It is said that if you catch a falling autumn leaf before it hits the ground you will have one month of good luck. So if you catch 12 of them you’ll have a whole year of good luck and the luckiest leaf of all is the last leaf to fall from any tree. The only...
One of the greatest treasures that lie in the capital cities of Australia are the Botanic Gardens bookshops. There are books on native flora and fauna, bush foods, foreign gardens and specific botanical books that aren’t available anywhere else. As well as books...
Spring flowering bulbs are beautiful in the garden but what do you do with them once they’ve finished flowering? It’s important to keep caring for your bulbs after flowering to ensure good flowering the following year. What to do Remove dead flowers from...
Burke’s Backyard visited a garden where three years previously 87 healthy camellias had been moved and are now sick and dying because the plants never established a new root system. Burke’s Backyard consulted with camellia experts Dr Brett Summerell, plant...
In keeping with the ‘weird’ theme of this week’s program, Don looked at some very curious and unusual plants. String of pearls (Senecio rowleyanus) This is a type of succulent that actually looks like beads on a string. It is native to South Western Africa. String of...
Lack of privacy or the need to block an unsightly view are familiar problems to many home owners, but often there’s not enough space to construct garden beds and plant shrubs and trees. Don looked at a very good screen of star jasmine growing on a steel frame....
Don visited Gabriel Rosati, who has a very curious water feature in her backyard. The sloping block was too small for a lap pool or a swimming pool, so Gabriel came up with the idea of a stream instead. But this is no ordinary stream. It bubbles and gurgles alongside...
Don looked at a very good design solution to the problem of a tiny garden. As well as the small size, there were other constraints. Large windows from the kitchen and dining room of the house face onto courtyard areas. A focal point was needed to create visual...
The bird of paradise, Strelitzia reginae, is a wonderful landscaping plant. It has silvery grey, paddle shaped leaves with a spiky look about them, and beautiful blue and orange flowers which look just like the crests of exotic birds. There can be a bit of a problem...
The use of purple foliage in the garden is one of the more difficult things to get right. But it can be a breath of fresh air from the straight green gardens and the key to using purple is to plant more of it. If you only plant one Berberis or Purple Japanese maple in...