The steamy, humid days of January to March are the times when fungal diseases spread like wildfire. So it’s a good idea to check your plants thoroughly now for diseases: • if you see a whitish powdery coating on the leaves of vegies, roses, crepe myrtles, English oaks...
This has been a truly awful summer in many areas of Australia. Many pot plants are very sick. On ONE really hot day –if the plant’s potting mix dries out for even ONE HOUR – the mix tends to become water repelling …And then it simply can’t be re-wetted. What do you...
Have you noticed a lot of trees that are sick or dying? Dead conifers like Leyland Cypresses, Spartan Junipers and even dead Pine trees. Dead gum trees & wattles too! These were killed by the decade-long drought that ended about 4 years ago. What? You are...
This has been a fairly rugged summer for many plants with very dry and very wet periods constantly following each other. Many plants are very run down, especially citrus trees and many food plants like tomatoes. Citrus need fertilising twice a year – a full dose in...
Most people prune their roses in the dead of winter… & this is correct. BUT if you prune them again now, in early February, they will produce a superb autumn flush of flowers in 4-8 weeks. Just give your roses a haircut now, removing about 50cm (or 18 inches) all...
You often hear criticism from some groups about the safety or otherwise of the weed killer Glyphosate: this is sold as Roundup, Zero and other names. I am a person who is very wary about chemical use in the garden and who is also concerned about human health and...
Almost all of us men love noisy, smelly equipment. Lawn mowers, lawn edgers, blowers and chain saws. But is it a good thing? Well chain saws are very dangerous and no-one should buy one without getting some sort of training in chainsaw operation as well as getting all...
I am scared of ladders. They are the things that you fall off and injure yourself. Everyone needs to work safely whenever they use a ladder outside. • Always stand a ladder on level, solid ground. • Always slope the ladder at about 15 degrees from the vertical: that...
Most people have heard of the colour Heliotrope or of Heliotrope perfume in bottles. But they don’t grow Heliotrope plants. These are wonderful little plants less than 1 metre tall that produce purplish or even white flowers for many months that have that stunning...
The steamy humidity that often occurs at this time of the year is quite bad for some plants as it causes fungus diseases. Some plants get sudden dieback of the leaves which is caused by fungal root rot especially daphnes, banksias and West Australian native plants,...