Hi everyone and welcome back to Dish the Dirt, the podcast that digs deep with the passionate people growing beauty from the ground up.

I'm your host Rebecca Noble and today is one of the recordings from the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show where you will hear a little bit of hissing in the background.

And I believe it was because my mic wasn't switched on properly, which I didn't pick up until later.

It was a very hectic time so apologies you'll need to listen to this with your volume up, but please don't stop listening because it's such a special episode.

I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Joanne from The Backyard Garden Enthusiast, a remarkable seed grower and flower farmer based in Aubrey, Wodonga.

Joanne is a fierce advocate for Australian natives and her work really does encourage all of us, no matter our garden style, to make room for these resilient, often overlooked beauties.

From the tiniest belly buttons and Blue Devils to vanilla lilies and native tobacco, Joanne shares not only what she grows, but the story, serendipity and science behind it all.

Her generosity with knowledge and passion for biodiversity is honestly absolutely infectious.

So grab yourself a cuppa, find a sunny spot and enjoy this rich story filled chat with Joanne from the backyard garden enthusiast Dish.

The Dirt was recorded and edited on the lands of the Wondry people of the Colon Nation, the traditional custodians of the beautiful Yarra Valley.

We acknowledge their enduring connection to land, water, skies and culture, and we pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging.

We recognize that this land has always been a place of storytelling, knowledge sharing, and deep connection to nature.

We are grateful to record this podcast on country and we honor the custodians who have cared for it for thousands of years.

Hi, another episode of Dish the Dirt recorded in our beautiful greenhouse behind me here.

We're at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show and I have Joanne here with me from backyard garden enthusiasts.

And Joanne, hi, how are you?

Good.

How are you been?

Yeah, I'm good.

I'm good.

It's hard.

Yeah, I think we're.

We've been doing a lot, haven't we?

We.

Have long days and standing up I'm trying to wiggle my toes like a soldier would.

You know, as I'm talking to people as they come through.

Yeah, you've been an absolute well, you've been a trooper talking about soldiers like you've been incredible.

So we've had Growers Ave.

here at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show and Joanne has been one of the 16 flower farmers that has come along for that.

And Joanne, do you want to start by telling us where you are?

Where you are, Why you'll call the backyard garden food here?

Yeah, well, I'm a flower farmer, flower farmer and seed farmer.

So I grow Australian Navy flowers and grasses full seed and I harvest the seed and I'm sort of online to gardeners.

And that's in an effort to encourage gardeners to incorporate Australian natives into whatever type of garden they may have, whether it's a cottage garden or a formal garden.

And to it's like a, a slow introduction to Australian natives.

And also for those gardeners who are already native gardeners as well.

And sometimes they like some of the smaller flowering plants that I have from grasslands.

Yeah, wonderful.

So we're about to be situated.

I'm in Aubrey, Aubrey Wodonga, and I have about a 600 square meter block.

So it's the garden and the block next door, right?

So the block next door is a bit interesting in that people would have been to build units on it.

And thankfully my dad came in and gave me a little bit of dosh and I was able to buy that block.

Yo, I know, so that we could still maintain our sense of space that we had in our house and in our garden.

But also we went to the bank manager and the bank manager said it's useless buying that block.

And I said you'll never make any money out of that, you know, just having that block sit there.

And I thought, yes, I will.

I'll show you that.

I'll show you are.

You daring to question my determination and that of women around the on.

You, yes, if you haven't met Joanne, she's.

Actually.

You are like a absolute pocket rocket, just a Dynamo.

So I can only imagine that your thought process after that, so you got that piece of land and then what happened from there?

Well, we were just with a slipper in it and knowing it and I thought now it's a really soggy spot because it's sort of down.

It's on the slope, but sort of it's flat, but it's on the slope and it comes off the slope.

So I thought I'm not going to try Billy Buttons in there.

And they just took off and they thought, OK, I'm going to do they like they do because all along me.

All along the.

Roadsides in the Riverina you'll you'll see Billy Buttons just growing wild and especially.

There.

And if they're just fabulous, so they like a soggy spot when they're, you know, first taking off.

So anywhere, all rains from autumn through winter, you know, there's a lovely soggy spot, you know, that they'll really go through in summer.

They die down in German crap OK, but they grow on a Verizon.

So then they pop up mostly on close rounds of water.

And so if in your garden give them a bit of a splash of water over the summer.

They're still alive, but don't expect them to be blooming beautiful because they flowers sort of more September, October, August, September, October, depending on where you're at.

That's.

Great.

Do they need a lot of sunlight?

Yeah, full sun.

OK.

All right.

I was just thinking about a patch.

I got in for a second and it's not going to work.

It's underneath the trampoline that's very zombie.

And I was like, oh, so you started off with belly button and then what happened then?

Well, then I tried some pink and white everlastings because when you moved in Sydney about 15 years ago, I just decided to plant out a whole Meadow of them.

So I had a whole Meadow on one of our front terraces in the garden.

Oh, yeah, I'll try some of those and I'll try some others.

But I started to look at some exotics as well.

And then I started to look at succession planting.

And I was hopeless.

So failure led me to let the farm go to seed or let all the flowers go to seed.

It wasn't one of the farms that state.

And I started collecting the seed and then I went to the market and people started to buy the seeds.

They were more interested in the seeds than the lovely reeds I've made or dried flowers or anything else that I've done.

You're wonderful do.

You just do the paper bases and the store flowers?

Or has it grown from there?

No, I've got a list.

OK, let's.

Go through the.

List and I want to.

Know about these as well because.

Sometimes.

You know, I think I've seen your stand here and it is filled with like the most delicate tiny store flowers to them, like bigger things.

And then also you've got these teeny tiny little Billy babbons, and they're different varieties.

They are.

Yeah.

And So what I did is the whole stand is native plants and dried flowers, all natives.

And what I did is try to try try to show a variety of the different natives that you can get.

So I sell Billy buttons as in Hypnosaurus clobosis, which are the big ones.

They're the ones they're trying to go for.

And quite often I mention the scientific names only because there's so many different variations of common names and people get confused.

So they look all them woolly heads, they call them, oh, I don't know what else, but all sorts of names they give to the Billy buttons.

But some of the dry flowers that I have on there, some are belly buttons, some are Crest pedia that grow on the hay plane.

So they're not a Picnosaurus vulvosis, So they're a bit smaller.

And some are sort of like an Oval shape as well.

And some of the really tiny ones, like tiny, tiny lemon beauty heads.

And so once they flower, I just slip them all off and just have a go at drying them and see, Yeah.

So it's really just all about having a go.

And I suppose I encourage all gardeners and farmers to just have a go, you know, particularly with natives.

And, you know, let's put that in the vase at home and see what the life is and what what the life is on that because the vase like this because there's so much we don't know about lots of our native flowers.

Yeah, and some of the small ones, some of the big ones, some of the trees, you know, to really look with curiosity and interest when you're out in the Bush and think about them.

So I've got about 20 different species.

So I've got Billy Buttons, I've got the Blue Devil, which is a really spiky.

It's like an original, Yeah, you know.

So you know how you have the frosted silver ones in the exotics and they're quite spiky.

So this one's like, it's a native and it's sort of like a pale blue.

But when you put it in the right spot and I put it, you know, tucked in with some Australian native lemongrass, it looks quite nice, that sort of contrast between the grey and the light blue.

And it is very spiky.

See, heavy can dry.

It's not so spiky when it's still when it's not DRY, but it just.

It just adds a.

Lovely light blue.

Touch to it do a blue lace flower, which lots of flower farmers grow anyway, but it's a native bulb on lilies.

A lot of the lilies are really interesting and have delicate, sort of delicate.

Yeah.

And because I saved all the seeds, I haven't necessarily tried them as cup flowers previously, but like our chocolate lilies and vanilla lilies have a little vanilla or chocolate, so depending on.

Yeah, OK, yeah.

And then lovely delicate flowers.

And they're like wands.

So there's another exotic flower that's that's sort of like a wand.

What do they call it?

Fairies wand or something.

So, so it branches out like that.

So that looks lovely in the garden as well.

And with the lilies and things, they die down in summer and then they pop up in the winter.

So when you're planting the seeds for those, and my little tip, as always, to spread some different colored mulch or probably sand around that patch so that, you know, when they pop up again, you don't go leaving them out.

All right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what's next on the left?

Creep and salt Bush chocolate, really Hay plains Daisy.

I'm from hay, so that's a sentimental one of mine.

My God is very sentimental.

So the hay plains Daisy, the flowers were the seed will only germinate after the pad of blood.

So they need really good soil moisture, a depth of soil moisture.

So I have some of those seeds and they can lay dormant for a few years until it gets to the next.

Flood, yeah.

And then they'll just all pop up.

So I'm trying to work out a way that I can grow more of those seeds in in a in a way that sort of replicates the flood.

So I'm looking at that.

Then the hoary sun ray, it likes really rough ground.

So I had it all in these beautifully prepared beds and the seat jumped over in just some rocky granite, you know?

OK, I need some of these.

Yeah, because this might grow in my garden.

And they were happy, you know, they're happy there.

And I'm thinking, OK, that's where I need to plant them.

Yeah.

So I've done that.

And then the grass is all just so beautiful.

Yeah.

They.

Are amazing.

So the wallaby grass, so if you were to have a pea at Aldrop Garden and you were wanting to put some natures in, you can have tall wallaby grasses that are just beautiful on my wave in the wind.

And the little red browed finches will come to eat those, come to eat those seeds.

And I'm sitting there on this, kept trying to catch them.

You know the little red browed finches and they're so thick and fast and I'll just have to get one with the sea in its mouth.

Well I have been waiting years.

Just try and get one of the little devils with a seed in its mouth just looking at me nicely because he's so quick.

Are you still waiting?

I have, you know, a photo, but it's not a great photo.

But they're the sort of birds that I was coming out the back door one day and I could the pond pot that I've got on the background, and there was all these splash marks around it.

Yeah, I thought, what's going on there?

And so I put the time lapse camera on there and it was a whole clock of little red browed pinches that had come in there for a splash.

But they've taken off before, you know, by the time I got the back door.

Open.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Beautiful.

And they're my snakes.

Whatever you got.

Oh, we've got all sorts of things like the native tobacco now that is really interesting.

So it's a lovely, it's one that's nearly, as mentioned on the garden in Australia.

And the native tobacco, it opens at night and it's culminated by Moss and it's got a lovely smell of, I think it's like a frangipanic.

OK.

And so I've put it outside my bedroom window so when they have the window open I can get that Cranch of panties smell.

And Millie has it at the front door, she said.

So that when she welcomes people in, it's a little bit rangy and you just have to do a little bit of pruning to it and everything.

Yeah, and what does it look like?

It's got quite large leaves and a delicate white flower on the end of a scan, so they branch out.

So it's probably a little bit of pruning if you want things sort of pristine.

I mean, I don't have a pristine garden, but if you want things to look pristine, you'd probably just give it a little bit of fame and stuff like that.

It dies down, but then it comes up the next year.

But it's a prolific self seat, so you know you'll be fine with that.

The interesting thing about the native tobacco is that in when Charles Garland was sailing down the northwest coast of WA, one of the botanists from his ship really shore and he got one of the, he collected one of the Nikki Atana species, not the one that I sell, but another one that grows up there.

And at the moment they're using that species of our Australian native tobacco and the customer in in the US to formulate an antidote for the Ebola virus.

How interesting is that?

Yeah.

Wow.

And that always makes me think about how we need to really value our environment and the little plants or big plants or trees or whatever that's out there because we just don't know what value it might be a cyclone it's using.

But how can we chop one thing out the clear land not realising really.

Yeah, because.

Everything that I well, I believe.

Every minute we have.

In our environment, in here for a reason, yeah.

And so, you know, these plants must have a significant value for our planet and for our health.

And yeah, we need to look after.

Them, yeah.

And some of our like native things, they like the Dianella.

It depends on the blue banded bee for coronation.

Yeah.

So the honeybee does a pretty good job with it, but it's the blue banded bee that does the best job.

Yeah.

Wow.

In the coronation, yeah.

Yeah.

So what is your favorite thing that you grow for seeds or should we go through?

I want you to go through.

Something on the breast.

So I grow oh a native lemongrass, which is just gorgeous.

I've got something here for some a lady was asking about it.

And so again, mush that up and have a smell and that's often used in a the native in the indigenous peoples of Australia would use it in a tea.

OK.

And I think it's supposed to help cop some things, OK.

Good.

Great.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they grow really well.

Yeah, so I've got old man salt Bush, another one from Hay Plains, thinking white everlastings rock eyes at times, which is a delicate little plant useful for a rockery, but any edges really.

And the blue flower that has like a blue banded bees absolutely love it as well.

And so when I'm out there, like collecting seed or whatever, I'm almost squatting away the blue banded bees, you know, and especially when I go out late at

night, so it's 7:30 at night, I'll ring my friend and she's in East Albury and I'm in.

And I said I've got all these blue banded bees still out, you know, and they're supposed to be back resting.

Yeah, somewhere.

How fabulous.

Yeah.

And what's last?

Oh, the last thing I have on the list is Zantharia, which is our grass tree, and that's a really interesting one to grow as well.

And a lot of our daisies, they like, they like when you're sewing your seed, they like to be sprinkled with sand because they need light to help them germinate.

But the Zantharia or grass tree that lights dark and when you think about it out in the Bush, there's a lot of litter and leaf hall sort of all around.

And you think, yeah, it did quite a bit of like mulch on top of it.

Yeah.

And so you need about two centimetres at least a mulch on top of those seeds.

And so when I sell my seeds, I think them the smoked vermiculite and and it suggests that they have it in batches and so much to get a germinating as well.

Yeah.

How?

Wonderful.

So you know, you started off with this and now you're grown to be this size and you're selling your seeds.

Whereabouts do you sell your seeds?

I sell my seeds online, yeah, online at the backyard gardening business and, and that's been really interesting to see that develop because now I'm getting, it's really interesting.

I get a lot of people because they have quite decorative labels and I was initially trying to sell them as seeds, as geets, which they are very much.

So I'm getting some men ordering them and they don't mind.

I mean, men can give gifts to their, to their friends and family.

I mean, that's fine.

I'm getting men that want to plant from at their place in their garden sort of thing.

They're not fussed about a fencing label.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

So a lot of them are interested in grasses as well and I explained to them that whilst they introduce new parents stock from different areas into the each year that my seed isn't grown to serve restoration purposes or revegetation purposes.

And why is that?

That's mainly because in all sorts of different areas, but when I sell the seeds it goes all over the place.

And really when you're looking at a garden, you know, say if you have exotic plants and, and maybe plants as well, you expect that the garden will maintain their garden so it doesn't become a Leeds.

Yeah.

So if somebody is particularly interested in whether it grows low locally, I'll look it up for them and say, yes, I've looked at it.

The others live in Australia and gracefully, yeah, you'll be right to have that in use.

A lot to see, but you know, if you want check with land here.

Yeah, I'd like to see.

So that's important to check with.

Land here, Yeah.

You're growing an Australian native.

Yeah.

Yeah, so out of a lot of a lot of the seeds, I still grow all over.

So when you look at the Atlas of living in Australia, you can see the map and dots everywhere.

Yeah, you know, so you know that it's gone if it's gone, yeah, wonderful.

But you know, with some of the grasses, the kangaroo grass is everywhere.

The wallaby grass is basically everywhere.

And we've got lots of different species.

And the lemongrass, I usually say to people it's mainly out of broken people and.

And yes, so you're growing something from outside of your area usually and just maintain it in the garden.

But that's not a particularly wonderful.

So much knowledge.

You've got so much knowledge.

I'm finding this so interesting because I, you know, I'm this plant that you just talked about that I'm like, oh, I could introduce that.

Like I, you know, the one that you talked about that's in sort of blocky soil.

Yeah.

You just have a go at everything and see what worked when you first started out.

Well, I looked a lot at the grassland plants because the grasslands, and here in Victoria, there's less than 1% of their major grasslands there.

Because really, why is the urban encroachment, farming practices?

There's about four different factors.

Oh, fragmentation of landscapes.

So you can see that a grassland would sort of expand out.

But when it's reduced to say, a couple of blocks here in the city, some of the best ones are in here in the city or along rail lines.

Yeah.

You know, it has no chance to being spread out because it's it's fragmented.

It's a fragmented spot and I really am a bit of an advocate probably be more than a seat salesperson because the there's 60% of biodiversity held in the ground layers.

And when you look at some groups that are revegetating, they're mainly looking at the the trees and some of the shrubs.

They don't look at the ground layer, which helps the majority of the biodiversity within the landscape.

So, you know, I think it's really important.

And also here in Melbourne we've got some fantastic projects like the colonnaded corridors and some of the the royal park that's planted up with nodis everywhere and it's just fabulous.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's pretty yes, they.

Are so pretty, Yeah.

I mean, Joanne's dance, like I said, just has like the most delicate things to bigger things.

There's just so many things to look at and I yeah, I've been completely blown away this week by what you've brought along.

It's been so much fun.

Yeah.

So do you just do this all on your own or do you have help?

No, I do it online.

So the the families got pretty sick of me, especially with the bigger jobs.

Yeah, they've got a bit sick of me.

OK.

So I have to do it.

So it's manageable for me.

So it's not some huge enterprise by any means.

Yeah.

And sometimes I'll have messy available and sometimes messy available, different species.

And so I'm always working on on that.

And yeah, but you know, some of the pests that we might have.

So there's a native bud worm, it's a chicken little thing that's laid by the larvae of a moth.

And so the moth is at night time, obviously, and with the laying egg and the larvae will hatch right in the middle of a Daisy.

And the Daisy seeds thankfully mature from the outside towards the inside.

So I can say sort of some of them, but it eats away the Daisy seeds, eats away and Billy Button seeds, all sorts.

Awful.

How do you deal with and even in the Bush?

OK, well, I don't really want to spray or do anything.

So the last time I had it, I brought in biological control.

So a little Wasps.

Yeah, brought in some Wasps.

And also what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to just increase the biodiversity everywhere, all around me.

So I have a whole row of exotics because I just love them as well.

And that's up in the middle.

And then I've got, you know, flowering all year round.

So let's give this moth something else to eat.

And outside.

Yeah, walk to lakes, eats on.

And I have 90 homes for 90 bees as well.

And they're up.

They often attract what's sometimes as well.

So that's good.

We need those little bosses so I can get.

So what's been your biggest challenge along the way?

The biggest challenge along the way is, I think, proving to myself that I do have a job.

Yeah, it sounds.

Like you have a job.

I'm home and I'm talking to myself and the dog all the time.

But I do have a job and that it is of some value.

Yeah.

So sort of the sense of worth when you find yourself, you know, and also physically it's difficult, you know.

So I, you know, harvesting by hand because I've got a small space, a lot of them, I have the hire hand harvest and that means that I can get more from each plan.

But a lot of it is, you know, fine finger work.

And so my hands have, you know, decided to revolve at certain times.

They just say I'm not doing that.

For you any?

Longer.

And your biggest?

Success.

I think this is one of the biggest successes.

And also I just love meeting people who are interested about the seeds and the stories of the seeds and the story of the plants.

And so I'm really keen to tell people all about them.

And if somebody makes them water for a seed and they just want to ask me a question, I'm on the phone for quite a while.

I love that.

It's great.

Yeah.

So what was the moment that really got you cooked?

Was there a certain moment that got you cooked from Australian native plants or have you always been I've?

Always had an interest in native plants, but any any.

Yeah.

And so I've got a few days at home.

I've got, you know, a whole pollinated garden has got, you know, anything and everything and just put seeds around and see what comes up.

And so I'm a bit of a seed of holy dream of plant a holy.

But I've always had an interest in in Australian natives.

So my garden's a mixture of everything really, which is nice because you can do that in the garden.

You don't have to be 1, you don't have to be native or just simply insulted.

Can I spread them around?

There's no rules really.

Yeah.

And but I love the stories of the scenes.

And you know, I get so excited when you know, say it herbarium, you know, which my you know, I try to reproduce in everything I do.

You know, I see an example of a an example of a plant that is the very first that was named as such.

Obviously the Indigenous Australians knew about these plants per, you know, 60,000 years or more ahead of, you know, colonization.

But I enjoy, you know, say going to her bearing or something like that.

Well, going out with some of our Indigenous Australians just to look at and to hear their stories and how they might use those plans or, or what sort of history that that had for them, you know, what stories it might have had to tell.

And so for instance, like a casharine tree.

Yeah.

So I've been told that when little kids get lost, they're told to go under the tree that sings.

It's the cashew rainy tree because you want in the wind blows through it.

It sort of seems to me, wow.

And that's because when you're up on the hill or in the distance, you can spot them quite easily, those cashew rainy trees.

So that's where the parents of the family would know to go to find how.

How?

Popular.

And that's the way I remember the story.

It may not be 100% accurate, but I think, Oh my gosh, that's true.

Yeah, yeah.

Definitely.

So if people were interested in finding out the stories behind the plants, where is the best place to look?

Well, it should be my website, really.

Exactly.

But it's not at the moment.

So I have to put some of those.

I have to put some of those stories on.

And yeah, I should put some of those stories on, and I will.

Yeah.

That's a good idea.

What would be your biggest piece of advice for somebody wanting to start out and growing any sort of blood, but especially Australian natives?

Yeah.

So anybody looking at Australian natives don't think that you have to plant natives only remember that some natives need a plan to keep them to to keep them from becoming Rangers.

So even a salt Bush.

So I just say to people, trim it right from the very start because it's cool.

We planted some salt portion.

It's lovely.

They multiply the women, but then the premises landscaping people and they thought they were to arrange an African.

Yeah, that's because you didn't fit them.

So every time I walk past that plant at school, I'm nipping off the ends and we have a garden group and we've done some a little bit of gorilla gardening, you know.

So I have a sort of secret native garden sort of outside the area that I just nip up the pinch off the tops so that people realise they are manageable.

Yeah, you know, yeah, it's not just.

And the Bush, you know, manages it really well.

You go out into the Bush and everything just looks gorgeous.

Yeah, yeah.

So going on to industry, have you joined any groups that you've found to be really helpful along the way?

Yes.

So I've joined a local network of farmers and forests and also there's an online thorough business at Active Activities New Zealand base that they're having.

They welcome Australians, so they do call somethings funny names, you know, What do you call?

You know the steel posts, the three spikes, steel posts.

Bob what?

No, you know the steel posts you put in?

I do know what you mean, and it's really a special a waratah.

Yeah, I had no.

I said a waratah is a flower and you know that's why, yeah.

So there's a lot of Kiwis.

And yeah.

What a few funny ones.

So they were really during COVID, I joined that particular network and that was fun.

And it was lovely during COVID to have some flower friends.

Yeah.

You know, So that was that was really nice.

You didn't feel so sort of like and, you know, you need to grow the flowers to harvest the seeds.

So come on, Joanne, learn a bit more about this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, well, that's good if you've got some people that you can, you know, Yeah.

Ideas off?

Yeah, yeah, like, yeah.

And I listen to Dish the Bird.

Oh yeah, great.

Well, do you have any?

Have you heard a mentor along the way?

Anyone in particular or a book that you've read that?

There's some lovely books about sea collecting and there's some lovely books, you know, trying to identify some of these Australian Navy scenes.

Sometimes a bit tricky.

Yeah.

Because the wings everlasting, what you think is the sea, this is actually the scene.

It's sort of like, and I refer to them as sort of like chocolate sprinkles.

Well, the wind everlasting is like a squash dehydrated chocolate.

Sprinkle, but, well, it sounds delicious.

So that's the actual scene.

So there's, yeah, trying to identify the the scenes of the actual plane of the nitrous.

And they're also fascinating, you know, when you look at them really closely.

Yeah.

Do you have to get them under a microscope or anything?

Some of them I have, and I really would love to get one of those microscopes so I can get some digital microscopes so I can get some of them, get some other photos of that.

But no, I just, you know, sometimes, like with the women never last.

And what I did is I just flipped them and I thought, OK, now here's what they're telling me the truth.

I mean, I don't know how some commercial people winnow down the sea to that, you know, dehydrated squash sprinkle, chocolate sprinkle.

But what I did is I put what I thought with the seeds in one pole and chocolate sprinkles in the other, and then just with.

Yeah, yeah.

And I had more luck with that one.

Yeah, that's what it.

Is so having you here this week has been so great and you've been standing there chatting to everyone telling them about native flowers like native flowers that you've grown, that you grow.

Is there anything you think the industry could be doing better in terms of getting, you know, native flowers out?

There is.

There something I think wish was.

Happening.

I think there's some fabulous work going on with getting 90 flowers out there, and a lot of it to do with is with some of the growers like Craig Scott, who's growing lots of different things.

Yeah.

And the florist best.

Yeah, I know who does all these wild.

You know, we.

I like things to be wild.

Yeah.

I like wild as as they.

Are.

Yeah, and she mixes exotics and things as well.

It just looks.

It just looks lovely.

And so I, I really think that's progressing the industry as far as the native sea industry goes.

It's not recognised as an industry and until we are recognised as an industry, we're not going to be eligible for any government funding or any assistance.

It's sort of like an ad hoc response that government has.

Hang on.

I've had these catastrophic bushfires in 2019-2020.

We'd better research because we can't, we can't recreate these in environments that we've lost, you know, have we got any seeds to grow anything And, and we haven't, we haven't got enough.

And so when I sell my seeds, the very, the price of Navy seed is undervalued for the effort that it requires.

And I suppose with anyone buying any seeds, whether it's exotics or 90s, I usually try to suggest that they spread the love around because for a packet of seeds, I can pay anything from $2.00 and I paid $45.00 for a packet of previously Wow.

And when you think $2.00 or $7.00 or $10 if you have, if you have some money to buy a packet of seeds, it's a lovely thing to do.

But to spread the love around and buy from all sorts of different providers, seed providers because it it's pretty hard and hot work, because lots of the harvesting of the Navy seed have done this Midsummer and particularly with the kangaroo grass, it falls like Christmas.

Oh no.

So you're out there on Christmas Day.

How?

These things say, so we don't have much of A holiday at all.

Yeah, because we know that, oh, you know, like if you're going away on Christmas week, I'm always wanting I need to get back.

Yeah, yeah, Because you're always thinking about it.

Yeah, yeah.

And what have you loved about being part of the Melon International Flowering Average show?

Oh, I love all of the comics that I've been getting from the people that have come through and it was just lovely because one lady said to me, it's been a credit to me dear.

And they say it's beautiful and amazing and so colourful with all the dailies and everything and getting all the flower farmers together.

And really it's been like our mini displays as part of the 16 flower farmers exhibiting when the growers out of here, I think they're pretty up there with the rest of them.

Some of the gardens out the front I would say that they could, you know, pretty much.

Rival them.

Yeah, I know it's been pretty incredible, Pretty incredible.

And the fact that you have been there and you're able.

To educate people I think has been.

Absolutely wonderful.

Now I always ask for these sort of things at the end.

So I think what 3 you know, if you had to leave quickly, which is something that a lot of people may have to seriously consider, what three things would you take from your flower farm if you had to leave quickly?

OK, dog.

Oh yeah, fair enough.

What's the dog's name?

Matilda.

And she's a blue heeler.

Beautiful.

They're like little wombats.

Blue heeler, Yeah.

Some snips or scissors because snips, probably because I might need to chop something if I have to leave home or, you know, cut some paper or whatever.

My snips do everything.

And some of my book collection, some of them are, well, some of them you just can't find again.

Yeah, what's your?

Favorite, I think one of my favourites is it's a 1966 book and it's an Australian native plants book and it's got it's bound and it's got all of the different newsletters from the whole year in the past.

But inside there is on growing.

Australian, maybe daisies in the garden.

Yeah.

So I think that's nice.

But lots of Australian books, which I just love.

And the stories about them, the women, a lot of women in colonial times who went out there in their long dresses, you know, to illustrate flowers.

Yeah, yeah, they're amazing and we really are.

Women make the world go round too.

So is there anything I haven't asked you that you wanted to get a pass in this episode today?

No, I think that's about it.

But you need to ask me about what I listen to.

Oh yeah, what do you listen to in the?

Garden.

So wedding.

It's podcasts, definitely sewing.

I have to come along to myself and talk to myself.

Yeah, and collecting seed, it's always silence because I'm excited about what I find, you know, you know, getting it in the bag.

And because it's Midsummer, they could put this.

I might be snakes rustling in the jazz.

I need to keep them in out for them.

Yeah, come.

Across snakes all the time.

This year has been a really snaky year.

Oh, I wouldn't be there.

So I'm there, you know, bossing around in the grasses and things and, you know, picking something up.

Oh, that's a snakeskin.

That's about the slog.

Great, how lovely.

Yeah, you can close some.

Campus or not, they're gone by the time.

This year is really snaky, yeah, but previous years I haven't seen anything so.

I wonder why this year is so different.

I don't.

Yeah, maybe the heat been pretty hot.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, thank you so much and thank.

You dish the dirt.

Thank you so much for hosting.

You've been.

Like I said, the pocket.

Rock Oh no, It's been an honour being here and part of the dish, the Dirt Growers Ave.

and to have listened to your podcast and to have you take on the responsibility of posting all of that funds here, you know, for the first time without knowing what was going to happen.

I mean, that's been a huge thing.

If I could have one of these outdoor parties that they've all been having this week at night time, I'd bring my skin and have one of those.

But I think we're too.

Exhausted, I know exactly.

I do have an idea for next year.

That's like a big long dinner and our Growers Ave.

That is a solid.

I know.

Yeah, so.

Let's work on that.

$100 a ticket.

Yeah, exactly.

More thank you, Joanne.

And I think everyone needs to get out there and buy a packet of Joanne seeds and just have a go.

I know that I'm going to be getting a few and trucking a few around my garden and hoping for the best.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Ben.

Perfect.

That was the wonderful Joanne from the backyard garden enthusiast, grower, storyteller and seed collector.

If you love today's episode, please be sure to share it with another fellow flower friend and maybe plant a little patch of Australian natives in your garden.

You'll find links to Joanne's work, her seed pets, and a few of the plant names we mentioned in the show notes.

And yes, if you noticed the hissing and the sound quality.

Thank you so much for getting through this episode.

It was such a great 1, so I'm glad you made it to the end.

Thanks again for tuning in to Dish the Dirt.

I'm Rebecca Noble and I will see you next time.

Until then, keep being blooming fabulous.