I'm in the Brisbane suburb of Seven Hills
and this old Queenslander is going on the market.
Depending upon the buyer,
the future of its garden is unknown.
This garden's been here at least since the 1930s.
Three generations of one family
have lovingly called this place home.
And while there's nothing of any heritage value,
the owner is sentimental enough
to see what's worth saving to be reused elsewhere.
Instead of demolishing a garden,
deconstructing it and saving valuable plants
only takes a little bit of thought, some labour
and, of course, transport.
The first step towards deconstructing a garden
is identifying which plants to keep and which can go
and you may need a machete like this to cut a pathway to your garden gold.
Spotting your garden celebrities is a bit more challenging
when an established garden has become overgrown, like this one.
Ask any Queenslander and they'll tell you
just how quickly things can get out of hand during a wet summer.
Like many older gardens,
this one has a number of environmental weeds
and their weediness wasn't known at the time they were planted.
For example, this Antigonon
was available commercially until recently.
So saving and transporting weeds like this to a new location
is shifting the problem and it could harm the environment.
Some surprising examples
include Brisbane garden favourites
like Queen, or Cocos palm,
Tradescantia zebrina and this, creeping inch plant.
Creeping inch plant is widely grown, but hard to get rid of.
It's a long-lived perennial ground cover
that forms dense mats
and it will regrow from stems and self-seed readily.
It's a weed you'd really rather leave behind.
Each local authority will maintain a list of weeds or a website
to help you identify the status of plants before you move them.
This is the Brisbane City Council Weed Management Tool.
Now, the time it takes to identify a weed online
is a lot less than the time it takes
to eradicate them if you move them around.
We also live with invasive pests - things like fire ants -
and pathogens, diseases,
which can be spread with the movement of garden materials.
So when you're digging something up,
check the roots, make sure they look clean,
and if you live in a containment area,
contact your local biosecurity agency.
Like weeds, there are some plants that you won't want to take.
They're simply not worth the effort.
There's plenty of Lomandra hystrix,
which, while useful, is easy to find and very cheap to buy.
And while this bird of paradise might be tempting,
it's one that's simply in the too-hard basket.
They're notorious for having incredibly strong deep roots
and such dense, tough growth
that you can't easily split or transplant one as advanced as this.
This one is way beyond a mattock.
You'll need a bobcat to shift it,
so why not save your back and look elsewhere?
Underneath this morning glory is a bottlebrush
and these seed are a perfect way for plants to move.
After all, a seed is a whole plant
packed and ready to travel through time and space.
I've spotted this faded Queensland classic,
bushman's poison.
But don't be fooled by the name -
it's planted for its pretty, sweet-smelling spring flowers
which bees adore.
Once popular, it's now a bit of a fashion victim,
but I'm still a fan.
The garden sits on shale
and the soil is thin and it drains fast,
but bushman's poison can tough it out.
This survivor can be readily propagated
from seed when they're ripe,
but do wear gloves to protect yourself.
Another group of plants that travel well is bulbs.
Now, the leaves and the roots are short-lived,
so what I've done is I've shortened the length of the leaves
to conserve moisture.
The most important part to conserve is the bulb
because that is the energy store
and it may well have enough energy to carry flowers next year.
Some, like Hippeastrum,
can be expensive to buy and slow to establish.
Who can resist a few more happy 'Hippes' at home?
You just dig them up.
The soil's fallen away and it's ready to go.
While Dracaena aren't exactly uncommon,
what this plant offers is instant size through its maturity.
You take the main trunk, and using a sharp saw,
cut it cleanly at one end.
Now, what you've got here is a supersized cutting.
Now, if you want to use it as an instant-effect tree,
what I've done in the past is to tie these against a fence,
let the base touch the ground
and over summer, it'll take root
and then you plant it out where you want to grow it.
But there's another alternative -
each one of these shoot tips can be cut off
and turned into instant cuttings
and you can bed them out rather like geraniums.
It's not as unusual, but it's still uncommon.
By the steps of this old Queenslander is a large frangipani.
It's home to an old clump of elkhorn fern
and it's an iconic Queensland combination.
In winter, the frangipani loses its leaves
and the winter sunshine benefits the fern,
but in summer, when the leaves return,
they shade the fern from the hot summer sun.
In return, the elkhorn fern gathers leaves,
storing nutrients and moisture and drip-feeding the frangipani.
Together, it's a blissful marriage.
The elkhorns transplant easily at any time of the year.
A large clump like this can be multiplied
by splitting into manageable pieces.
I'm gonna use a sharp pruning saw
and you simply remove individual plants.
And then once they're loose,
you can pot them up just using ordinary potting mix
or mount them onto a new tree.
There you go.
Frangipani can be propagated.
It's traditional to do them in winter
and long stems like this will heal and seal really well.
If you do it in the summer,
then there's a risk that they may rot.
Of course, a frangipani as big as this
could also be dug up
as long as you've got some strong friends
and a series of digging tools.
But if you have a look just down here, there are roots.
This entire stem has produced roots in amongst the fern,
so this is a large cutting
and that is a prize worth having.
This planting under the steps
is a classic signature of a heritage Queensland garden
and these cast iron beauties, Aspidistras, are the perfect plant.
They grow slowly and it's that slow nature that makes them valuable.
They're as tough as nails, permanently lush and green
and you'll find they're just as happy
in a shady spot outdoors as in your lounge room.
These can be dug up wholesale and repotted
or you can cut clumps and break them up into smaller sized plants.
Ferns can also be repurposed in the same way
and this garden has some good examples.
There's native kangaroo fern
plus there's this exotic rabbit's foot fern
and these are easily transported.
And this is a crested form of the Boston fern.
Now, what I've done here is I've reused an old hanging basket.
I've lined it with an old plastic bag to conserve moisture.
Now, I've put a couple of holes in the bottom of the bag
so it doesn't fill up with water
and I've disguised the bag by using coconut fibre
and I've planted the fern in potting mix.
Now, what made this work
is I kept it damp and in the shade
and that means it didn't lose a single frond.
Over time, this fern will grow all the way around the basket
and it will convert it into a sphere,
a living sphere of ferny foliage,
and the same effect can be achieved with the other two ferns.
And there's Epiphyllum hookeri,
a classic old Queensland garden plant.
This spineless, night-flowering cactus
is easily propagated by cuttings.
By deconstructing a garden,
you're enabling plants to fulfil their mission
to soften and beautify the world around us.
And it needn't cost a packet.
In fact, the most expensive outlay might be hiring transport.