I get a lot of enquiries about what plants will grow in wet areas. There are quite a few spectacular plants that love wet feet. Both Canna and Calla lilies love a wet spot. Crinum lilies do too. Paperbarks love the water as do both fruiting and flowering quinces....
If you need privacy, it’s hard to beat a hedge. Hedges also can add great design effects to otherwise bland and boring garden areas. There are so many great hedging plants: Box hedge plants, gardenias, murrayas, lillypillies, photinias and many more. Most plant...
Today we’ll look at some classic Old Husbands’ Tales – i.e. gardening myths. Water the garden every 2 days. This is nonsense. A thorough watering once a week for an established garden is by far the best. A deep watering WITH A SPRINKLER for about 45 minutes. ...
November is an excellent month to try your hand at striking cuttings of plants. Tropical vireya rhododendrons are dead easy to strike from cuttings, as are azaleas and camellias. Just cut off pieces of hardened new growth that are about 10-15cm long (that’s 4-6” in...
November is the best month of the year to lay new lawn turf. You can get couch grass, buffalo grass and many others. In my opinion, the soft leaf buffalo lawns are the best choice: I say this because they do well in both full sun and semi-shaded areas. In my testing,...
By now your herbs such a mint, thyme, coriander, sage, oregano & rosemary should be full of luxuriant new growth. So why not consider drying some of the new growth to use throughout the year on pizzas, lamb and baked dinners in general. All that you need to do is...
How’s your vegie garden coming along? By now, most leaf vegies like lettuce, silverbeet, spinach, rocket and Asian greens need some nitrogen fertiliser to keep them producing leaves and to stop them going to flower or seed. You can use chook poo or Thrive or Aquasol....
Many people worry about lawn beetles. The larvae of these black beetles tunnel in the soil under lawns and people worry about the damage that they do. My lawn is full of lawn beetle larvae (called white curl grubs), yet the lawn itself is very healthy. A lawn that is...
Fertilising pot plants is absolutely essential for good results. Modern potting mixes are not soil-based – they are made of compost. So they need a constant supply of fertiliser: a little bit each day BUT more in the warm months and less in the cooler months. This is...
There is a lot of misleading information out there regarding health and foods. The human microbiome is a new and powerful discovery re immune systems and improved health. There are 10 times more cells in your gut microbiome than in your entire body! The research...