About
Charlie Albone
Charlie Albone is a landscape designer and television presenter. With his talent, good looks and cheeky personality Charlie is a natural presenter. Born in Hong Kong, Charlie moved to the UK when he was 12 years old. It was here that he developed a keen interest in landscapes and gardens. On leaving school, he landed a job maintaining the grounds of an English country manor. With no formal qualifications, he learnt on the job and worked for many UK landscaping companies before coming to Australia on a working holiday eight years ago. He fell in love with the country and decided to further his education by gaining a diploma in horticulture and landscape design. While at college, Charlie started his own landscaping company “Inspired Exteriors”, which he now runs as a full time business. His main client base is in Sydney’s inner West, where he creates stylish city gardens. He has also worked on country gardens in the Southern Highlands and even France. Passionate about the design of his surroundings, Charlie has now been designing and building gardens for almost ten years. In the future, Charlie would like to work on more conceptual gardens using new materials. He also has a keen interest in sustainability. He loves the outdoors and for Charlie it’s a pleasurable experience to create a space you want to spend time in and then return to. In Selling Houses Australia, Charlie makes-over the gardens of the homes featured in the series so they look their best for sale.
For any landscape design work you may be interested in hiring Charlie to undertake, you can contact him directly via his website www.inspiredexteriors.com.au
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As gardeners we love introducing new plants into the garden and one of my favourite things to do is take a stroll around the nursery looking for new plants I haven’t seen before. I always get asked what to look for when choosing plants to buy so I have made a check list below for you to print off and take to the nursery with you:
Roots:
To check if the plants roots are healthy can be a bit difficult as they are hidden within the pot they are growing. You want the pot to be filled with roots but not so that the plant is root bound. Hold the plant low down the stem and lift. If the plant falls away and you are left with a mess of soil on the ground, leave the plant (the Nursery should not be trying to sell small plants at big plant prices). If the pot remains on the root ball and is not bulging at the sides the roots are good. A root bound plant is when the roots circle around the pot creating an impenetrable mass of roots so when in the ground the roots cannot expand and help plant growth; this is shown by a bulging pot. Don’t be afraid of a few roots growing out of the bottom of the plant pot as this is normal just make sure it’s not stuck to the ground!
Roots:
To check if the plants roots are healthy can be a bit difficult as they are hidden within the pot they are growing. You want the pot to be filled with roots but not so that the plant is root bound. Hold the plant low down the stem and lift. If the plant falls away and you are left with a mess of soil on the ground, leave the plant (the Nursery should not be trying to sell small plants at big plant prices). If the pot remains on the root ball and is not bulging at the sides the roots are good. A root bound plant is when the roots circle around the pot creating an impenetrable mass of roots so when in the ground the roots cannot expand and help plant growth; this is shown by a bulging pot. Don’t be afraid of a few roots growing out of the bottom of the plant pot as this is normal just make sure it’s not stuck to the ground!
In the last instalment of my blog I started discussing what the parts of a plant are, what they do and how this is important to understanding the basics of gardening. We went through roots and stems and this time we will move further up the plant to look at leaves, flowers, fruit and seeds. If you missed the first instalment you can find it on the Lifestyle channels web site.
Leaves:
Try to think of leaves as the plants' solar panels. They absorb the sun's energy and carbon dioxide and turn it into fuel for itself and oxygen for us. They come in many shapes and sizes but all do the same job. The top of the leaf is the part that soaks up the sun and there are actually little holes that open and close on the underside of the leaf for the movement of oxygen and carbon dioxide. These holes also let the plants transpire, and what that means is that water is drawn from the roots through the stems and up to the leaves and is lost out of these holes. When the leaves go saggy and limp the plant is telling you it needs more water. When transplanting, the plant undergoes a lot of stress and water loss. Removing some leaves and stems prior to moving it can lower the plants transpiration rate and help it settle into its new home with minimum water loss. The shape and colour of the leaf is a great way to tell where the plant likes to grow. As a rule of thumb small leaves do well in full sun as they have fewer holes to lose water through and large leaf plants do well in shade for the opposite reason. Silver foliage is great for full sun as it reflects sun away from the plant and colourful and variegated foliage such as purple is excellent in shade.
Leaves:
Try to think of leaves as the plants' solar panels. They absorb the sun's energy and carbon dioxide and turn it into fuel for itself and oxygen for us. They come in many shapes and sizes but all do the same job. The top of the leaf is the part that soaks up the sun and there are actually little holes that open and close on the underside of the leaf for the movement of oxygen and carbon dioxide. These holes also let the plants transpire, and what that means is that water is drawn from the roots through the stems and up to the leaves and is lost out of these holes. When the leaves go saggy and limp the plant is telling you it needs more water. When transplanting, the plant undergoes a lot of stress and water loss. Removing some leaves and stems prior to moving it can lower the plants transpiration rate and help it settle into its new home with minimum water loss. The shape and colour of the leaf is a great way to tell where the plant likes to grow. As a rule of thumb small leaves do well in full sun as they have fewer holes to lose water through and large leaf plants do well in shade for the opposite reason. Silver foliage is great for full sun as it reflects sun away from the plant and colourful and variegated foliage such as purple is excellent in shade.
One of the first things I was taught whilst studying at T.A.F.E. was plant biology and to be honest most of the lesson I spent thinking what on earth am I doing here, this has little to do with landscape design? The monotone moustachioed teacher didn’t exactly help to stem my enthusiasm either! It’s only now when I am teaching other people about gardens and design that I realise the importance of actually knowing what a plant is and how it works. If you know the basics of how a plant works and what each part does it makes it so much easier to care for it and help it flourish.
Most of us have them and nearly all of us judge each other on the quality of their little green carpet ... the lawn. I’m not really a big fan of the lawn as they can take up a lot of time with maintenance and they suck up a fair bit of water. In fact the average backyard lawn uses more water than a fully mature tree. Saying this I also understand they can be a necessity with kids, pets and a general feeling of openness in a garden space.
A lawn will look its best and use less water when it is maintained properly and performing at its optimum. After winter the lawn can look tired and a bit brown so it’s the perfect time to get in some yearly maintenance.
A lawn will look its best and use less water when it is maintained properly and performing at its optimum. After winter the lawn can look tired and a bit brown so it’s the perfect time to get in some yearly maintenance.
Compost is a great garden additive that helps feed plants and improve soil but for those of you who are not green fingered and are unsure what compost actually is think about it like this: Plants living in their natural habitats never get any fertilising or added nutrients; they do however get it from natural composting. The plant takes nutrients in from the soil and then uses them for growth, when the plant drops flowers, leaves or branches they land on the ground and rot down returning the nutrients to the soil. When we as gardeners clear through our garden beds and tidy our pathways we remove these nutrients from the natural cycle. We then tend to replace them with unnatural fertilisers that are not only bad for the environment but do nothing to help the structure of the soil.
Myself and the Selling Houses Australia team are currently busy shooting episodes of the upcoming third series and i thought i'd quickly touch base with you and let you know some of my favourite websites that i use for ideas and inspiration when i'm designing gardens & spaces.
www.coolhunter.com
www.potsonline.com.au
www.urbanbalcony.com.au
www.coolhunter.com
www.potsonline.com.au
www.urbanbalcony.com.au
In last month’s blog I wrote about the benefits of organic pest and disease control. I focused on how to minimise large outbreaks by prevention techniques, but this month i will give you some of recipes i use to control pests and diseases.
The beer trap and dead bug spray:
Take a small bowl and bury it in the ground so the rim is flush with the ground. Then fill the bowl with beer. Slugs and snails will be attracted to the beer and drink until drunk! This leads the pests to drowning in the beer. The dead slugs and snails can then be blended with water (one pint of water to 1 cup of dead slugs) and after mixing well the spray can be used on plants that are affected by slugs and snails. Although macabre it actually works and needs to be reapplied on a weekly basis. It can also be frozen and used again but make sure you do not add flies, ticks, fleas or mosquitoes as they can carry disease.
The beer trap and dead bug spray:
Take a small bowl and bury it in the ground so the rim is flush with the ground. Then fill the bowl with beer. Slugs and snails will be attracted to the beer and drink until drunk! This leads the pests to drowning in the beer. The dead slugs and snails can then be blended with water (one pint of water to 1 cup of dead slugs) and after mixing well the spray can be used on plants that are affected by slugs and snails. Although macabre it actually works and needs to be reapplied on a weekly basis. It can also be frozen and used again but make sure you do not add flies, ticks, fleas or mosquitoes as they can carry disease.
The Lifestyle Channel's hit show 'Selling Houses Australia' is now looking for vendors to take part in the upcoming third series!
Let Andrew Winter and the team transform your home, so you have the best possible chance of a sale.
If you're interested in appearing on the show or know someone who is, click on the following link:
SELLING HOUSES AUSTRALIA - SERIES 3
Let Andrew Winter and the team transform your home, so you have the best possible chance of a sale.
If you're interested in appearing on the show or know someone who is, click on the following link:
SELLING HOUSES AUSTRALIA - SERIES 3
I remember when I moved to Australia and the first house I lived in had a rather sick and diseased looking citrus tree. I knew Citrus loved cool roots so I applied a heavy layer of mulch and gave them a good cut back. This produced lots of new soft shoots which were quite promptly attacked but swarms of aphids. I was informed at T.A.F.E. that spraying them with pest oil would eliminate them, and it does, however being a poor student I thought it best to spend my money on food. I came back to my citrus a couple of weeks later expecting to see the grim reaper had had his way with the tree however there was no sign of aphids only ladybugs and their larvae. If I had in fact gone trigger happy I would have knocked out not only the aphids but the lady beetles too. Not only this, I would have to have kept on spraying every time my tree had an outbreak and this could possibly lead to the aphids becoming resistant to the spray. Therefore I think the movement toward organic gardening is fantastic and I try to use organic methods of pest and disease control as much as I possibility can. It is particularly important to implement these methods when growing your own produce but more so important as organic methods of control are a lot more effective in the long run.
Well winter has definitely set in and I’m spending a lot more time indoors and sadly out of the garden...
It’s always nice to look out the back doors at the garden but I never really feel as in touch with it as in the other months. The way I got around this is by increasing my indoor plants. Indoor plants need care all year round but its winter time that they are most appreciated.
Plants inside give natural warmth to a room whilst providing textures and colours only nature can provide. Studies have been done to prove that certain plants can actually purify the air we breathe, in fact the common spathiphyllum or peace lily is one of the best for this and a great indoor grower. A common garden weed the chlorophytum or spider plant is readily available and one of the highest rating plants for removing radiation from computer screens, just make sure you don’t let it escape outside!
It’s always nice to look out the back doors at the garden but I never really feel as in touch with it as in the other months. The way I got around this is by increasing my indoor plants. Indoor plants need care all year round but its winter time that they are most appreciated.
Plants inside give natural warmth to a room whilst providing textures and colours only nature can provide. Studies have been done to prove that certain plants can actually purify the air we breathe, in fact the common spathiphyllum or peace lily is one of the best for this and a great indoor grower. A common garden weed the chlorophytum or spider plant is readily available and one of the highest rating plants for removing radiation from computer screens, just make sure you don’t let it escape outside!
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