Solve a problem, find a plant or look for a design inspiration
Rosemary Healion wrote a letter to Burke’s Backyard begging Don to come and save her garden. Just over twelve months ago she and her husband, Craig, hired a local landscaper to create a curved, paved edging in their backyard. Instead, the Healions were faced...
Jackie French made an environmentally friendly snail trap using a plastic drink bottle and some beer. Snails are attracted to these traps because they love the sweet, sour and yeasty smell of the beer. When the snails crawl into the trap, they either drown or the...
Don came across a thriving row of grevilleas (Grevillea ‘Robyn Gordon’). When the gardener, Brian, planted the grevilleas, he followed two important gardening principles: 1. Plants grow better in raised beds Raised garden beds provide good drainage, which...
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...
Burke’s Backyard first visited Rene and Carolyn Hundscheidt in 1998, when they were just starting their garden. Rene utilised his skills as a builder to design and carry out the construction work. The original native garden was bulldozed, and a fabulous,...
Don visited Polly and Peter Park at their home in the Canberra suburb of Red Hill, and chatted to them about their amazing garden. The front garden is a formal garden of clipped hedges and a neat lawn. Beyond this facade lies something extraordinary. This is not one...
Coliban Garden Don visited Coliban, the home of Beh Kim Un and John Dunham. It is named after the Coliban river, which forms its boundary over more than 2.5 kilometres. In the early 1800s the property was used for sheep and cattle grazing, then after the discovery of...