Episode #5: Hedge and Lawn Care with Jimmy Turner

Whether you enjoy year-round warmth in the Northern states, or are used to dressing for four seasons in one day down south, the Summer sun and heat can have a major effect on the health of your garden no matter what part of the country you’re in. Charlie speaks to self-confessed plant geek and hot climate gardening expert Jimmy Turner on ways to combat dry conditions and keep your backyard green this Summer.

Charlie Albone:

Hi, I’m Charlie Albone, and welcome to episode five of That’s How We Grow, in partnership with STIHL garden power tools. Now it probably won’t surprise you hearing this from someone who grew up in England, but I love the warmer climate of Australia. Given how vast Australia is, the plants that thrive in Melbourne are vastly different to what thrive in Brisbane and further north. As the temperature changes, we see the changes in our garden. They change from season to season. Whether it’s how often you have to mow your lawn, or the veggies that you grow, it’s best to work with the conditions you have at hand. The traditional dry heat associated with the Southern states is vastly different to the high humidity in Northern Australia. This can change what preferred lawn variety you grow, and when you should prune your trees. With extreme heat comes a thankless task of keeping everything in the garden alive, or as close to this as possible.

Charlie Albone:

It’s a job that requires expert insight and knowledge, balancing temperature, humidity, nutrition, and everything in between. So I’m looking forward to talking with an expert on the impact heat can have on your garden and how to best maintain your garden in those higher temperatures. Coming from Texas, Jimmy Turner knows about the warm weather. Jimmy is now the CEO of the City Parklands, which looks after the beautiful Roma Street Parkland, South Bank Parklands, and new Victoria Park all up in Brisbane. Jimmy has spent over six years as the director of horticulture management at the Botanic Gardens and Centennial Park in Sydney. So, let’s get into our chat with Jimmy.

Charlie Albone:

Well, when the sun comes out during those warmer months, there aren’t too many who can say they’re as qualified as Jimmy Turner. You could say, Jimmy has a master’s in hot weather horticulture. He’s the former director of horticulture for the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. The former senior director of gardens for the Dallas Botanic Gardens in Dallas, Texas, and he’s also worked at the Centennial Parklands in Sydney. He’s currently in charge of several of Brisbane’s most important Parklands including Roma Street Parkland, South Bank Parklands, and the new Victoria Park. When the temperature is rising outside, Jimmy is the man to tell you what to do and when to do it – to make sure your hedges and lawns look the best they possibly can throughout Spring and Summer. Jimmy! From Dallas, Texas, to Sydney, to Salt Lake City, and now to Brisbane – you’ve worked in some pretty incredible gardens. Can you tell me about your career to date?

Jimmy Turner:

Well, it seems like I have a pension for picking places that have hot summers. I keep telling myself I might try the UK before I die, at least for a weekend. My mother laughs and tells me, I came out of the womb with a secateurs in one hand and a trowel in the other one – looking to garden. And I told my first grade teacher, I wanted to be a horticulturalist, which turned into a note to my parents about ‘what is this kid talking about’? Plants are in my blood, but you know the opportunity… Australia’s home now. This is where I’m going to be. I love gardening in Australia. The opportunities here are just absolutely beyond any other place in the world, and I think it’s funny Australians don’t realise it.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. I mean, we’re so lucky with the weather. Aren’t we? Yes.

Jimmy Turner:

Public horticulture, that was where I will be for the rest of my career.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. So, The Australian heat can be quite sweltering in summer, especially in the Northern states. I mean, how does that compare to say the Texas heat?

Jimmy Turner:

I always get a laugh when people tell me, oh, you’re from Texas. You won’t be able to take a Brisbane summer because you’re from the dry heat, and I’m like, “no, I’m from east Texas. It’s the place where you see the giant Cypress trees. Think of the deep, old south. Moss hanging from the trees.”

Charlie Albone:

Yeah.

Jimmy Turner:

Algae growing or everything. I’m used to five months above 40 degrees, nights in the mid to upper thirties and 60% to 90% humidity of all those days.

Charlie Albone:

So you must like to sweat a lot?

Jimmy Turner:

I have a very well-developed sweat. Working in horticulture very quickly, I want to actually work in the office. I’m done being outside. Australia, I would actually say the biggest difference between the heat is the fact where I grew up, we had Winter, rain and Summer, dry. Australia, depends on where you’re at, but Brisbane’s wet summers are actually a bit different.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. And how’s the soil different in Australia? I know gardening in Sydney that soils are notoriously poor. Is that? Yeah.

Jimmy Turner:

Gardening in Sydney, this soil is poor. It’s hydrophobic sand that basically beads off water when it hits. Texas, where I grew up is blackland clay. It’s the most expansive clay in the world. We have to bind the concrete of our houses together. Keep them from splitting because the ground can split open six inches.

Charlie Albone:

Wow.

Jimmy Turner:

Easily in the drought period, and a foot deep if you’re lucky enough to have soil that deep and then slams together. When it rains, you can’t dig in it without breaking a shovel handle. Completely different soil profile, but very rich.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. Does doesn’t sound like the easiest thing to garden in that’s for sure.

Jimmy Turner:

Not at all.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. Wow. So what are your tips, I guess for gardening in the heat?

Jimmy Turner:

The main one for gardening in the heat is actually managing their water. If you’re in a space like Brisbane that has high summer rainfall, it’s about managing drainage, because the easiest way to kill a plant is actually have too much water sitting on their roots and actually letting them saturate. It’s just like having a house plant, sitting in too much water in a bowl on a warm day. They just rot and welt. If you’re in Sydney or drier areas during the summer, it’s actually keeping your water up and keeping your soil evenly moist and watered deeply. I think a lot of people end up doing the wildest water up for 45 minutes on Monday and 45 minutes on Saturday and what is happening is most of that water runs off into the gutter or runs off into their hedge water. Trees are happy about it, but grass doesn’t actually end up growing. It’s really about managing your water and knowing what your rainfall season is.

Charlie Albone:

So, what’s the best way to capture your water? Do you think it’s rainwater tanks? Do you think just leaving dishes out when it’s raining out?

Jimmy Turner:

Best way to capture your water, to me, is rain tanks. Rain tanks are a godsend. Then you don’t feel guilty about water in your lawn or your flowers and don’t have to pay for it. It’s free. I actually think it’s a better option for the environment. If you live in an area where you can do that, strangely enough, I’ve actually lived places where it was illegal to capture water off your roof. I just thought was, absolutely crazy.

Charlie Albone:

Really?

Jimmy Turner:

Yes. Utah just passed recently that you could actually capture your water, but the state owns all water. Whether it comes from the sky or runs down the street, it’s their water. So, it’s a bit strange.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah.

Jimmy Turner:

Being able to capture that water, you can actually then actually manage your irrigation and not be one paying out the wallet and to actually worrying about, “are you saving the environment and retaining water?”

Charlie Albone:

There’s something different about rainwater as well, isn’t there? Compared to coming out the tap. There’s the obvious lack of chlorine in it, but what do you notice the difference between rainwater and tap water?

Jimmy Turner:

Growing up in Texas, the big thing with rainwater is we actually have high thunderstorms, and actually when you have thunder and lightning, you actually have a small nitrogen content in your water. The mineral contents and the water is more balanced, and actually think it’s got more, since it’s usually running off your roof into your lawn and other places, you get a bit more nutrients into your water. Tap water is a bit sanitised for us and for the plants.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. So when it comes to fertilising in the heat, do you have to be careful when you fertilise and how you fertilise?

Jimmy Turner:

Yes. I have got some pretty strong opinions on fertilising. I tell people – if your lawn is already thick and growing and heavy and perfect, you’re only maintaining then. Overfeeding at that point’s just like eating mashed potatoes for dessert after you’ve had dinner. There’s really no point. If you’ve got a new lawn and you’re trying to get it to go and to grow and to fill in, I tell people, you can actually have a brand new lawn and I’d actually recommend for the first year or so to fertilise monthly.

Jimmy Turner:

Get it up and growing and get it actually fed and fattened up and thick, because you want it to cover the lawns that keeps the water in the moisture in, and it keeps the weeds out. Once you get to maintain it to me, once every six to eight weeks is more than enough.

Charlie Albone:

Yep.

Jimmy Turner:

Anymore than that, you don’t need and don’t need to do it during the Winter or the non-growing season. Number one tip is, go get a soil test. I just let people… Well, I just went out and bought the turf fertiliser. Well, what does your turf actually need and are you fertilising with too much phosphorus? Too much potassium? Do you need iron in your soil to green up your… Go get a soil test. It cost almost nothing, and quite often you can get them for free.

Charlie Albone:

Whereabout do you get those done? Do you search online?

Jimmy Turner:

You can search online. There are many places you can do it and just dig it and put it in a baggy and mail it off and pretty much any independent nursery and most larger nurseries. If you’re going and ask for it, they’ll give you a pack to do it.

Charlie Albone:

Okay. You just send it off and then that will tell you what you need to add to the soil to…

Jimmy Turner:

Yep.

Charlie Albone:

Then I guess they would test the pH as well.

Jimmy Turner:

Yes. It tells you the pH, tells you all that. Gives you a recommendation of what to do.

Charlie Albone:

Oh, okay. So it’s the whole package?

Jimmy Turner:

Yeah. It’s like going in for a health check.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. But just for your soil.

Jimmy Turner:

Yes.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. Awesome. That’s good. So, if you’re preparing a garden for extreme heat, what are the few things you do now? We’ve said get a rainwater tank or start capturing as much water as possible. Soil is obviously something that really needs looking at. What’s the best way to sort of prepare your garden for heat.

Jimmy Turner:

Well, the first thing for your garden is prepare your soil correct the first time. I think you get one chance to do that when you build the garden, because nobody wants to dig everything up later and actually figure out your soil profile. What kind of soil do you have? You have clay soil? Do you have sand soil? Do you have sandy loam soil, which is a godsend. If you have that, please don’t tell me, because I think you should be punished because you’re kind of lucky. It’s like if you live in the blue mountains of New South Wales, just turn your phone off now. The soil there is perfect. Compost is the answer to everything. Pretty much my opinion! If you add more compost and organic matter to your soil, it helps drainage. It helps actually with water retention. That’s the number one for me. If you’ve got a heavy clay soil for an amendment to actually help break that up, which compost is one you can also use.

Jimmy Turner:

I think you’ve got turf down here and several other things that are expanded shell or pea gravel, you can really break up clay soil to help make sure your drainage is there. During the summer, your garden itself and your hedges, I recommend mulching. People have this thing about, well I’ll mulch the flower bed because I don’t want to see the bare dirt, but underneath my hedges or underneath my shrub border, nobody ever looks under it. Well, they look under there once a year to pull the leaves and the trash out and the things that are blown in there off the road, but they never want to mulch there, and I have this thing where I walk over and pick up the end of the table cloth, the bottom of the hedge and go, “all I see is bare roots and all the soil eroded away.” These poor things are dried up during the summer, and they’ve got nothing to protect the heat and the moisture in there. So actually I always think about heavily mulching your hedges.

Charlie Albone:

When you say heavily mulch, what sort of depth do you recommend?

Jimmy Turner:

I usually go about 25 millimeters minimum, but I’m actually looking more about 50 to 75 because you actually want a bit of stuff and you want it to break down. You want to bring in back in the earth worms and the natural biome.

Charlie Albone:

I guess anything more than 75ml, you can stop rainfall getting down. Is that right?

Jimmy Turner:

Yes. Anything much more than that you actually end up kind of putting a barrier and I recommend doing it. If you’re in a rainy hit heavy climate, if you’re getting rain lucky you, but during the middle of the summer, you don’t want to do it too thick during mid-summer when it’s actually raining, because you actually hold too much moisture and it can be a bit of a problem. I actually usually do in the spring or in the autumn.

Charlie Albone:

Okay. Do you use a course mulch or a fine mulch?

Jimmy Turner:

I’m a big believer in compost as mulch.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah.

Jimmy Turner:

Or a fine mulch. I actually find that it breaks down quicker, which is good. There’s this whole belief well, I don’t want my mulch to break down quick. I want it to stay there for two or three years. So I don’t have to do it very often. It’s actually, you’re not feeding your soil. You’re not adding any carbon to it.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah.

Jimmy Turner:

This isn’t a parking lot. This is a living thing and you’re feeding it something to break down. So I actually prefer a medium defined mulch.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. I use a lot of pea straw in my garden because I’m always adding in stuff and I don’t mind digging through. Then in areas like under my hedges, I use something a bit more course of like a course of pine bark.

Jimmy Turner:

Yes.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. Something like that sort of works. You mentioned hydrophobic soils. Now for those that don’t know, that’s where a soil is scared of water, really, is what the name means. The water just doesn’t soak into the soil. I kind of liken it to ‘you pour some water on your soil. If it kind of goes like mercury it kind of bubbles around and doesn’t go in, you’ve got a hydrophobic soil.’ It’s a fungus that coats the soil and, correct me if I’m wrong, and the water just doesn’t go in. So what is the best way to fix that? It seems like a horrible situation.

Jimmy Turner:

Horrible thing to do. I always say like, if you’re watering your lawn, and it looks like you’re watering your car after it was freshly waxed. You’ve got problems. If it soaks right in, you’re good. So wetting agents are a really easy fix and you can drench your soil with that. It actually allows it to penetrate into the ground much quicker, and there’s several different options in that area. If it’s a new soil or a new garden or a new area, you can actually break in mulch and stuff, which helps with that, or compost actually till that in or dig that in. If you’re looking at a lawn and a turf, the best answer really is a soil wetting agent.

Charlie Albone:

How often can you use those? Like, can you overdo it?

Jimmy Turner:

You can overdo it. I recommend following… I’ve actually stopped giving just a general option on this one because I’ve read different ones and I’ve used ones that sometimes last for two to three months, some that last a season, some it only lasts literally a week. So, it really depends on when you use.

Charlie Albone:

Okay. So it’s product dependent, I guess.

Jimmy Turner:

Yes.

Charlie Albone:

You mentioned compost. Now I’m a huge compost fan. It does wonders for almost every type of soil. Do you recommend people make their own or buy in compost?

Jimmy Turner:

Make your own and you’ll never make enough. I compost everything in my house. It’s almost embarrassing how much I enjoy making compost. Have a worm compost or I have a compost bin, compost pile and I’ve never made enough compost to make a difference in my yard.

Charlie Albone:

Do you go to the shops and buy stuff just because you think it will be a nice addition to the compost heap?

Jimmy Turner:

That has been a thought before. I don’t really like that chair anymore. I could mulch that chair put in the compost. I’m the person who looked at cardboard boxes and shreds them and puts them in my compost bin.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. So with compost, you need the mixture of brown waste, like sort of the carbon and the green waste. What is your ideal combination of the two? I’ve read a few and tried a few different ratios. What have you found works best?

Jimmy Turner:

I’ve actually – having lived in a couple different climates – one, it depends on your humidity and your temperature. I find when it’s really hot and all things break down. If you keep them too dry, they don’t break. My worm composter really is a one-to-one of brown to green, because sometimes two to one, because if I do my worm composter too much green, it gets too hot, too acidic. My worms get very unhappy. My compost pile, I actually do one-to-one, but I use a lot of grass clippings. Go straight in there. Everything from my hedge border, garden waste, kitchen waste. So I actually shred cardboard and paper that I get and put in there and mine’s actually equal amounts.

Charlie Albone:

Okay.

Jimmy Turner:

That’s mainly in Texas and here in Brisbane, when the humidity is at this level. It’s actually absorbing a lot of moisture, but one-to-one or two-to-one are the usual.

Charlie Albone:

Do you add your weeds in there as well or do you keep those out?

Jimmy Turner:

I add my weeds. I had this whole thing. It’s like, don’t add the weeds and the seeds. My composter heaps are pretty good.

Charlie Albone:

So that just knocks them out. Even an even onion weed?

Jimmy Turner:

That one. No, not that evil thing.

Charlie Albone:

That thing is killing it in my garden. I’m just…

Jimmy Turner:

You can seal it under concrete. It still comes up.

Charlie Albone:

I know. It’s amazing. If only other things grew like that. I mean, it’d be great. Wouldn’t it? So when you are preparing your lawn for a hot spell, the old adage of getting the right plant for the right spot, I guess, is key. And making sure you have the right varieties for your situation. Is there any other tips you can have for getting a good lawn in heat?

Jimmy Turner:

Good go on heat? Watering is still my number one on that one and some good rule with thumbs are about 25ml or an inch of water per wheat, which is usually about three times for 20 minutes. That depends on your irrigation system. Some of the new low flow ones don’t do as much as fast, which is actually better. Some of the old ones can put out 25ml of water in five minutes of actually… it’s like being in this old 1950s shower. I tell people now, ‘this is a bit basic. Go get a cat food can, or a tuna fish can, put it in your lawn, turn the irrigation on for 20 minutes and see how long it takes to fill it up.’

Charlie Albone:

Okay.

Jimmy Turner:

Should fill up a tuna can or a catfish can and probably about by half in 15 to 20 minutes, and that tells you, you’re getting about half of that. That’s about normal, if it’s doing more or less, but you want a tuna fish can per week.

Charlie Albone:

Okay.

Jimmy Turner:

So, I actually break that into three times a week at about 20 minutes. And another great trick is if you have a soil, if you run your irrigation and see it running out on your sidewalk, or your driveway and really not soaking, in is almost all modern irrigation systems. You can take that 15, 20 minutes and divide it into three little spurts. Spray it a little bit. Wait an hour, spray it again. Wait an hour, spray it again and do that in the evening or early morning. That way it doesn’t evaporate as quick. Saves a bit of water.

Charlie Albone:

Oh, that’s a good tip. I guess it kind of will evenly district that water throughout. Soil is a bit like a sponge. If you’ve got good soil, will soak it up. I was talking to Joe Rogers, a turf specialist, and he was suggesting that perhaps you should water less often and more to kind of draw the roots down into the soil. What’s your opinion on that?

Jimmy Turner:

If you’ve got a new soil water often, if your soil is established the only thing I found out is, if you let your soil dry out too often – which tends to happen with a lot of amateurs – if you let it dry out between water and to the point where it’s starting to wilt, it takes forever to get enough water back down into it. If you’ve got a really well established lawn and you’ve got good percolation in your soil where your soil actually absorbs water quickly. Twice a week is more than enough, but once a week, if you’ve got a really good turf and you’ve got decent rainfall and my personal pet peeve is people who put on their irrigation system, run it three times a week, whether it’s raining outside or not. Get a buddy rain sensor and turn it off.

Charlie Albone:

It will do it for you.

Jimmy Turner:

It does it all for you, and it doesn’t cost that much. It just plugs into the side.

Charlie Albone:

What’s the most effective time to water as well? Because I’ve been taught early morning, late afternoon is the best. Then I guess sometimes in humid climates, you can just extrapolate any fungal problems that you’ve got as well.

Jimmy Turner:

Yes. To tell you the truth: grass, the turf, the hedges you’re on, really on your flowers. Don’t really care what time of day they’re watered. Now rainfall comes night or day, depending on what season it is. It can rain here in Brisbane and Sydney and turn 40 degrees, 15 minutes later.

Charlie Albone:

Yep.

Jimmy Turner:

The plants are perfectly fine. I’ve always been of the opinion water late evening, early morning. If you want to save water, if you live in a really humid climate though, the longer that moisture sits on your plants, the more you’re going to get issues. Sometimes in my opinion, that way you actually should water late morning, early afternoon. So it dries off quickly. Another good trick that I quite often tell people is if you’ve got a new lawn, you’re trying to establish something or you’re having severe heat, and I’m talking like we had a couple years back when it was just bloody hot during the summer.

Jimmy Turner:

A little midday, 15-minute spray. Yes. You’re not literally watering your lawn as much, but you’re actually cooling it off. If you’ve used this analogy, your turf, sense it’s such an exposed flat site, if you’ve ever taken your shoes off and tried to walk across a benchman on a day that’s a hot, your turf actually heats up to a point where it’s too hot, and it’s not growing. It’s respiring too heavy, and that actually kind of gives it… It’s kind of like stepping into air con for your turf for an hour or two while that evaporates and dries off. So it cools off your lawn a little bit. Only do that during severe heat stress, but it is a good way of kind of putting a life preserver out in your lawn.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah, that’s a good tip as well. With trees in the heat, especially in some of those really scorching days, as you get in the middle of summer, what’s your recommendation – that you just suggest soaking the soil for as long as possible in the evening or morning, or what are your tips there?

Jimmy Turner:

With trees? Usually they’re planted in turfs, or they’re planted near fire beds or planted somewhere where you’re actually watering already. So the water should already be in there and it should already be saturated. If you’re having severe drought, stress, deep soaking, is your best option. Just remember 90% of a tree’s roots are in the first couple inches of the soil. So really that’s where they’re looking for their nutrients and stuff and their water uptake is a little bit lower than that. Just a good, heavy soak does wonders.

Charlie Albone:

Good heavy soak. Yeah, it’s quite funny. I follow a few people on Instagram that just sort of work on topiary in the UK. All they do is, is trim buxus and hedges, and I laugh because, they’re like, “oh, it’s a hot day today.” It’s 20, 23 degrees or something they’re pruning with no shirt on. Then they’ll get a sheet and cover the hedge up afterwards. They all don’t want the hedge to get sunburned. Do you find that happens in hot or do you think it’s just a bit ridiculous?

Jimmy Turner:

Get a life, but first of all, how the hell do they prune those things in perfect round meatballs with…

Charlie Albone:

I know.

Jimmy Turner:

…with just nothing but an eyeball and a hand shear. That’s amazing. I heavy lived in Texas, lived in Utah and Sydney now in Brisbane. I very seldom see leaf scorch on most plants, including boxwood. We’re talking 40 or above and you’re taking something really heavily back to leave that haven’t had any sunlight on them. Like you take your house plant outside on a warm day and stick it in full sun. It’s going to sunburn. Those hedges have been sitting out there and with several millimeters deep in the shrub, they’ve had full sun. I’ve never had to shade something that I’ve actually seen something burn. The only one I would actually say I’ve ever done that I’ve actually made a mistake on was a hydrangea. Hydrangeas, if you prune them and their bottom leaves haven’t adjusted, they will drop every leave on the shrub in a moment’s notice.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. They will. They tell you when they’re thirsty as well. They really do. Another thing which I was taught in the UK, which I found out is a load of hogwash as well, is don’t let water sit on the leaves of your plants because it works like a magnifying glass and it will burn your leaves. That’s been proven to be a load of rubbish. Isn’t it?

Jimmy Turner:

Garden myth.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah.

Jimmy Turner:

If that happened every time it rained, every tree in the forest would have holes through it.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah, absolutely. Humidity is an issue. What’s the difference between a really humid climate and a dry climate when it comes to sort of trying to save some water and look after your garden?

Jimmy Turner:

Utah was like living in a food dehydrator. A good humid day in Utah was 20%, which your towel never stinks, which is amazing. Also, having a rose garden there, you never ever have to spray for black spider, powdery mildew. I found that was a bit of a surprise for me cause I’ve always lived in humid climates. The big one is really fungal disorders and managing that, which if you’ve got plants that are susceptible to it, overhead irrigation, which most people have in their lawns, are not wonderful for plants that suffer from irrigate high for or suffer from fungal issues, roses being an absolute perfect example.

Charlie Albone:

You think a drip irrigation is better in that sort of a climate?

Jimmy Turner:

Drip irrigation is better in that climate, or water early in the morning or late in the afternoon or sorry, late in the morning or early evening. So it dries off quickly.

Charlie Albone:

Okay.

Jimmy Turner:

I’ve grown roses here in Brisbane, in Sydney and both of those cases, I personally hate drip irrigation, because I always have to fix it too many times. You know when it’s broken, when your plants are dead.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. You always put a shovel through drip irrigation. Yeah. People think in the heat, a lot of people grow in cactus and succulents thinking that’s the only thing you can grow. Do you have any other plants that, just do really well in the heat? I know that I’ve seen your Instagram in Brisbane and pruning that massive bougainvillea tunnel. That’s like painting the Harbor Bridge. Isn’t it?

Jimmy Turner:

It really actually is. I pretty much started the one end of that thing, pruned to the other end. Stop, then kind of repeat – this kind of a constant pruning. We just need to invent some kind of electric powered bougainvillea trimmer! I really believe in colour. You know that if you’ve watched any of me in my social media channels, colour, to me, is one of those things that draws people. The artwork in your house, the colour throw pillows you throw on your couch in your house. Those are the things that people remember, not your beige backdrops.

Jimmy Turner:

Hedges and lawns are nice settings, but they’re not what people remember. Colours should be used appropriately to your setting. So, a couple big pots at the front door. Somewhere to showcase where you want to, but there are some wonderful options for full sun and heat and for shade. Probably one of my current ones, favorites, is sunpatiens, a New Guinea hybrid. They are sterile. So they don’t seed. They’re god awful water hogs. They will suck up a saucer full of water every day during the summer, but they never stop blooming, so it’s worth it. You don’t want a whole lawn full of them, but two pots is great. Salvia, anything with the word Salvia in front of it, which I think, Salvia is Latin for ‘I like hot weather.’

Charlie Albone:

Yeah, and ‘I flower for a long time.’

Jimmy Turner:

Salvia and Mystic spires blue, which gets a meter, meter and half, and it’s one of those plants you can take your aggression out with a pair of pruners anytime you want to and whack it back, and it comes right back and perennial open.

Charlie Albone:

So you can get huge Salvias. You can get tiny Salvias. That’s so versatile and they’re so easy to care for.

Jimmy Turner:

You can get them in any colour. You can get them in size. Gogo series from proven winters is one of my favorites. The lovely Mesa series, which is the Salvia Greggi, which is a Texas native. So it actually can take super cold or super hot, super dry or super wet. Doesn’t care and can’t kill it, and it kind of grows like a hedge.

Ploweronium, Calliope, the Geranium Calliope series, which is actually an inter-specific hybrid, so it doesn’t make seeds. So you don’t have to deadhead those ugly little dead, dry spider looking flowers off of it all the time. It blooms in the Sydney Trial Garden. It probably bloomed for us a good 11 months out of the year.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. That’s impressive. There’s not many things that will do that. Some of the Euphorbia Stardust and stuff like that, will do it.

Jimmy Turner:

Not like that one.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. There’s not much that flowers, as long as that.

Jimmy Turner:

There are some really good options out there.

Charlie Albone:

What about fruit trees and things like that, for the heat?

Jimmy Turner:

Fruit trees for heat? There is no shortage of fruit trees for heat in Australia. You’re lucky you don’t get that cold or that hot. Sorry, but you really don’t get that hot. I lived in Utah now, 48 degrees is a possible day.

Charlie Albone:

Woo, that’s hot.

Jimmy Turner:

Pomegranates, Fig trees, Macadamia nuts, in no shortage of different fruit trees and things that fruit in the summer. Pomegranates, one of my favorite. Just pick a variety that taste good. There was a lot of varieties on the market. I actually think Wonderful, which is the number one. So variety, is one of the worst tasting pomegranates in the world and I’ve tasted. It’s one of my favorite fruits, so I’m quite picky about it.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah.

Jimmy Turner:

Figs are an interesting plant. They’re actually better when they’re hot and dry in the summer.

Charlie Albone:

Yes.

Jimmy Turner:

If they’re kept too wet here in Brisbane, the figs don’t get as sweet in my opinion, because they don’t wilt as much. They’re actually in Texas where I grew up. There’s no rainfall in the summer and they literally look like dried up wash rags, hanging off the branches because the leaves are so dripping, dried out. The fruit’s just almost like pure sugar, and a good hint for that one is to grow I’m going to raise setting, or a somewhere with the soil drains quickly. So she stays sweeter.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. Okay. They like a wet winter, do they?

Jimmy Turner:

They do like a…

Charlie Albone:

Yeah.

Jimmy Turner:

They like a wet winter and wet spring, but actually in the summer when they’re actually making their fruit, they actually prefer to dry out a bit.

Charlie Albone:

Okay. Yeah. That’s interesting. Yeah. I’ve wondered about growing figs. I actually just planted some. That’s why I’m asking you on the… Luckily I put them in a raised bed, so they should be okay. You mentioned making your own compost. It’s something I really like to do. You can never make enough. Do you shred yours up to sort of try and reduce, or increase the surface area, so you can get more in your compost heap?

Jimmy Turner:

Yes, I do shred mine up. Anything I can actually mix more. It breaks down faster. When I do take it out, anything that didn’t go through the first one and break down very much. I throw it back on the top of the bin, but a good shredder, our chipper will work. I hate to admit I’ve stood there long enough to get RSI in my right hand, chopping something up with my pruners so I could put it in there. I have to admit I’m a bit obsessive about my compost. I went and bought one of the most highest powered home paper cutters so I can run two-ply cardboard through it. Cardboard is an amazing source of brown. You don’t have a lot of leaves in your lawn.

Charlie Albone:

Yes.

Jimmy Turner:

Living in Australia, you don’t have seasonal leaf drop like we do in the U.S. This is a great opportunity to actually add more of the brown to it. So any cardboard box that comes to my house, it’s like, “yay!”

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. You must have been enjoying lockdown, just ordering stuff just for the boxes.

Jimmy Turner:

Yes.

Charlie Albone:

Don’t need this, but I need the box. So I’m going to buy it.

Jimmy Turner:

Just make sure to peel off the plastic shiny coating on the front of it, or you end up picking out of your flower bed for years.

Charlie Albone:

Sure. So you mentioned, Australia doesn’t get much leaf drop like the U.S. would, but if you do have some deciduous trees, would you add that to your compost or would you solely keep that to itself and maybe make something like leaf mold, which is different, but also useful in the garden?

Jimmy Turner:

When you have a lot of dropout at once, it’s hard to add that to your compost at one time, is what I found. So I actually do, I’ve done a bit of both. So one, what happens for me is. I end up running my lawn mower over it, sucking it up and what I’ve chipped up pretty fine, I put what I can in the composter or pile up somewhere and the rest of it chip up and then pile in one big pile and just let it kind of break in my leaf mode. If you have a big enough yard and you have space, I’ve actually just done that, then run underneath my hedges and actually…

Charlie Albone:

Put it back as mulch.

Jimmy Turner:

Put it back as mulch and it actually comes alive. Yes. Just tuck it underneath where people can’t see it, because it’s not the most attractive mulch, but it does break down really quickly.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. It’s really good for adding air to the soil, I guess?

Jimmy Turner:

Yes.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah, really good. Do you have any other tips for people that live in a hot climate or are struggling through drought or looking to drought proof their garden in the future?

Jimmy Turner:

Probably my first tip is to make sure about your soil amendment, to make sure you get that right. If you’re starting your garden back to compost and I’ll keep harping on that one until they bury me in the soil. Second one is your plant choice. Some plants work better than others. How do you find that out? Walk around and wander and visit your neighbors. Go see gardens. Go visit Botanic Gardens, Parklands, and see what they’re using. What’s blooming? What time of year, what’s holding up to their climate? Don’t be afraid to kill a few plants. Sorry. The success of my garden has built on the compost of my failures has been one of my taglines for most of my career. You have to kill a few plants to learn how to grow things in your own lawn. Even though someone tells you exactly how it should grow, where it should grow, your yard is completely different. I’ve seen things grow places like, “how the heck are you doing that? You’re not even a trained gardener.” Plants don’t read books so don’t be afraid to try things.

Charlie Albone:

Yeah. That’s great advice. I guess also pick the times you garden as well. Don’t go out in the middle of the day and start double digging your gardens. It’s not ideal.

Jimmy Turner:

Wear your sunscreen.

Charlie Albone:

Wear your sunscreen. Yeah, you must have shares in sunscreen, the places you’ve lived.

Jimmy Turner:

Unfortunately I didn’t wear it for most of my life. So now I’m paying for it.

Charlie Albone:

Oh wow.

Jimmy Turner:

Yeah. Sunscreen up.

Charlie Albone:

Well, Jimmy, it’s been amazing. Thank you for all your tips. I’m sure the listeners are going to be able to take a lot from it. So thank you for your time.

Jimmy Turner:

Thanks Charlie.

Charlie Albone:

It is now time for our community questions. Now, Pete from Brisbane, he’s emailed me and he says, “Hi Charlie, I’m passionate about my garden, but I fear I use too much water to keep my plants alive, particularly in summer.” So what advice do I have for him? Well, my number one advice is get yourself a rainwater tank. Get one as big as you can afford and attach it to as much roof space as you possibly can. That way you’re going to capture as much rainwater as possible and you can use it when it’s most needed. You need to water wisely as well. I know Jimmy gave us some tips saying that water in the middle of the day can help a lawn, but really if you want your water to be effective, you need to do it late in the evening or early in the morning.

That way the plants can soak it all up and you’re not going to lose as much through evaporation. You also need to give your soil a bit of love. Adding compost to your soil is the best thing you can do. It’s going to help to bind sandy soil together. It’s going to help to break up clay soil, but it’s going to help in that water retention as well. You’re not going to feel bad about splashing your water around and you have to water a lot less.

Charlie Albone:

Now my next question is from an aspiring gardener and a big fan of the podcast. It’s five-year-old, James – thanks for listening, James. Now, he says he wants to learn how to take care of plants properly and to give them the right amount of water. “How do you know when a plant needs water and how much do you need to give them?” Well, James, don’t be afraid to kill plants?

I have killed plenty of plants in my lifetime trying to keep them alive, and the good thing about killing plants is they become great compost and you learn so much from killing a plant. You know if you’ve over watered it or you’ve under watered it, and the next time you grow it, you can make the changes and it will thrive. Now the moment your plant is thirsty, it’s going to wilt. So, the leaves are going to start drooping. It’s going to start looking a little bit sick. That’s when it needs water, you can stick your finger in the soil. If it feels wet and moist, then you don’t need to water anymore. If it feels dry, it’s time to give it a really good soak. Remember, it’s probably better to keep your plants a little bit dry than it is over watering them because you don’t want anaerobic buildup in the soil, and then you get a lot more problems.

Charlie Albone:

Last question is from Trent, from Queensland. he says “with no shady trees around, should I build my own shade structure to give the plants the best survival opportunity through the hotter months?” Well, the best shade structure, Trent, is to plant some shade giving trees. They would be lovely and they’ll add a real maturity to your garden, which will be nice. If you really can’t plant trees for whatever reason, then yes, you can erect a shade structure. Make sure you make one that you can take the shake off. So in winter you can maximize your sun. Well, do you have any gardening questions? You’d like me to answer. Send me an email at charlie@stihl.com.au.

Charlie Albone:

It was so great to speak with Jimmy Turner today. He sure is a character and he has some incredible experience managing some of the best public parks. Well, what did we learn from him? We learned that improving your soil is the best way to maximise your watering and that compost or compost as equals it is everything, so make as much compost as you possibly can, and a way to make more is to get yourself a good quality, STIHL shredder. You can shred it up and it will turn into compost quicker, and that way your power can keep turning quicker and quicker and you have more and more. Also, it’s okay to kill plants, but it’s even better if you let your neighbors do it. So, if you’re worried about what plants to use, look around your local area, go to your local Botanic garden, see what’s thriving and steal their ideas.

Charlie Albone:

Thanks for listening to That’s How We Grow in partnership with STIHL garden power tools. Need the tools to take on any garden challenge, go to the STIHL website or head to your local STIHL dealer today. You can find us and follow STIHL on Instagram at @stihl_au, and you can follow me on Instagram as well at @charlie_albone. In our next episode, I’ll be joined by my old selling houses Australia co-host Andrew Winter. Whilst – by his own admission – Andrew might be an awful gardener. He knows how much a well-planned and maintained garden can add to the value of your property. I’ll also give you all the advice you need on how to tackle a wild or overgrown garden if the time should arise. Don’t forget to check out STIHL’s blog with plenty of great gardening advice, tips, and tricks, and there’s one on compost as well. So you can learn how to make your own. I’m Charlie Albone, thanks for listening and until next time, goodbye.

Listen to the audio recording of this podcast here.