pepo newsSpring has been a fun season for Pepo. We have been up to all sorts of adventures over the last few months and want to share these with you...

In September the Randwick Eco Fair kept us all busy for a fun filled Sunday. See our beautiful stand on the last page. Our design team have been busy working on a ‘Boat House’ inspired home designed by Architect Leith Nicolson. This is proving to be an exciting project with the inclusion of many natural materials and rugged coastal planting.

As we have many other design projects on the go we have welcomed Isabelle Gailhbaud to the design team. Isabelle is a landscape designer and artist; we are very excited to have her creativity and skill on board.

Just completed is a beautiful little garden in Coogee. Our clients wanted to appreciate and make use of the space they had. In keeping with our sculptural, edible and functional approach, we included: sculptural ‘Totem Poles’ which we had hot branded with a graphic pattern, a sandstone paved pad for the outdoor table, lots of yummy herbs under a feature Frangipani tree and one of our ‘Pepo’ clothes line along the side of the house.

I hope you enjoy our spring newsletter, see you in summer very very soon!

Thanks for your support

Nicola Cameron - Director

Coogee garden

in your garden this Spring we will...

help us help you by...•Many of your tomatoes, egg plants and zucchinis are starting to flower and set fruit. It is a great time to show the children in your life how the bees and the butterflies work to create their food!

•Many of you have requested pots with herbs so you have a fresh supply for the summer. It is a great time of year to be eating from your garden, if you want fresh herbs planted, let us know.

•We are booking in maintenances for the festive season at the moment so please let us know if you would like our team to visit between Christmas and the new year.

•be giving all lawns a regular mow as the season warms up. As it gets hotter we may not cut the lawn too low. This will keep the moisture at ground level and reduce the need for watering.

•frequently fertilise your gardens. Because of this lovely rain we want to make sure the nutrients don’t leach out of the soil

•keep an eye out for snails.They often come out at night and as this spring has been wet and humid you may have had more snails than usual.

Paul Johnston- Maintenance manager

product - ‘Tensile’Wires

recipe

We have had an educational and enjoyable experience working with Tensile on a couple of projects this spring. Tensile supply stainless steel wire, tension cable and rods and tensile mesh. More importantly they offer innovative ideas as to how to use these products to create vertical and horizontal green spaces. These wires offer a simple, reliable, and robust method of greening a facade or void space. Contact Pepo and we will work with tensile to design a system for your garden.

Simon Lloyd - Landscape Architect

Tomato Chilli Jam - makes 30 x 250g jars6 kg tomatoes 5 cups sugar2 lemon(zested) 500g Pitted dates1 cup fish sauce 3 heads garlic3 kg brown onion 200g ginger100g birdseye chilli 1 tbspn sweet paprika

METHODThe idea is to get the ingredients baked, full of flavour, so we can then combine everything in the pot. First, peel the onions, drizzle with oil and roast them in the oven on 180C for 30 minutes. Next, use the same trays to roast off the garlic, the ginger (cubed to 2cm) and the chilli (tails removed). Put the above aside, then put your tomatoes in the oven to roast. When the tomatoes are done, there will be a lot of juice left on the trays. Pour this and the tomatoes into your pot. Add zest from two lemons along with the other roasted ingredients into your pot.Keep your pot on a moderate heat. Slowly add sugar, stirring constantly so that it dissolves. At this point add your dates and fish sauce, then the paprika. Cook down for 4 - 6 hours. Stirring intermittently. When the jam has developed a gloss, get a stick blender and whizz. A lid is necessary because it will bubble up and out. Tomato jam is prone to burn on the bottom, if it does, it’s not ruined, just “smokey”.

BOTTLINGI’ve found it best to run your clean jars and lids through the dishwasher (without powder), just prior to bottling. This heats them up and helps with the sealing process.Keep your chutney hot and ladle into the jars.

James Perkin - Construction supervisor

1 MFO park, switzerland. Tensile wires

2 Residential garden project, Tensile

Randwick’s Ecoliving FairAimed at increasing the public’s awareness by showcasing to the community the different ‘green’ services available,

this year’s Randwick Ecoliving fair was a hit! They had music, fun games and yummy food.

Our stand drew lots of interest, we filled it up with design information, ideas and plants! We sold plants and gave out free sample bags with vegetable seeds, jiffy pots and soil to awaken the veggie gardener within!

Congratulations to Helen Hutcherson who won 1st prize in the overall ‘Best Garden’ in the Randwick garden competition. We were happy to donate the prize of 6hrs garden maintenance to help you develop your garden.

Nicola Cameron - Director