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Don showed how to make the most of bromeliads by planting them into stylish, dramatic pots. The fabulous sculptural beauty of bromeliads is at its best when they’re dressed up and looking great, and the good news is that these plants are easy to grow. Wide and...
You may remember our blue metal makeover, when Don transformed a large, ugly courtyard into a stylish entertaining area. The courtyard was cleaned up, agricultural pipes and blue metal were installed to drain excess water from the site, and the central area was filled...
On last week’s program we featured a stunning, succulent ball. You may have thought you’d like to make one yourself, but decided the succulents were too expensive to buy. The good news is that succulents are very quick and easy to propagate, and you can...
Grevilleas are among the best Australian native plants grown in gardens today. Many of them flower nearly all year, and they attract native birds to the backyard. The only problem is that after five to six years some grevilleas start to look straggly, and they grow so...
Don carried out renovation pruning on a neglected Grevillea ‘Robyn Gordon’. He explained that severe pruning would kill or cure the grevillea: it would die, or it would send out new growth. Either way you’re better off, because there’s really...
If you live on a busy road, it’s a great idea to screen out passers-by and vehicles by planting a hedge. Hedges will also act as windbreaks, although they won’t cut down on street noise. The row of Leyland cypress shown in our segment was planted as a...
Bromeliads are native to tropical America. Many are epiphytes, that is they live on other plants but do not parasitise those plants. Rather than growing in soil, they are found up in the forks of tree branches, surviving mainly on the moisture and nutrients they...
Every week part of Burke’s Backyard is filmed in Don’s garden. It is an indigenous native garden, which mostly features plants that are native to the local area. A well-manicured, emerald green lawn offsets the areas of bush. Don grows two varieties of...
Don looked at some practical ways to save water and keep the garden alive and functioning through the drought. Watering the lawn If there are water restrictions in your area and you want to conserve water, it doesn’t hurt to let the lawn yellow off a little....
If you’ve always wanted to grow a lush, green lawn but you’re not having much success, the problem could be soil compaction. Grass does not grow well in compacted soil. Don’s tip Simply stamp your foot on the ground! If it feels fairly hard...