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Viewers’ Letters Giant Crepe Myrtle A few weeks ago on the program we showed a photograph of an enormous crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) growing in Donnybrook, Western Australia. It was about 10m (35′) high! Since then we’ve received another...
Don looked at a row of standard Hill’s weeping figs (Ficus microcarpa var. hillii) growing by the side of a driveway. These large, evergreen trees come from the rainforests of coastal Queensland. They have large, short main trunks or several main trunks...
Weird Carrots Don reached into the Burke’s Backyard mailbag and pulled out two interesting letters from viewers with problems growing vegetables. Both gardeners enclosed photographs of twisted, bizarre-looking carrots. Carrots need a light, well-drained soil,...
Pruning Grevilleas Grevilleas are by far the most popular flowering Australian native plant grown in gardens today, which is hardly surprising when you consider that they attract native birds and many of them flower for most of the year. The only problem is that...
Wood Ash in the Garden Now that those chilly winter evenings are here, lots of people have been stoking up their slow combustion heaters or warming themselves in front of glowing open fireplaces. In fact many of those people have written in to Burke’s...
Yates Anti Rot Phosacid Many of the fungicides that were once used in the garden were quite dangerous to us and to the environment. Many diseases are also resistant to some of the commonly used fungicides. The good news is that there is now a very safe and effective...
Matching Plants to Pots Don visited Michele Shennen’s Willoughby Garden Centre and chatted to Michele about the very latest trends in pots. Michele explained that new ranges of pots are being imported from all over the world these days, giving...
While we all dream of the perfect garden filled with beautiful, exotic flowering plants, the reality is that plants in many gardens don’t perform and often drop dead. Even worse, they don’t die quickly, but linger on for years looking half dead. What to...
Mulching depth If your garden is mulched but you are still having problems with weeds growing through, you probably haven’t applied the mulch correctly. Mulch needs to be at least 75-100mm (3-4″) deep to control weeds. It is very important to mulch your...
The weather has been very unseasonable in Australia recently, particularly along the east coast. Summer didn’t really eventuate. We’ve had the occasional very hot day, but then later that day or the next day it’s been cold again. When temperatures...