In the Garden

In spring grass starts sending up new growth, so it’s the perfect time to give your lawn some extra care and attention. Water Using a fixed sprinkler (those with a rainmaker or arching pattern are excellent), give the lawn a good soaking once or twice a week...

The verge, or nature strip, in front of a property can be a problem for homeowners. Many people put in a lawn, which has to be constantly mown and maintained. These strips of lawn often look dusty, dry and ugly, and have bare patches and tracks worn through them by...

  Banksias grow naturally in deep, sandy to gravelly soils with excellent drainage. In heavier soils and in humid climates they can be susceptible to root rots and fungal problems. Particularly tricky in east coast gardens are the beautiful Western Australian...

There are about 100 species of boronia, with most found in Western Australia. They are usually small shrubs to 1m (3′) tall with pink to mauve, 4-petalled, perfumed flowers and aromatic foliage. Some species do grow taller, and some have white, yellow or brown...

Hiding a Shed Garden sheds are essential for storing equipment and tools, but they can look very ugly. In our segment, Don looked at a simple, low-cost solution to the problem of an ugly shed. How it was done The fibro shed was first painted an unobtrusive, tan brown...

Don looked at a camellia suffering from a problem called ‘balling’. It should have been a mass of flowers but instead, few flowers had opened. Most of the buds had browned and fallen unopened to the ground, and were scattered under the shrub. Balling...

Scott Cam, the builder from the Backyard Blitz team, has some valuable advice on buying the best circular saw for home use. He recommends lightweight machines with a small blade diameter – that is blade diameters of 162mm (6 1/2″) to 185mm (7 1/4″)....

Potted plants can look very effective around the home, but it’s often difficult to buy pots that work well with the colours of the house and garden. Don demonstrated an easy solution to this problem. He purchased some standard terracotta pots (which are not as...

Clay Soils Many people think that the worst soil you can have in the garden is heavy clay. However, Don explained that any soil can be a good garden soil. Indeed, most natural soils in Australia are suitable for growing a garden. In most instances it is better to...