New Products: PestOil and Glykill There are some new products available at your local nursery which will help keep your garden pest and weed free: 1. PestOil PestOil is petroleum-based spray. Although similar to products such as white oil and winter oil that...
Pruning Hydrangeas in Autumn In most areas hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla) can be pruned in March or April. Don’t cut back into old, grey wood. If hydrangeas are pruned too fiercely year after year flowering will be reduced to 10% or less, so just cut back...
Soil is the most important gardening basic there is, so it pays to get it right. Here are Don’s tips on working out what kind of soil you have, how to test the pH of your soil and how to keep your soil healthy. Soil texture test There’s a simple test you can do...
This is a recipe for a green cleaner that works, because most of them don’t – or not particularly well. The problem with any green (as in environmentally sound) cleaner is finding something that cuts through grease – you know, that horrible gungy...
There is a bewildering array of glues in any hardware store and deciding which one you need for a particular job can be very confusing. There is no single versatile glue but Burke’s Backyard has assessed the range and concluded that you only need five different...
How often do you wander through antique shops and know you can’t afford to take any home? For a fraction of those prices you can achieve your own antiqued effects with a great product called crackle medium. We purchased a paper-mache rubbish bin (approx. $19.50)...
A new product available in some states and coming available Australia wide is a drip-proof tap washer called a ‘Doustvalve’. The West Australian development has a nylon base and spindle with a rubberised material inside which is burst-resistant. The result...
The driveway at the front of a property is often the entrance to the home and so making a welcoming impression is important to add to the overall effect of the garden. More often than not it is an unappealing concrete scar at the front. To transform an uninteresting...
His Royal Highness King Henry the Eighth had six wives, one navy, several armies, a keeper of the royal pillow and someone responsible for the royal salads. The King was very fussy about his salads which contained at least 40 different leaves. But his favourite...
Most of Australia has just emerged from the awful El Nino drought. Our garden plants have suffered badly through this period. So, this is the most important spring in the last 10 years – put in some effort now and the results will be tremendous. The problems:...