Solve a problem, find a plant or look for a design inspiration
Succulents In Australia cacti and succulents are often grown as novelty plants for kids, and although they can be a bit garish and over the top they’ve given many children enormous joy for years. However, there is much more to cacti and succulents than meets the...
Garden design is changing rapidly in Australia. After hundreds of years of basically copying the English cottage and formal styles, Australians are now coming to grips with designs and planting schemes that are more suited to our climate, light levels and soils....
Designer Jim Fogarty faced several challenges when called in to make over a small narrow courtyard. As well as doing away with the lawn and creating some usable space, the owners instructed Jim to screen the large block of flats next door, and to do something with the...
Landscape Arthitect, Judy van Gelderen was given a very detailed brief by the owners of a small, flat and uninteresting block of land in Canberra. They wanted to incorporate fourteen different ‘spaces’ or characters, including Japanese, Australian, an English rose...
Williamstown Garden Gina and Ian McVicar searched for a long time for a house to serve as both a home and a business base. Then one day they saw an old fisherman’s cottage made of bluestone, and fell in love with it immediately. Even though the house had...
Have you noticed that your azaleas are looking a bit the worse for wear at the moment? If they have mottled grey/bronze leaves with sticky blobs of excrement on the leaf undersides, they’ve probably been damaged by either Azalea lace bug or Two-spotted mite (red...
Scientists are not sure how they do it, but insects like borers can single out a tree which is stressed and therefore weak, and attack that tree, leaving other healthy individuals around it alone. This is all part of the natural process and in a forest situation it is...
Citrus Leafminer Distorted growth on citrus trees is often caused by Citrus leafminer (Phyllocnistis citrella). The adults are tiny, night-flying moths with wingspans of only about 5mm. The females lay their eggs on new young growth in the warmer months of the year....
Mundulla Yellows In south-east South Australia a mysterious disease is posing a major threat to a wide range of native plants. The condition was discovered twenty years ago by beekeeper Geoff Cotton, who noticed conspicuous patches of yellow foliage in mature red gums...
If you live in a bushland area or have a bush garden, be on the lookout for exotic weed seedlings. Things like English ivy (Hedera helix), wild asparagus fern (Protoasparagus aethiopicus), broad-leaved privet (Ligustrum lucidum), small-leaved privet (L. sinense) and...