It’s summer and that means that there are summer pests around: caterpillars, white flies, mites, thrips etc. If you need to control these pests on your fruit or vegies, you need to use some safe sprays. So for small insects like mites, white flies, etc: – Use...
Today we are looking at superb group of flowering plants that love summer weather: These are called Vireya rhododendrons. These are tropical rhododendrons that come mostly from New Guinea. In general they are small to medium-sized shrubs and they flower in most...
What do you do with a bird in an emergency? Well if you have found the bird in your backyard and it seems calm and friendly – it’s probably close to death. It’s just too sick to get away from you. I had a case recently where a neighbour found a budgie and kept it for...
Shed Makeover Are you looking or an easy, fun project for over the Xmas/New Year break? Well how about turning the UGLY garden shed into a natural-looking bamboo hut? All that you need to do is to go to the local hardware store and buy some screen fencing of bamboo or...
Computers are a fabulous source of information on almost anything… But not quite everything. If you are into gardening, computers aren’t much use. If you want to know what plant grows well in your area, you need local knowledge. Soils differ from one side of the...
There are dozens and dozens of new varieties of lavender plants around at the moment. They are awesome garden and landscape plants. Some flower purple, others are pink or mauve or white or even blue. Plus the silvery-grey foliage looks wonderful as well. On top of...
At the recent Australian Garden Show in Sydney, we constructed an Asian Fusion garden: that is, one inspired by both Asian and Western ideas. The garden was designed by Australia’s leading landscape designer, Jim Fogarty. Central to all this was a long garden table...
How’s your lawn? Is it lush and green or is it a bit messy and ugly? Well, if you have bare spots or weedy spots in the lawn, don’t do what everyone else does. Everyone uses toxic sprays on the bad areas and the trouble may seem fixed for a few months but it returns...
Are you considering some garden lights? Why not? Garden lighting makes the garden far prettier and more useful at night. It’s also excellent for general security reasons. If you are contemplating it, I recommend that you use low voltage LED lights. You should go...
You could argue that the humble gardenia is the world’s best flowering shrub. It has beautiful glossy deep green leaves, stunning white flowers over many months and the flowers are beautifully perfumed. It doesn’t get much better than this. There are many good...