Author Archives: Marianne Cannon

Marianne Cannon

About Marianne Cannon

Marianne Cannon has been broadcasting as Real World Gardener on radio 2RRR 88.5fm in Sydney, since September 2009, and the program is now syndicated to radio stations around Australia. It’s about growing your own, the abc of plants, and how to create sustainable gardens to fit into today’s environment. Not just a show about plants; it has a strong green and ecological bent, with co-presenters addressing issues such as native animals and plants, water conservation, composting, reducing waste, protecting native species and more.

flower salad Photo Yelkrokoyade Edible flowers

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Why are some of Australia’s top restaurants, demanding flowers of violas, fennel, coriander, peas, rocket and borage? Is there something that you eat that’s a tad boring that needs an extra bit of zing and colour? The history of edible flowers can be traced back thousands of years. Romans used edible flowers such as mallows, roses and violets in a lot of their dishes. Continue reading →

Bundanoon garden Solving garden design problems

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Is your garden very small? Long and thin? Big and overwhelming? Or perhaps you have problems with very sunny or shady parts in your garden, especially narrow walkways beside the house or dry shade areas under mature trees. Maybe your garden is just, well, plain boring! I talk with landscape designer Louise McDaid about solutions to many common garden design problems. Continue reading →

Quail_eggs Photo Magnus Manske Permaculture balcony gardening

I talk with Penny Pyett about growing vegetables in plumbing polypipe on your balcony. It’s low maintenance, you can have the pipes on wheels so you can move them around to catch the sun and as the system is self-contained, there’s no problems with water leaking down to neighbours below, mosquitos or wasting water. Continue reading →

Apostle birds Photo Julie_g Apostle birds, stilts, thornbills & choughs

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I talk with ecologist Sue Stevens about the curiously-named apostle bird, the elegant black-winged stilt (if ever there was a bird that would make a great porcelain figure, it has to be this one!), as well as the super-active yellow-rumped thornbill and that great team player, the white-winged chough. Continue reading →

SONY DSC Growing passionfruit

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Plant a passionfruit – or two! I talk with horticulturist Sabina Fielding-Smith about passionfruit, including Panama Red, Panama Gold, Nellie Kelly and Banana passionfruit. Almost every garden has space for one passionfruit vine, so try to find a suitable spot against a sunny fence or wall. Continue reading →

Grilled tomatillos by sporkist Growing tomatillos

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Tomatillos or Physalis ixocarpa are a fruit you may not have heard of before. Tomatillo means ‘little tomato’ in Spanish. They have lance shaped deeply veined leaves, yellow flowers and are also known as husk tomato and Mexican green tomato. Tomatillos are related to the Cape gooseberry, Physalis peruviana, so be careful about the species part of the botanical name when ordering your tomatillo plant or seeds. Continue reading →

RealWorldGardener heliconias Design elements – tropical gardens

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I talk with Louise McDaid, landscape designer, about tropical gardens to suit any climate in Australia. Your whole garden doesn’t have to be tropical. If you live in a cooler or arid area, you might have a tropical theme within your garden style, finding plants from suitable microclimates with that tropical style. Continue reading →