Edible Kitchen Garden Have you ever dreamt of an exotic Lebanese courtyard, with the smell of herbs and spices wafting through the air? Well that’s exactly what the Blitz team decided to create for Asma Sarkis. Asma arrived from Lebanon thirty...
Kitchen Vegie Garden The son of a female convict, William Charles Wentworth was born in New South Wales in 1790. He became famous in 1813 when, along with Gregory Blaxland and Lieutenant William Lawson, he found a way across the Blue Mountains. This discovery gave the...
There’s something about pruning that seems to bring out aggression in people, especially men. However, pruning doesn’t have to be like a shoot-out at high noon. You don’t need to take out all your frustrations on your plants, nor should you be...
Robinia Problems Don looked at a street tree planting of golden robinias (Robinia pseudocacia ‘Frisia’). This was a vogue tree in Australian gardens and landscapes during the 1980s and it is still tremendously popular today. However, before you plant a...
Plants produce most of their annual growth over the next few weeks, so it is important to fertilise them now. Most plants: use Dynamic Lifter, slow release fertiliser, or liquid Nitrosol (apply liquid fertilisers with a hose end sprayer). Lawns: use a complete lawn...
Spring Tart Up If your garden is looking at bit drab at the moment, why not give it a quick spring tart up? The best place to look for inspiration is your local nursery. The really good plant shops around Australia plan their spring displays so that customers can see...
Update Native Pruning About eighteen months ago Don visited the Cumberland State Forest Nursery in Sydney and talked to Steve Sullivan, Operations Manager, State Forest Nurseries about renovation pruning of native plants. They looked at a fifteen-year-old Grevillea...
Viewers’ Letters Giant Crepe Myrtle A few weeks ago on the program we showed a photograph of an enormous crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) growing in Donnybrook, Western Australia. It was about 10m (35′) high! Since then we’ve received another...
Don looked at a row of standard Hill’s weeping figs (Ficus microcarpa var. hillii) growing by the side of a driveway. These large, evergreen trees come from the rainforests of coastal Queensland. They have large, short main trunks or several main trunks...
Weird Carrots Don reached into the Burke’s Backyard mailbag and pulled out two interesting letters from viewers with problems growing vegetables. Both gardeners enclosed photographs of twisted, bizarre-looking carrots. Carrots need a light, well-drained soil,...