SERIES 31 | Episode 25

Costa visits The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan, which is on Dharawal land. In late winter the mass plantings of more than a million wildflowers create a carpet of colour, mostly from different everlasting daisies.

Costa tours the Acacia collection with Curator Manager John Siemon and they discuss the benefits these plants, generically called wattles, can bring to a garden.

• There are more than 1000 Acacia species, in a huge range of forms. They have been used by First Nations people for thousands of years for food, medicine and tools.
• There are Acacias to suit every spot in a garden, from tall trees casting light shade that allows other plants to grow underneath, to thick groundcovers that can cover slopes and retaining walls. Some are small enough to grow in containers. The colour goes particularly well with purple hardenbergia, which is often flowering at the same time.
• The roots interact with bacteria in the soil to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and make it available for the plant to use. This gives Acacias the ability to grow in very poor soil, which they improve by adding nitrogen.
• What appear as leaves are actually modified phyllodes, or leaf stems. This helps them survive tough conditions.
• Many Acacias are prickly and provide great habitat for small birds.

• Because some Acacias are short lived, it makes them excellent starter plants for new gardens, providing instant shade and shelter to help get a longer-lived plants growing.<

  GREATER AUSTRALIA
  
  
  
  Canberra, Capital City of Australia
  
  
  Parliament House, Canberra
  
  
  
  Victoria Lake, at Shepparton City
  Play Ground at Shepparton Lake
  Wyndham Street.
  Cow sculpture at Shepparton Lake.
  Victoria Lake
  , the lake on the highest place in the Australian continent
  
  Etheridge Mountain
  Mount Etheridge from south side showing high elevation toilet at Rawson Pass
  Great Barrier Reef
  Listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World, the Great Barrier Reef is indeed a sight to behold.One of Australia's most remarkable natural gifts, the Great Barrier Reef is awesome beauty of the world's largest coral reef. The reef contains an abundance of marine life and comprises of over 3000 individual reef systems and coral cays and literally hundreds of picturesque tropical islands with some of the worlds most beautiful sun-soaked, golden beaches.