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‘Shademaster’ or Soft Buffalo Grass A lush green lawn adds beauty and value to any home. Unfortunately, a more familiar sight to most gardeners is a thin patchy lawn struggling to survive without enough water or sunlight. One of the best lawn...
Cloudehill is at Olinda in the Dandenongs, about an hour’s drive from Melbourne. Burke’s Backyard has made a point of visiting this spectacular garden over a number of years, and talking to owner Jeremy Francis. At Cloudehill Jeremy combines modern,...
Soft Buffalo One of the best lawn grasses for shady areas has always been buffalo grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum). It forms a coarse, durable carpet and is reasonably drought tolerant. The good news is that recently some exciting new kinds of buffalo lawn have...
In our special money saver’s edition of Burke’s Backyard, Don had some fun going out and scrounging around for bargains. He found cheap pavers, pots, windows, doors, baths, sinks and landscaping materials. Simon’s Seconds For cheap pavers and pots, we recommend...
Don found some old flyscreen doors at a salvage yard, attached them to a wall and used them as trelliswork to support climbers. The doors would usually cost $30 each from a salvage yard, but a wrought iron trellis of the same size costs around $600! As well as saving...
Some of the best garden designs have little touches of fun and humour amongst all the seriousness and formality. In fact, there is a long tradition of having fun in gardens, and therefore including elements that give people a bit of a laugh and make them happy. Don...
Multi-grafted fruit trees are a great way to save money and space in the garden. Having different varieties on the one tree means that each graft grows independently of the others, so the fruit retains its own characteristics, such as flavour, appearance and ripening...
Here is Don’s list of five stylish plants suitable for gardens in many areas of Australia. Evergreen magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) The evergreen magnolia, or Bull Bay magnolia as it is commonly known, grows to around 20m (60′) in cultivation. It has dark,...
Cast iron pots When Don tried to lift a beautiful old cast iron pot, he was amazed to discover that it wasn’t cast iron at all. In fact, it was a cheap plastic pot that had been coated with a rusting paint. Rusty plastic mouldings Rusting paint can also be applied to...
Don looked at a citrus tree with a magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is moved in plants from old leaves to new growth and to developing fruit. When a magnesium deficiency is present, the young citrus leaves appear green and normal, but older leaves turn yellow and often...