The Australian Native Garden Story That Kept Growing!

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Welcome back to my [music] channel.

[00:00:01]Today, we're in Paul and Jenny Surawski's native [music] Australian garden paradise. How are you guys? Good, thank you very much. So, we're about halfway exactly halfway between Inverloch and Wonthaggi. 5 acres of what was once just bare pasture land. When Mike and Ollie Wellings set this up, there were probably only about six large messmate trees on the property. Wow. And [music] every other plant you see while we walk around today has been planted.

[00:00:30]There are hundreds and hundreds [music] of plants. We all know about gardens. It has evolved and it's >> Yes. recycled.

[00:00:39]>> [laughter] >> Plants die and that's just an opportunity to plant more. Yep, [laughter] that's it.

[00:00:46]Prime real estate.

[00:00:47]>> Prime real estate, yes. Let's go and have a look, guys, and we'll talk more about it along the tour. Okay. Let's go.

[00:00:55]What have you got to show us here, mate?

[00:00:56]Uh I'm a bit of a banksia nut, um as uh a lot of people know. A few of them around.

[00:01:02]>> [laughter] >> So, the first off here, one of the great ones that's going really well at the moment is down here is the banksia spinulosa birthday candles. I've counted over 50 flowers on the inflorescences on this little plant here. It's going amazingly well down here. That's an absolute little beauty, mate. Now, that's one of the the little cultivars, isn't it? Yes, of spinulosa. There are many and here's another spinulosa here.

[00:01:30]If we can get a close-up of this particular inflorescence. Oh, look at that. Uh you can see the lovely black styles. This is banksia cunninghamia spinulosa variety cunninghamii, which may become banksia cunninghamii eventually. So, there's lovely black styles here. Mhm, very good. Yeah, so And is this um peak flowering time for this banksia, Paul?

[00:01:56]>> Yes, it looks like it, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, It's a a very fast growing one.

[00:02:00]>> And this is one of your East Coast of Australia >> spinulosa one. Yeah. And behind us here we've got a magnificent Corymbia eximia, the yellow bloodwood. And underneath that we've got the Banksia spinulosa collina, which is in flower at the moment and growing well.

[00:02:18]>> the light just shining through on the on the candle right there. Probably growing in what similar conditions to what it would grow in in the wild, wouldn't it? Cuz they grow in amongst eucalypts, don't they? It stretches way over there beyond the fence. It's a one plant.

[00:02:34]>> one plant?

[00:02:35]>> One plant and it's huge. Yes, it Yeah, so Yeah, and you've got a nice mix of other assorted natives in here, haven't you? This is a your native violet, isn't it? Yes, yes, it's a really fantastic ground cover. It needs a little bit of controlling, but at the moment you can see it's just creeping out and replacing the grass bit by bit. I mean, just mow it back and it just comes back up again. It's a Yeah.

[00:02:59]>> goes to show that um you can use these sort of plantings in areas so you don't have to have grass. That's correct. Yes, it's much easier to manage. Yes. And then look at this beauty up above it here. Yeah, that's the Brachychiton populneus, or the kurrajong.

[00:03:18]It's a pretty old one, but it's a I wonder how old this would be. Well, Mike and Ollie probably planted it maybe 30 years ago, so Yeah. Well, we're very lucky here that we're on ancient sand dunes and so we have very well drained soil, which is critical to many of our Australian natives, so So many of the plants grow well on their own roots and they don't even need grafted. Is that right? And this one here is the native frangipani, Hymenosporum flavum. Oh. And it's a Ollie's favorite. Ollie's favorite tree, yeah, so it was It's growing quite well.

[00:03:55]>> So, that's your the native frangipani.

[00:03:57]>> Yep. Yeah, God, look at this. I've never seen one that size.

[00:04:00]>> Uh well, half of it fell down, so it was >> [laughter] >> Have a look at This is amazing here. If you have a look in here, I don't know how it grows.

[00:04:11]>> [laughter] >> It's amazing, you know. Be a nice spot for a an animal to make a nest in there, wouldn't it? Yeah, so half of it fell down and um And it's still going. It's still going strong.

[00:04:23]>> This is a good example of what I try and do to actually encourage people to grow Australian natives. I refer to this as the cloud garden cuz you got lovely big waves of plants, and it's very closely uh planted. And it shows that you can actually have a garden that looks a lot more formal. Cuz some people like that kind of thing, so aiming to appeal to people that feel that things have to be neat and organized, you know, so it's appealing that. Tell us about this area. Uh this is yeah, planted by Mike and Ollie here with the with the casuarina and the kurrajong.

[00:04:58]And but beyond it there uh a couple of maybe not in quite appropriate spots, but that's the Queensland firewheel tree. The standard firewheel there, and on the left is a uh uh the yate, the Oh, the bushy yate.

[00:05:14]Yeah. cornuta. Yeah, so uh we have to keep pruning those back all the time cuz they're huge trees.

[00:05:20]>> [laughter] >> Are they um kurrajong? Kurrajong? Yeah.

[00:05:23]Is that flowering? It was um I still end up calling them all flame trees sometimes. Uh uh so, it's uh it it had You can see there the seed pods. Oh, yes. It uh it flowered profusely this year and generated What color are the flowers on this one?

[00:05:39]>> white. Oh, nice. Nice. Geez, that is a That's a decent size tree, isn't it?

[00:05:44]>> It's a beautiful tree, that one.

[00:05:46]>> Yeah. Yeah, but don't plant it near any pipes. I can tell you that. [laughter] No. We dug up one of the pipes here, and the roots had actually squashed it flat.

[00:05:58]And you got some nice correas just under here.

[00:06:00]>> uh Marion's Marvel, this one. Three of them. That's a beautiful correa here.

[00:06:05]>> honey bees getting in there. But, these are great for the your little honey eater birds, aren't they?

[00:06:10]Getting in amongst these correas. Yeah.

[00:06:14]This used to be little bits of lawn here, and uh trying to mow little patches of lawns a real hassle. So, I've been a real uh advocate for actually ground covers.

[00:06:26]So, if you look at the ground covers, there's myoporums, there's banksias, there's this pigface, which Paul hates because it keeps on taking over everything, but it's so very effective.

[00:06:36]And um what it does is it reduces the amount of actually mowing and maintenance. There are a few weeds in there, but largely it keeps the weeds down.

[00:06:46]>> Yes. So, that's the main purpose of it growing having so much of it growing in that area to keep the the weeds and the and the lawn down and that sort of thing.

[00:06:55]>> amount of work you've got. There's plenty of work on 5 acres, I can tell >> [laughter] >> The plants create a microclimate of moisture, too. So, instead of having a bare area, having plants in it promotes more plants. So, it's it's much better to have ground covers and then nothing or grass. So, >> That's right. And the pigface flowers really well in the season, doesn't it?

[00:07:22]>> And you can eat it. And you can eat it.

[00:07:23]That's an added bonus, isn't it? Do you actually eat it?

[00:07:26]>> Yeah, I'll chew a few of them. They're pretty salty, but the flowers are Yeah, that's fine.

[00:07:32]>> [laughter] >> Here we go.

[00:07:34]So, there's an example of the flower.

[00:07:37]Have a taste of this.

[00:07:45]>> Very fruity, isn't it?

[00:07:46]>> Fruity and salty, yeah.

[00:07:48]>> Yeah.

[00:07:49]Mhm.

[00:07:52]Yeah, not too bad.

[00:07:53]>> Yeah.

[00:07:54]Would you just eat it straight like that or >> That's what I do. I bet you it's full of lots of many oxidants and good good stuff, wouldn't it be? Yes, it would be.

[00:08:05]Yeah.

[00:08:06]This looks nice, the banksias and your little yurt and and that and that's a nice little parking, isn't it?

[00:08:12]>> Banksia spinulosa. They look nice with the rock wall of the house there, don't they, behind it? And a couple of very nice hakeas in the background there, Hakea salicifolia and Hakea victoria, believe it or not.

[00:08:24]>> [laughter] >> It's growing down there. Oh, yeah, I can see that. It's growing very well. It hasn't got its brilliant colors on it yet, but it's less than a year old, so it's growing quite well at the moment.

[00:08:33]>> Now, with the propagation, so you do a bit of Oh, you do quite a fair bit of work with the friends of the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens, don't you, mate? Come and have a look in here.

[00:08:44]>> [laughter] >> You go in first.

[00:08:48]>> [laughter] >> This is your little uh Little um these are all banksias here, very unusual species from uh Kevin Collins sent me over a whole stack of seeds before the banksia festival at Cranbourne last year. And it's taken a year for them to grow, but I've brought them home now and these ones I'm up potting into larger pots like this. And behind you there, these are the ones I've got to do this week and put them into larger pots, but they're They're some pretty unusual ones here.

[00:09:20]>> Now, what type of um se- What type of seed raising mix do you use for for your banksia seeds?

[00:09:27]>> Um just the same standard um 20 25% vermiculite and uh 75% perlite mix. Okay. Yes. Okay. So, that's And and do you pre-soak the seeds before you do um stick them in? No. No.

[00:09:43]Just put them in. I extract them uh well, Kevin supplied these seeds, but a lot of the uh plants here that I grow for Cranbourne, I extract myself and uh and grow.

[00:09:54]>> So, when you say extracting them, you um you heat the cones to make the seeds >> Yes. Yeah, I've got a I've a pretty impressive flame flame thrower. So, you hit them with the flame thrower and then do you dunk them in some water? Is that No. No. They just get the seeds out and um put them in the pillow and mix them.

[00:10:13]>> how long do you have to blowtorch them with the flame thrower for?

[00:10:17]>> Uh you it depends on what species you've got, but things like serrata only a minute or two and All right.

[00:10:24]>> and I get the seed And you just wait until they start to pop the cones start to the until they open. Yeah. So, they're and you just leave them sitting in the sun then or outside for a couple of hours while the the the pod continues to open.

[00:10:37]>> Oh, okay. And um and just the seeds you give them a bang and the seeds fall out. So, uh Oddly, I've got a nice speciosa cone Ross gave me the other day. I'm going to try and hit it with the hit it with the flame >> lots of speciosa, yeah. That's one of the favorite ones that Yeah. And then so, this is some little little um ones you've got going here. Yeah, so preamorsea red um uh some caneyi and that's um uh an interesting uh one I've got some seeds.

[00:11:09]Uh it's the a cross between Brachychiton populneus and Acerifolius, the flame tree. And it's producing lovely pink little pink salmon pink flowers on it. And it's only a small Brachychiton. Yeah. Lovely. Yeah, so you've got a little bit of everything going. Mostly Banksias, but um a little bit of everything going here. Notice you've got the magnificent Dryandra Banksia uh just here, the true true species, not a hybrid.

[00:11:39]And I love this Myoporum here.

[00:11:42]>> It's uh With the red >> It's our second attempt at it. It uh got chewed by the rabbits, the original one.

[00:11:48]And they came out and ring-barked it and it died. So, it's a very fast-growing one. So, we replaced it quite a It's got a lovely foliage and growth habit, hasn't it?

[00:11:58]Yes, unfortunately, it's got a rather unpleasant smell when it gets wet.

[00:12:02]>> [laughter] >> What we do have just next door are Eucalyptus trisliki. So, And they're highly endangered, aren't they? Are they just naturally here or someone's planted them?

[00:12:11]>> sure. We're intrigued by that because there's quite a number of them. They're very old. It was splitting, so uh next door neighbor wanted to take it out. And he climbed up to the top and came down and said, "That's a Eucalyptus trisliki. I'm not cutting that down." Wow.

[00:12:29]>> So, he pruned it up Yeah. and uh and it survived. So, this this is on your neighbor's property, is it?

[00:12:34]>> Just just over the fence there. Yeah.

[00:12:36]And is that your neighbor's property?

[00:12:37]>> Yeah, that fence there. So, >> Yeah. And do they are they keen um conservationists?

[00:12:42]>> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so Yeah.

[00:12:44]Young. Well, I'm I'm teaching them.

[00:12:47]>> [laughter] >> Well, that's the whole idea of it, isn't it? Banksia tricuspis. That's a quite a rare one there. Uh Banksia dryandroides, Banksia speciosa, uh Banksia media, Banksia oreophila.

[00:13:02]You're going too You're going too fast, mate. [laughter] Getting too excited, aren't you?

[00:13:07]I love it. I love it. This one's got a nice It's got a lovely >> That's the media. media, yeah. That's the media. It's looking great. The media's up cuz I was just filming Ross's the other week and his medias are all out. Yeah, and here's a nice here's a a flower of the uh oh, lovely flower of the oreophila showing a beautiful inflorescence.

[00:13:26]It's a mountain banksia. It's uh a I've grown quite a few.

[00:13:31]>> So, they're all so unique, aren't they?

[00:13:33]Especially >> is a dryandra renamed banksia.

[00:13:38]>> [laughter] >> No, we still call them dryandras here, don't we?

[00:13:42]>> Yeah, banksia undata or the old preissiana. Yeah.

[00:13:46]>> All right.

[00:13:47]dryandra preissiana, which is looking not They're suffering a lot from the drought cuz >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a beautiful flower. But it's still hanging on there.

[00:13:55]And you got the lush green and the And this plant here uh it's the uh acacia cognata emerald pearl, which didn't read the label because it's only supposed to be 4 m tall.

[00:14:08]>> [laughter] >> So, we used to have a beautiful media here and a petiolus and it just smothered them and killed them. So, >> I noticed you've got a lot of these uh your little paper daisies are planted around. Well, they've just Yeah, scattered everywhere. All Do you just come and scatter the seeds?

[00:14:26]>> scatter the seeds and >> And then they just come up? Come up, yeah. All sorts of colors.

[00:14:31]Cuz they add a nice uh splash of color when when you know, some of the other things aren't in flower, aren't they?

[00:14:37]>> Have a look at the uh trunk on this serrata. It's amazing. It's a beauty.

[00:14:44]rhinoceros hide >> [laughter] >> It's a great way to explain it, isn't it? Yeah.

[00:14:53]I know I often say this is This is my banksia, the old man banksia.

[00:14:57]>> Yeah, so >> [laughter] >> So, we find it flowers about every every 2 years. So, at the moment it >> Okay.

[00:15:04]Yeah, profusely flowers every 2 years, not not every year. So, What do you think that would be depending on how much rainfall you had or >> Not sure. It's just a pattern that's happened over the last 10 years. This particular one. I think there are a couple of There's another It's got lots of fresh New growth on the tips, isn't it? And there's another one down at, we've got two which has a growth straight and tall.

[00:15:33]Oh, and you got the uh This is Banksia attenuata, that's a beautiful >> Oh, lovely hakea, yes. Yeah, hakea, that's a lovely one. Yeah. And then the giant candles next to it which lives up to its name. It produces huge flowers on it. Yes. And this is a nice view of the Gymea lily, the yellow bloodwood. It's a fantastic specimen.

[00:15:54]>> Where is this one from? I'm not sure.

[00:15:56]>> this eucalyptus from? Would it be a WA?

[00:15:59]I've no idea. No, sorry. That's all right. The yellow bloodwood.

[00:16:03]And this is the other side of that one we were looking at originally.

[00:16:07]>> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:16:09]Uh this this is still the same [snorts] plant from way over there. It's it's The spinulosa >> Yeah, look at the uh look at that flower on there. I'm trying to get the camera in there. Giant, eh? Yeah, look at that.

[00:16:23]I'm in the shadow there. Yeah, there we go.

[00:16:26]This is Banksia paludosa, another swamp Banksia, but it's looking magnificent at the moment. There's some beautiful flowers on it. Is this its usual growth habit?

[00:16:36]>> Yes, um very dense. Um comes from the Cranbourne Gardens, of course. Um but it's a lovely one for for small gardens. As you can see, this is probably 5 or 6 years old and and that's What it grows. What it grows.

[00:16:50]It's I haven't pruned it or anything.

[00:16:52]It's just natural habit.

[00:16:54]>> looking at all the the honeybees on there. Oh, yes, they're going Going going crazy. Yeah. And the one behind it here, this is a very special one. Have we got any Here we go. Look, there's a Oh, yes.

[00:17:07]This is the Banksia plagiocarpa, the Hinchinbrook Island Banksia.

[00:17:12]So, it it's known for its steel bluey flowers, but it's it's not showing it at the moment, but the new foliage is a really bright coppery brown. It's spectacular. So Jeez, look how well they're growing.

[00:17:26]Yeah.

[00:17:26]>> It's got I've chopped about 2 m off this one. Midgen berries, so So they've got some there you can have a taste of.

[00:17:34]Nice. Thank you, Jenny.

[00:17:36]Oh. Here you go.

[00:17:39]So these are like a an indigenous Yeah, these are food. The actual The story why I've got these is um we were propagating them at Cranbourne for NAI DOC for the week. Oh, yeah. And um then COVID hit.

[00:17:55]Oh.

[00:17:56]And so I just brought them home and planted them all here. And so these were all planted just as COVID hit. So they Do you have them like on your cereals and But they're quite tedious to pick when they're quite tedious to pick. But they're they're very tasty. Yeah.

[00:18:14]Pleasure.

[00:18:17]The Midgen berries.

[00:18:19]And then your Prostanthera ovalifolia is up here. Yes. Hit by the summer sun this year. Yes. Yeah.

[00:18:26]They're a tough tree, this one.

[00:18:29]So they're beautiful and of course for the for the florists they love the foliage.

[00:18:35]>> very sculptural type of trees, aren't they? Yes. And what we did one year is we'll probably do it again is um cut it off and use it as a Christmas tree at Christmas time. So it's a really Australian >> Australian Christmas tree, yeah.

[00:18:49]>> So it That makes sense, doesn't it?

[00:18:51]>> I've done that once and it's just just keeps growing. It's a It's a I've planted one. I've planted one at my place.

[00:18:58]>> They like to be coppiced. They like Yeah, right. So that means that mean cut off at the bottom? Mhm.

[00:19:03]>> Yeah.

[00:19:04]Cut right back to the lignotuber. Yes.

[00:19:07]Yeah. Yeah. So they've they're very hardy.

[00:19:10]And right behind us we have the first flowering on this lovely Banksia, the ornata, the desert Banksia. Oh, yes.

[00:19:18]Which is very endemic to the Grampians area. Yes, I've seen it up around Mount Zero. Yes, it's a Yeah.

[00:19:25]It's almost like a mini Banksia serrata, isn't it? Mhm, but it's Yeah, but last time I was at the Grampians last year, it was looking a bit desolate. The flowers had been severely Yes.

[00:19:38]compromised. This is Banksia solandri from the Stirling Ranges over in WA.

[00:19:43]It's right near Kevin and Cathy Collins place at about Stirling Ranges.

[00:19:47]>> Good friends of yours? Yeah, so they're I call this one the candelabra Banksia.

[00:19:52]It's my own nickname because when it's got fresh flowers, they're all standing up like candelabras. So, uh This is the They They're not spectacular like the speciosa. They are a brown, soft, fluffy one.

[00:20:07]But when they growing, you stick your nose in them, you get a real mango passion fruit.

[00:20:14]>> Ooh, lovely. It's a lovely aroma from it. But the main one main use of this is this amazing foliage. Yeah. The nickname of the solandri is Ah, doesn't matter.

[00:20:25]As long as you know the botanical name, that's more important, isn't it?

[00:20:28]>> [laughter] >> But it's one of my favorite ones.

[00:20:31]>> It's even just, you know, like the those leaves and the foliage just sets out those flowers. Stand makes the flowers stand out beautifully, doesn't it?

[00:20:42]This is uh Banksia menziesii. We had lots of them and now we're down to about half a dozen plants, but look how beautiful at this stage, the various stages of the uh menziesii with their the lovely pink I see Are those some little native bees in there?

[00:20:59]They could be. I think so. By the looks of them, they're not >> Yeah, they're not They're not the honey bees. No, so they're Maybe.

[00:21:05]It's so bees. Yeah.

[00:21:07]But they they're particularly good year.

[00:21:09]This is covered in So this one's just a juvenile. Oh, hang on, here's some We'll start from up the top here. So this is sort of All right, so here's your your bud >> right back into >> stage. If you get into the early bud Yep.

[00:21:24]And then then you go off to the the lovely pink light sort of lovely light pink >> There we go. So you've got And that's the next stage.

[00:21:33]>> then they start to develop the yellow >> it that And that's when all the all the bees and insects come in and get right into it, don't they?

[00:21:42]Oh, yeah, look at that.

[00:21:43]>> beautiful sculpted uh >> seed pod cone >> They're beautiful. They Phil Youklinski from WA has a whole book on the Banksia menziesii of every stage of it. It's a wonderful publication. Yeah.

[00:22:00]Yeah. That one's more orange and this one's sort of a bit more yellow.

[00:22:03]>> Down the back we've got one that's growing in the shade and it's yellow.

[00:22:08]It's a yellow one. Oh, okay.

[00:22:10]I'll just come around here. Yeah.

[00:22:14]Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:15]So So that's a later but that's when it's fully out all the I'll just come around >> are all out. Yeah, look there.

[00:22:24]Oh, that's >> isn't That's a good shot of it. Gee, they they're amazing this year, the menziesii.

[00:22:29]>> Tell us about your soil profile you have here. Well, you can see we're on a ancient sand dune here.

[00:22:39]Um and it these sand dunes run right along the coast for quite a few all the way down to the RACV club. You can see >> Oh, yes. sand dunes running all the way down there. So I've dug holes here up here to plant plants and I'm near a meter or more and still gray sand. So Yeah. One of the critical things for a lot of Australian natives is drainage.

[00:23:04]So, particularly unless they're specific things like the river which we'll have a look at in a minute.

[00:23:10]Swamp one which needs water, most of them need drainage. And this is what we have which is this is a bugger of a weed.

[00:23:18]>> [laughter] >> The ink weed. Oh.

[00:23:22]It's spreading all over the place.

[00:23:24]Here it's starting to flower. We've got a This is a good example of what happens in disturbed soil. Yes.

[00:23:30]>> Used to have a very large Grevillea growing here. You can see the stump of it there. A Porinda Peter was a Grevillea.

[00:23:39]>> And it fell down and uh and look what happens to the disturbed soil. All the weeds appear. Yep. So, we've got to work on And then you got a bit of Cape weed, is it? Yeah, too.

[00:23:50]Yeah.

[00:23:51]So, this ink weed I've got to pull all these out. So, >> [laughter] >> we've been too busy watering.

[00:23:56]>> And the old uh Yeah, and the old night shade. It's another little pesky one.

[00:24:01]Oh, you got some um Geraldton wax in here. That's a Chamelaucium.

[00:24:05]Yes, that's the uh Yeah, this is all we got left of the Chamelaucium. I noticed it all died.

[00:24:11]Yeah, no flowers. All right. Yeah, no there our last Chamelaucium.

[00:24:18]That's your last one. Well, I've got some new ones.

[00:24:20]>> You have to get some new Yeah.

[00:24:22]They're hard to actually find.

[00:24:23]>> They're very hard to find, very hard to grow. Rob O'Sullivan used to grow quite a few of them. You need the desert at Nockatunga. Yeah. Yeah, it's uh Yeah, they're they're tough one to grow in cultivation, aren't they?

[00:24:41]Neil said he used to have What did he say? He had 50 of them and now he's got about two left. Well, Kevin Collins had a a huge area of them over in W.A. Yeah.

[00:24:53]Oh. So, that was yeah, very susceptible phytophthora. This is a nice um lush area through here.

[00:25:04]And you got that the uh what do you call them?

[00:25:06]Doryanthes? Oh, yes. That's the spear lily and the Doryanthes lily, yeah. Yes.

[00:25:14]Yeah. And you got the um Eucalyptus sideroxylon?

[00:25:17]>> Sideroxylon? Yeah.

[00:25:19]It's going quite well.

[00:25:21]Ironbark?

[00:25:22]>> Ironbark. Yeah.

[00:25:24]One of them. A whole thing. It's It's as you can see it's sent up new shoots that were I thought it was going to die and it's um And it's come back.

[00:25:33]>> of new shoots and it's going well and it's a great roosting spot for the birds. They love sitting up there watching Oh, nice. the whole property there. Yeah, these are water-loving plants. Um just forgotten the name of this one for the moment, but it's the >> Okay. only food for the brown butterfly, this one. This very sharp sort of you don't want to run your hands on this one. It'll cut them open. So, uh Okay.

[00:25:58]Uh And then you've got some riverine area.

[00:26:00]>> Riverine area. These came from Cranbourne around, too. So, they're growing the lovely yellow flowers on them. And then over here Uh over here we've got >> first things I noticed. The Baloskion uh Yeah, Baloskion tetraphyllum, the long-leaf tussock rush here. Another one. That's another beautiful uh little plant that loves the water.

[00:26:25]Cuz I'm listening to the native birds.

[00:26:27]Oh, there's lots of around now. This is your purple paramor, Banksia robur purple paramor, which is quite a amazing plant. It um Very attractive uh color, isn't it? Yeah, the purple paramor, yeah.

[00:26:42]Still has the yellow flower the yellow green flower.

[00:26:44]>> is the one that came from Canberra?

[00:26:46]Yeah, so the only place you can get this sort of from the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. Uh the nursery is so sad with that. So, it's Oh, now have a look at this. It's a Here we've got a royal banksia robur, the original ones, and they're in magnificent at the moment with their emerald green flower. So they're growing so well because what the roots would be sort of going down in the damp area.

[00:27:10]Yes. So this is one for the wet. Uh One that loves the the wet feet, doesn't it?

[00:27:16]But it's still Does it still need It needs that drainage as well with the wet feet, or it can pretty much just grow right in the Well, a couple of times with these have been completely underwater for weeks on end, and no problems at all. So they're looking really good at the moment.

[00:27:36]See if I can get a uh Oh, here we go. Some different variation in some of the flowers here. Yeah.

[00:27:42]>> Yeah, particularly if you can take a photograph from looking down into one.

[00:27:46]They have If you pull that one down, and see if you can see that. Oh, yeah. I know that's not This one?

[00:27:53]>> I need a younger one. That's No, that's too old. The one's open up.

[00:27:58]Over here, is it? Yeah.

[00:28:01]Yeah. Oh, that's Yeah, you get the even better than that, but you get I see James onto it. Yeah. the pink color.

[00:28:08]Yeah, look. When you look down into them.

[00:28:11]You can hear your little frogs. Oh, the frogs are there. Yes, they are.

[00:28:14]>> Yeah.

[00:28:15]So what a spectacular banksia these are.

[00:28:18]Mm. Very easy to grow. But these were only planted about 5 years ago. Look at the size of them. And how's the way how they flower straight off the uh stems?

[00:28:27]>> Oh, and down at the lignotuber, this >> They just so many flowers.

[00:28:32]Yeah.

[00:28:34]Yeah, I haven't come down here for a look for a couple of weeks, and they're just amazing now.

[00:28:38]>> Look, there's multiple flowers coming out of the one the one little section of the uh trunk here.

[00:28:47]I love the emerald green. Yeah.

[00:28:51]We're worried about this tree. This is a black wood.

[00:28:54]>> This is a melanoxylon. Uh the black wood, whatever it is.

[00:28:57]>> Yeah. Acacia melanoxylon. It used to be really covered in beautiful foliage and it's It's looking very >> It is. Well, the borers or the borers got in and I just think it's the drought. It's just lack of water.

[00:29:10]>> Yeah, right.

[00:29:13]Yeah. Maybe the borers have cuz when a plant gets weaker, then they can be attacked. So, we're very >> one of the biggest melanoxylons I've ever seen. Yeah, we pointed this out because very rarely you get a tree that's not impinged by anything else.

[00:29:29]So, >> Yeah. it can grow how it likes and this is just a magnificent tree.

[00:29:34]>> wattle. It's got plenty of fresh It's looking like it might survive with the >> I wonder if you I mean, you wouldn't probably wouldn't want to spend the money, but I mean, I wonder if you had an arborist come in and and cut them like sort of chop it all back and then those other shoots It'd go. Yeah. It'd go, but it depends if you would want to spend money on it.

[00:29:55]>> See all these pink pink ones? Mhm. That's a swamp lily.

[00:30:01]And I planted a dozen of them along here before the drought.

[00:30:05]>> Oh, there you go. Yeah. And I thought, "Oh, they're not going to grow." And last week I walked along and lo and behold, there's this little little plant here.

[00:30:15]>> Yeah. Little fleshy leaves. Yeah, it's Swamp lily. Swamp lily. They're called crinum asiaticum, yeah. So, Are they from the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens?

[00:30:24]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Given to me. You watch any Joe Blakes?

[00:30:30]You get many snakes here?

[00:30:32]Very rare. Very rare.

[00:30:34]And they're only copperheads. Okay.

[00:30:36]>> Which are very beautiful snakes and >> Yeah. And when they see you, they just freeze.

[00:30:42]>> Yeah. So, you just walk around them.

[00:30:44]>> of us than we are >> No, no, they are. I ran into a tiger snake next to my place the other last week.

[00:30:49]>> Well, yeah, well, you can keep them there.

[00:30:51]>> [laughter] >> This is a gum. You shouldn't plant them near your house. Yes.

[00:30:56]>> [laughter] >> What is this? A blue gum, is it? Sydney blue gum.

[00:30:59]>> Wow. How it's bare right up there.

[00:31:01]Yeah, it's Lots of trunks have fallen off this one.

[00:31:05]It's uh I never walk near this one in the winds, I can tell you.

[00:31:09]>> Oh, you're lucky you got brains. It's falling on you.

[00:31:11]>> it's way away from your house, [laughter] aren't you? Yeah.

[00:31:13]>> Yeah.

[00:31:14]But it is a it is a beautiful tree.

[00:31:16]>> Tripled in size since we've been here.

[00:31:19]Just Yeah.

[00:31:21]It's It is beautiful, isn't it?

[00:31:26]What is it so as long as you don't stand near it >> blue gum.

[00:31:29]>> rainy day, yeah. On a windy day, yeah.

[00:31:33]Oh, that's a good one here. All the blue blue nuts, the blue caps.

[00:31:38]And here is Rhododendron lochiae, Rhododendron lochiae. It's the only Australian native Rhododendron.

[00:31:47]Grows on a mountain in North Queensland.

[00:31:50]There's two two species of them, but grow near on adjacent mountains and in that area, but it's a very rare plant and growing very well down here in the >> So, why have you chosen this little area? Because of the dampness, because it accumulates the high peaks of the Queensland forest up there.

[00:32:14]And is this a Tasmanian pepper >> berry. Yeah, yeah, have a nibble on the leaf if you're game.

[00:32:20]>> [laughter] >> What is it really uh >> It's very peppery. Just take a tiny little bit.

[00:32:24]>> Tiny bit because it's >> And then wait.

[00:32:27]>> [laughter] >> We use it for pepper. Dry the leaves and grind it up. Use it for pepper.

[00:32:32]>> Oh, it's definitely strong.

[00:32:33]>> [laughter] >> Oh, yeah.

[00:32:36]It's surprising, isn't Mm. It's not poisonous. No, no.

[00:32:39]>> [laughter] >> Tell you afterwards. Yeah, you have to carry me out of here.

[00:32:44]Oh, yeah. Geez, that's strong.

[00:32:47]You only need just a tiny little Take a tiny nibble. Yeah.

[00:32:52]>> [laughter] >> What we have here is a series of bush tucker tastes. And most of them are myrtles. So, this is the rose myrtle, which you can eat the flowers or the actual seed pods. There you go. There's a little seed pod. You going to try that, Dave? Oh, yeah.

[00:33:10]Looks like a miniature tomato.

[00:33:13]It's a pretty mild flavored uh bush, this one.

[00:33:17]I don't actually use it much.

[00:33:18]>> It's hard for me to taste anything after that pep- the pepper.

[00:33:21]>> I normally get to taste pepper berries at the end.

[00:33:24]>> [laughter] >> But this one here, I love the name of it. Take a picture of the name.

[00:33:31]Archidendron myrtis Oh, it's a tongue tongue twister, isn't it?

[00:33:39]Now, do you use any of these in your cooking or jams or anything like that, Jenny?

[00:33:45]>> Not the rose myrtle, but the cinnamon, the lemon, and when the anise gets bigger, I'll use it.

[00:33:51]So, what would you So, what's this one?

[00:33:53]This is cinnamon myrtle. And what would you use What sort of cooking would you use this in? You'd probably use it mostly in your sweets, like your baking and things. So, you can give that a taste. You can use the flowers and the leaves. Very sweet. [snorts] Sort of Mhm.

[00:34:15]Mhm.

[00:34:16]Lemony, yeah.

[00:34:17]>> So, you can use it fresh or dried.

[00:34:19]This is the lemon myrtle, which everybody knows, and it goes really well with the pepper berry. So, you can use this for sweet and savory. Mhm.

[00:34:29]And once again, you can use the flowers and the Like um tastes more like a lime. Like a lemon and lime. Tastes more like a lime to me.

[00:34:38]So, I dry this and use it dried as well as fresh.

[00:34:43]And this is a >> [snorts] >> a curry bush, but it isn't a myrtle. Oh, yes. But it smells just like curry.

[00:34:50]Oh, yeah.

[00:34:52]Is this Australian native? Yes, it is.

[00:34:54]All Australian natives.

[00:34:56]Oh, there we go.

[00:34:58]Acacia. Leave us. Yeah. Curry bush. We do have the curry myrtle Nikki Zanan gave us and I've propagated five of them, which will Okay.

[00:35:09]And to the collection of myrtles. This is the anise myrtle and you need to taste the red-tipped one. There you go, there's a little red-tipped one. Thank you. And it has very strong licorice flavor. Oh, yeah. Really surprising.

[00:35:23]Some of the others have been hard to tell cuz I've still had that >> [laughter] >> the pepper. Well, I go from left to right because I start But I can tell that's definitely the licorice. Yeah.

[00:35:33]Licorice type taste. So, this is part of the education and my vision of, you know, telling people what you can actually do with Australian natives and Yeah. you know, having a smell and sense and taste and, you know, it just all just >> So, why have you chosen this little area? Is this just what the sort of conditions that replicates their natural environment or >> probably more of a position. We've got a bike path going past here that's being developed. Okay. And I wanted a hedge.

[00:36:00]So, this is all going to be hedged and I thought it'd be an interesting hedging um little project. Yeah. So, the fact that it's a hedge and it's edible is just delicious. It's inspiring me to put in a few sort of edible Australian native edible plants in my own garden, you know?

[00:36:16]>> Yeah. So, this one is not as sensitive as the pepper berry because the pepper berry needs um fairly shaded and protected, whereas these are a hardier than that and they like a bit of sunshine, so they get you know, full sunshine during the day and then they get quite shaded in the afternoon. Banksia ericifolia, but Kevin um Collins was very interested in this one because of its form and I have to send him over some cuttings.

[00:36:44]Uh so he could propagate it. He hadn't come across one that was so dense and so prolific with its flowers.

[00:36:51]>> It is, isn't it? So it's That's when I first looked at it and I thought, "Geez, how well-rounded and dense it is."

[00:36:58]>> and it's um yeah, it's very straight flowers and It is a nice as you see here, are incredibly prolific flowers. Oh, it's flowering there. Yeah.

[00:37:08]And this would be probably oh, 15 years old at least and um Was this one that you planted?

[00:37:16]>> No, that was Mike and Ollie's plant.

[00:37:18]Mike and Ollie. Yeah, so it's a one of their special >> Geez, they got a hold of some pretty special um plants back in their day.

[00:37:25]Yeah, well, Ollie used to travel around Australia and collect them. He was well-known for that.

[00:37:30]>> Yeah, right.

[00:37:31]>> Many nurseries, yeah. Yeah.

[00:37:36]And of course, I featured Mike and Ollie on one of my uh previous videos, so check out that as well. Yeah, they've downsized now. They're at a nice little place in Inverloch there and and they've made another beautiful garden there. It wants to just naturally here.

[00:37:52]>> Yeah, as you see Come around here and you see there's the flower Yeah.

[00:37:58]Yeah, look at that.

[00:38:00]That's the uh endemic Banksia marginata.

[00:38:03]Yeah. And over here is the mini marge, which is not endemic and uh It's the other one from Tasmania.

[00:38:10]>> Yeah, but I would use the word mini lightly because >> [laughter] >> when you're talking marginata, so this is also a very prolific flower, but uh but not endemic one, so.

[00:38:22]Yeah, from Tasmania, isn't it?

[00:38:24]>> Tasmania, yeah. But we do have ones very similar here. Oh, the variety of flowers is so Yeah.

[00:38:30]>> so many different And now, this is the um native Plectranthus, isn't it? Not anymore. What is it now? Coleus. Oh, they've changed it again. They've renamed [laughter] it. They've thrown a spanner in the works, have they? Yeah, so they Yeah.

[00:38:42]>> Yeah.

[00:38:43]Yeah, it's So, what is it?

[00:38:44]A Coleus whatever it I I argentinus is the small one. All right, so it's no longer a Plectranthus. Yeah.

[00:38:51]>> Now, this one here at a friend's property, I noticed the blue-banded bees were going crazy over it. Yeah, there's plenty of flowers on Yeah, well, it's I think it's getting into the wrong time of the year for them. They come out when it's really warm like in the warmer time of year, but yeah, there's no >> careful where you plant this cuz it can spread and take over.

[00:39:11]>> Yeah. And neighbors threw out this bit.

[00:39:13]In fact, they cut it in half and then we rescued it cuz I thought, oh, we could use this as a bee hotel. And I researched all the different um mediums that bees like to actually uh build their nest. And up here, there's a heap of I don't know what's in those um bricks.

[00:39:34]And there's a couple in the the logs as well. So, they've just taken up residence >> How long has this been here for? Uh probably about 12 months now. All right.

[00:39:42]And see, it'll take time for uh you know, the the insects to move in and that sort of thing to wouldn't it? Yeah. And I mean, it's interesting that they encourage things like this um broken tiles and sticks and things like that. So, straws. This is actually a butterfly hotel. Oh, cool.

[00:40:03]That is one of the best ones I've seen.

[00:40:05]>> bit of logs and things. They they like all sorts of uh habitats. It's good that you've got it sort of just off the ground, too.

[00:40:12]Yeah, you know, to stop it from rotting.

[00:40:13]That's it for today. Thank you both very much for having me and we've had a lovely little wander around and you've got a beautiful garden and a wildlife haven. [music] Congratulations to you both. Okay, thanks very much Benji.

[00:40:27]You've seen about half of it so you're going to have to come [laughter] back and see the other half someday.

[00:40:33]I will be back. Would like to come back in spring. Oh, it'll be amazing in spring. Yeah.

[00:40:37]>> [music] >> There's always something in flower but spring is just spectacular.

[00:40:41]Well, thanks for having me and yeah.

[00:40:45]It's good to finally meet you.

[00:40:46]>> Yeah, yeah.

[00:40:47]>> [laughter] >> Thanks very much Benji. Yeah, and feel free to subscribe to Benji's Garden on my YouTube channel with plenty more content to follow.