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Sept. 18, 2022

Ep 002 - Spring, Mulching, Cankles and Craic

Ep 002 - Spring, Mulching, Cankles and Craic

In this episode we discuss the excitement of spring, share what's happening in our gardens and have a good yarn about mulch.  We also revisit the question posed in episode one about sugar cane mulch; is it a sustainable mulching option? Lastly we talk about a few projects we are working on including a homemade flower and herb drier.

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Transcript

Warning, today's podcast has explicit language in it. Yes, we use some naughty words. So if you've got little ears, it might be good to turn the volume down. Welcome to Seedy Chats, the podcast where imperfect gardeners, Avril, that's me, and Bernadette, Hi, that's me, chat about our favourite topics, gardening and life. So whether you're new to gardening, a seasoned pro or somewhere in between, join us on our journey to be mindful in gardening and life in general. Hello. Welcome back to Seedy Chats. Welcome back to Seedy Chats episode two. Can you believe we've made it? Have you, how many times have you listened to yourself? A couple. Wow. Bernadette shared it with her whole world. Oh, just an intimate, look, there's a lot of people out there. Did you have a podcast party? I didn't. I didn't, I just sent it to people and said, what do you think? Listen. Listen, listen, fuckers. OK, Brenda, my story this morning, I dropped my kids to school and as I got them out of the car, it's always been a struggle because it's a juggle motherhood to kids. Yeah. Plus all the centavariling that you're doing on the side. Ava is in year one, Callan's in the early learning centre. the same building, different entrances. Right. So I'm getting out of the car. It's a struggle like a four year old. He's like, I want to bring my toy. I want to bring my book. And I'm like, get the beep out of the car. All their parents are walking past. They've seen the whole theatrical happening. And get them out. I've got stuff in my hands. Ava's got her bag in her back. It's her coat. She's got a school hat. It's got to be on her head. She's going off. We're saying good morning. you know, to everyone and then I'm saying goodbye to her and then Callan's running down the road and I've got all my bags, his bag and his his coat and his hat, his water bottle and I'm thinking how am I going to open the door? I've got this security card in my back pocket so we're, COVID's no longer stopping us from going into the building now which is great and I thought Alright so now you've got to swipe in Swipe card, yeah so I'm thinking the swipe card's in my arse pocket so I'm like that For those playing at home, that's arse as in A-R-S-E. My back pocket and my jeans. I think I'll just, I'll keep everything in my hands. I'm not going to look stupid. And I'll get down to the door and I'll just put my arse up to the wall. Right? So that you don't look stupid. So, oh, did I look stupid? So I didn't realise that the security swipe thing, Bob, is up high, whatever, what's it called? Swipe. Like. receiver? Yeah, well, I've got that in, I've got the cards in my arse pocket, the thing on the wall, it's up higher. So I have to kind of get my arse up higher and then now I look like I'm itching myself. Or wiping your arse. Or wiping my arse. And then a parent walks around the corner and I kind of was like, oh, the door is open, I'm gonna open the door. I didn't verbalize anything, so I'm just assuming that they know what I was doing. I don't know, shout out to that parent, if that was you, I was. Letting you in the door with my arse. It ties into an internet search that my husband caught me doing this week, which was leashes for children. Oh. Where do we stand on this? Because I was looking at like the backpack words where it looks like a monkey, but the tail's a leash. That's right. Because Charlotte's, you know, 15 months, she's at this age, she wants the independence, she wants to run. You can get a wrist one as well. I had a wrist one when I was a kid. I was a runner. When I got into a car park, I used to run. I think I had one for Ava. for Callan, I then handed it down like, and it was a little backpack and it just had like a little leash that came off it and you could detach the little leash. Do you think that would be accepted in our summer? Absolutely, because it's the safety of your child. Like yeah, so I got it for traveling internationally at the airport and I was terrified. Like I was going through, I don't know, Abu Dhabi and these big airports that, I can hardly look after myself, never mind a child that's running around the place and. And I wanted it to look duty free. Mum's got to have a wine. It's probably a concealer. Yeah. Oh, we both have different agendas. Oh, my life is changed again. We're not travelling, it's wine. That's like, that was very awkward this morning and I didn't verbalise it. And now I keep thinking about it and I keep seeing the parents. You're the arse girl now. She went home and she went tiling this morning. school this morning was wiping her arse. So I walked in and she didn't even acknowledge it. I just smiled. Like I just, it was a bit awkward. And now I keep seeing them and I'm like, morning, I'm not scratching my arse. Morning was beacon of arses and jeans. These jeans are made of plastic water bottles. What? I swear to God, I brought the tag in to show you. So I went looking for- Show me the tag. Hold on. Try not to wipe your ass on the podcasting key while you do it. Oh, actually, a funny story in the store. They're called D-Jeans. I mean, they're not overly expensive round thing. I picked them up. I love a little bit of a rummage in TK Maxx. Oh, don't we all? So D-Jeans recycled denim. And it said, high waist, butt lifter, ankle. And I thought it lifted her ankle. Like, at a quick glance, I was like, why can't you do that? For the gal on the go who's got a keg-kle issue. Yeah. I thought, made from recycled plastic. Look at that. But. I've only got six bottles on me today. I thought it would be around 30 bottles to make a pair of jeans. I'm still very impressed. I mean, I find it hard. They're lovely. They're not bad, right? Are they stretch? Yeah, they're a little bit stretchy. I'm going to look into this. Look, I have enough trouble buying jeans. I've got a jean graveyard. I reckon I've got 15. Oh, here you are, saving the platter with your jeans. Here I am talking about my indiscretions. I've got 15 pairs that don't fit. I think we all do. But I think my pairs that don't fit are compostable. Welcome to our new listeners, or welcome back to someone that has previously listened. If we've got an 11th listener, welcome to our listenership. We had, we uploaded, Brendan had uploaded this, our last podcast yesterday. Yes, went live. Went live, and we had 10 downloads. Look, eight of them were mum, two of them were me and you, but. Oh no, look, it's good to be out there to be live. That's right. We're really excited about this. And not a single person has slid into the DMS as you predicted. Come on, I can't DM. I'm going to have to set up an alias account and start DMing Bernadette. Can someone DM Seedy Chats on Insta? Instagram, Seedy Chats. Okay, so today's episode, it's jam-packed. In fact, I could not wait. Now, all I can think about is sharing all these things with our listenership. So today's episode, we talk about what's happening in your garden, as per usual. We're going to touch on spring, having sprung. Move on to our word of the day, which this week is mulching. Mulching. We love a good mulch. We love a good mulch. That follows up on our sugar cane question that Avril posed last week, and then we're gonna follow up, end up with a project. And what have you got on your list, Avril? I do have a list in front of me, don't I? We have a little, we just want to talk about the wattle around Canberra at the moment. A waffle. A waffle about wattle. A waffle about wattle. Did you notice I wore my wattle jacket? Oh, you did, yes. Yes, from my mummy. Yep. She made me a wattle jacket. You guys can see that on our Instagram Seedy Chats. It's beautiful. So it has just literally flowered, bloomed. It's spectacular around the nation's capital. So, yeah, I think we should talk about it. Our beautiful nation's capital and also in our surrounding New South Wales region, which we're in as well, I think we should talk about it too. It's beautiful. Do you want to go into it now? Do you want to come? Yeah, why not? So you go. What excites you about the wattle? Well. spring, you know straight away that something is happening. You can see this, these beautiful green trees, bushes, just starting to change colour. They're beautiful green anyway. And then all of a sudden you see them changing into yellow. It's probably not a great time for everyone because, you know, allergies, they obviously affect people's allergies. Yes, well pollen in general, but it is, you know, Emblem? Emblem, yes, the green and gold, you know, can't get much more Australian than that. It's beautiful and the smell is intoxicating. I love the smell of the baronias at this time of year as well, but the wattle always holds a special place in my heart and gets you excited. You see that, it's that visual sign you mentioned to me too. Such an important plant for us around here for pollinators when there's not much else going on. It's a very intelligent plant. Because it's the only thing. that is really in flower. I mean, a lot of our flowers are starting to come alive, but it's out there and you can see the pollinators, they're just attracted to it. Like it's fantastic. In fact, even those cherry blossoms and everything, the wattle comes out just that few weeks before. So you're right. It's very intelligent. Yeah, yeah. Very clever. And you, we did kind of talk about the smell. Yes. You love the smell of wattle. But. Wattle is like roses. Some varieties are more fragrant than others. So you could smell one and it might not have a fragrance and then there are other varieties. But when you get one that has a great fragrance, I could sniff it all day. Yeah, right. I never thought of that. And then that sent me thinking and I quickly Googled it. You can buy a lot of Wattle scent, like Wattle oil. Really? Yeah. It was only last night, brain to death, that I was looking and I just noticed it's predominantly oil. So I don't know whether... Well, I'll add that to my bathing regime. I'll douse myself in mortal oil. That's right. Because I'm worth it. Yes. You are worth it. You've got to flick your hair with it. I know everyone says this is the most exciting time of the year. What makes spring exciting for you as a gardener? So as a gardener, we talked last week about preparing our beds, getting ready. We've got... There's so much excitement. However... we are leaving an exciting season. So, because I did also talk about how my winter vegetables aren't coming to fruition, but I actually think the sheep poo has given them the boost they needed. So I have, which I will post a picture, my florets, my broccoli, my purple tops, and my Romanesco has come. So, I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. started just in two weeks. Just in two weeks. It's spectacular. So anyway, we are leaving a very exciting season but spring is yeah you can see it, you can feel it. I came in without a coat today and I'm sure you wanted to bring some wattle in. Bernadette has been pulling over on the side of the road. Guys and gals, I've been taking photos of anything that I think might be of interest to you or anything that just inspires me. for spring, so at times that has meant me being a crazy person pulling over in the middle of peak hour traffic. So I decided to message Braden the other morning and I was thinking to myself, oh it's seven o'clock a little bit too early, she'll think I'm a lunatic, I might leave at quarter past seven. So I'm messaging her at a quarter past seven. Great self-restraint. She gets back to me, she's literally pulled over on the side of the road and it made me feel so much better that I wasn't such a lunatic. We're both lunatics together. Completely loony bins. Okay, so just going back to Bernadette, you, I know, because I know you want to cut some wattle and bring it inside. Yes. However. I nearly brought some wattle into our last podcast. Yes, I do remember you saying that. So there is a little bit of superstition in wattle and in indigenous culture, how it's meant to ward away bad spirits. However, you put it outside your door. Ah. Yeah, so you don't bring it into your house. I mean, it's beautiful to bring into your house. And maybe a lot of people with their allergies, they wouldn't want to do that. However, you can have it at your door. Just have it at your door, have it outside. You can have it outside in your patio area or barbecue area. I like the idea of having something at the door to welcome people. So for me, spring isn't just an excitement. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of excitement in the garden, so. We talked last time about those first few new leaves on the raspberry canes and your first blossoms on the fruit trees and the wattle and all those things. But then there's also, as you, I'm really glad that you said, we're coming out of a beautiful season because I hear a lot of people say, oh, well, I don't get in the garden because it's winter. It's too cold, it's too windy. It's horrible. I love a bit of wind. I love the process of the seasons and it's something that I... really love about living in Canberra is we enjoy and are blessed with four distinct seasons here. We are. And when you go through those seasons year after year, you need the winter, you need the rest, you need the recovery, you need to slow down. If all year was spring and summer, I think people would be run ragged in the garden. So I appreciate that whilst we slow down in winter. And it's more about preparation, you know, prepping the beds. I like now that we move in, you know, now we've done the work and we're getting ready. Yeah, to... Full steam forward. Full steam forward, plant, plant, plant, harvest, harvest, harvest. It completely reminds me of home. I think that's why I love, when I moved here, I never thought that I would stay here. So we moved with my husband's work and I never thought we'd stay here. I was like, we're here for a year and we're going. Yeah. And then when I thought about it, it just... I was drawn to those seasons. And I find, so this is my theory about living in this area. At home, when Christmas arrives, it's in the middle of winter, right? So we go through winter, we have this mega milestone called Christmas. We all get together, we have time off. Whereas in winter over here, we don't have that. So my theory is in winter you have to enjoy, so I light a lot of fires outside. I have two fires going. I have a fire inside and I have a fire outside and sometimes I have my door open. And I still have my coat on, so I'm quite lucky that I have an area that I can open up. You can see the fire inside going, you can see my fire outside going. And I work between, I let my kids run in and out. How beautiful, the fire crackling, the smell of the smoke. People come to my house and they're like, oh quick, close the door, close the door. And I was like, leave it open. It's great, I love it. And then I'm like, you need to go somewhere. So go to the snow for the week. Make your own little Christmas. Have that milestone and enjoy the winter. The season. And it doesn't have to be for the week. You could just have a weekend. You could do a day trip or do a few dates. We're very lucky where we live here. Like I love that we can pop to the snow. Or pop to the beach. Or pop to the beach. I was skiing one weekend and then the next weekend, I was actually in the water. That's awesome. That's amazing on the beach. Beautiful. So that's my theory, living around this area. If you can do that, you gotta enjoy it. You gotta make the most of it. And... I planted my carrots out by the way. How did they go? I know it was like a ceremony. So I said to you the last time, it got really laggy. So I just, they had the light, they were by my kitchen window, they were just ready to go out. They needed their next journey in life. Your dad said, give him a crack. Yeah, I think I've talked to my dad, talked me through it, get them out. I think I've killed them. Oh no. No, you know, I just think anything that you transfer, you've loved it inside for so long. They're probably a little bit of a root shock. So, I'm sorry to interrupt you there, but I do this all the time. I think what it is also related to... Do I do it all the time interrupting? Evidently. Based on some early criticisms that have been provided to us on episode one. Did you... Harden them off. No, I didn't. No, you didn't. Because we never bloody harden off, even though we all know that we should harden off and then we stick them in the grout and we've done all this work and then we go, oh, what are they done? Oh, because we didn't harden them off. As I put them in, it was a beautiful day yesterday, actually. As I put them into the soil, I was like, harden up. Harden up because I'm not hardening you off. Harden up. I think it'll be OK. I gave them a dice of seaweed solution and water and they had a little bit of a droop, I noticed, but sure. You know, it is what it is. Sometimes life's too short to harden off. Yeah, no, it is. And normally, you know- Sickle swim, guys! I've got shit to do! Normally I just put them in the ground anyway, and they grow. Yes, because you're a direct sower. Because I'm a direct sower. So again, back to make it easy. Fingers crossed you don't need all of them to work. Oh well, they're not for me if they can't swim. It's fine. Next. I actually started some seeds this week as well. What did you start? So I'm helping out with a local community program. So the Canberra Seed Savers Club is doing some, is doing a, I just was asking for some volunteers to make some seedlings to hand out to different organisations throughout the community and I thought it was a great initiative. So I stuck my hand up. So I started mine. I'll post a picture for you guys. I used the toilet roll method. Have you used it before? Oh. I haven't actually, but I need to because we all have toilet paper, toilet rolls right? Look a lot of people can throw them in the compost but I find it really, really practical. So for me if it's practical and it's good for the environment that's a double tick, that's great. So for mine I keep all the loo rolls. I'm type A so I have to get all of the same loo rolls so that they all look exactly the same in my little thing. And actually a lot of people in my family keep their loo rolls for me too because they know that I use them. So I did. Yeah, I think 45 loo rolls, just quickly. Like when I first used to do it, I used to cut the ends and fold them down to seal it. I don't do any of that nonsense anymore. You've got a good photo, you're gonna post that? Yep, I get a wheelbarrow of my seed starting mix. I quickly, like I'm filling a cannoli, I just put some in one and some in the other, tap, tap. tap them down. So yeah, pack the toilet rolls with the seed starting mix, sit them in the greenhouse, which is a controlled environment, but you could have just as easily set these on your windowsill at this time of year. Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. I did some climbing beans, some sunflowers, some snow peas, and some zucchini. So started those off with the Luril method. You're gonna be good to go with your zucchini, right? I think I need to do that. Well, I'm doing now. I'm doing that for the seed starting program. But for me personally, something that I am trying really hard to do this year is not to start my seeds too early. Typically in our region we would plant our seeds out on Melbourne Cup Day, which is November. So you would be looking at starting your seeds six to eight weeks before that sort of median frost date. So that's still a little bit too early here. And what I've found in the past is I start things too early and then they stay in those small cells too long. and they don't get what they need, they get stunted and they never recover when I put them in the ground. So is that a learning from last year? Would that be one of your mega learnings? That would be my few mega learnings, that's one. Also last year we had La Nina weather conditions around here and it's been forecast that we're going to have a similar season. A lot of rain. A lot of rain. And some things performed exceptionally with all that rain, but I will be going into this next season with that in the back of my mind. that we're probably going to have a very wet season. So for example, not planting things, I definitely will be making sure that I'm giving things lots of space, keeping on top of pruning so that you've got air flow, reducing the chance of... Tests and... And mildew, powdery mildew. Over planting, I think I over plant. Yeah, me too. I think if I just put loads in, something's gonna do, but it can be, it's a double-edge. And you get excited and you want to put all these things to the ground. At the beginning, it's all small and it looks quite pathetic. Like you put it, you put an onion seeding thing in the ground. It's the most pathetic thing you've ever seen. This lucky little, you know, hair of an onion. Although you had seen my audience. Oh, we just went to the garden there last week and so our community garden and. Bernie went, oh, what are these garlic? And I was like, no, they're onions. And she went, are they those lanky things you put in? And I was like, yeah. I could not believe. That's, yeah, they have done spectacular. You really put them in at the right time. I didn't put any onions in at that time. So you really nailed that timing. And another thing that I did plant was parsley. Was we talked about the parsley seeds. Oh, did you direct sow it? I direct sowed it. And have you had anything germinate yet? Oh God, no. No, no, no. So let's see. Let's see how we go. I'm pretty excited about the parsley, because as I said, people think it's think it's really easy in our last podcast. And it's something that I failed drastically at. And people might plant it and think I can't even grow parsley. Well, actually, it's really hard. Keep us posted. Keep the water up and keep keep your eye on it, because, like I said, it can take up to three weeks. The last thing I've been doing lately is making bacon. Pardon? Making bacon, making bacon, making bacon. Please explain. So I bought my husband for his recent birthday a smoker. Oh, happy birthday, Andrew. Happy birthday, Andrew. And there's a local supply here that I won't mention but they do a smoked bacon product that I think we're putting their kids through university at the rate that we are purchasing this smoked bacon. Really? Because it's very expensive. It comes in, I think, 100 gram packets. Do you buy it at the local store? We buy it at the local store. And... I know what bacon it is. Yes, so I thought, let's give it a crack ourselves. So we bought for $60 a slab of pork belly from the shops and I've just started curing it. So it's a week curing, a day drying and then three hours in the smoker. So I might bring you a little sample. Smoky. That's awesome, good work. So supporting local, let's get into this conversation. We're gonna start off with, let's talk about our word of the day. Do you wanna kick off that? Word of the day is mulching. What is mulching, Brenda? Mulching is putting some sort of vegetation. Well, I just written down here. It's a blanket for your soil. A blanket for your soil. Isn't that beautiful? That's beautiful. A blanket for your soil, yeah. And so I asked the question last week about sugar cane. And Brenda was like, well, I don't know. You have no idea what I have been through. I haven't told you this with the sugar cat. Oh, really? Okay. You go. What have you found out about the sugar cane since we last, in our last episode we weren't sure if it was sustainable and a good choice for mulch. So what have you researched? So mulching, you've got a lot of different types of mulch. Sugar cane is predominantly, it comes from Australia, it comes predominantly from up north. So it is a good local resource. What I learned from my research though is that you... possibly could get something a little bit more local, which kind of works for me. So I have alpacas and I have chickens. And I always have hay, straw, lucerne, because that's what I use with my animals. And woodchip, I sometimes use woodchip in with my chickens too. It just depends if I'm at a place and I see woodchip, I'll pick it up. And so the... The sugarcane mulch is very natural. So it's great, it just comes off the sugarcane, it's mulched down and that's what goes. So it doesn't go through a process, like I said, that it would be, they would add chemicals to kill and the thing, because there's no seeds there. You might get a little bit more with pea straw. some grass growing or seeds growing, which I think I have experienced. So have I, that's why I turned away from it in the past. And you do have to be careful then as to the organic, is it like a brand, have they kind of trademarked it, so just kind of know where you're buying it from, just try and buy it from a reputable dealer. Supplier, yeah. Supplier. So. In saying that, if you can buy your mulch from somewhere local, that's probably the best option. OK. What was your rabbit hole then? So, I went to buy some mulch and I thought, OK, I've sort of mindlessly, not mindlessly, I thought the sugar cane was a good choice. I thought, OK, I should do some research and find out if that is the best option. So I went to a local supplier. and asked them what were the products they supplied. They said they had a pea straw, sugar cane option, pea straw mulch, sugar cane mulch option. They also had hay and straw like you talked about before. And I said, okay, so where is the pea straw and sugar cane mulch, where does it originate from? Because I'm worried about the carbon footprint associated with what I'm. So, I'm going to ask you a question that I've been getting a lot of questions about. Purchasing, I want to make... You said this. Okay, I said all this. You got all this service. They looked at me like I was nuts. I got so embarrassed. Oh, I'm sorry, Brenna. No, don't be sorry, because I think it's an important lesson. I didn't think I was going to be like a crusader going out there, going, hey. I thought maybe they would... I thought consumers would be asking them more. No one's ever asked this question clearly, because they looked at me like I was an idiot. They then told me that they were supplied all of their products from... another supplier in Yass. So I got my car and I called them. Oh my Lord. Right. And I said, guys, I'm at this, I'm at this supplier. You surprise them with with peace drawer sugar cane mulch. What do you think has the lower carbon footprint? And they were really receptive. He said, Do you mind if you hold we want to talk about this for a second. They were fantastic. Wow. I am so impressed with this. He came back and he said that whilst the sugar cane mulch originates from Queensland and does travel down to Canberra, so you've got to think about the fuel and that sort of stuff. He said it's a much more raw product. So essentially, they just gather that sugarcane mulch and package it up. That's right. Whereas the pea straw, whilst it would originate closer to us, most likely in Victoria or South Australia, there is a process that it then needs to go through to be ready for consumers to use it as mulch. So for example, it goes through some machining, dust extraction and things like that to then get it ready. So he said then there's also fossil fuels associated. I'm so impressed that he actually discussed this with you as well. I'm impressed that you even asked this question. Well, what I learnt is ask these crazy questions over the phone first of all, because I was a lot less, I felt a lot less embarrassed having the conversation on the phone. Yeah, so he said the peace draw, you know, whilst it doesn't, hasn't travelled as far, there's more. carpet footprint involved in the process to get it ready for you. Then when I was at the store I noticed the pea straw and the sugar cane mulch are both in a plastic wrapper and they had the bails of lucerne and hay and straw. They have no plastic. So then when I talked to them I said, do you know where the straw's from? And she said, well yes, the straw here is all from, she said, look, general New South Wales, a Cartier Xeque. And so I decided to go with a bale of straw from general New South Wales. because it didn't have the plastic. I haven't used straw before. You may have used it. I have used straw before. And you know what I think, because thinking about your question, or your, what you said about the snails liking the- Moisture. The moisture. Yeah. So I think with straw, when I have used that in the past, it doesn't get soggy and wet. So they don't like going over that. That's great because- It's definitely worth trying. But is it, it feels- First of all, it's a bit messier in the car. I guess if it's not wrapped in plastic, that's the reality. But you know, it's not the end of the world. Put a tarp down and it was, you know what? It was cheaper too. It was $12 for this huge bale. And you're gonna get loads out of that. You're gonna get loads, but it feels a lot coarser to me. Like would you use it with seedlings? I have used it with seedlings. I've probably had to be a little bit more particular like breaking it up and putting it down, like laying it down. Yes. And look. I don't prepare all my beds at once, so I'm still trying to figure out how to get crops from one season to the next. So I'm often mulching and amending my soil around things that are already there. It's the same. So then it's not too much extra work just to put a handful of straw here and there and work it around things. It'll be, you'll either like it or not like it. I reckon that's how it works with mulch. Because I took a video yesterday in my garden. Did I say, I sent it through to you, did I? So there was one of my beds that, it's only kind of taking off now, it's got red heirloom spring onions. And then the other side is carrots. And I was thinking, as I was standing there, I was like, I haven't had many weeds in this bed. I've pulled out a few from memory, but why did I mulch here? And it suddenly came back to me. I had a bale of woodchip. Like you'd buy for your animals, and God knows what process that goes through. You know, like your hamsters, that type of, you buy in the pet store. Oh, like, almost like wood shavings. Shavings, yeah, yeah, yeah, wood shavings. And I was like, this is the bed I've put wood shavings on. Well, that's one of the main reasons people use mulch. Weed suppression, and then also moisture retention. You know, it's gonna hold that moisture in a blanket for your soil, I love that. And then also, I guess the third one for me would be, it is a little bit of a barrier between spreading anything fungal or bacterial from that soil. If you're splashing it when you're watering, it's not going to splash up onto your foliage and less chance of disease. So I think the stat out there, it reduces the need to water by up to 70%. Wow. So mulch is really important. And especially, so I don't know whether you've noticed, so at the community garden, it's very windy. Yeah, oh yes. So that whole top layer of soil becomes so dry and dusty. Nothing evaporates quite like the wind, and you don't give it as much credit as the sun. But that wind will dry things up, because I notice it too, of course, I've got my greenhouse, which is fully wind protected, which is right next to my other main bed, and I often see the difference, will be retained in the greenhouse just because it's covered and that greenhouse in fact gets hotter than the exposed beds. So speaking of experiments I've got a old bag of sugarcane malt still in my garage and I've now got the bale of straw. I'm gonna do those two new raised beds that I've got that are identical. They're going to be full of potatoes soon so I'm thinking that I'm sugar cane mulch and one of them with the new mulch and see how it goes. See if I'm happy with it. I reckon that's a great experiment. It's something so basic. And you just gotta, I reckon you just gotta work with what's freely available to you. So I'm not gonna think too much about it this year. I think I might do a bit more wood chip. You can't do everything every year. You can't be perfect with everything every year. But yeah, I just went down this. We are pretty much perfect though, Brendan. Yeah. face it. Just polish the halo. If you can mulch, get mulching and you've got different types of mulch. You've got so inorganic, organic and living. That's what I kind of organic, inorganic and living. Talk me through that. So you've got your inorganic which will be like your stones. Oh yeah gravel. Yeah gravel. And so they could go like on driveways and your organic. will be anything that we talked about, your pea straw, your sugarcane and lucerne. Living will be something I'm thinking of like a grass. Yep, a cover crop maybe. So like your living, you might have like a little flower. I've seen some people plant some beautiful little flowers like those little violas that completely take over. But then two of my personal heroes, Monte Don and Charles Dowding, neither of them mulch their vegetable beds. Yeah right. So they've both got... And so Charles is a no-dick. He's no-dick. What does Monty do? Monty is a writer, a broadcaster. Oh, he does everything. An author. A dog owner. A dog owner. But he famously does BBC's Gardeners World. He's the host of Gardeners World. Yeah, okay. But he doesn't mulch. ["Gardeners World"] So he does, I'm not sure if he mulches in some sections of the garden, I'm sure he does, but in his main garden beds, so just his producing garden beds, it's just the soil and the crops. So I don't know, and Charles Dowding as well, he doesn't, and I think that just comes down to his, when he amends his soil with a good seven or 10 centimetres of compost, essentially that's that organic. that you were talking about. That is mulch. That's weed suppressing. That's doing all that maybe. But you know, Monty definitely tills when he prepares a bed. He'll dig everything out and till it over. So interesting, you know, two of my personal heroes, I do it. You know, let's put all of this good for the environment. All that stuff aside, I like the way it looks. You do. It's neat. They're very visual. Yes. I like things in a row. Mr. McGregor across from me here. So Bernadette has often stated to me that she grows all her beautiful things at home that she can visually be happy with. And then all the things that she doesn't like looking at, she puts in the community garden. Yes. All her vines and things that we'll have. dead leaves hanging off the bottom. That needs a bit of space as well, I suppose, and she's visually happy with. Whereas I don't garden like that at all. Like I'm a bit of a, get it in the ground, get it producing. Yeah, I don't care. But you care. I care. I care less at certain times of the season. So once summer really kicks off and you just get a little bit overwhelmed, but it's saying that I kept on top of the pruning of my tomatoes last year. I was really disciplined, you know, keeping. getting rid of those lower branches, getting rid of any diseased foliage, and I had a bumper crop as a result. In fact, I've still, I canned and preserved all of that to see me through and I've still got probably a month's worth of tomatoes. So, um. That's the way to do it. I got nearly a year's worth of canned tomatoes from that and I certainly got a higher yield in my opinion because they were healthier. Yeah, right. Because they were a bit neater. So I think the plants like it as much as I do. What have you seen self-seed so far already in spring? Calendula. We have a love hate relationship with Calendula. I would prefer to see a bed of calendula than a bed of weeds. When, yeah, when I started at the community garden, I hadn't grown calendula at home. Every time one of the kids would walk past to spent calendula flower, I would say to them, grab those seeds and sprinkle them around. And now we do have a bit of a calendula invasion, don't we? But like you say, could be worse things. Could be worse things, absolutely. You could have like thistles and briars and, like calendula is easy, it's so easy to pull out of the soil. It's a fantastic companion plant. Fantastic companion plant. Can you make your, what do you call them, your tinkers? You can make, you can eat calendula, it's edible so you can put it in salads, it looks really pretty. You can make a tinkerer. or like a self, do they call it a self? Yeah, you can. We should do that this year. We should collect the leaves, dry them out. I do a lot of dehydrating at home. I'd love to do freeze drying, but I don't have a freeze dryer. But if there's anyone listening that wants to donate two freeze dries to Afro. Well, I don't know whether I'd like a freeze dryer. I don't know whether I want one or not. Like that's worked to me and it may not fit into my routine at the moment. Yeah, that comes back to the self-sufficiency. So I like to produce as much of my own. of everything that we use in the house myself. I just think drying them is perfect for me. I just think of drying. So Avril, what's happening in your garden at the moment? So well, I told you that I've planted my carrots, so that's tick. I cut my grass. I planted the little parsley seeds like I said I would. So let's see how they go. I'm excited about my florets happening. So my Romanesco and my purple top broccoli. I can't wait to see them. I'm so excited that it's happening for you because you was a bit up in the air whether you'd get them in time, right? Yeah, and I had bought these seedlings from a local farm as did two other people that I garden with. The farm had, they normally grow their own and they sell their produce, but they had overgrown, over seedlings. Do you mind me asking, how much were the seedlings? I think they were $3 each. See this gets me, like if you get one head of broccoli. It's like, is that, that's costing you $3 plus all the inputs plus all the labor. Yeah. But that's what another reason why I grow from seed a lot because it's just so much more cost effective. I normally grow from seed, that's what I'm saying. I always put them in the grant. I just wanted to support them. Yeah. They threw out on their Instagram page that they had all these seedlings. So the florets seem to be abundant. So I'm not just going to get one floret. Oh. Yeah, they seem to be. So what type of broccoli is it? So it's a purple top broccoli. A purple top. I've got a purple top in that I think will be a spring. So I put a lot in just before, well in autumn, in late autumn. So then they've over wintered and I'm hoping then I'll get a spring crop. Is that how it works? Well, hopefully, or it'll just go to seed. Oh, woohoo! Even if it does go to seed, cut the flowers off. Like put them in a salad or? Speaking of going to seed, all my kohlrabi went to seed. I've got some photos. I was hoping someone might be able to help us that listens. I thought kohlrabi only, so kohlrabi is sort of, it's like a big bulbous brassica and it's sort of like a cross between a cabbage and broccoli. And I had read that it only went to seed every second year. Oh. Bioneal. And mine's only been in the ground like six months and it's got to say, but it's in my veg truck. So I wonder if it was too hot. I like that pronunciation. Veg, veg truck. You're welcome. What did you call it last? A veg truck. A veg. I was like, she's being ultra fancy. It's a veg, a veg truck. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, normally if something goes to seed you've put it in too late. Or it's just heated up really, really quickly. Well, I've got the cold frame on the veg truck, or the veg truck, dammit. I've got the cold frame on, so yeah, it does get pretty warm in there. Yeah, right, okay, well, I just. the flowers you can still eat them they're still edible so what did we eat in the garden the other day? I don't know that was delicious! Cavalonero which is a green what is it it's a green cabbagey spinnagey some sort of brassica. It's brassica, it's quite tough, it's beautiful, it reminds me, I love growing it because it gets really stalky and then it just looks like the fleur, like a French, I feel like a really professional gardener with it because it grows up and out and it looks fancy. And it looks fancy. So it was going to flour and I cut all the flour tops off, go, no, you're not going to flour. I cut them all off. And I went to burn it at, oh, I wonder what that tastes like. Cause it looks like a broccolini. It just looks like a broccolini. So when I put it in my mouth and I, So this is what worries me about you sometimes. Oh no, no, no. Is that you will put anything in your mouth. You walk around that garden, you'll be, you go, you go, what's this? What's this? Well, hopefully not a poisonous mushroom. We have a guest speaker coming on our show. How exciting. Our first guest. So we have a beautiful lady coming on. Her name is Abigail and her business is called Wildly Abigail. And she is based in Launceston. In Tasmania. Tasmania, yes. So she is, she's opened up her own concept store. And it, she has worked a lot. I would class her as a slow florist artist. So you've got your herb dryer. We actually bought that together. And I went to buy one recently. So yours is like a metal ring, a circle, and then it's got hooks that hang off it and you can dry the herbs. Think of a drying, you know, your small little drying thing that you put in your laundry line. For your socks and your undies. That's right. So you've got that. I gave it away. I wanted, oh, of course you did St. Avril. To Wildly Abigail. It went on a journey down to Tasmania. Oh, lovely. Well, I wanted a herb dryer, mainly for flower drying, to be honest. And it's also my mum's birthday coming up, so I wanted to make one for mum as well. Happy birthday, Mum. And I saw these ones online where you get an old rolling pin and you upcycle it by putting some hooks in it and hanging it up. So I'll show it to you. Oh, Bernadette. You think it's cute? It's awesome. Look at that. So I've stained. I've just stained. I had a little bit of stain and like I've stained the rolling pin, put a few hooks on it. And then I did a little bit of macrame with the cotton threading. I actually used an old one. I repurposed an old one that I had at home. And and then I'm going to hang it up and put some flowers on it. But I thought, what a good project if you had. If you had a rolling pin that you don't use anymore or that doesn't work anymore, doesn't roll anymore, you could so easy, I just put drilled three holes into it, screwed in the little hooks and then hung it on the rope. And then yeah, perfect for a flower or a herb dry and a really easy project to do at home. You know, I reckon you could even simplify that more. I love that idea. I reckon you could even just get a nice bit of wood in your garden. Oh, absolutely. Stick it through, you don't even need twine. I have a fetish. Is it appropriate for this podcast? Completely appropriate. A twine fetish, I love twine. Really? Twine and brown paper, that's my thing, I love it. Yeah, I love twine because I use twine in the garden all the time. So I twine things, I tie my growing. frames with twine onto star pickets. If tomatoes are drooping over, I just twine them up onto bamboo. Like I think, I love twine, I love, I would get lost like. I recently went to Spotlight and they have like a McCrame section. Yes. And all different coloured twine and so even botcher's twine. Oh my Lord. Yes. Beautiful. And that sort of, you know, earthly aesthetic as well. But you could, you could use anything and tie it up. And it's coming into that time of year where you don't, you could, I've got sort of an undercover outdoor area, but you don't necessarily have to worry about the exact conditions that these things are going to be, you could just put them outside. undercover, it's going to be dry enough, you know, going forward now, hopefully that you can, you know, I've got some ranunculars that have all just bloomed that are looking lovely and apparently they dry very well. Well, you know, wildly Abigail, Abigail is going to be, you're going to be able to pick her brains. Well, she can teach us about some good flowers to dry. Yeah, yeah. She might be impressed with my little project. I'll have to trade market. I actually stole it off Etsy. And she's all about reusing. Reusing is better than recycling. Yes. So she reuses a lot of things. Yes. And she has a beautiful art space that people can rent out down in Launceston. And she does a lot of workshops. So we'll get her talking about exactly what she does and what gardening means to her. She might have a first memory. I'm very much about what's your first memory of gardening? What's your first memory of gardening, Bernadette? But my first gardening memory would be of my Grandpa and Nguni and they had this beautiful garden in Farrah. Then they had grape hyacinths. I never knew what they were, but they used to, you know, I just remember lots of bulbs and tulips and grape hyacinths and they had these beautiful white silver birch trees and I remember being a kid, I'm a very tactile person, and I remember peeling... the bark off the silver birch trees. I used to love peeling the little rolls of, you know, how the white bark, you know, rolls off, you know, and just, yeah, just exploring this expansive garden that she was always in. So I think that is my first gardening memory. That sounds pretty magical. That or maybe Floriade. Yeah, right. Okay, well, of course, because that's such an abundance of bloom. Of course you'd remember that. And I was... photographed pretty heavily at one of the floriatres because mum dressed me in this gorgeous little dress that she'd sewn for me. Hello Charlotte. And she was in the kitchen. 100%. So I think mum dressed me up and then you know was taking a lot of photos of me in the floriatre fields and that was you know a big photo was up on the wall once. Yeah what about you? What's your first gardening memory? Oh wow I have a lot I grew up in a garden store right but my I had a great gardening neighbor. They weren't a direct neighbor, they were one house away, Oliver and Joan Sheehy. Oliver passed away last year, unfortunately, but I have a very distinct. He he worked in agriculture. I think he was an inspector, like some sort of inspector. I don't really know actually what he was. He called on a lot of farmers and he was quite important. And he I have a very vivid memory of him growing raspberries and spending a lot of time with him in the garden and his wife, Joan. And yeah, that's probably that. in a garden centre. I have a lot of memories and I just recently pulled up a photograph of, so my neighbours had a greenhouse, we never grew up in a greenhouse, but later in life then my dad got a greenhouse, but I have a photograph of Ava. I'll post that, that's quite nostalgic to me because she's in my dad's greenhouse. and she's with the tomato plants and it's just a beautiful, you can't see her face, it's her back and just, just beautiful colors and yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I just raspberries. That's something I love doing a shot every year is well, I did it once because she's one year old. But I intend on doing it this year again. You've got loads of years to do with her. It's awesome. Good work. Awesome chat, Bernadette. Awesome chat. Thanks for joining us on Seedy Chats. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram. Also, if you could leave us a review on whatever platform that you're listening to this podcast on, it really helps us out. And... Slon. What was that? Slon. Slon. Slon laugh. Goodbye in Irish. Slon laugh. Goodbye in Irish. Bye.