistics compiled by Clive Blazey – 60% flavour, 20% appearance, 20% texture

1993 Colour Test — — 1 — 14 — — — — — — 16 — — — — 15 12 — — — — — — — — — 29

Pink Orange Red Red Opaque Lemon Yellow/black Black Red Orange Yellow/green stripe Pink Olive Black Black Red Yellow/red stripe Brown Red Red Yellow Red Red Red Red Red Red

Average Heirlooms Average Commercial

Size Oxheart Apricot Apricot Cherry Pea Apricot Grape Beefsteak Apricot Large pear Beefsteak Apricot Apricot Grape Mini beefsteak Apricot Large Apricot Cherry Apricot Obvate Cherry Plum Obvate Obvate Obvate Obvate Obvate

Type

Intro date

HL HL HL HL HL HL HL HL HL HL HL HL HL HL HL HL HL/ST HL HL F1 F1 HL F1 F1 OP/C F1 F1 F1

2007 2001 1993 2011 1994 2005 2005 2012 1992 2012 2012 1991 2012 2007 1996 2012 — 1992 2007 — — — — — — — — —

=1st Hungarian Heart

=1st Jaune Flamme

2nd Tommy Toe

3rd Black Cherry

2013 – 68.90% 1993 – 60.93% 2013 – 49.70% 1993 – 49.80%

Summary The first eighteen varieties preferred were all heirlooms from Hungary, France, Italy, Russia and America, and seven of the bottom eight were red commercial varieties from the South Australian market. Since the 1993 taste test which was won by Tommy Toe, fourteen varieties were regarded as better than the garden standard Grosse Lisse – ten of these superior varieties have been introduced in the last few years. Because a taste test of thirty varieties can be wearying on the taste buds, Amish Paste, Mortgage Lifter and five other top tasting tomatoes were excluded which, had they been listed, would take the list of superior heirlooms to between twenty and twenty-five. Finally, if every publicly owned heirloom variety tastes better than the supermarket hybrids that make up ninetyfive percent of supermarket tomato sales, what has this got to say about modern plant breeding over the last fifty years? Would you pay four hundred times the price of heirlooms to an overseas corporation when you can save your seeds and replant for nothing?

4th Wild Sweetie

5th Wapsipinicon Peach

6th Lemon Drop

27th and last! Supermarket Hybrid

Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 11

Guerilla gardening ..."Resistance is fertile!" Clive Blazey explains how planting seeds has become a subversive activity

Clive Blazey Diggers Founder & Executive Chairman

Gardening for some people is simply to put vegetables and fruit on the table for the family. In the wealthier suburbs the very rich spend more money on the garden and its design than the cost of a house in the poor suburbs.

• Multinational Monsanto has its toxic grip on our seeds and food supply via junk hybrids and GM seeds.

At Diggers we strive to create gardens that are beautiful and fertile so that edibles and ornamentals blend seamlessly in our garden pictures.

• The huge miners behave as if they own our land, regarding rents as trepass!

But in the ‘radical gardening’ suburbs, like Northcote in Melbourne, gardeners seek to inherit a different world to the free market economy. Planting the seeds of society where ordinary people are in control of their land and their food represents an urge to be self-sufficient, rather than dependant on the capitalism of landlords. Believe it or not the word ‘Diggers’, that we chose to describe our subversive garden activities in 1978, has its origins as far back as 1649 when starving families who couldn’t afford land were prevented from growing food on public (common!) land by the forces of the landed gentry.

These modern radicals rebel against the big corporations destroying our democratic process.

• Coles and Woolworths support processed food products that travel further to supermarket shelves than any corporates jetting around the world.

So learning to produce your own food has become a threat to the capitalists who control our food supply.

“The law condemns the man or woman, Who steals the goose from off the common, But lets the greater villain loose Who steals the common from the goose.” Anon

These gardeners were thrilled to hear Cuban Guerrilla Gardener, Roberto Perez, talk at Cultivating Community. He described the revolution in Havana, Cuba where they shifted from the Soviet-style industrial farming scale of mono-culture and toxic chemicals to small scale urban, co-operative organic systems on publicly vacant lots.

“So that he who had no land was to work for those, for small wages, It reduced their deficit, improved their health and cut that called the land their health costs so that they now have a longer life expectancy than an American. theirs; and are lifted up into “I truly believe that as long as we have not the chair of tyranny found peace with the soil, we won’t find peace and others has under the foot-stool of misery.” above the ground.” Diggers leader, Gerrard Winstanley Havana's disused lots feed 70% of its population – land connot be privately owned!

Emilia Hazelip

For those of you who are frightened about the impacts of climate change on our ecology and economy, could there be a more provocative solution than to plant ‘the seed’?

Resistance is fertile – plant a seed! ‘The seed of an oak tree’ planted on vacant land, a railway siding or any unused, neglected land that will benefit from your generous donation of time. We’ve collected thousands of seeds to help you. Don’t give up! Express your feelings, plant a seed to lift the gloom. Further reading: George McKay, Radical Gardening Politics, Idealism & Rebellion in the Garden

12 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Grow your own majestic oaks! The best seeds to get children into gardening, for country folk to provide shade and fire insurance and for landcare enclosures. Diggers has a limited seasonal offer on the following oak seeds. Algerian Oak (Quercus canariensis) Retail $15.00 Club $9.95 Code SOAA

English Oak (Quercus robor) Retail $15.00 Club $9.95 Code SOAE

Pin Oak (Quercus palustris) Retail $15.00 Club $9.95 Code SOAP

Algerian Oak (Quercus canariensis) Mediterranean dry climate English Oak look-alike (leaf and acorn) 35m tall. Expect 10 metre growth in 20 years. Inland, frost tolerant and suits seaside planting.

Cork Oak (Quercus suber) Retail $15.00 Club $9.95 Code SOAC

25 seeds per pack (Cork Oak 20 seeds). Orders close June 29. Members, raise 20 magnificent trees for less than $10!

Reasons to plant acorns 1. Of all the trees gardeners can start growing oaks are the easiest and quickest. Seeds are very large (bigger than pumpkin and corn seeds) and they sprout in late winter when moisture levels are high. Simply loosen the soil with a garden fork or shovel and plant at a depth three times seed length in the final position. If you sow into pots be careful not to damage the deep moisture-seeking tap root when transplanting. 2. Oaks grow steadily to a very large tree providing shade, habitat for wildlife and storing vital carbon in the soil and within the tree. 3. Whilst gum trees create chemicals to inhibit the germination of competing plants they also don’t produce leaves that break down and build up organic carbon. Oak leaves produce magnificent humus-rich compost that is superior to all others.

English Oak (Quercus robor) Common oak, drought and fire retardant. Outstanding source of compost humus/litter. Expect 9-13.5 metre growth in 20 years.

Pin Oak (Quercus palustris) An adaptable oak growing to 15m in height in 20 years. Tolerant of a range of soils and displays vibrant red autumn foliage.

Planting acorns into pots These seeds do have a short viability, and will arrive snugly packed in peat. To sprout the acorns, you’ll need some free draining potting mix and some narrow pots (your left over Diggers pots are ideal). Place acorns on their sides near the top of each pot, and cover with another 20mm of mix. Keep the pots moist, and your acorns will sprout late winter. Plant them carefully out into well prepared soil, and watch them grow! Cork Oak

Holm Oak

English Oak Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 13

Community gardening and the language of food Bernadette explains how food gardening overcomes social alienation “Food!” — a unifying language. Growing food — a small positive action. Growing food as a community — a green revolution! Wikipedia cites that "A Community Garden is a single piece of land gardened collectively by a group of people.” Bernadette Brady Heronswood Gardener

With changing and uncertain times people are going back to basics – seeking to regain some control over their food, its origins and its nutritional and dollar value. This combined with concerns over environmental factors has seen the expansion of a network of Community Gardens in most municipalities and cities throughout the world. As suburbia sprawls and arable land is turned over to housing, houses whose footprints are becoming larger, we are building areas that are at times socially alienating as well as being unsuitable for growing food. Inner city living with all its conveniences also has limiting factors for food production but with initiative and innovative thinking, anonymous spaces are being turned into urban edible landscapes. Landscape architects and town planners are now realising the intrinsic value of shared horticultural spaces, the social, emotional and physical benefits translating favourably in cost/benefit analyses. So much so in fact that governments at all levels are making available funding and legislation to allow and encourage such projects.

Community gardens are not anything new. Allotments have been in many European cultures for centuries, particularly the Scandinavian countries. Wartime saw the “Victory Gardens” being used to supply food in the UK, US and Australia. The emergence of Community Gardens as we know them today began in the US in the early sixties, in amongst other social upheavals of that time. The late 1970s was when Australia started to see our very first Community Gardens, here in Victoria it was at Nunawading in 1977. Other states soon followed, with the real movement beginning in the mid nineties and into the twenty-first century. Now Community Gardens are dotted around public housing developments, kindergartens and schools, community centres, prisons, hospitals, aged care facilities, parks and many open spaces. Urban edible gardens received world wide media attention when Michelle Obama famously planted a vegetable garden on the southern lawn of the White House in March 2009. This simple act, followed by her book American Grown, tells the story of the White House kitchen garden and gardens across America and has validated the simple act of growing your own food. The garden has become a community focussed one where children and others come to learn the basics of kitchen gardening. Community Gardens have many different profiles, some are initiated and run by residents of an area or institution, some are auspiced by Service Clubs such as Lions, some are funded and managed by Health bodies, local councils or government sectors. An example — In Melbourne, the Public Housing Community Gardens in the inner suburbs of Collingwood and Richmond were initially started by Basil Natoli as part of Coll-LINK under the direction of a local inter-church council in the late 1980s. By 1998 Cultivating Community was born and by 2000 Basil was employed by the Department of Human Services – Office of Public Housing as the first Community Garden Project Manager. These gardens provide for its residents the opportunity to maintain cultural practices and traditions as well as growing foods that may not be available in their new homeland. It also gives them the chance to mingle with other people from all ethnic backgrounds, religions and cultures with the help of the universal language of food.

14 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Photo courtesy of Penny Woodwrad

Community garden in Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria

Other gardens have been started by seeding grants provided by health authorities and government agencies that are now recognising the “flow-on” benefits of investing in such projects. Sometimes it is the enthusiastic residents of an area that call public meetings, lobbying and garnering support and funds independently, starting from the real grass roots level. Whatever and however these gardens start they give all participants the chance to dip their digits into the earth and take control over some of their food. Community gardens give credence to the positive power of small actions. In establishing these groups we decrease food miles, reduce environmental costs and improve food security and promote healthy lifestyles. When properly managed they are inclusive of all ages, abilities and cultures, creating common bonds and resilience which can effectively build community. The concept of growing, sharing and celebrating together as a community is part way to a solution for these uncertain times.

In 1942 Prime Minister John Curtin launched “Dig for Victory”, a campaign that urged Australian householders to grow their own vegetables and contribute to the war effort.

“... dip their digits into the earth and take control over some of their food.”

For further information, contact the Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network. www.communitygarden.org.au

Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 15

The wonders of fruit growing Jan has abundant fruit to enjoy from her garden

Jan Beare is a Diggers staff member at our Adelaide Garden Shop. She has been growing fruit, vegetables and flowers for many years and, following on from her horticultural training, opened her own cottage nursery. Jan has also worked in SA garden centres, taught at TAFE and regularly shares her knowledge and passion at our monthly Diggers workshops in the Adelaide Botanic Garden.

At the top of a ladder, in late March, picking peaches, I thought to myself how wonderful it is that this old peach tree (below) manages to produce hundreds of peaches every year with little effort from me. This is a magic tree, no matter how many peaches I pick there are still hundreds more to share. I don’t know the variety, but it’s an old clingstone cooking peach, the fruit turning sunset orange when ready to pick. When they fall like rain on windy nights they barely bruise, being quite hard even when ripe. These windfalls are still usable, even if they have some damage or core rot has set in as long as they are refrigerated. My garage fridge is full of peaches, not beer! I usually cut off damaged bits, before I refrigerate them and put the fruit on open trays so the cut surface dries out. They will keep this way for days, till you have time to process them.

I’m afraid the old tree gets minimal pruning due to limited access. Removing dead twigs is important because these damage the fruit, allowing entry of disease. The gully winds that blow here on summer nights help shape the tree, as vertical branches laden with fruit often break, buffeted by gusts of strong wind. Horizontal branches are less likely to be damaged, and can be aided by props if necessary. I do give a protective spray of Kocide in spring, when the buds are showing pink. Timing can be difficult if we get spring rains, but this was less of a problem last year as rainfall was below average. Disposing of all fallen fruit as soon as it falls is another useful tool in disease control. The worms get a good feed in the compost bin. Spring feeding is also essential to maintain a healthy tree, and an occasional watering of course. So that’s all that is necessary to give me a bountiful harvest, used in so many ways : eaten fresh or stewed; dried as leather – on its own or in mixtures with other fruit; peach sorbet; peach puree for cakes, crumbles or pies in winter; or peach chutney, which is extremely delicious! Of course there are still plenty of peaches to give away to friends and neighbours, and the lorikeets. When the peach has finished there is a small crab apple, aptly named Gorgeous, on the verge, just waiting for me to harvest the bright red fruit to make crab apple jelly, which is delicious with pork or lamb or a tangy spread on toast. I’ve just started eating the pomegranates, you can feel the juice doing you good when you eat those succulent little sacks. Then the quinces will be ready. There’s a bit of a lull till the citrus ripen in winter. How good it is to go into the garden on a cold winter’s morning and pick an orange straight off the tree and eat it for breakfast. You can’t get it fresher than that! There is something to harvest in every season. Loquats are the first of the spring fruits, more stone than fruit I know, but the tangy sweetness is worth it. I have discovered that the flesh dries well, and makes a delicious snack.

Abundant clingstone peaches 16 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

The loquat is followed by the white fleshed nectarine, another tree that reliably produces buckets of fruit of magnificent flavour that you will never find in the shops. Spring rains close to harvest can spoil the fruit, so if you know heavy rain is expected it’s worth harvesting some fruit and storing it in the fridge. Covering branches is essential as nectarines make easy pickings for the birds.

“... growing fruit is wonderful, with little effort you can have fresh fruit all year round.”

Apricots and freestone peaches are also far superior when ripened on the tree. Let’s not forget the plums – so many varieties. The Satsuma blood plum is extremely versatile: you can eat it fresh, stewed, or make jam, fruit leather, plum sauce or fruit chutney. After most of the stone fruits comes another magic tree, the fig. How clever is this tree – its fruit ripens in waves – you can see on each branch fruit at different stages of ripening, this spreads the harvest over a period of months over summer and early autumn. Of course grapes can be left on the vine till they are sweet. They make a great cover for a pergola, the fruit which hangs down beneath the framework is out of the reach of the birds for some time. When you’re close to harvest you can disguise the bunches with brown paper lunch bags held on with pegs. I have discovered that fig and muscat grape makes a fantastic fruit leather combination. Pears and apples take us back to the end of autumn. I haven’t even touched on the sub-tropical varieties! So that’s why I think growing fruit is wonderful, with little effort you can have fresh fruit all year round. Even if you only have room for one tree, choose something you really like to eat and it will make you smile.

Jan and granddaughter Casey

Ian Tolley

Growing and Designing with Citrus Masterclass Heronswood, Sat 27th July 10.30am-1.30pm Join Ian Tolley, the acclaimed author and leading Australian expert on growing citrus trees for home gardeners, and learn from his 45 years of extraordinary experience as a nurseryman, both here and abroad. Ian will help you unlock the secrets of growing, pruning and encouraging fruit for your home citrus garden. As an added bonus Tim Sansom, our own Diggers expert, will share his thoughts and practical ideas on how to combine citrus trees into home garden design, creating a productive and elegant garden. Masterclass includes light lunch and one glass of wine, tea or coffee on arrival. Retail $75.00

Tim Sansom

Club $65.00

Code EHM11

If you can't make it to this masterclass, Ian is also running a citrus workshop at our Adelaide Garden Shop on July 21st – call the shop on 08 8232 8671 for details. Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 17

Formal gardens where every plant is edible Tim Sansom urges eating your hedges! There are a few basic elements that all good gardens possess; these include well defined spaces, summer shade, winter light and a comfortable connection between the house and the garden. Tim Sansom Diggers CEO Horticulture

The instant (and expensive) approach to achieve this is to use hard landscaping elements such as brick/rock walls, decks, paving, pavilions and other built structures to create the structure of a garden, but with a little planning you can use plants themselves to form these elements. Even and better still, you can use edible plants as these structural elements so that your garden can provide you with an enjoyable space to live in as well a bounty of produce.

Pineapple Guava hedge at Heronswood

Hedges Plants that are well-suited to hedging typically have fine leaves and respond well to regular tip pruning, growing close to the ground. Garden designers use hedges to provide permanent structure to a garden around which the seasonal changes of flowers and vegetables can come and go. Using evergreen plants such as citrus, Bay Tree (Laurus nobilis), Strawberry Guavas (Psidium guajava) and even macadamias, you can create a formal clipped hedge with a very geometric shape, or if you have a bit more room you might prefer the more natural style using plants such as the Lemon Myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) or the Mountain Pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata). Tall hedges can define garden ‘rooms’ whilst low hedges can give small gardens a focus and formality. The most common plant used for these small formal hedges is box which could be replaced the Chilean Guava, or ‘Tasi Berry’ (Ugni molinae) every time!

Most retail nurseries offer a very limited range of plants, the result of which is the all-too-familiar clipped green lawns, box hedge and standard iceberg roses. This is a garden tragedy when there are so many excellent edible plants out there. Here we’ll take a look at how you can broaden you plant knowledge just a little and create a beautiful and productive garden by using fruiting plants as the permanent ‘bones’ of your garden. Once you start looking you will find there is a wide variety of fruiting alternatives to the more common-place trees, shrubs and groundcovers. From a landscape design point of view, we can classify plants in terms of their form and how this is used in a landscape. These are not unfamiliar descriptions – hedges, climbers, groundcovers, shade trees etc. – but they are very useful groupings when it comes to planning what plants to use for different parts of your garden.

18 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Clipped Kumquats at Heronswood’s Fork to Fork

Specimen and Shade Trees In Australia an essential element for any garden is shade, and there is no better shade than that provided by a tree. There are so many graceful fruiting trees to choose from. Deciduous fruit trees such as apples, apricots, persimmons and especially pears, are shapely trees that allow in valuable winter sun, but will cop the full force of the summer sun providing you with a cool spot to hang a hammock. Lemons, oranges and grapefruits make excellent evergreen shade trees in small gardens as they don’t get too big and are easy to prune. Kumquats and Seville oranges can be clipped into formal specimens as feature trees. If you are looking for spring colour there are few that can match the exuberance of a cherry or an almond (Prunus spp.) in full blossom. If you are after deep and dark shade then figs will deliver this in a few years, if you are more patient then carobs and walnuts are unbeatable (remember, they may be slow growing, but if you never plant one they will never get there!).

Edible Plant Selector Groundcovers Strawberry Fragaria spp. Natal Plum Carrisa macrocarpa Pepino Solanum muricatum Hanging Rosemary Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Prostratus’ Midyim Berry Austomyrtus dulcis Thyme Thymus spp.

Low Hedges

Espaliered apples at St Erth

Espaliers and Living Fences Careful pruning and training of plants can result in some spectacular garden features. Deciduous fruit trees like apples, pears, quinces and stone fruit are relatively easy to train onto a vertical trellis or fence as espaliers and fans. The predictable growth habit of these trees allows you to develop symmetrical branch arrangements such as vertical and diagonal cordons, candelabra patterns and fans (members, check on the Diggers website for a fact sheet on training techniques). Olives, citrus and figs can be pruned regularly and tied into a wall or trellis to create a narrow screen than can turn a fence into a fruiting hedge.

Vines and Climbers

Hops in an arbor at St Erth

Climbers can be used to great effect to ‘clothe’ unsightly structures in a garden and for providing rapid shade when grown on an arbour or pergola, especially when a fast-growing grape or hop-vine are used. Stick a little pergola on the front of a tin shed and grow a grapevine (Vitus spp.) or a Kiwifruit (Actinidia spp.) on it and you have transformed an ugly utility shed into something productive and beautiful. Passionfruit (Passiflora spp.) is perhaps the best climber around for covering up a paling fence.

Groundcovers At ground level, plants that can spread out and cover an area as a living mulch are useful in supressing weeds and reducing maintenance. They also fill niches within the garden such as along the edges of paths and underneath fruit trees. Strawberries, Natal Plum (Carrisa macrocarpa), Pepino (Solanum muricatum), Saffron Crocus, Midyim Berry (Austromyrtus dulcis), Oregano, Thyme and Hanging Rosemary are some of the edible options that can be used to fill the gaps and complete your garden.

Chilean Guava Ugni molinae Lemon Myrtle Backhousia citriodora Lemon Verbena Aloysia triphylla Blueberry Vaccinium spp. Currant Ribes spp. Chinese Date Ziziphus jujuba Mountain Pepper Tasmannia lanceolata

Tall Hedges Pineapple Guava Acca sellowiana Strawberry Guava Psidium littorale var. longipes Olive Olea europaea Bay Tree Laurus nobilis Avocado Persea americana Macadamia Macadamia spp. Capulin Cherry Prunus salicifolia Lilly Pillies Syzygium spp. Pomegranate Punica granatum Citrus (Orange, grapefruit)

Vines & Climbers Kiwifruit & Kiwiberry Actinisia spp. Passionfruit Passiflora spp. Grape Vitus spp. Raspberry & Bramble Rubus spp.

Specimen & Shade Trees Cherry Prunus avium Apple Malus x domestica Pear Pyrus spp. Cornelian Cherry Cornus mas Quince Cydonia oblonga Carob Ceratonia siliqua Citrus Persimmon Diospyros kaki

Whether you are planning an entire new garden landscape or just tinkering with some changes in your existing garden, I would urge you to consider incorporating food plants into your design.

Natal Plum at Heronswood

From formal hedging to sprawling groundcovers there is an edible alternative for every garden situation.

Legend Evergreen Deciduous Grow in full sun Grow in part shade Drought tolerant Seasonal watering Perpetually moist Can be espaliered

Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 19

Hard-to-find herbs for the cook who gardens Tim Sansom introduces some delectable herbs from antiquity Often the problem with exotic ingredients you read about in fancy cookbooks and on the web is that they are nearly impossible (or at least very expensive) to find. Here we take a look at three ancient herbs that are easy to grow in your garden so you can save yourself some cash and impress at your next diner party. Tim Sansom Diggers CEO Horticulture

Rock Samphire If you jumped into Dr Who’s Tardis and dialed up Mediterranean Europe or a coastal village in the British Isles in the Middle Ages, you might not find much of the food available very appealing, but you would come across some interesting and largely forgotten herbs that are being re-discovered by today’s adventurous chefs. One such ingredient is the wild seaside herb Crithmum maritimum. Known variously as Rock Samphire, Sea Fennel, Peter’s Cress and Sampier, this herb was a popular condiment in medieval cuisine. The flavour of Rock Samphire is a mellow aniseed with a hint of the seaside, a bit like a gentle sea breeze. Used as a fresh garnish it adds a delicate warmth to salads and fish dishes as demonstrated by the molecular gastronomist Heston Blumenthal.

Our Chef Skeet’s Citrus, Fennel and Rock Samphire Salad 1 fennel bulb 1 ruby grapefruit 1 orange 50g hazelnuts 15-20 sprigs of rock samphire (be sure to use fleshy tips, not old, woody growth) 1. Finely shave the fennel into strips.

Heston uses Rock Samphire as a garnish to his famous dish “The Sound of the Sea” (served with iPod headphones playing the sounds of waves and seabirds!).

2. Slice the orange and grapefruit into segments. Squeeze a little of their juice out into a bowl for the dressing.

Our Head Chef at Heronswood’s Fork to Fork, Luke ‘Skeet’ Palmer has been experimenting with Rock Samphire over the last few years. Skeet uses raw Rock Samphire as one of his ‘green herbs’ in garnishes and dressings with citrus, fish, pinenuts and tomatoes, as well as cooking it with butter as a base for sauces that balance the strong flavours of game meats such as quail.

3. Roast the hazelnuts for 5 minutes, then rub between a tea towel to remove the skin. Roughly crush.

Growing Your Own The plant grows as a small bushy perennial with fleshy stems and leaves that have a bluish hue. It grows wild in coastal areas of Europe, preferring full sun and well-drained rocky ground. We’ve been growing it in containers and in the ground at Heronswood where it thrives like a succulent in the summer sun with little additional water. It is also tolerant of extremes of cold giving it a very wide climatic range for Australian gardeners from Hobart to Brisbane and Perth. 20 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

4. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, add the juice from the citrus. Serve immediately. Serves two.

Licorice We’ve all tasted Licorice haven’t we? Actually, the truth is that many of you who answered ‘yes’ to this question may not have. Most of the Licorice sold as strap confectionery is a concoction of molasses and aniseed and contains little, if any, of the herb Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra). The true herb, in the simple dried root form, is 50 times sweeter than sugar and can be detected as one drop in 15,000 drops of pure water. It has been used as a sweet flavouring since the time of the Egyptian Pharaohs and the Chinese use a close relative (G. uralensis) in many herbal remedies to make bitter herbs more palatable. The sweet story gets better though as it is also calorie free, making it the perfect sweetener for diabetics and weight watchers. Ornamental and edible — Variegated Horseradish

Horseradish Originating from Russia and the Ukraine, Horseradish (Amoracia rusticana) spread throughout Europe with the Romans who valued it as‑ an invigorating and cleansing herb, used as an expectorant to clear congestion and provide relief to hay fever. As any gardener who has grown this pungent herb will testify, once it is planted it is very difficult to remove, so whilst the Romans distributed it, it’s largely due to its tenacious deep roots that Horseradish persisted in the diet of Europeans (and all the civilisations of the new world that sprang from European exploration). In the late 1500s the Danes and Germans used it as the basis of a fish sauce that the Brits adapted around 1640 as the classic roast beef condiment that is perhaps our most familiar use of the herb where the heat of Horseradish aides the digestion of rich and fatty meats. It is this heat component that contemporary chefs make use of to give dishes an extra punch. At Heronswood, Skeet uses the roots with potato, fish, beef, beetroot, apples, poached pears and folded into mascarpone. The heat is held in the root as a volatile oil that evaporates quickly, so it usually added raw to dressings and sauces in a finely grated form.

The trick to incorporating this super-sweet herb into dishes is to create an infusion. The sweet flavour dissolves into boiling water easily and can then be concentrated or diluted depending on its final purpose. Added to sauces or poaching juices it can be used in dessert dishes that include chocolate, nuts, figs and honey. Our chef Skeet has experimented with using such an infusion added to clotted cream which is then served with poached or honeyed pears. For savoury dishes it is a perfect balance for the high fat content meats such as roast duck and pork, as a sweet component in a classic ‘sweet and sour’ dish.

Growing Your Own Licorice grows as a perennial best suited to loose alluvial soils. Heavy clay soils cause the roots to form poorly and tend to make harvesting difficult (as anyone who has dug in clay will attest!). The plants take a year or two to establish, but once they have their roots into the ground they can quickly spread as the roots travel horizontally through the soil. Plant in a large pot to keep completely contained, or in an orchard or informal herb garden where it can be allowed to spread a little. The main harvest is in late autumn after the leaves fall, but it can be harvested anytime if the clump is well-established. Keep some plantlets for replanting for subsequent crops.

Growing Your Own As indicated earlier, Horseradish is a survivor in the garden so be careful where you plant it. In ideal conditions, a cool-climate with well-manured, friable and well-watered soil, it can produce lateral roots up to 2.4m long. These roots can give rise to new plants along this length and so the clump spreads. That said, in less than ideal conditions (anywhere outside Tasmania and the Victorian alps) it is unlikely to spread and can be a useful garden companion. Some gardeners prefer to plant in a large pot to make management easier. Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 21

The part plants played in creating us! Clive Blazey explains how plants created oxygen and food to support the growth of animals and finally humans In David Attenborough’s epic TV program First Life, he explains the “big bang of evolution” and its causes from the time of the first life 3.8–3.5 billion years ago.

Clive Blazey Diggers Founder & Executive Chairman

It is fascinating to know that all life (plants, animals, insects and bacteria) evolved from a common ancestor deep in the ocean. He defines four characteristics of living things - they must eat, reproduce, evolve (respond to external threats) and have an organised body structure. For animals to evolve, the atmosphere had to have sufficient oxygen (21%) to breathe to create energy. Plants by converting carbon from the atmosphere via photosynthesis produced that oxygen as a by-product. But plants also had to create soil for their own movement out of water by burying carbon (called organic compounds by chemists) from their decomposing tissues so they could spread across the land from wet and dry climates to hot and cold. This caused the greening up of what was until then a blue planet. It’s only through the success of the plant life on our planet that the animals that walk the planet can be supported.

In the beginning 4.5 billion years ago, there were no plants, animals, insects or birds – in short, there were no living things. The beginnings of plant evolution commenced 3 billion years ago. The sky was acrid from volcanic eruptions and the waters were warm. There were no green plants. Single celled bacteria absorbed infrared light via photosynthesis to make organic food. 2.7 billion years ago cyanobacteria evolved. Instead of emitting sulphurous gases, they transformed CO2 and produced oxygen. Oxygen began to accumulate in the atmosphere, replacing hydrogen.

22 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Photosynthesis processes were needed to evolve to harvest sunlight and create biomass. Single celled bacteria in the oceans first converted carbon dioxide (CO2) into organic carbon compounds and cyanobacteria evolved. It took another billion years for oxygen levels to reach half of today’s level (approximately 10% of the atmosphere). Primitive algae evolved to more closely resemble photosynthetic cells that led to the complex plant forms we know today. 500 million years ago, these algae rose to the surface and attached themselves to rocks resembling liverworts. They pulled great amounts of CO2 out of the atmosphere and released the byproduct oxygen, which today remains at 21% of the atmosphere. As cells mutated and moved further away from the wet marine environment they evolved to resist desiccation. Unable to carry water and nutrients from the roots, these mosses and liverworts remain close to the water even today.

To survive on land Plants needed to be strong enough to resist gravity, flexible enough to withstand monsoons and tough enough to survive -60°C arctic cold and 50°C desert summers. With the development of anchoring roots and the chemical weathering of rocks, biomass was able to create the soils we needed for self sustaining growth. The breakthrough came when roots evolved, enabling plants to become tall and reproduce competitively free of the buoyancy of water as today’s vascular plants.

Creating soil Lignin-enforced stems enabled the creation of thickened woody body parts. As a consequence of producing deep strong roots, substrate roots fractured into nutrient rich soil.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Laidlaw

Plants decomposed and mixed with the minerals of rocks produced deeper soils which facilitated the further extension of green life. To be able to move water up throughout the plant required production of cellulose from the sugars provided via photosynthesis. 300 million years ago cycads, gingkos, ferns, conifers and flowering plants (in this order) were the original forms that progressed into the plants we know today. Aquatic fish followed the path of plants out of the water. Animals then followed plants out of the water as oxygen levels could support life. An explosion of plant diversity awaited the creation of seed plants carrying male and female DNA. Containing starting-off food, seed capsules had enough food reservoirs to withstand the rigours of unfavourable seed beds and be ready to germinate when conditions became suitable.

Reproduction via seed production Natural selection favoured plants that survived bright summer environments, particularly the evolution of reproductive processes previously dependant on pollination via water transfer. Wind was the second stage in pollination which could occur over long distances as today’s conifers do. The first true seed bearing plants were called Gymnosperms, meaning ‘naked seeded’ and including conifers, cycads and gingkos, because the seed was not yet enclosed in the ovary. It was the development of flowering plants, the Angiosperms, that saw the explosion of diversity with which we are familiar today.

Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum) - male and female plants open on separate nights to prevent cross pollination

“What sexual reproduction does is allow species to change by shuffling the genetic deck. Sex is our investment strategy. Clones are bad for long term survival because if climate changes or disease strikes the organism is vulnerable because it has no genetic diversity and all members of the population will simultaneously die.” David Attenborough

The emergence of flowering plants It was the co-evolution 140 million years ago with insects and animals that created mutually beneficial relationships in that the animal gains the nectar and the plant is pollinated to spread its DNA. Seed bearing plants containing an embryo could be transported, stored, frozen and desiccated, only ready for germination when conditions were ideal. This enabled them to spread beyond the wet humid areas ferns and liverworts preferred into cold, hot, dry or wet climates – in short, to every part of the planet. Today flowering plants outnumber ferns and conifers 20 to 1.

Sticky resinous cistus leaves are volatile and can burst into flames over 32ºC. By this method the plant dies by creating hard coated seeds, in a perfect seed bed in which to germinate. Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 23

Which are the best roses for your garden? Clive Blazey says swooning over roses is a bad gardening idea For the last 2000 years the plant that nearly every person in every country in the world has preferred above all others is the rose. So distracted and helplessly in love are some rose fanatics that they are completely blinded by its numerous faults. A classic Hybrid Tea rose flower – perfect in a vase, not for the garden!

Getting to know the experts

It goes without saying that the rose in bud, like a freshly opened tulip, is perfection, particularly when set in a vase in pride of place inside. Few other flowers have the fragrance that causes women to swoon as if hopelessly in love. But these two epic attractions are rarely useful when creating beautiful pictures outside the house. For four months in winter the stems, bereft of leaves and covered in spines, are ugly and unfriendly. In spring the modern Floribundas and Hybrid Teas leave unfilled, spindly stems that need cover with companions and the leaves are flat, dull and create a monotonous, visually boring picture mostly disturbed (in many gardens) by ghastly colour clashes when the masses of blooms burst.

The Kordes family — This German family began breeding roses in 1887 and are world renowned for breeding hardy, healthy, disease resistant roses from native species overlooked by other firms. With more introductions than any other firm, they are best known for breeding Iceberg roses (“Schneewittchen” in German). Like most other rose breeders, it is owned and managed as a closely knit family company.

Climbing Iceberg

A fine Kordes show garden is located at Sparrieshoop near Hamburg, Germany.

Werner Noack — Like the Kordes family, the German breeders of flower carpet reached pre-eminence by single mindedly concentrating on roses that were free flowering and colourful with disease free foliage. Carpet roses

The phenomenal success of the Carpet Series is a testament to its marketing of mass plantings in utility areas and roadside verges.

24 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

So the purpose of this article is to help you use roses to enhance your garden pictures as well as producing blooms for bringing indoors.

Old roses bred to create Hybrid Teas The emergence of the modern rose began around 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars when French nurserymen began mass breeding the repeat flowering characteristics of Chinese Tea roses with the globular blooms of R. centifolia roses and the fragrance of Damasks. It then required that winter hardening needed to be incorporated from European R. albas and R. portlands to counteract the tenderness of climbing roses. Nearly all rose breeding was done by about 15-20 passionate rose growers and their families (rather than corporates) and the secrets they learned were passed down from generation to generation in Ireland, England, France, Spain, Germany and America.

David Austin — The extraordinary success of David Austin roses in Australia owes much to their ability to grow taller and more vigorously in Australia’s hotter climate than in England.

Mary Rose

Setting out to combine the shapes and scents of old fashioned roses with the perpetual flowering of Hybrid Tea, it wasn’t until the Chaucer Series that he succeeded with repeat flowering (The Prioress and Wife of Bath). Mary Rose – ruffled, bright to pale pink – is the first to flower with Winchester Cathedral being an identical white form. It is a beautiful cut flower as well. Graham Thomas aptly celebrates the contribution this rosarian made to popularising old roses. Its rich, bright fading golden yellow cupped blooms are scented. By combining the romance of bud form, fragrance of Damask roses and floral display David Austin has created a charm often lacking in Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses.

“David Austin roses grow taller and more vigorously in Australia’s hotter climate ...” Roses breeding breakthroughs Yellow roses — The French family Pernet–Ducher was responsible for transferring the unfading yellow of Rosa foetida to modern roses, particularly Hybrid Teas. The rambling rose — The vigour of rambling roses (R. multiflora and R. wichurana) that could grow six metres or more was combined to create arches, with scramblers covering sheds and walls far more beautifully than existing climbers. Some produced small flowered shrubs.

Roses for gardens: Albertine, extravagant, all-at-once flowering

Pillar roses — As more Hybrid Tea roses were bred, climbing and scrambling roses were crossed with the world’s favourite bush roses and mutated to become perfect for ascending pillars like climbing Iceberg.

Since the 1950s Floribunda roses for landscaping — The tiny blossoms of the ramblers were crossed with Hybrid Tea roses to create an entirely new form of display that better covered the prickly stems and with shorter stems and masses of flowers that created eye-catching displays. The landscapers rose for parks and gardens was born and reached its pinnacle in Kordes’ Schneewittchen (Iceberg), the world’s most popular mass planted rose, flowering most months of the year. It’s not fragrant or any good for cutting because of its short stems but Iceberg’s continuous blooms make it a brilliant rose out of doors whilst Hybrid Teas excel inside.

Roses for gardens: Climbers enclose a rose arch beautifully

Shrub roses – old roses revisited — With most of the rose breeding concentrating on commercial rather than garden roses (the cut flower Hybrid Tea cultivars or Floribundas), David Austin began the process of improving the performance of roses for garden display. By combining the health, vigour and repeat flowering of modern roses with the fragrance of Damasks and complex open buds, a reinvigorated, beautiful shrub evolved in every colour with the unexpected benefit of suiting Australia’s hot summers better than in England where they were created. Amenity roses — The final space not covered that roses were to occupy were amenity plantings on roadside verges. The carpet series of groundcovers were born in the 1990s. Combining healthy, short stem, repeat flowering blooms that need only winter pruning.

Always open — Werribee Park near Melbourne Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 25

Nearly all roses have flat, boring foliage but Rosa sericea pteracantha shows how appealing stems and foliage can be, particularly those with rose hips

Floribunda rose with lots of flowers and leaves – Iceberg rose

Commercial Hybrid Tea roses with long stems for the cut flower trade

Hybrid Tea roses – poor plant structure

Getting to know the experts

David Ruston— Australia’s foremost rose expert who maintains the largest collection of roses (35,000) in the southern hemisphere. Situated in Renmark, SA, one of Australia’s hottest towns but with access to almost unlimited water, David’s roses in this dry climate are largely disease free and more suited to mild winters and 40OC summers than northern hemisphere cultivars. Not content with being a collector, David is the largest supplier of bud wood for production nurseries and a major grower of roses for the cut flower trade.

David Ruston

Ruston Rose Garden is home to the 11 hectare National Rose Collection and is open to the public, with six rose flushes beginning in September – but best from October until April – and 4,000 cultivars of modern and traditional roses to view. Other outstanding Australian rose gardens to visit include ... 1. State Rose Garden, Werribee Park, Victoria (40 minutes south of Melbourne’s CBD). 2. Adelaide Botanic Garden.

26 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Alister Clark — Australia’s most successful rose breeder! An amateur who introduced 130 new varieties better suited to the Australian hot dry summers from ‘Glenara’ near Melbourne until his death in 1949.

Lorraine Lee

Best known are Lorraine Lee (winter flowering bush and climber), Black Boy (climber), Nancy Hayward (shrub and climber) and Squatter’s Dream (climber). Educated at Cambridge and married to a wealthy New Zealander, he was able to indulge his passions for breeding daffodils (Mabel Taylor) and roses. Nearly all of his roses carry the names of women he knew, being landed gentry or the wives of Governor Generals, as well as the names of his own racehorses.

Catmint is the perfect companion for roses

Clematis interweaves through rose stems, enhancing the garden display

The most important European Rose Gardens to visit france ... • Parc de Bagatelle, Paris 24 hectares, 2,500 cultivars. • l’Hay les Roses, Paris Biggest and best collection in France.

germany ... • Island of Mainau, Lake Constance Europe’s most popular garden displaying roses (1.200 cultivars) bedding, tulips and dahlias. • Westfalenpark, Dortmund 38 themed roses gardens from Romantic to Medieval and regarded by some as the most beautiful and informative. 70 hectares of roses, shrubs and perennials.

italy ... • Carla Fineschi, Casalone, near Cavriglia, Tuscany Open daily May-June (with peak at the end of May), it was created by the passion of Professor Fineschi and is the largest amateur collection of roses – more than 6500 varieties, each represented by a single plant.

uk ... • Mottisfont Abbey, Hampshire Owned by the National Trust and created by Graham Stuart Thomas, it houses a National Collection of shrub roses. • Royal National Rose Society Gardens, St Albans It excels in displaying perennial companion plantings with roses. Further reading: Charles & Brigid Quest-Ritson, RHS Encyclopedia of Roses

The Royal National Rose Garden at St Albans in England

From the hundreds of rose books published, this is ‘the book’ for Australian gardeners. There are nearly 2000 roses detailed/ listed, including Australian cultivars and information on Australian rose experts. Read about the concise history of the rose and modern developments in breeding. With outstanding photography, excellent cultivation notes and advice on pruning from world experts, this is the RHS at their very best! Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 27

Over 140,000 copies sold, in continuous print since 1999.

Share the joy of gardening Join the Diggers Club today We are Australia’s largest garden club, helping gardeners from Hobart to Cairns. Your membership supports the Diggers Garden & Environment Trust that is helping to preserve heirloom seeds, plants and our best garden traditions.

We dig a bit deeper

We help you succeed in the garden with advice from our new Plant Finder plus dozens of handy fact sheets, articles and videos on our website. Our magazines cover issues important to gardeners including GM, seed ownership, organics and climate change.

Grow your own edible garden! In The Australian Vegetable Garden, completely revised and updated, you’ll learn the secrets to growing your own fabulous, fresh produce using the gardener’s inheritance — heirloom vegetables. In this classic Australian gardening book, Clive Blazey has collected practical information and expert advice on cultivation and growing tips so that you can get started growing your own totally edible garden from heirloom varieties. Covering all aspects of vegetable growing and accompanied by colour photographs, charts and a climatic map of growing seasons throughout Australia, this book will be your only guide to growing your own heirloom vegetables from seed. Retail $34.95 Club $29.95 Code AAUVH

Heirlooms and organics

Qualified staff select, trial and grow our plants and seeds in Australia’s first certified publicly open organic gardens. Diggers are the leaders in heirlooms, which gives you access to the best range of organic and heirloom seeds.

Benefits for members

Every year our members receive five magazines and our bumper 72 page Garden Seed Annual. Choose four free packets of seed each spring and autumn and get free entry to our gardens and festivals, where all our plants and seeds come to life! Don’t forget to make full use of your membership with discounts on all products and seasonal exclusives.

One stop shop

If you can’t come to us, we will come to you! Shop online for our full range of seeds, drought tolerant perennials, trees, shrubs, bulbs, tools and garden equipment, all in one place. Orders are carefully packed and shipped by Australia Post. Be sure to visit one of our Diggers Garden Shops where you can talk to our expert staff.

Dig deeper at

Live Plants

Our website has a huge range of products not always featured in our catalogues. Join in the gardening conversation with other members on our forum. Improve your gardening skills with articles, fact sheets and online video tutorials. You will also find details of upcoming events and workshops.

28 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Tools & Books

Seeds

Plant Finder

Order form

MEMBERS FREE OF F E R !

The Diggers Club PO Box 300, Dromana, VIC, 3936 Phone: 03 5984 7900 Fax: 03 5987 2398

1 potted plant

5 bare root plants

5 acorns

HOW TO ORDER 1 Enter the product details including code, name, quantity and amount. 2 Calculate the postage and handling (P&H) – it could be A, B or both. Add all subtotals plus any extra fees. 3 Fill in your address and payment details and pop it in the post – if paying by cheque, don’t forget to include it!

OR EASY ORDER ONLINE For all this catalogue’s products and more, shop securely at our website anytime and beat the mail order rush!

Rose Eyes For You

Strawberry Everberry™

Oak Tree

Choose two of these beautiful and exclusive garden treasures when you spend over $99! Members only, tick two items above and we’ll send you one of each.

Hurry, order now! Offer only available while stocks last. Code

Product name

BOOKS

members save $5 per title on RRP

Qty $ Amount

Product Subtotal

The Australian Fruit & Vegetable Garden $34.95 The Australian Vegetable Garden $29.95 Encyclopedia of... Perennials Roses (see page 30) Books Subtotal

Code

Product name

Qty $ Amount

CLUB MEMBERSHIPS

$49.95

P&H A CODES: P & W = PLANTS

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$49.00 1 year New Renewal Gift $69.00 2 year New Renewal Gift $159.00 5 year New Renewal Gift add $5.00 P&H for gift memberships only Membership Subtotal

1-10 plant pots OR $8.95 P&H B CODES: S = SEEDS H = HARDWARE B = BULBS T = TUBERS 11-20 plant pots OR $16.95 Seeds, hardware, books OR $6.50 $25.00 $8.50 21+ plant pots Seeds, hardware, books, bulbs, potatoes Postage & Handling A Subtotal Postage & Handling B Subtotal Strawberry postage & handling fee (separate despatch from June) add $5.00 Quarantine fee for bulb and plants orders to TAS, WA, NT and QLD add $4.00 Add ALL subtotals (plus strawberry P&H and quarantine fees if applicable) for ORDER TOTAL

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Prices in 2013 Winter Garden supersede all previous catalogues

Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 29

Winter reading ... ... for the vegie garden The Australian Vegetable Garden In this classic Australian gardening book, completely revised and updated,

you’ll learn the secrets to growing your own fabulous, fresh produce using the gardener’s inheritance — heirloom vegetables. Covering all aspects of

vegetable growing and accompanied by colour photographs, charts and a climatic map of growing seasons throughout Australia, this book will be your only guide to growing heirlooms from seed. The dust jacket reveals

a handy Sow What When poster. 156 pages, hardcover. Retail $34.95 Club $29.95 Code AAUVH

Diggers Plant Finder Your online plant selector At Diggers we make it simple for you to achieve gardening success. Our new Plant Finder is the perfect tool for building a list of ornamental and edible plants that are suited to your garden, whatever your location. You can search for plants and seeds by criteria such as type, colour, water needs, height and more. You can even look for plants that only grow in your exact Heat and Cold Zones! So if you want to know which fruit trees you can harvest in January, which perennials have blue flowers or which small tree is suited to your garden, the Plant Finder has the answer.

All About Tomatoes With detailed portraits of heirloom tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants and other edible solanums, this book takes you beyond the backyard and into hydroponic systems, how tomatoes develop their colours, compares GE, hybrid and open pollinated heirlooms and more. The dust jacket becomes a mini Sow What When poster. 80 pages, hardcover. Retail $24.95 Club $19.95 Code AABT

... for the flower garden Encyclopedia of Perennials Exclusive to Diggers, the ‘must have’ and all-time best perennial book for Australian gardeners, with 5,000 perennial entries and the same Heat and Cold Zones that we use throughout the Diggers magazines, coded for every plant we list. Covering Iris, Hemerocallis, 90 cultivars of Dianthus, Romneya, Salvia, Coneflower, Foxglove, grasses, Agapanthus, Canna, Musa and Ginger, this book is essential for the plant collector, the enthusiastic amateur flower gardener and the nurseryman. 496 pages, hardcover. Retail $60.00 Club $45.95 Code HEOP

Encyclopedia of Roses This RHS edition has a magnificent A-Z catalogue that includes nearly 2000 of the world’s best rose species and cultivars, all lavishly illustrated with sumptuous photographs. Special features showcase famous and well-loved roses and influential rose breeders. Informative step-by-step photographs and techniques guide gardeners through all aspects of cultivation. 448 pages, hardcover. Retail $59.95 Club $58.95 Code HEOR 30 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

To use the Plant Finder: 1. Visit the Shop page at diggers.com.au – the Plant Finder is located on the right hand side of your screen. 2. Login if you wish to enter your postcode – this will ensure search results that match your own Heat and Cold Zones. 3. Select your criteria – click the arrow at the right of each criteria box to make your selections. The criteria make it easy with choices including growing position, water requirements, fruiting and flowering times, sowing times for seeds, colour and height. 4. Click the ‘Search’ button – a list is generated of all the Diggers plants and seeds that match your criteria.

“Checked it out. Very neat.” “Excellent extension of your service - so glad you have remembered the tropics!”

Gourmet tubers These treasures from the underworld provide the home gardener with nutritious crops and best of all they do most of the work themselves.

Yacon

Polymnia sonchifolia — Also known as Apple of the Earth, this crunchy root vegetable is low in kilojoules making it ideal for diabetics. Harvest the tubers once the leaves have died down. Leave them to dry to increase their sweetness before peeling them to eat raw, steamed or tossed through a stir fry. Not for WA. HZ 1-7 CZ 9a-11 ST

Apr-Sep

Retail $10.95

Club $8.50

Code WYAC

Jerusalem Artichoke

Helianthus tuberosus — The affordable truffle is so prolific it needs containing! A perennial tuberous sunflower, with tall elegant yellow flower heads that die down to form delicious earthy tubers in late autumn to winter. An extremely productive crop, one plant yields some 12 tubers, so be sure to give your plants plenty of room. HZ 1-7 CZ 8-10 3 tubers, bulb postage applies, see order form p.29. May-Jun

Retail $12.95

30cm

Club $9.95

Code BJEA

Yacon

Variegated Horseradish

Armoracia rusticana ‘Variegata’ — Grow in a container or in a spot in the garden where it can naturalise. The variegation takes a couple of years to show after planting, but is spectacular when it does. Use leaves in salads, grate the root for fish dishes or blend with vinegar and use as a condiment. HZ 1-7 CZ 7-10 TT

Mar-Apr

50cm

1.2m

Retail $6.95

Club $5.95

Code PVAH

Oca – New Zealand Yam

Oxalis tuberosa — Grows best in climates with mild summers. Harvest knobbly pink tubers in autumn and cook them like potatoes or eat raw after ‘sweetening’ in the sun for a few days. HZ 1-4 CZ 7-10 5 tubers, bulb postage applies, posted from late June, see order form. May-Jul

Jerusalem Artichoke

40cm

Retail $12.95

80cm

Club $9.95

Code BOCA

Onions and shallots Allium cepa — A sweeter flavour than standard onions. They are simple to grow – just plant the bulbs in well prepared soil and harvest in summer when they shoots die down. The green tops can be trimmed throughout the year and used as a garnish. These onions multiply freely producing 6-12 bulbs. Not for WA/SA/TAS. HZ 1-6 CZ 9b-11 Dec-Jan

Red Shallots

30cm

10cm

Oca – New Zealand Yam

Shallots (10 bulbs)

Potato Onions (6 bulbs)

Harvest green shoots at anytime and the bulbs The onions multiply underground, hence their when the shoots start to wither. name. Use in the same way. Store well. Red — A more subtle, sweet flavour than the Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code BPOO golden shallots. Purple flesh.

Tree Onions (4 bulbs)

Retail $9.95

Club $7.95

Code BSARE

Exclusive. Delicious small onions form on the top of Golden — A lovely golden true shallot also known the flower stem as well as underground (not pictured). as French Shallots. Strong flavour. Retail $12.95

Potato Onions

Club $9.95

Code BTRO

Retail $9.95

Club $7.95

Code BSHGO

Golden Shallots Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 31

Heirloom & gourmet potatoes

Potatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to grow at home. They will taste far superior to chemically drenched, stale, shop varieties. Supermarkets sell big white potatoes from the US, but chefs prefer the creamy European heirlooms for flavour. Amaze your family and friends with the range of shapes, sizes and colours. We only sell certified seed potatoes that are screened to be disease free, unlike shop-bought potatoes. 8 tubers per bag, each tuber yielding approx. 10 potatoes. Not for QLD/TAS/WA/NT. Packed under license from VICSPA Inc. Dec-Mar

40cm

HZ 1-7 CZ 8-10

Posted from June, available in Diggers Garden Shops from July

King Edward

Dutch Cream

40cm

Delicious potato with exceptionally creamy flesh that is perfect plain boiled or baked. One of the best for roasting. Retail $9.95

Club $7.95

Code TDUC

King Edward This 1902 heirloom potato has stood the test of time. Creamy flesh and skin dappled pink. Great for boiling, chips and mash. Unbeaten for roasts. Retail $9.95

Club $7.95

Code TKIE Pentland Dell

Bintje Bintje

All purpose potato with waxy, creamy yellow flesh. Extremely high yielding and late maturing variety to extend your harvest. Good storage qualities, so it will keep in a dark cupboard longer than others. Retail $9.95

Club $7.95

Code TBIN

Pentland Dell A traditional English potato bred by the Pentlandfield Breeding Station in the 1960s. Highly regarded for its creamy, fluffy texture. It makes the perfect mash or roasted potato. Matures early to mid-season, producing large oval shaped tubers that are white skinned with a creamy white flesh. Good natural resistance to most pests, most notably slugs. Ida Rose

Retail $11.95

Club $9.95

Code TPED

Ida Rose A new release by Diggers, originating from the Idaho experiment station in the USA. A great tasting all rounder, particularly good boiled and mashed, with bright attractive red skin and white firm flesh. An excellent easy to grow home garden variety with high yields and long lasting storage. Retail $11.95 Club $9.95 Code TIDR

Kipfler A vigorous potato with delicious creamy yellow flesh. An all time favourite for many years, Kipfler is unbeaten baked, as ‘new’ potatoes and in salads. Retail $9.95

Club $7.95

Code TKIP

Low Carb Carrera

Kipfler 32 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Love potatoes but watching your weight? Most dry matter (approx 82%) is carbohydrate, so the lower the dry matter the lower the carbs. Carrera has white skin and cream flesh, ideal for salads and mashing. It matures early and stores well. Moderate GI rating when boiled. Retail $11.95 Club $9.95 Code TLOC

Low Carb Carrera

Tatey Bags No room left in the garden? Don’t despair! With Diggers Tatey Bags you can still enjoy home-grown spuds. Choose from either the rich, sweet flesh of Nicola or the creamy gourmet Kipfler – both are so easy to grow! Plant the potatoes in these sturdy, UV-stable grow bags, using a free draining compost or potting mix with some straw mixed in. Each collection includes 8 tubers, 2 growing bags and a planting guide. Not for WA/QLD/TAS/NT. ~ With NICOLA ~ Retail $23.95 Club $15.95 Code TBAG ~ With KIPFLER ~ Retail $23.95 Club $15.95 Code TBAG2

Potato growing guide Potatoes are best planted in early spring so that the emerging growth appears above ground after the last frost.

Diggers Club Combo

Plant potato tubers roughly 30cm apart and 10cm deep. As they begin to grow, mound up the soil around the stem.

~ 48 tubers ~

For a real bumper crop of home grown spuds try our handpicked collection of gourmet potatoes. Includes one bag each of all rounders Nicola and King Edward, Kipfler for salads, old favourite Pink Eye for mash and Royal Blue and Mozart for great baked potatoes. Separately labelled. Not for WA/ QLD/TAS/NT. Substitutes may occur.

Once the plants flower and/or the tops begin to brown off, ‘new’ potatoes can be found if you dig carefully under the plants. Harvest the main crop in about 120 days when all of the foliage has died down.

Members save over 30% Retail $59.70 Club $39.95 Code TCOSC

Royal Blue

Royal Blue skin fades to golden brown when made into chips. Creamy yellow flesh ensures delicious mash. Wonderful roasted! Retail $9.95

Club $7.95

Code TROB

Nicola

Royal Blue

Everything that you could ask for in a potato! Buttery and rich with a hint of sweetness. Boil ‘new’ potatoes as a pre-harvest treat. Ideal for mashing, baking, salads and gnocchi. Moderate GI rating when boiled. Retail $9.95

Club $7.95

Code TNIC

Spunta The potato with a cult following! Our members and staff sing the praises of Spunta. Its huge oblong shape makes it the best spud for chips – but we like it any which way. Spunta

Retail $11.95

Club $9.95

Nicola

Code TSPU

Mozart

Antioxidant Combo ~ 24 tubers ~

Golden yellow flesh, that needs no additional buttering, makes one of the best baked potatoes Diggers has on offer. Flavoursome firm red skin makes it a good keeper with good disease resistance, especially to scab. Retail $11.95

Club $9.95

Code TMOZ

Pink Eye A beautiful cream and purple potato that was recorded in Tasmania in 1944. The waxy yellow flesh is ideal mashed or boiled as ‘new’ potatoes. Retail $9.95 The health benefits of pigmented potatoes are only just beginning to be revealed. Recent studies have shown that consuming pigmented potatoes can reduce inflammation and DNA damage as well helping improve healthy cell function. So give your body a healthy potato boost with our selection of purple Sapphire, red Cranberry and golden yellow Nicola. 3 individual packs, substitutes may apply. Not for WA/QLD/NT/TAS. Retail $29.85 Club $21.95 Code TCOAN

Club $7.95

Code TPIE

Mozart

Legend

Pink Eye

Roast

Salads

Boil/Mash

All-rounder!

Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 33

HOT CLIMATE

WARM CLIMATE

COOL CLIMATE

Heirloom seeds to sow now

Spinach Bloomsdale Retail $3.95 Club $2.95 S211

Snow Pea Climbing Retail $3.95 Club $2.95 S168

Lettuce Amish Deer Tongue Retail $3.95 Club $2.95 S134

Mini Wongbok Cabbage Retail $4.95 Club $3.95 S060

Broad Bean Crimson Flowered Retail $4.95 Club $3.95 S008

Spring Onion Red Retail $3.95 Club $2.95 S158

Pea Greenfeast Retail $3.95 Club $2.95 S165

Black Cumin Retail $3.95 Club $2.95 S329

Broccoli Kailaan Retail $3.95 Club $2.95 S2972

Kale Red Russian Retail $3.95 Club $2.95 S122

Tansy Retail $3.95 Club $2.95 S357

Bean Purple King Retail $3.95 Club $2.95 S021

Dill Bouquet Retail $3.95 Club $2.95 S312

Sweet Corn Honey & Cream Retail $4.95 Club $3.95 S114

Mizuna Red & Lime Streaks Retail $3.95 Club $3.45 S143

34 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

“I'm growing my own trees from seed” All of these permaculture plants are easy to grow from seed and all have a valuable place in the garden as windbreaks, fodder for farm animals, superfoods and even cosmetics, Try something different!

Tagasaste (Tree Lucerne)

Chamaecytisus palmensis — Tagasaste has been grown by Australian farmers since the late 1800s. A fast growing, drought tolerant, evergreen tree, providing valuable fodder when pastures are dry. Makes a very attractive shade tree or grow as a hedge to provide windbreaks. Fragrant white flowers are a magnet for bees in spring and the roots provide valuable nitrogen to depleted soils. 40 seeds (bulk 1000 seeds). Not for WA/NT. Sep-Nov Mar-Sep May-Jul

Retail $3.95

Club $2.95

Code S420

Bulk: Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code SB420

Tagasaste (Tree Lucerne)

Goji Berry

Lycium chinense — The Tibetans, Koreans and Japanese have long known of the virtues of the Goji. Now in the west you can buy the dried berries and the juice at your local health food store or you can grow your own and save a packet. This tough, weeping shrub produces striking red berries with the epic antioxidants that are so prized by the health food industry. 300 seeds. Sep-Nov Mar-Sep May-Jul

Retail $4.95

Club $3.95

Code S397

Carob

Ceratonia siliqua — Not only is Carob beneficial to our health, it makes a fine evergreen shade tree and, being a member of the legume family, it improves soils too. A healthy alternative for caffeine and chocolate addicts, it’s high in antioxidants and vitamin E and helps improve digestive health and lower cholesterol. 20 seeds. Sep-Nov Mar-Sep May-Jul

Retail $4.95

Club $3.95

10m

Code S396

Jojoba

Goji Berry

Tamarillo Red

Cyphomandra betacea — An attractive, fast growing, small tree that brings a tropical feel to gardens. The shiny, pendulous red fruit are high in vitamin C and can be harvested just 3-4 years from sowing. 40 seeds. Oct-Dec Sep-Dec Jul-Oct

Retail $4.95

Club $3.95

Simmondsia chinensis — Grow your own cosmetics! The seeds of this tough bushy shrub yield the age defying Jojoba oil. Jojoba oil is packed with anti-oxidants and helps replenish moisture to skin – a must for us gardeners who toil in the sun and wind all day! Easy to grow and drought tolerant. 5 seeds. Oct-Dec Sep-Dec Jul-Oct

Retail $6.95

Club $5.95

Code S398 Carob

Code S410

Miracle Tree

Moringa oleifera — Only just becoming well known in the west, the Miracle Tree lives up to its name. Every part of this fast growing tree is edible and all parts provide more of our daily requirements than any other food plant. It is high in calcium, magnesium, iron and vitamins A and C – all of which help to boost energy levels and moods, lower blood pressure and improve the function of our immune system. Easy to grow from seed but protect from frost (CZ 10-11). 10 seeds. Oct-Dec Sep-Dec Jul-Oct

Retail $4.95

Club $3.95

Miracle Tree

Jojoba

Tamarind

Tamarillo Red

Code S411

Tamarind

Tamarindus indica — A beautiful, graceful tree. The large fleshy seed pods are harvested and the pulp is used in many Asian dishes to provide a delicious sweet and sour flavour combination. Easy to grow from seed – does best in warm frost free climates. 3 seeds. Limited stock. N/A

Sep-Dec Jul-Oct

Club members only $5.95

15m

25m

Code S416

Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 35

Which Citrus for you? Choose lemons, kumquats and mandarins for cooler coastal areas. Inland areas with hot summers will ripen grapefruit and oranges best, but protect young trees from frosts in cold zones below 9b. Citrus grow faster in cooler areas (Heat Zone 3-4) if you plant them in a large terracotta pot as the extra warmth in spring will induce flowering and fruit set as the potting mix warms much quicker than open soil. Diggers citrus trees are grafted onto cold tolerant Trifoliata rootstock. They all produce full size fruit on a compact tree. They grow faster in pots and fruit earlier when compared to plantings in the ground. Check your Heat and Cold Zone in the address area on the back of your catalogue.

Lemon Verna Lemon Meyer

Lemons

Citrus limon

Meyer Meyer lemons produce all year round and are the most cold tolerant citrus. HZ 4-7 CZ 9b-11 All year

2.5m

All Citrus: Retail $32.00 Club $29.95 Unless marked otherwise

Code WCITM

Verna The most widely grown lemon in Spain, Verna is popular because it produces fruit well into summer in warmer climates when there are no other varieties to harvest. The large fruit have good acidic flavour and produce little or no seeds, perfect for gin and tonic! HZ 4-11 CZ 9b-11 May-Aug

Mandarin Afourer

Mandarins

Code WCITV Citrus reticulata

Afourer Fruiting earlier and producing very few seeds, this variety is considered superior to Honey Murcott. Has a tendency to bear heavily on alternate years so prepare for a bumper harvest every second year. HZ 3-10 CZ 9b-11 Jul-Sep

Grapefruit Rio Red

Citrus paradisi — An early ripening and near-seedless sport of Star Ruby Grapefruit. Originally bred in Texas, it has proved to be well-suited to southern and inland regions of Australia where it fruits six weeks earlier than its parent. Plant them both to extend your harvest. HZ 3-7 CZ 9b-12 Jun-Oct

Code WCITR

Code WCITAF

Fremont The ideal backyard mandarin, this compact variety produces high yeilds of sweet and juicy fruit. The plump fruits have a bright burnt orange peel, and are perfect for the school lunchbox. HZ 4-11 CZ 9b-11 Mandarin Fremont

Jul-Oct

Code WCITMF

Grapefruit Rio Red

Limequat Taveres

Fortunella crassifolia x Citrus aurantifolia — A hybrid between the Kumquat and the Mexican Lime. More cold tolerant than the classic Tahitian Lime. Edible skin contains a mouth puckering blast of tart lime juice. HZ 3-7 CZ 9b-11 Limequat Taveres Members Only! 36 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

All year

Club only

Code WCITLT

Oranges

Citrus sinensis

Valencia Seedless An excellent juicing orange that keeps producing fruit into the cooler months. Fruit can be stored on the tree for up to 7 months. HZ 6-7 CZ 9b-11 Sep-Mar

Diggers Citrus Combo

Code WCITVS

Members save over 15%

Cara Cara

Discovered recently in Venezula, Cara Cara is now highly sought for its pink-tinged flesh. Like other Navel varieties the seedless fruit is easy to peel and it ripens in mid winter, just when we all need a vitamin C boost. A deliciously sweet orange for eating fresh from the tree. HZ 4-7 CZ 9b-11 Aug-Oct

Orange Valencia Seedless

Code WCITOC

Blood Orange

With Diggers exclusive mini citrus it is easy to find space for a whole grove of citrus fruit! Collection includes one each of: Rio Red Grapefruit, Valencia Seedless Orange, Okitsu Mandarin, Lemon Lemonade, Tahitian Lime

A sweet and juicy orange that needs cold, frosty winters to produce the amazing blood orange flesh. HZ 6-7 CZ 9b-11 Jun-Sep

Code WCITAR Orange Cara Cara

Retail $160.00 Club $129.00 WCITCO

Limes Tahitian Lime

Citrus latifolia — Produces the main crop in winter in cooler climates but can be ever-bearing the further north it is grown. Fruit has best flavour when allowed to colour yellow. HZ 3-7 CZ 9b-11 Mar-Jul

Code WCITL

Makrut (Kaffir) Lime

Citrus hystrix — Also known as the Kaffir Lime, the Makrut Lime’s beautiful segmented leaves are the vital ingredient for all Asian food. In cooler areas it performs beautifully in a pot. HZ 3-7 CZ 9b-12 May-Jun

Tahitian Lime

Code WCITKL

Rangpur Lime

Citrus limonia — Known as the Mandarin Lime in the US and the Canton Lemon in China. The peel of this multicultural citrus exudes fresh lime fragrance and the flesh is tart and juicy, making it an ideal substitute for lime or lemon. A fast growing attractive tree more cold tolerant than true limes, a wonderful alternative for the cooler southern states. HZ 3-7 CZ 9b-11

Blood Orange

All year

Retail $16.95 Club $12.95 Code WPLRL

Makrut (Kaffir) Lime

Kumquat Nagami

Fortunella margarita — The Kumquat Nagami produces beautiful oval fruit which is excellent for marmalades and liqueurs. Can be eaten whole off the tree. HZ 4-11 CZ 9b-12 Jul-Aug

Code WCITKN

Rangpur Lime Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 37

Grow your own grapes and kiwis Sultana

Grapes

An excellent table grape, this Persian variety was one of the original seedless grapes. Ripening to translucent pale green skin, these firm grapes are loaded with sweet juice. The elongated white fruit are held in dense bunches, and are equally wonderful when dried. Sultanas from this variety are small, sweet and golden.

Vitis vinifera — Summer shade, winter sun and sweet fruit. Perfect for pergolas and backyard vineyards. Due to quarantine restrictions we can only send grapes to VIC, NSW and QLD. Grapes are despatched separately from June. HZ 2-8 CZ 9b-12 BR

Mar-Apr

Code WGRS

Club only x3 vines $49.95

All Grapes: Retail $19.95 Club $17.95

Code WGRS3

Sultana

Flame Seedless Large flame-red seedless grapes, which ripen to perfection by midsummer. Each crisp red grape is bursting with sweetness that rarely survives the journey to the supermarket so you need to grow it at home to appreciate the full character of the fruit. Early to ripen. Feb-Mar

Code WGRFS

Club only x3 vines $49.95

Code WGRFS3

Muscat Gordo

An excellent winemaking grape, Gordo is a Muscato variety, producing swollen bunches of large and fleshy grapes with a distinct floral aroma. These sweet fruit are as suited to the table as the vineyard. Mar-Apr

Backyard Vineyard

Code WGRG

Club only x3 vines $49.95

Code WGRG3

Our discounted collection includes three of the seedless grapes, Flame Seedless, Autumn Royal and Sultana plus the sweetly fragrant Muscat Gordo. Two great offers for Club members!

Flame Seedless

Muscat Gordo

Kiwiberry Issai

Kiwi Fruit

A self-pollinating Kiwiberry producing hairless grape size fruit. Perfect for a small backyard where there is no room to plant two plants to ensure pollination. Provide afternoon shade and protect from summer northerly winds in southern climates. First fruit in 2-3 years, full cropping in 4-5 years.

Actinidia spp. — HZ 4-8 CZ 7-11 ST

Hayward

Hayward is the standard, grocery store, hairy Kiwi Mar-Apr 3m with which we are all familiar. Green flesh and the characteristic fuzzy skin. You need a male and Club only $9.95 female to produce fruit. Mar-Jul

Retail $12.95

One of each (4 plants) Club only $63.95 Code WGRCO1 Three of each (12 plants) Club only $165.00 Code WGRCO3

These red and green fruiting cultivars both originate from seed that was brought to the Mt. Tomah Botanic Gardens direct from China. Grow in a protected spot on an east-facing wall or trellis so it is sheltered from the hot westerly summer sun. Needs a Hayward male for pollination. Mar-Apr

Code PKII

Club $9.95

Kiwiberrys Mt Tomah Red and Green

Red: Retail $12.95

Club $9.95

Code WKIA

Green: Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WKIAG

Code WKIF

Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WKIM

Kiwi Fruit Hayward 38 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Kiwiberry Issai Members Only!

Kiwiberries Mt Tomah Red and Green

Bare root strawberries Fragaria x ananassa — Grow the most beautiful of all berry fruit and taste how superior they are to the hard, bland offerings of the supermarket. These endangered varieties represent the best breeding. We trialled and tasted all these strawberries at Heronswood and rated their taste out of 100. All bare-root strawberries are despatched from June and incur a $5 postage and handling fee (see order form, page 29). Available to members only in lots of 20 and 50. HZ 1-7 CZ 7-10 20cm

20cm

Retail:

x10

$19.90

Club only: x10 $16.40 x20 $29.90 x50 $59.00

Our best tasting heirlooms

Nov-Dec

Cambridge Rival Sweet, intensely rich and fragrant, lingering on the palate like fine wine. 95/100 x10 PSTC10 x20 PSTC20 x50 PSTC50

Hokowase Delicate wedge-shaped berries that are incredibly sweet with a meltingly soft texture. The sweetest strawberry we list. 80/100 x10 PSTHO10

x20 PSTHO20 x50 PSTHO50

World first release- Digger's Everberry™ After two years growing within our extensive trial gardens, we are pleased to finally release this exclusive new variety. The Everberry™ fruits continually throughout the warmer months, finishing with a bumper autumn crop of large sweetly fragrant berries. Diggers members, select your free Everberry™ when you spend over $99. (See page 29, while stocks last, not for individual sale)

Continuous fruiting strawberries

Nov-May

These varieties are not reliant on day length to set fruit, so you can feast on them for longer!

Alinta

Chandler

The most delicious of all the large fruited strawberries. Huge berries – up to Australian bred, with orange-red berries that are firm with a much superior 60gms – that are produced in profusion. Easy to grow in most climates, these flavour. Extremely productive, and a popular one with Digger’s staff. 75/100 have to be the chef's choice. 82/100 x10 PSTAL10 x20 PSTAL20 x50 PSTAL50 x10 PSTCH10 x20 PSTCH20 x50 PSTCH50

Kamu

Kunawase

Takes its name from the aboriginal word for blood red, the colour of this So sweet and delicate that it has never been to market. Just like cherry fragrant strawberry. An Australian bred variety that produces lots of large blossom, it cannot take the rough and tumble of mass production. Bred by the sweet strawberries through summer and autumn. 75/100 Japanese who know how to value the joys of the palate and the eye. 70/100 x10 PSTKA10 x20 PSTKA20 x50 PSTKA50 x10 PSTK10 x20 PSTK20 x50 PSTK50

Hanging Garden ~ 10 plants ~

Strawberry Patch Kit ~ 20 plants ~

Grow up to 10 kilos, or 40 punnets, of strawberries in your garden in just under 2 square metres! Kit includes 20 strawberries (of one variety, choose appropriate code below) and 1m x 1.8m of photo-degradable weed mat to suppress weeds and keep your strawberries clean. Planting plan included. Cambridge Rival PCOSPC

Japanese Strawberries ~ 20 or 40 plants ~

Japanese breeders have been busy when it comes to strawberries. Too delicate for the commercial market, these are full of flavour, vibrant in colour, fragrant and perfectly sized fruit.

Create a column of fragrant, sweet strawberries perfect for a sunny balcony or verandah. Includes one strawberry bag which can hold 10 strawberries (of one variety, choose appropriate code below). Can produce 5 kilos of strawberries, that’s up to 20 punnets! Water regularly in hot and/or windy weather. Cambridge Rival PCOSPC Chandler PCOSCH

Chandler PCOSCH

10 plants ea. of Kunawase & Hokowase

Kunawase PCOSPK

Retail $39.80 Club $29.90 Code PCOJ20

Hokowase PCOSPH

20 plants ea. of Kunawase & Hokowase

Alinta PCOSAT

All Codes: Retail $40.00 Club $35.00

Retail $79.60 Club $50.00 Code PCOJ40

All Codes: Retail $40.00 Club $35.00 Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 39

Avocados

Persea americana — Avocados will grow in all capital cities of Australia (except for the inland capital, Canberra). In a sheltered position, where frost doesn’t settle, they will grow and fruit down to a Cold Zone 9b, out in the open, Cold Zone 10 is a better bet. Grafted trees fruit in 2-3 years. Plant avocados in the spring when the soil has warmed after the winter and any risk of frost has passed. Pollination Single trees of “A” type pollinators fruit well in cool climates. Multiple “A” and “B” type pollinators are needed in warm climates when spring flowering temperatures are over 20ºC by day and over 10ºC at night. If this all sounds too complicated, plant Bacon with other varieties to increase your chances of getting male and female flowers to exchange pollen. HZ 4-9 CZ 10-11 Not for NT. OP/Grafted

Wurtz

All Avocados: Retail $39.95 Club $29.95

Sharwil

Hass The best backyard variety and the standard by which other avocados are judged. This is the variety with the longest harvest time as the fruit will store on the tree for up to ten months – but at the expense of next years crop. Regular pruning keeps the tree to just 3m high. ‘A’ type flowering avocado. Sep-Jan

Hass

Code WAVH

Wurtz

Sharwil Elegant, narrow, pear-shaped fruit with ample flesh around a small seed. This ‘B’ type avocado is an essential pollinator in northern districts. A popular variety giving high yields of petite fruit, with creamy flesh and a nutty flavour, ripen during late autumn and winter. Sensitive to frost. Apr-Aug

10m

Code WAVS

A compact avocado with a weeping habit. At its best it is possibly the finest-flavoured avocado with exceptionally rich tasty flesh. The best avocado for growing in a pot which means gardeners in frosty areas can move it out of exposed situations for the winter and still enjoy avocados in the summer. ‘A’ type flowering avocado. Nov-Feb

Reed

Code WAVW

The ultimate guide to ‘Growing Your Own’

The Australian Fruit & Vegetable Garden Australian Best Seller - 40,000 copies sold in 6 years! This 142 page, full colour hardcover is written in easy to follow format. Every fruit and vegetable is pictured with over 300 colour photographs. Other features include: • How to grow all your fruit and vegetables in a space no greater than your front lawn. • How to grow full sized fruit on dwarf rootstocks which are easier to pick, prune, spray and water. • Which fruit trees suit your climate from Cairns to Hobart. • Simplifying pollination and fruiting, and how to control pests without spraying. • An A to Z of 188 deciduous or evergreen sub-tropical fruits such as apple, avocado, cherry and custard apple, raspberries, strawberries, tree tomatoes and macadamias. • A vegetable and herb section with almost 250 vegetables described as well as sections on starting your first vegetable garden. • Includes a free Sow What When poster inside the jacket. Retail $39.95 Club $34.95 Code AAUFV 40 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Bacon

Reed The huge cannonball-like fruit can weight up to half a kilo making this variety perfect for even the greediest of avocado lovers. Pick the fruit from November to March and enjoy their ultra creamy taste and texture. ‘A’ type flowering avocado. Nov-Mar

Code WAVR

Bacon This broad spreading avocado makes a majestic shade or screening tree. Bacon is a ‘B’ type avocado that thrives in Melbourne as well as further north and can improve pollination for Hass, Wurtz and Reed varieties. The most suitable ‘B’ type for cooler areas. Jun-Jul

Code WAVB

Olives Olea europaea — Not only do these varieties provide fruit for pressing or preserving, the humble olive is also a dry tolerant ornamental tree that can even be clipped into a hedge. HZ 1-10 CZ 9a-11 ST

Spanish Arbequina

Kalamata A very attractive tree that produces everyone’s favourite pickling olive. Plump fruit must be hand picked for best presentation as they bruise easily, so Kalamata growing at home is the best way to ensure you have high quality olives. Pick when purplish-black, Manzanillo A beautiful spreading tree bearing early crops Kalamatas are not good green olives. Apr-May 6m 7m of medium-sized fruit that can be picked green OP or black. With the highest flesh to pit ratio of all Retail $20.00 Club $16.00 Code WOLK olive varieties Manzanillo is well suited to stuffing and pickling. A very heavy cropper that out- Spanish Arbequina yielded 14 other varieties in a trial at Mildura by A self-fertile variety suitable for the table or oil the Department of Agriculture. It is considered by press. Reported to be the most cold and salt tolerant many to be the best dual purpose variety available. variety. Arbequina matures quickly, providing Mar-May

Retail $20.00

Club $16.00

Code WOLM

a high yield of small rounded fruit that gradually ripen to black. Limited stock. Mar-May

Retail $20.00 Club $16.00 Code WOLAR

Verdale It has the most silvery foliage of all the olives so can be planted for its ornamental value alone. The fruit, although large pitted, is used for table olive processing which results in a pleasant-tasting, good textured olive. Apr-May

Manzanillo

Retail $20.00

Figs

Frantoio

Verdale

Frantoio Famous for the most fruity and aromatic oil in Tuscany where the Italians call it Paragon. With an oil content up to 25% this is the olive to plant if you are looking to press you own. Will grow over a wide climatic range from inland Tasmania to southern Queenland but will need to be stressed a little in warm winter areas to force fruiting.

Club $16.00

Apr-May

Code WOLV

Retail $20.00 Club $16.00 Code WOLFR

St Dominique Violette Reintroduced by Diggers, this heirloom violet-skinned French fig was reportedly grown at Burnley Horticultural College in Melbourne as early as 1875. One for the collector and connoisseur of fine fruits.

Ficus carica — HZ 5-12 CZ 8-11

Feb-May

Retail $29.95 Club $19.95 Code WFSA

Black Genoa

St Dominique Violette

Conical fruit that is almost black with matching dark red flesh inside. One of the highest yielding varieties that will bear two crops a year in most climates. Middle-sized fruits that are packed with sweetness. Best eaten fresh or used in jams. ST

Dec-May

Retail $15.95 Club $11.95 Code WFBL

Brown Turkey

White Adriatic

The purple-brown coloured fruit with sweet pink flesh inside is perfect for eating fresh, drying or jam. Will often bear two crops in a year, with the second extending well into autumn. ST

Feb-May

Retail $15.95 Club $11.95 Code WFBR

White Adriatic An excellent flavoured fig with fruit that are green tinted amber when ripe and a strawberry-red pulp. Suited to fresh eating drying and jam. Limited stock. Brown Turkey

Black Genoa

Mar-May

Retail $15.95 Club $11.95 Code WFWA Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 41

Nuts & berries

Hazelnuts Pecans Cherokee and Shoshoni

Chestnut Chestnut

Castanea sativa — This magnificent fast growing deciduous shade tree provides abundant crops of tasty low fat nuts, perfect for roasting in autumn. Beautiful summer flower spikes produce these delicious shiny brown nuts, enclosed in a bristly case. Plant in groups to ensure pollination. HZ 1-8 CZ 7-10 Not for WA. ST

Apr-Jun

Retail $19.95

10m

Club $15.95

Code WCHE

Grafted Pecan Cherokee

Carya illinoinensis — Very productive variety that produces early and grows rapidly, making a fast and fruitful hedge. HZ 5-8 CZ 9a-10 OP

Mar-May

30m

12m

Retail $34.95 Club $29.95 Code WPECC

Grafted Pecan Shoshoni

Carob Tree

Carya illinoinensis — A spectacular, graceful tree with beautiful autumn foliage. Revels in dry heat as long as it has enough moisture in the soil. An easy care nut that doesn’t require pruning. Shoshoni produces large nuts and is the best variety for warmer climates. Plant with Cherokee to increase yields. HZ 5-8 CZ 9a-10 ST

Mar-May

30m

12m

Retail $34.95 Club $29.95 Code WPECSH Ceratonia siliqua — One of the world’s best natural sweeteners, the leathery pods are ground as a substitute for cocoa. Needs male and female plants to produce the delectable pods. A tough drought tolerant shade tree, making an ideal windbreak in our dry climate. HZ 2-10 CZ 9a-11 Mar-May

Retail $10.95

10m

Club $8.50

Code WCAT

Walnut Black

Juglans nigra — Spreading tree with valuable dark brown timber. Olive-green catkins are followed by 5cm edible nuts. Fast in heavy fertile soils. HZ 1-6 CZ 7-10 BR

Walnut Black 42 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Mar-May

Retail $10.95

Apr-May

Cosford Producing numerous male flowers, Cosford is the best pollinating partner of the hazelnuts, and should be grown with any planting to ensure abundant cropping. The elongated nuts are formed in pairs, dropping as they ripen. If left in their shell, they will store well for more than a year. An attractive and practical screening hedge. Retail $29.95 Club $26.95 Code WHACO

Wanliss Pride This Australian selection forms a vigorous multi-stemmed thicket, yielding a protein rich bounty of large and tasty hazelnuts. These are produced in huge clusters, a rich mahogany brown. Wanliss Pride is by far the heaviest bearing variety. As male and female flowers are produced at different times, it is essential to have a second variety present for pollination. Pollinated by Cosford. Retail $29.95 Club $26.95 Code WHAWP

Red Aveline

Also known as Red Lambert, this precocious selection produces a bounty of tasty, red skinned hazelnuts. Plant a mixed hedge with Cosford and Wanless Pride to ensure pollination and strong yields. Retail $25.95 Club $19.95 Code WHARE

Carob Tree

Corylus avellana — Bare root plants supplied from mid June. HZ 1-6 CZ 7-10

15m

10m

Club $8.50

Code WWAB

Hazelnuts

~ 3 plants ~ Members save over 20% Corylus avellana — Create a productive hedge of hazel thickets with this collection of our favourite varieties, containing one each of Red Aveline, Wanliss Pride, and the pollinating Cosford. Three bare root plants supplied from mid June. Retail $85.85 Club $65.00 WHAZCO

Blueberries Vaccinium spp. — Blueberries thrive wherever azaleas grow, with delicate bell-shaped flowers in the spring and spectacular red/orange autumn foliage, so why not plant blueberries instead? The blueberries' soft blue-grey bloom hides a powerhouse of antioxidants that protect against free radicals. Just one cup of these beauties provides up to 1000mg of vitamin C! Commercial varieties are picked up to a week before they arrive at the supermarket, making them tough skinned and tasteless. Blueberries prefer a free draining acidic soil of about pH 4.5–5.5. Position them away from strong winds and protect from late frosts. Yield 3-4 kgs per bush. Not for TAS. HZ 1-6 CZ 8-10 ST

Highbush Blueberries for cool climates Blue Rose

Tall growing and extremely vigorous, this blueberry is prolific. Start picking during January and have blueberries into February. Wait until just ripe for the fully developed flavour and sweetness. Magnificent autumn foliage. Jan-Feb 2.2m 1.5m Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WBLB

Denise

Very large round fruit. Distinct tangy flavour. Heavy yielding bush makes this variety very popular for home gardeners. Jan-Feb 2.2m 1.5m Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WBLDE

Northland

This is the blueberry for long harvest. With very dark flesh and a wild berry flavour, it gets progressively sweeter the longer it hangs on the bush. Very hardy to extremes of heat and cold. 2m 1.5m Dec-Feb Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WBLD

Brigitta

A vigorous Australian-bred cultivar with masses of sweet tasty pale blue berries toward the end of the season making this the ideal blueberry variety for jams and preserves, or for gardeners who just want to gorge their crop all at once! Limited stock. Jan-Feb 2.5m 1.5m Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WBLBR

Raspberries ST

1.5m

50cm

Diggers Gold A golden form of the traditional red raspberry, Diggers Gold brings a golden glow to summer desserts. Fruits in time for Christmas and again in autumn. Club only $9.95

Autumn Bliss Dec-Jan

Code WRAGO

Sandford If you want to grow your own berries for Christmas Sandford is the one for you. Flowering in November with fruit ready to pick in early December.

Dec

Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WRAS

For a long and bumper harvest you can’t go past this summer and autumn fruiting raspberry. Autumn Bliss is a primocane variety, Jan-Apr meaning that all first year shoots will bear fruit, so it is easy to maintain. Simply cut down the old canes in winter after you have finished harvesting to make way for the next year’s crop of sweet fragrant berries. Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WRAA

Chilliwack

Willamette Dark red raspberries when fully ripe. Bears a heavy summer crop on last year’s canes, which is often followed by a small autumn crop on new and old canes.

Rubus idaeus — It’s hard to beat freshly picked raspberries that you have grown yourself and a dedicated berry bed will reward you year after year. Plant 35cm apart and train them to a trellis. Plant both summer and autumn fruiting varieties for a continuous berry harvest. Learn more about berry crops at our website. HZ 1-6 CZ 7-10

Apr-May

Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WRAW

Summer fruiting raspberry that holds fruit well on the canes so that you can revisit every few days to pick fruit at premium ripeness. Sturdy, almost thornless canes carry sweet fat fruit in mid-summer.

Cane Berry ~ 9 plants ~

In a row 8 metres long by 1 metre wide you can have soft, sweet fruit from November to April in your own back yard. Collection includes 2 plants each of Chilliwack, Autumn Bliss and Diggers Gold raspberries, plus one each of Loganberry, Tayberry and Marionberry. Not for WA.

Members save 30% Retail $115.00 Club $75.00 Code WCOF

Raspberries ~ 8 plants ~

A 5 metre long trellis will accommodate 8 raspberry canes, providing you with fruit from December to April. Chilliwack and Sandford yield in summer, and Willamette and Autumn Bliss crop right through to late autumn.

Dec-Jan

Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WRAC

This collection includes 2 plants of each variety.

Members save 30% Retail $100.00 Club $69.00 Code WCORS Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 43

Grow a forest of food

Brazilian Tree Grape

Myrciaria cauliflora — The Brazilian Tree Grape or Jaboticaba has creamy-tan peeling bark which erupts with white fluffy flowers. These develop into glossy grape-like fruit in just one month, becoming studded with glossy purple-black 2-3cm fruit that can be eaten straight from the tree. The white flesh is sweet and aromatic and can be made into fine jelly or wine. Not for SA/WA/TAS/NT. HZ 4-9 CZ 10-11 ST

Sep-Oct

Retail $12.95

Club $9.95

Code WBTR

Japanese Pepper

Zanthoxylum piperitum — Japanese or Sichuan Pepper can be grown from Tasmania to the subtropics. The handsome foliage is used in soups and salads while the ‘pepper’ is derived from the husk of the seed produced on the mature plants. Fruits best in warm climates. HZ 4-7 CZ 9a-11 ST

Brazilian Tree Grape

Japanese Pepper

Oct-Dec

Retail $12.95

Club $9.95

Code WJAP

Bay Tree

Laurus nobilis — Aromatic deep green leaves essential for soups and stews. Forms a drought and salt tolerant dense tree ideal for hedges or topiary. HZ 3-10 CZ 7-10 ST

10m

Retail $12.95

Club $9.95

Code WBAT

Loquat Nagasakiwase

Eryiobotria japonica — An excellent evergreen shade tree for small gardens producing early crops of fruit. The tough skin is easily peeled to reveal the deep orange flesh. HZ 3-8 CZ 9b-11 Bay Tree

Loquat Nagasakiwase

Chinese Quince

Pseudocydonia sinensis (Cydonia sinensis) — Making a dense hedge if pruned, or a small shade Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WLOQ tree with beautifully textured bark if untrained, this very rare quince is both ornamental and practical. Japanese Raisin Tree Unlike the ornamental quinces this one produces Hovenia dulcis — An attractive deciduous tree with a proper sized fruit, up to 7 inches long, used for a rounded canopy, perfect for a small backyard. preserves, syrups and liqueurs. HZ 1-8 CZ 8-10 The edible part is actually the swollen stems that 5m Mar-Apr 5m ST develop as the fruit falls off in the autumn. These swollen stems taste just like rum ‘n raisin ice cream Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WQUC and are a perfect winter snack. HZ 1-10 CZ 8-10 ST

Oct-Dec

Apr

10m

Retail $12.95

Club $9.95

Code WRAT

Wild Plum (Kaffir Plum) Chinese Quince

Harpephyllum caffrum — Birds and butterflies will flock to your garden from spring to autumn to source nectar from this attractive shade tree. Greenish-white flowers are followed by sweet-buttart, dark red berries, ideal for making jams and jellies. HZ 4-10 CZ 9b-11 ST

Nov-Apr

Retail $10.95

10m

Club $8.50

Japanese Raisin Tree

Code WKAP

Black Mulberry

Morus nigra — This rounded deciduous tree produces delicious berries and is also a magnificent shade tree with good autumn foliage. Mulberries fruit on new season growth so prune after the harvest to ensure new shoots for next year’s crop. Seed grown. HZ 1-8 CZ 7-11 ST

Black Mulberry 44 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Nov-Jan

Retail $10.95

10m

Club $8.50

Code WBLM

Wild Plum (Kaffir Plum)

Persimmon Fuyu

Persimmon Ichikikei Jiro

Persimmon Fuyu

Diospyros kaki — Persimmons are the most beautiful of all fruiting trees. Small graceful trees with spectacular autumn foliage, followed by highly decorative orange fruit, makes it a stand out in an ornamental garden or the orchard. The nonastringent fruit can be eaten when still crunchy – no need to wait until they are soft like other varieties. Self pollinating and bird attracting, these deserve a place in every garden. HZ 3-7 CZ 7-11 OP

Apr

Retail $39.95

Club $35.00

Code WPEF

Persimmon Ichikikei Jiro

Diospyros kaki — A little smaller than the other sweet Fuyu. Ichikikei Jiro’s compact habit makes it ideally suited to pots and smaller backyards. The fruit has few seeds and can be eaten crisp straight from the tree. Can be espalier trained to make harvest and management easier. HZ 3-9 CZ 7-10 OP

Mar-Apr

Retail $39.95

Club $35.00

Code WPEJI

Self Pollinating!

Persimmon Nightingale

Diospyros kaki ‘Nightingale’ — Will grow in conditions ranging from cool-temperate to sub-tropical. An astringent variety that is best eaten when the fruit softens off the tree. A very ornamental small Persimmon well suited to small gardens where it will reward with summer shade, autumn colour and quality fruit. HZ 3-9 CZ 7-11 OP

Apr

Retail $39.95 Club $35.00 Code WPENG

Juniper Berry

Juniperus communis — Elegantly upright, the Juniper forms a neat cone of grey-green foliage. The berries can take up to 2 years to ripen. Our plants are cutting grown from a self-fertile plant so you can get berries from a single bush. Thrives in sun or part shade. HZ 1-7 CZ 7-10 ST

Aug-Nov

Retail $10.95

Juniper Berry

1.5m

Club $8.50

Code WJUB

Tamarillo Ecuadorian Orange

Cyphomandra betacea — Small enough to be comfortable in a large pot, with huge heart-shaped leaves and pendulous orange fruit. Tip prune in early spring as fruit is borne on new growth. Protect from cold winds. HZ 4-10 CZ 10-11 Not for QLD. ST

Jun-Jul

Retail $12.95

Tamarillo Ecuadorian Orange

Club $9.95

Code WTAMO

White Sapote Maybell’s Variety

Casimiroa edulis — The soft creamy flesh of White Sapote will never be available in the shops so plant a tree yourself. Growing in all our capital cities, this self pollinating medium tree yields delicious cricket ball-sized fruit, even in areas that get down to -5ºC. Grown from seed. HZ 4-12 CZ 10-12 OP

Mar-May

10m

Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code WSAWH

Jelly Palm

Butia capitata — The most ornamental of palms, producing sprays of fruit that can be eaten fresh or cooked in cakes, jams or pies. HZ 2-10 CZ 8-11 ST

White Sapote Maybell’s Variety

Jan-Mar

Retail $10.95

10m

Club $8.50

Code WBUT

Jelly Palm Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 45

New roses

Blue For You

Englishman Chris Warner has recently developed a new series of disease resistant, repeat flowering roses, using a unique desert dwelling species. Rosa persica, native to the dry, baked hillsides of Iran, gives sumptuous poppy-like flowers with an evocative dark central blotch to each petal. These new hybrids thrive in our dry summer heat, continually blooming well into autumn. HZ 1-13 CZ 7-10 Repeat flowering

Fragrant

Lasts a week in a vase

FREE wit membersh orders over $99

See page

The best blue rose available, producing a unique succession of semi-double lilac mauve flowers, which fade to a soft slate blue. Golden stamens radiate from a white centre. Blue for You is a compact Floribunda rose, bound to take the world by storm. With a fragrance as sweet as violets, this is one rose you can’t be without. BR

Eyes For You

70cm

Rosa hort. hybrids — These heritage roses survive drought better than any other shrub and these varieties are selected for their repeat flowering. Be rewarded with a succession of fragrant flowers from November through until April. Bare rooted roses will be despatched separately from mid-June. HZ 1-13 CZ 7-10

Masquerade (1949)

Code RBFY

Eyes For You Cream buds open to display mauve pink flowers, with golden feathered central stamens. These mature dramatically, revealing a bright purple eye, intensifying until the petals fall. Regular deadheading will encourage wave after wave of these exquisite flowers, produced over a rounded shrub. After the final autumn flush, vibrant elongated hips develop to colour the winter garden. Nov-Apr

80cm

Club members only $21.95

Shrub roses

Masquerade

90cm

Club members only $21.95

Blue For You

Nov-Apr

Code REFY

Zepherine Drouhin (1868) Freely borne clusters of cerise pink flowers appear continuously throughout the season. The bright petals are often streaked white, and form loosely double flowers, enriched with a deliciously sweet fragrance. Thornless stems are easy to manage, and this vigorous Bourbon rose effortlessly becomes a perfect climber or pillar rose. BR

Nov-Mar

Retail $16.95 Club $14.95 Code RZEDR

The first of the multi-coloured roses. Masquerade undergoes a vibrant transformation with every bloom. Buds open to bright yellow before turning coral, then cerise and finally crimson. These astonishing flowers release a delicious yet subtle musk scent and soon develop round red hips which shine through winter. BR

Nov-Jan

Retail $16.95 Club $14.95 Code RMASQ

Mme Issac Perirre (1881)

Zepherine Drouhin

The opulent dark cerise flowers of this Bourbon rose are enriched with the most intoxicating scent Mme Issac Perirre of all roses. Flowers age gracefully to a silver pink, and repeat in strong flushes, with a dominant Reine des Violettes (1860) autumn flowering. A tall shrub, producing an Thornless stems produce a succession of sweetly abundance of flowers on arching stems. fragrant blooms, initially a rich purple, fading to lilac. The silver reverse of each petal is highlighted Nov-Mar 2.5m 1.5m BR with the quartered arrangement of the central Retail $16.95 Club $14.95 Code RMIP petals. This French Perpetual was raised in 1860, and thrives in the heat of our long summers. BR

Nov-Jan

Retail $16.95

2.5m

1.5m

Club $14.95

Code RRDV

Souvenir de la Malmaison (1843)

New REINE DES VIOLETTES Reine des Violettes 46 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

New Souvenir de la malmaison

Delicate petals of soft pink, fading to cream, are quilled and quartered in the centre, much like the Austins of today. Raised by Béluze of France in 1843, this spectacular Bourbon rose was named for Empress Josephine’s country house and thrives in dry heat. A sweet fruity fragrance is produced through the near continuous flowering season! BR

Souvenir de la Malmaison

Nov-Jan

Retail $16.95 Club $14.95 Code RSOMA

David Austin shrub roses Since the 1950s David Austin has been breeding a series of roses that combine the charms of the old world with the practical virtues of the modern. They all repeat flower throughout the season and make wonderful cut flowers to fill the house with their sweet perfume. HZ 1-13 CZ 7-10 Princess Alexandra of Kent

Golden Celebration

Golden Celebration (1992)

Princess Alexandra Of Kent (2011)

Munstead Wood (2007)

The most magnificent of Austin’s ‘English Roses’, with delightful cupped blooms of coppery yellow petals, each poised on gracefully arching stems. This recurrent variety produces sprays of fragrant flowers well into autumn. The sweet tea scent gradually refines to a fresh strawberry finish.

Large glowing pink flowers adorn this recently introduced rose, named in honour of Princess Alexandra, cousin to the Queen. Bright central petals are densely arranged, and cupped within larger petals of a softer hue. These flowers are richly fragrant, and as they age their fragrance ripens to a fresh lemon scent.

One of the most exquisite David Austin roses with true old fashioned rose fragrance. Beautiful velvety crimson flowers adorn this shrub throughout the season. One of the best garden performers and cut flowers.

Nov-Apr

1.2m

Retail $24.95 Club $19.95 Code RGOCE

Nov-Mar

75cm

Nov-Apr

Retail $24.95

Club $19.95

Code RMWO

Retail $24.95 Club $19.95 Code RPRAK

Pat Austin (1995)

Photo courtesy of Benedetta Rusconi

Photo courtesy of David Austin Roses

Pat Austin

Nov-Apr

Retail $24.95

1.2m

Munstead Wood

Photo courtesy of David Austin Roses

Heritage

Photo courtesy of David Austin Roses

Fragrant flowers of loosely cupped cinnamon, tangerine and zesty lemon petals adorn this English rose. The unusual colour is accentuated, as the reverse of each petal is lighter than the face, giving each rosette a glow from within. On elegant arching stems, these copper blooms smother the plant. Makes a wonderful hedge. 1.2m

Club $19.95

Code RPAA

Gertrude Jekyll (1986) Tightly pleated buds enlarge to reveal rosettes of glowing pink petals. Worth growing for the fragrance alone, the vibrant flowers of this David Austin rose produce that wonderful Old Rose scent, from spring until autumn. Named for the influential English garden designer, Gertrude Jekyll. BR

Nov-Apr

Retail $24.95

Club $19.95

Code RGEJ

Molineux (1994) Gertrude Jeckyll

A free flowering selection, unfurling a succession of warm golden flowers throughout summer. These are borne in clusters, opening to cupped rosette of apricot petals, which fade to lemon as they age. Thrives in hot summers. BR

Nov-Apr

Retail $24.95

1.2m

Club $19.95

Code RMOL

Heritage (1984) A beautiful David Austin rose with old fashioned peachy pink flowers. A wonderful fragrant shrub that is virtually thornless so it doesn’t bite like other roses! BR

Molineux

Nov-Apr

Retail $24.95

1.2m

90cm

Club $19.95

Code RHER

Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 47

Climbing, hedge and rambling roses Rosa hort. hybrids — These varieties will easily climb up a fence, ramble over a pergola or cover an unsightly building. Bare rooted roses will be despatched separately from mid-June. HZ 1-13 CZ 7-10 Repeat flowering

Fragrant

Lasts a week in a vase

Albertine This vigorous rambler was developed in France in 1921 and named by the Barbier Brothers. An incredible eight week display begins with copper buds opening to sweetly fragrant salmon Lorraine Lee pink flowers, aging with grace to almost white. Bred by well known Australian rose breeder, Adaptable to any vertical space, Albertine can be Alister Clark, Lorraine Lee deserves a place in grown over a trellis or trained against a sunny wall. every garden. It is alive with deliciously fragrant 1.5m Dec-Feb 3.5m pink flowers in the depths of winter when all other ST roses are completely dormant. Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code RALBE Albertine

Crepuscule

Oct-Aug

Retail $16.95

Club $14.95

Code RLOL

Banksia Yellow

Rose banksiae ‘Lutea’ — Clusters of canary yellow flowers cover this incredibly vigorous, evergreen rose. Tolerant of just about anything. Grow it as a climber, a hedge or a mounding shrub.

Lorraine Lee

Crepuscule Almost always in flower, this vigorous noisette climber carries breezy fragrant blooms of rich apricot, aging to cream. Crepuscule translates from French as ‘twilight’, after its softly glowing golden flowers. The thornless smooth stems will straddle any vertical frame, reaching up to 4m in height. BR

Nov-Mar

Retail $16.95

Club $14.95

Nov-Jan

Retail $12.95

Club $9.95

Code RBALU

Banksia White

Rosa banksiae ‘Alba’ — The toughest of all climbing roses. Smothered in snowy frilled blooms in spring. Almost thornless and extremely drought tolerant. ST

Code RCRE

Nov-Jan

Retail $12.95

Club $9.95

Code RBALB

Multiflora Pink

The cheapest farm fence Rosa multiflora — Tough, fast growing, self-supporting fencing roses that produce an impenetrable thicket of single blooms in white or pink. HZ 1-13 CZ 7-10 ST

Multiflora White

Banksia White

Banksia Yellow

Sep-Nov

White – Single white flowers Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code RMULW Pink – The sweetest pale pink Retail $12.95 Club $9.95 Code RMULP ~ Club only special ~ 5 plants ~ $39.95 White RMULW5 Pink RMULP5 ~ Club only special ~ 10 plants ~ $75.00 White RMULW10 Pink RMULP10

If you are after roses for perfume, cutting or performance, we have selected the best for our collections! Four roses in each collection, substitutes may occur, despatched separately from June.

Fragrant Roses

Includes one each of Golden Celebration, Pat Austin, Gertrude Jekyll and Munstead Wood. Retail $99.80

Club $65.00

Code RCOF

Cut Flower Roses

Includes one each of Mr Lincoln, Masquerade, Munstead Wood and Gertrude Jekyll. Retail $83.80

Club $60.00

Code RCOC

Old Fashioned Roses One each of Reine des Violettes, Albertine, Lorraine Lee and Zepherine Drouhin. Retail $63.80 48 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Club $55.00

Code RCOO

Garden liliums

Trumpet Lilies Lilium spp. — Trumpets have Aurelian parentage making them tall and tough. They do not need a frost and are heat tolerant making them suitable for north and southern states. Mostly self supporting flowering up to 1.5-2m when established. HZ 1-8 CZ 7-11

Diggers has selected only the best of the older varieties and the most vigorous of the newer crosses as truly garden worthy selections. Supplied as single bare rooted bulbs, bulb postage applies.

Dec-Jan

1.5m

30cm

Maloo

Lilium hybrida — A delicate rose pink colour, with a soft yellow throat. An Australian bred show winning selection. Fragrant. Retail $12.95 Club $10.95 Code BLIMAL

Moonlight

African Morning

Combine the fragrant, chartreuse-yellow blooms with blue Penstemons and yellow Daylilies for a beautiful display. Fragrant.

Maloo

Retail $12.95 Club $10.95 Code BLIMOO

Pink Perfection Pink perfection is an AGM award wining lily with purplish-pink, wonderfully perfumed flowers. Mostly self supporting, flowering up to 1.5–2m when established. Retail $12.95

Club $10.95

Code BLIPIP

African Morning First time release from Australian breeder Adrianus Van Kampen. Beautiful bronze fading to apricot yellow, exquisitely scented flowers. A standout performer that’s tough and easy to grow. Pink Perfection

Moonlight

Retail $12.95 Club $10.95 Code BLIAFM

Tiger Lilies

Lilium lancifolium — Vigorous low maintenance lilies. These new selections are truly worthy of our attention with strong upright stems to over 1 metre that can produce 12-20 blooms per stem from late spring to summer. HZ 1-7 CZ 7-11 Nov-Mar

1.2m

Members save over 25% This collection of our new Tiger Lilies includes one bulb each of Red Velvet, Sweet Surrender and Salmon Giant. Retail $31.85 Club $23.95 BCOLIT

20cm

Red Velvet

Red Velvet is an eye-stopping beauty that is sure to impress, with dark velvety red flowers. Retail $9.95

Club $7.95

Code BLIRE

Jennifer

Red Velvet

Cheery lemon yellow flowers with light maroon spotting. Another wonderful Pearl series addition. Retail $11.95

Club $9.95

Code BLITJE

Sweet Surrender

Sweet Surrender is a beautiful cream fading to white with maroon spots and stamens. Retail $9.95

Club $7.95

Code BLISS

Salmon Giant An old fashioned selection in salmon pink, blushing to apricot with small maroon specks. Stunning long lasting display. Retail $11.95

Club $9.95

Code BLISG

Salmon Giant

Jennifer Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 49

Plants for shade

Veltheimia capensis A signature plant at Heronswood where it has naturalised under the deep shade of a Moreton Bay Fig in our Sub Tropical Garden. Rarely offered in garden centres, the glorious pink spikes of flowers appear above glossy green leaves in spring. A tough South African that is perfect for highlighting dry shady areas of any garden. HZ 2-7 CZ 7-10 TT

Nov-Dec

Retail $6.95

45cm

30cm

Club $5.95

Code PVEC

Clivia Bicolor

Clivia miniata ‘Bicolor’ — Recently imported from Keith Hammett in New Zealand, this dazzling selection displays bunches of skyward facing tangerine flowers, each with an open golden throat. These are held on stout stems over mounds of strappy green foliage. Excellent in dry shade where it combines well with Clivias, Hellebores and other woodland plants. HZ 4-10 CZ 10-12 TT

Veltheimia capensis Veltheimia bracteata ‘Lemon Flame’ — This rare lemon flowered form will brighten any shade garden. From a lush rosette of deep green leaves, dense spikes of lime yellow tubular flowers shine like flaming torches during early summer. Imported from Kirstenbosch Botanic Garden. HZ 2-7 CZ 7-10 Nov-Dec

45cm

75cm

60cm

Retail $22.95 Club $16.95 Code PCLBI

Veltheimia Lemon Flame

Nov-Dec

30cm

Club members only $9.95

Code PVEL

Giant Cobra Lily

Arisaema speciosum — Hailing from Nepal and southern China, each tuber produces a bright mahogany red spathe, striped white within. As the flower bud stretches upward, a curiously coiled thread-like spadix emerges and trails across the ground. Like a giant propeller, three huge leaflets unfold atop a heavily mottled stem, shading the flower as it opens. A dramatic plant for the woodland garden. HZ 1-5 CZ 7-10 BR

Sep-Dec

Retail $15.00

90cm

60cm

Club $11.95

Code PARSP

Clivia Bicolor

Striped Cobra Lily

Arisaema candidissimum — During summer translucent hooded spathes emerge from the soil, decorated in white and pink stripes. These spectacular flowers are soon followed by bold foliage, each leaf comprising of three large lobes. An exquisite tuberous perennial from the woodlands of western China. Arisaema are best in dappled shade, and enjoy some extra summer irrigation. HZ 1-5 CZ 7-10 BR

Sep-Dec

30cm

40cm

Retail $15.00 Club $11.95 Code PARCA

Striped Cobra Lily

Veltheimia Lemon Flame

Helleborus ~ 10 plants ~

Helleborus x hybridus — A must-have collection including one each of Double Purple, Pink Spotted, Double White and Picotee plus three each of H. foetidus and the popular St Erth.

Members save over 30% Club only $60.00

Giant Cobra Lily 50 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Code PHECO

Hellebores Helleborus x hybridus – Thanks to the diligent work of breeders over the last 20 years, Diggers now offers this range of eye catching winter gems. Hellebores are easy to grow in a fertile shady spot, making them indispensable early spring flowers that herald the coming season. HZ 1-8 CZ 7-10 TT

Aug-Oct

All Hellebores: Retail $15.00 Club $11.95

Double White Spotted Like an Elizabethan ruff with spots, the bold flowers of this cheery Hellebore display layers of petals that create an eye-catching winter highlight. 40cm

50cm

Code PHEDS

Pink Spotted A delightful Hellebore with simple pale pink flowers spotted in a dark rosy pink. A must for the hellebore enthusiast. 40cm

50cm

Code PHEPS

Double White Spotted

Pink Spotted

Midnight

Helleborus orientalis — This dramatic Hellebore is purple-black with just a sheen of red as it catches the low winter sunlight. Plant in a pot where it can shine above its garden companions and be appreciated for the marvel that it is. 40cm

50cm

Code PHEMI

Double Yellow Beautiful double flowers of golden yellow that shine like stars in the woodland garden. During spring, the golden petals gracefully age to lime green. A new selection that is sure to impress. 50cm

Midnight

70cm

Code PHEDY

Double White These double white seedlings are bred from a Tasmanian clear white double Hellebore. Whether grown in a pot near the house or as a ground cover under trees, this white beauty will reward with little attention. 40cm

50cm

Code PHEDW

Double Yellow

Double White

Double Purple We are delighted to be able to offer this wonderful Winter Rose from renowned hellebore breeder Peter Leigh of Post Office Farm Nursery. Stunning double flowers in dark slate-purple appear in late winter and keep coming through spring. 50cm

70cm

Code PHEPU

Yellow Picotee Reminiscent of an antique tea cup this exquisite hellebore is a delicate pale yellow edged in plum. So useful in shady areas to add much welcome colour. 40cm

50cm

Code PHEPY

Double Purple

Yellow Picotee Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 51

Exceptional garden trees and shrubs Wintersweet

Chimonanthus praecox — When all is quiet in the garden a magical scent may reach you from this rather shy unpretentious shrub. Yellow-topaz flowers nod on its bare branches in July. The perfume is enough to make you long for winter. Wintersweet then clothes itself in mid-green leaves to blend unobtrusively back into the garden. Just one sprig of these flowers will scent a huge room in winter. Despatched from June. HZ 1-8 CZ 7-10 BR

Jul-Aug

Retail $12.95

1.5m

Club $9.95

Code WWIS

Lilac

Syringa vulgaris — With a perfume that’s legendary and profuse small lilac blooms unlike the modern hybrids. Flowers best in frosty areas. HZ 1-6 CZ 7-10

Wintersweet

Snow Pear

Pyrus nivalis — Far more beautiful than the common Manchurian Pear and Silver Birch, Snow Pear is a graceful addition to any garden. Leaves are silver-grey providing cool summer shade and white flowers are profuse in showy clusters in spring. Tolerates dry conditions once established. HZ 1-7 CZ 7-10 OP

Oct

Retail $29.95

Club $22.95

Code WPENI

Cape Chestnut

Snow Pear

Nov-Jan

Retail $10.95

10m

Nov-Mar

Retail $12.95

Code WCACH

Purple Elder

Sambucus nigra ‘Purpurea’ — Widely grown for its purple foliage and creamy white flowers and berries that are used in herbal remedies. The more sun it gets the deeper the foliage colour will be. Elderberries thrive in dry semi-shaded positions. HZ 1-5 CZ 7-10 ST

Purple Elder

Nov-Jan

Retail $10.95

Club $8.50

Code WELP Cape Chestnut

Lilac 52 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Code WLIL

Wigandia urens syn Wigandia caracasana — Rarely offered as it is a tricky one to propagate but we’ve cracked it this year! Large oval-shaped leaves with a deep green upper and velvety bronze underside. These tropical-looking leaves are topped with clusters of violet flowers that keep on coming through summer. HZ 1-10 CZ 9b-11

Club $8.50

Wigandia

Calodendrum capense — From early summer, the glossy deep green foliage is smothered with fragrant spikes of sugar pink flowers. Plant one for a dazzling specimen tree or en masse to become a dramatic formal avenue or windbreak. Evergreen in the sub-tropics. HZ 1-10 CZ 9b-11

Sep

Retail $10.95

Wigandia

Club $9.95

Code WWIG

Celebrate autumn colour Crimson Glory Vine

Vitis coignetiae — The Glory Vine is aflame during autumn when every leaf turns a bright shade of crimson. This deciduous vine quickly covers a frame and, with support, can screen unsightly fences and buildings. Due to quarantine restrictions this is available to VIC/NSW/QLD members only. HZ 2-8 CZ 9b-12 Feb

Retail $19.95 Club $17.95 Code WGRGV Club members only x3 $49.95 Code WGRGV3

Maidenhair Tree

Ginkgo biloba — This ancient deciduous tree will tolerate a wide range of conditions. Grown for its wonderful habit and spectacular golden autumn foliage. Supplied in a 3L bag. HZ 1-10 CZ 7-10 20m

10m

Retail $12.95

Club $9.95

Code WMAT

Sugar Maple

Acer saccharum — With sensational autumn foliage, the large lobed leaves turn shades of gold and copper. The Sugar Maple is the primary source of true maple syrup, which is harvested during the spring thaw, using a tap/spout inserted directly into the trunk. These stately trees are also much prized for their quality timber, preferred in the manufacture of violins, skate boards and pool cues! Supplied in a 3L bag. HZ 1-5 CZ 7-10 15m

Retail $12.95

Club $9.95

Code WSUM

Crimson Glory Vine Maidenhair Tree

Northern Red Oak

Quercus rubra (syn Q. borealis) — A large spreading canopy of broadly lobed leaves, which turn warm russet tones of orange through red during autumn. These oaks come from Northern America and cool autumn nights of inland gardens bring exceptional foliage colour! HZ 1-7 CZ 7-10 8m

12m

Retail $12.95

Club $9.95

Code WOAR

Hornbeam

Carpinus betulus — These small European trees, related to hazels, make a superb hedge as they tolerate pleaching. During spring, pleated new foliage emerges, giving the Hornbeam a radiant lime glow. By autumn, the foliage is transformed to buttery gold. Supplied in a 3L bag. HZ 1-8 CZ 7-10 5m

Sugar Maple

Retail $14.95

Northern Red Oak

Scarlet Oak

Quercus coccinea — Rarely found in Australian gardens, the stately Scarlet Oak is ablaze each autumn with intensely crimson leaves. The leaves have a dramatic jagged outline and bring the best colour of all the deciduous oaks. HZ 1-9 CZ 7-10 ST

Club $12.95

Code WHOR

Scarlet Oak

12m

Retail $12.95

Club $9.95

Code WOAS

Hornbeam

Smoke Bush Grace

Cotinus coggygria — Deep purple foliage provides a dramatic contrast to the usual greens. Pink clouds of flower persist for months, followed by crimson autumn foliage. A real feature in the dry garden at St Erth. HZ 1-8 CZ 7-10 ST

Nov-Dec

Retail $19.95

Club $12.95

Code WSMB

Smoke Bush Grace Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 53

Winter garden essentials

Snail Trap

FIGO Universal Frame Connectors

FIGO Universal Frame Connectors will grip differing cane thicknesses firmly and securely, to create strong, sturdy, stable frames anywhere in the garden. What’s so special about FIGO Connectors? The fact is that virtually every connector on the market fails to securely grip varying size canes or poles. FIGO Connectors will securely grip most garden cane sizes from 8mm to 16mm (1/3 to 2/3 in) diameter. The flexible connector arms twist to virtually any angle allowing you to create almost any frame shape. Build any shape you want! Build your own garden frames or cloches too.

FIGO Universal Frame Connectors

Retail $37.95 Club $33.95 Code HFIGO

Snail Trap Don’t rely on chemicals, pellets or sprays. Fill this trap with beer or diluted juice and watch the snails perish. Pet safe, non-toxic and long lasting. x1 Retail $8.50 Club $7.50 Code HSNT x6 Retail $45.00 Club $40.50 Code HSNT6

Garden Clogs The most comfortable garden shoes we have seen and they look great too! 100% waterproof with a moisture and odour absorbing Ortho-lite sole and removable liner. These are a must to keep by the back door. Codes determine size and colour (see guide with photo at left). Clog Codes Men’s black

Garden Clogs

Women’s red Women’s blue Women’s purple

Retail $64.00 Club $52.50 Code See photo HCM9 to 12 HCWR6 to 10 HCWB6 to 10 HCWP6 to 10

Potato Scoop A traditional potato ‘grate’ for harvesting potato crops without damage. The bar across the end of the tines prevents accidental stabbing while the tine’s spacing and shape allows potatoes to be sifted from the soil. If using to harvest potatoes grown in the ground, we recommend first loosening the soil around the base of the plants.

Copper Snail & Slug Tape A simple solution to protect precious plants from slugs and snails. A small electric shock created naturally from the copper adhesive tape deters these garden pests. Run around garden edges or pots. Non-toxic, available in 4m and 10m rolls. 4m Retail $12.00 Club $9.95 Code HCSST4 10m Retail $22.00 Club $19.95 Code HCSST10

Retail $44.50 Club $37.50 Code HPSC

Potato Sacks A pack of 2 natural hessian sacks to harvest potato crops and store them over the winter. Prevents sweating and storage rot. Width 40cm, height 55cm. Potato Scoop / Potato Sacks 54 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013

Retail $14.00 Club $12.00 Code HSSB

Copper Snail & Slug Tape

Healthy from the ground up Growing strong, healthy and vigorous plants and vegetables is easy with our exclusive Rockdust Fertiliser and Diggers Biochar.

Rockdust Fertiliser

Rockdust is a natural mineral fertiliser which replaces nutrients that have been removed from the soil. Rockdust will conserve up to 30% more moisture — making plants healthier and more drought tolerant, providing better tasting and more nutritious fruit and vegetables, repelling insects and pests, reducing disease — and is better for the environment. Rockdust provides up to 100 minerals and trace elements. 100% all natural and specially formulated for The Diggers Club. 2 kilograms covers 40 square metres. Retail $35.00 Club $30.00 Code HRDUS

Biochar Soil Conditioner

Biochar is full of natural nutrients for use as an environmentally beneficial, nutrient bonded, carbon sequestering soil conditioner. Its spongelike structure will improve soil’s capacity to share nutrients and moisture, with roots creating stronger and healthier plants. It will sweeten acid soils, improve soil structure, increase soil moisture, last decades, reduce fertiliser use, make better compost and improve cation exchange capacity. 2 kilograms covers 10 square metres. Retail $35.00 Club $29.95 Code HBIOC

Biochar Soil Conditioner

Rockdust Fertiliser

Citrus essentials Insectrap

A non-toxic trap that lures Diptera insects including Mediterranean and Queensland fruit flies as well as citrus gall wasp. Simply remove the twist top and hang the yellow cylinder in your fruit tree – two traps for 2 metre tall trees, four traps for larger trees. The flies and wasps will fly into the cylinder and get stuck on the glue lining the tube, leaving your fruit unblemished and your citrus tree branches healthy. Use throughout the year for fruit fly and from September-November for citrus gall wasp. Replace after three months for maximum effect.

Long Reach Cut & Hold Picker Pick your lemons, avocados and mangoes without using a ladder. This lightweight tool features a small cutting blade (10mm capacity) and a fibreglass handle and gripper to cut and hold the stemmed fruit. At 1 metre in length, with your arm extended you should be able to safely pick all your fruit. Retail $52.95 Club $45.00 Code HSNIP

Retail $7.95 Club $6.95 Code HITRAP

Insectrap

Long Reach Cut & Hold Picker Recently updated and re-released this is the easiest book to read on the subject of citrus. Citrus are the most popular fruit trees to grow in the suburban backyard and this book will inspire you, answer all your citrus questions and ensure your success! Hardback, 76 pages, 2009.

Organic Fruit & Citrus Fertiliser

Retail $19.95 Club $18.95 Code HCITR

Retail $29.95 Club $25.95 Code HDOFC

Specifically developed for growing healthy organic fruit with boosted levels of Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K), specifically designed to enhance fruit quality. Apply during planting and throughout the year (including winter). Organic Fruit & Citrus Fertiliser Diggers Winter Garden 2013 • 55

If undeliverable please return to: The Diggers Club PO Box 300 Dromana Victoria Australia 3936

Combine your autumn and winter orders for a free rose! Some plants are just too good to miss out on and this selection of our standout lines deserve a place in every garden! Purple Asparagus

Romneya

Apple Wild Granny

Chatham Island Forget-me-not

Club only $9.95 Code WROC

Retail $6.95 Club $5.95 Code PASPU

Bilberry

Retail $10.95 Club $8.50 Code PCHBL

Club members only $27.50 Code WAPWO

Club only $12.95 Code WBIB

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FREE ith w ROSE ers memb s order9 9 over $e 29

PRINT POST

PP 381667/00111

Browse our complete range at diggers.com.au

POSTAGE PAID AUSTRALIA

56 • Diggers Winter Garden 2013